Mary Poppins

Ok, it's official. I have spent the last two days as the full-time nanny of a five year-old bundle of energy. Luckily, it's only two days a week. Although, I can't say that I would mind doing it more. She is a major cutie-patootie. You can call me Mary Poppins. 

A spoonful of sugar ...

I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of her, since her parents don't know about my secret blog lifestyle, but I will certainly share the occasional story. As I've mentioned before, I'll call her A for purposes of the blog.

I got to A's house early Tuesday morning to install the just-for-my-car booster seat. Watch out people! I will be riding in style for the rest of the summer. First up on the agenda was swim lessons at 9:00am. It didn't seem very nice out (I hung out by the pool in my sweater), but it actually turned out to be a pretty nice day. We killed some time coloring after swim, then had an early lunch at 10:45am. 

Health-wise, the pickings at the poolside cabana are slim, so I went with a chicken caesar wrap and some sort of veggie chips.

I know that the healthiness of anything with the word caesar in it is dubious, but it sounded better than a greasy burger or chicken tenders to me. And honestly, I have no idea what these chips were all about, but they tasted alright and beat the alternatives of regular chips or fries. 


After lunch, A had tennis lessons. I watched/flipped through an issue of Health magazine. Then, we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the pool. Although I deliberately slathered suntan lotion all over her numerous times throughout the day, for some reason I thought I didn't need any? And then there was Rudolph, the red-rose reindeer.

Really, this picture does not do it justice. But I figured it was inappropriate to take a picture of my chest where the most damage was done. So, I settled for this beauty.


Today's weather was a little different. Gray skies and rain led to the cancellation of swim lessons, so we stayed in, did some coloring and watched some good of Nick Jr. on TV. The weather cleared up a little by 11:00am, and I received a text from dad that tennis lessons were ON. However, it was still chilly out, so we headed to the mall for lunch after tennis. I had a skinny turkey sub on multigrain from Potbelly's (sans the cheese) and split a bag of Sunchips and a giant pickle with A. 


After lunch, we headed to the theatre to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3-D. Yipee! (Popcorn may have been consumed. Can't help it when it's included with the $14 dollar ticket. Yeah. For a matinee. Anywho ...) In case she wasn't bursting from lunch and popcorn, A decided that we should split some fro-yo after the movie, and who was I to disagree? Vanilla with gummy bears, sprinkles, and Oreo pieces. Can you guess who picked the toppings?


After that, we spent over an hour at the play area inside of the mall. A found a friend, and they kept busy playing hide-and-seek, follow the leader, and other crazy kindergarten games. We finally made it home around 5:00pm. 


It was a jam-packed two days, but it is definitely nice to know that I am done with work until next Tuesday. I've never had this luxury, so I'll be sure to enjoy it for my last real summer as a college student.


For dinner tonight, Brad and I met my dad, stepmom, and two brothers out for dinner. It is very rare that we are all together. My brother Matt lives in Washington, so we try to catch up for dinner when he's in town. This was the first time that Matt and Brad and have met, and the first time that both of my brothers have had a chance to heckle Brad, so that they did. I was only a little embarrassed.

I'm used to it. Although we didn't take any pictures tonight, the last time Matt was in town, Brad couldn't make it to dinner, so Matt posted this picture to Facebook and captioned it "Who's missing?"

He also continued to assert that Brad was an imaginary boyfriend, since he hadn't met him yet. Oh the joys of having brothers!


We had dinner at Stir Crazy, a fresh Asian grill where you can make your own stir fry. I was too busy catching up to snap a picture, but I built a stir fry with grilled salmon, thick wheat noodles, and tons and tons of veggies. Brad did, however, remind me to snap a picture when dessert came out. (I guess the cat's out of the bag? Although, he hasn't read it yet. I think?) Banana wontons! Healthy? Nope. Delicious? Yep. Sometimes you just gotta indulge.  

I did share ... some. 


Ok, this nanny is tired. Off to spend my last night with Brad before he leaves tomorrow for a tourney in California. (Wah!)


What is your favorite dessert to indulge in?