Meet The Family

When I first met the family I nanny for it was dinner time at their house and Rick and I went over there so I could interview with them. We sat around the dinner table talking and I kept looking over at the 2 youngest boys sitting there, eating quietly by themselves and not making a peep. I kept telling myself it wasn't normal. They were too calm for little boys. I would soon come to find out that calm children really do exist. Before then I thought it was just a lie people told so you would have your own kids. If I knew that my children would behave like these boys, we'd have 10 kids already. Lets meet the family.

Name: Raif

Age: 6

Favorite Thing: Collecting Rocks

When you compare Raif to his 2 younger brothers he seems hyper. When you compare him to any other 6 year old he is normal, smart, and sweet. Every day when he comes home from school he shows me a new "crystal" he found. He loves collecting Rocks (to him they are all either crystals or kryptonite) and he once told me that if he found all the crystals in the world he would be "rich with 357 dollars!" He is super smart. He loves to do math and he excels in reading. He calls me Miss Jodi and says "Yes Ma'am". One time we were playing Monopoly and I landed on one of his properties and owed him money. He excitedly said "YEAH DUDE!" and then quickly said "Sorry Miss Jodi! I meant to say YEAH MA'AM!" He is so funny.

He is only there for 2 of the 5 days that I'm there, and when he is there there is definitely a more energetic feeling in the house. They all play together like brothers but they also fight like brothers. He is the leader and he usually uses this power to be a good example to his younger brothers (Look boys, Raif is eating all of his dinner! Look boys, Raif is going potty in the big boy potty! Look boys, Raif is helping Miss Jodi clean up!) which helps me out a lot.

This picture was taken while he was watching Dr. Phil with me. The episode was about adults who mooch off of their parents/family members. One of the guys didn't have a job and just used his parents for everything. Raif turned to me at that part and said "When I get older I'm going to have a job. I'm gonna be a Rock Buster! They bust open rocks to find all the crystals. Yeah, either that or I'll be Indiana Jones."

When he comes home from school he wants to play in his room or with his friends, but after dinner he wants my undivided attention, which is hard because I'm in the middle of bathing/dressing 2 little boys, the youngest of which HATES it when I put his pajamas on (ever try to give a cat a bath? Kinda what its like to put clothes on this kid). So Raif and I have "Miss Jodi and Raif time" every night after everyone is bathed and dressed where for 30 minutes he gets to pick a game or an activity for us to do. I put Mickey on for the other boys so they are entertained and I'm able to give Raif all of my attention. The first night we did this we played cards. When we were done he came up to me and gave me a hug and said "I couldn't ask for a better Miss Jodi to be my babysitter." He is such a good kid.

Name: Cael

Age: 2

Favorite Thing: Mickey and Cookies

This little guy is the sweetest little monster you'll ever meet. He's the middle child but likes to think he's the boss. He loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Sometimes he won't even watch it, he just wants it to be playing on the tv while he does something else, but if the episode ends he'll come running up to me with the remote and ask for more Mickey, and once I put it on for him he'll go right back to not watching it. He doesn't throw tantrums, and I've never had to do time out or any kind of discipline with him. When he does get mad and start to freak out he is so easily distracted with something else that he calms right down. If I want him to do something (like eat dinner) and he is refusing, I make it a game, and then he wants to win. Lets see who can take the biggest bite! Lets see who can make the loudest monster noise when we eat! Works every time, and he thinks it's hilarious. If he wants something that he can't have (like a cookie before dinner) I'll say "No, but how about a banana or an orange?" And then he'll say "NANA!!" Like it was his idea. For him, there is no such thing as Terrible Twos.

He picked out his outfit this day. He's loves shoes and I had to chase him to get this picture. The dude runs better in heels than any woman ever could.

One day it suddenly got very quiet, which always means that somewhere a little child is doing something they are not supposed to do. I went looking for him and found him in Mama's makeup drawer putting on makeup and wearing her headband.

Whenever he wants a banana I ask him to sit on the kitchen floor to eat it so that he doesn't get everything sticky. One day he asked for a banana and juice and while I was getting it ready for him he went into his room, got this little stool out, set it down by my feet and then took a seat. He sat here the whole time and quietly ate his bananas and juice.

When my mom found out I was going to be nannying she bought me a nanny bag filled with activities for the boys. It came with crayons (the twistable kind), coloring books, and these flash cards that have pictures of animals and shapes on them. We started going over shapes the first day and he can now correctly identify a star, moon, circle, pentagon, and oval. Every day the first thing he does is get the cards out of my bag and look through all of them. They end up covering every inch of the house and when it comes time to clean up I start to sing the clean up song and he instantly gets on the floor and picks all the cards up. He puts them back in the bag and then I'll say "Okay, now lets pick up the crayons!" and he will go find all of the crayons and as we're putting them away one by one he will list all the colors (there's only 8 crayons but he knows them all.) He loves to help me clean up. One time he even helped me load and unload the dishwasher. He's an angel.


Name: Sloan
Age: 11 Months
Favorite Thing: Food

You will never in your life meet a baby as happy as Sloan. He is the most relaxed and chill kid I've ever met. He's always happy and easily entertained. He will sit on the floor and bounce a ball against the wall and laugh hysterically the entire time. If Cael and Raif are home and they are playing then he will follow them to whatever room they are in, but he will just sit and watch. He's always there where the action is but he doesn't want to be involved he just wants to observe. He is the sweetest thing. And get this, he and Cael don't use pacifiers! Did you know it was possible? I honestly thought that every baby everywhere had a pacifier and that they needed them. I've seen so many kids FREAK OUT when they don't have their binky, and I was sure that that's why children everywhere needed them. But guess what, if you never give a kid a binky, they won't freak out when they don't have it because they don't know any different. Genius!

Sloan reminds me of me. He is happy up until the moment that he is tired or hungry, and then he's going to kill you. It's like we're kindred spirits or bosom buddies or whatever Anne of Green Gables calls it. As soon as he can smell food, he freaks out. Every night when I'm making dinner I give him a bottle to hold him over until we eat, and if I don't he will unleash the Hulk. Once he starts eating, he couldn't be happier. Seriously, it's like were twins.

A combination of his two favorite things.

I found him like this one night after I was done cleaning up dinner. He'll sleep where he wants when he wants.

These two LOVE spaghetti. This was the first time I ate it with them and I learned that they should never have clothes on when they eat it. The second time we had it they wore only their diapers, I wiped them off as best I could afterward, and then I put them in the bath, rinsed them off, drained the water (which looked less like water and more like soup) and then filled the bathtub up with new clean water.

I can get them to laugh and giggle, but they laugh the hardest at each other. Here Cael was playing peek a boo with Sloan and they were both doing deep loud belly laughs.

One night I was in the kitchen and they were in the living room watching Mickey when I heard a very loud squeal. I went to check on them and Cael was pushing Sloan around in this little walker toy. They both ran and laughed and ran and laughed for about 15 minutes.

Meet The Parents

Chad and Christy. The creators of those blue eyed beauties. Christy is super mom to all 3 of the boys and Chad is #1 dad to Cael and Sloan and an awesome step parent to Raif. I love their parenting style and I'm going to use their tricks when I have kids. They are the greatest.

I love this Fam.