Big Girl

ESK is growing up really fast these days. All of a sudden, she looks like a girl vs. a baby. She's slowly losing the Michelin man arms (her thighs are still quite hefty), and her entire body is getting longer. Pants are becoming floods and tops are becoming belly shirts.

Besides physical growth, she's unfortunately become a lot more mischievous and stubborn. Crayon murals, freely using parents' clothing as napkin, whining about, well, everything. It's definitely fun to see the world opening up around her, but sometimes I wish she was just the little bundle of protoplasm that just lay in her crib.


Babysitter Incident
For the past year, SK and I have been looking for a good reliable sitter. We had one for awhile, but she started flaking on us once the summer started. So, we started our search again this summer and through another mom friend, met a girl named Susan (not real name of course). She works in the Kids Club at the gym we belong to so I would see her from time to time and she seemed nice. And obviously, she had experience with kids. Best of all, my friend used her on a frequent basis, often entire days to watch her own 18-month-old daughter. There were nothing but glowing reviews.

After her first gig with us, we chatted with her for awhile about her plans and turns out she had been accepted to medical school. We immediately feel even more comfortable with her and talked to her about medicine, medical school life, financial aid, etc. An hour later, we wave good-bye and SK and I agree that we're lucky to have found her.

Then a few weeks ago, I called her to see if she was available for a Saturday evening. We begin chatting and I asked her if she was excited about school. She admits that she's nervous and will probably defer for a year. Then she adds that she has time to think about it since her medical school doesn't start until late September.

This little comment set off a silent alarm in my head. What kind of graduate school (let alone medical school) starts in late September? After I got off the phone with her, I reluctantly checked the academic schedule for her medical school. Sure enough, orientation for first-year medical school students had already begun! She had lied about being accepted to med school and elaborated on it for an hour with SK and I. I felt nauseous.

What really gets my goat is that she really didn't have to lie about medical school. We would have used her as a babysitter anyway since we don't need anyone with an MD to watch Elise (although that would be really nice). But now that I've uncovered this lie, it's hard to know what other falsehoods she's already told or will tell in the future.

I awkwardly shared my discovery with my friend as I knew she would be using her on a weekly basis. But as it turns out, she was starting to have her doubts about her as well with other bizarre behavior, like calling my friend at all hours of the night about a break-up with her boyfriend??? Weird.

We are still going out this Saturday night, but we are ponying up more money to use a sitter service that thoroughly vets all their employees. This particular sitter has been employed by the service for seven years. SK and I will actually be able to enjoy ourselves at dinner. Whew...