Babysitting Gig

The secretary, Isabelle, downstairs in my building got a call from a lady who has 3 kids and is looking for an English speaking babysitter.  It was noted that the 10 year old girl is very shy and that she wants someone to bring her out of her shell.   I got a note from Isa that day in my mailbox about it - because she described me as "not at all introverted"- bahahaha.

I met the family last Wednesday for the first time.  They are all really nice and the house is so French that I can hardly stand it.  Dark wooden beams, crazy nooks & crannies, and millions of windows with intricate latches on them that look like they were made in the Middle Ages.  The kids are super cute- Emma is 10 years old, Nathan is 4 & David Alexander is 2.  The mom is stay at home and has her stuff together.  She quickly informed me of things like never giving medicine, never answering the door when I am alone with the kids, and to eat/ drink whatever I wanted comme chez moi.  They have an awesome dog who looks like a golden retriever with curlier hair and two cats (one is a persian, which melts my heart).

Saturday I watched the two older kids for a little under two hours.  It was super cool.  I showed them pictures from home and a map of the United States.  It actually took me a minute to point out where I lived exactly.  New Jersey is insanely small, I sometimes forget why no one in France even knows that it exists.  Then we played with the pets.  After that, we played foose ball, me vs. Nathan.  He was standing on a basket so he could reach the things and he could still really only man half the controls.  Emma kept score.  Then we played building blocks.  I built a tower that was enormous and Nathan knocked it down and laughed for about 5 minutes.  Later we watched that ridiculous Scooby Doo movie with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.  I pointed out that they were married in real life and NO ONE cared.  Towards the end of the movie,  Nathan got Christmas books for me to read to him.  I read a couple of short ones, but he was looking at the movie the whole time.  I asked him if he was listening and he said "Well yeah, I'm doing both", and I promptly continued with story time.  Then he whipped out a French- English picture book with fruits and veggies and other vocab like that.  He loved hearing me say the words like watermelon, eggplant, etc.

Soon after, the parents got back with a bunch of really interesting looking antique furniture for the dad's computer room that they had bought at an auction.  Annnnnd she handed me 20 euros.