I Will Make It Up To You

I took Benji to a new babysitter this morning.  Everything seemed okay; I visited them last week and we worked out all the details.  She made it sound like he wouldn't be a problem, and honestly--he's a pretty chill kid.  I dropped him off about 6:15 a.m.  So I was working at Riverton--a very nice day of ENT with Dr. Dahl, and between cases, my boss comes in with a message for me.  "Call this number about child care."  I check my cell phone.  3 new messages, 3 missed calls.  At least 3 pages.  Crap.

Text Message 1 (7:52 a.m.): "We tried to take his coat off and he started kicking.  I'm sorry, but I have infants around and it won't work."

Text Message 2 (7:52 a.m.): "I have a feeling this isn't going to work, he hasn't stopped crying, won't listen, & I won't be able to watch him with the other kids I have."

Text Page (8:59 a.m.):  I need ur son picked up asap.  I have tried every possible way to get ahold of u.  His behavior is unacceptable for my care."

Text Message 3 (10:34 a.m.): "I need someone to come pick your son up in the next 30 minutes!"

My heart sank.  What am I supposed to do?  I get off work at 3pm, and I told her I'd be there early (2:30pm or so).  Luckily things are low-key enough at Riverton that my boss let me leave.  We had an extra nurse on hand and only a couple of cases left, so I took off.  I feel so guilty about leaving my sweet little man with them.  I feel bad for the babysitter, who doesn't know how to deal with him, and for the other kids who may have been neglected because of his behavior.

So I took him home and cuddled with him and gave him chocolate milk and apple juice and let him watch t.v., and now he's taking a nap.  I still feel incredibly guilty about putting him through that ordeal at all.  I know he does better with a routine, and I totally killed that this morning with a new place, lots of new faces, etc.  It doesn't help that he woke himself up way early this morning (like 4:30-ish) and he was probably hungry and grumpy.  Bad combination.

I called my old babysitter and asked her if she could take us back.  She can (thankfully), but we were looking for someone else because she is kind-of expensive.  Even so, Benji knows her and she's very nice, and I really don't want to do that to him again.  Poor little guy.

I haven't posted any new pictures here for a while; I have put a few up on my photography blog, but not much of the family.  Here are a few from Father's Day weekend.  I didn't get many spectacular ones of the Phoebster's birthday, and I didn't have my camera at all for Miss Lily's, so sorry--this is what you get.

My cute Mom and my Lily-Bug

I couldn't believe the huge smooch Phoebe planted on Lex!

Lily applying her chapstick sparingly.

BFFs Benji & Noah.  Guess who's in charge.

I love the way the water turned out in this.  Hooray for the DSLR!

Cute Sarah Banana

Sarah probably won't appreciate this one very much.  It's at a rather unflattering angle, but I like it.  Yes, it's pretty Picniked, but maybe that way Sarah won't be too mad at me for posting it.  I love it--Sarah has such a fantastic smile, I had to share.

Et puis voilà quoi.