The Story

One day as I was walking around campus I saw an old man sitting at a table with a baby. I sat at an open table near them planning on reading and enjoying the sunshine. Well, after watching them for a few minutes, I couldn't help myself. I went over and asked the old man if I could hold the baby. He said of course. He introduced himself. His name was Christian, and the baby's name was Kasper. After about 15 minutes of me holding Kasper, Christian said, wait here, I will go get us coffee. So. There I am. Left in charge of a baby that I don't know. (fun times) After a while, Christian comes back with the coffee and sits down and I ask him about his life. He grew up in Poland and still lives there. He was just visiting with his wife for Kasper's birth. (Kasper was 3 months old at this point). He learned English as a teenager during World War 2, because "it was against the law", and he worked for the CIA during the Cold War. He has traveled the entire world and is fluent in many different languages. We talked for about an hour and a half. He decided that I should babysit Kasper and so he got my phone number and e-mail address so that his daughter (Kasper's mother) could call me, I gave Kasper back, and we parted ways. And that was that....or so I thought.
The next day though I got a phone call. It was his daughter, Roza, asking if I could come babysit in half an hour. I didn't have anything going on, so I did. She was teaching music so she asked if I could just meet her by the music building. She was running a little late, so when she got there she gave me the keys to her mini-van and said that the three boys were asleep inside, and what room she would be in if I needed to find her. All was going well for a while...until the boys woke up. Lukasz and Dominik, who are 5 and 3 years old, freaked out. They started yelling at me in Polish and as soon as Lukasz was free from his car seat he hopped out of the car and started running away sobbing. (oh man). I can't blame them, because it was dark and they wake up in their van with a strange person...not the most comforting atmosphere. I finally convinced Lukasz to come back and that I would take all three of them to their mom (what else could I do?). So, I get Dominik and Kasper out of their car seats and take them to their mom. Lukasz and Dominik spent the rest of the time in the classroom with their mom and I watched Kasper. I felt pretty bad because I had disrupted the class and it didn't seem like the mom was too pleased with me. So, once again I thought that was the end of that... but no.
Roza asked if I could babysit the next week...and the week after that....and every Saturday. The boys have gotten to know me now, so we have a great time together. I'll take them in the mini-van to go get food and I have a fun time playing mom. I get weird looks though. The two oldest have razor scooters that they zoom around on, but Dominik's is far too big for him, so he spends all his time concentrating on not falling, but then he runs into people. It's cute. They love to ride through mud puddles, and I always cheer them on... little boys will be little boys and it's alright to get messy. Ha ha ha. No big deal, right? Well....
Last Saturday when I babysat them it had rained all day. There were huge puddles, but the sun had finally just come out so we could go outside to play. They were having fun splashing in puddles and wrestling around on the grass and I thought nothing of it. They were having a good time. Emily took this picture of us....

Now, check out the sweater that Lukasz is wearing... it meant nothing to me at all. Then one of my friends saw this picture and said, dang! that kid is wearing Dolce and Gabbana. That still didn't really mean much to me. Then I found out that is a $300 sweatshirt. (dang!). Ha ha ha, I'd been encouraging him to roll around in the muddy grass in a $300 sweatshirt. wa-wa. Seriously though, I didn't even know that they made clothing for kids that was that expensive.

Roza had something come up the next night so she called me to see if I could watch them again. I found out that both she and her husband are extremely pleased with me, and I'm pretty proud of that. I'm not going to be there this Saturday, so she is cancelling the class. She said that not many can handle them and that they don't like many people either. I think that was one of the biggest compliments that someone could give me in that area. I have so much fun with them. They call me 'Lika'. I guess that is what my name sounds like in Polish.

This last time I watched them, two of my friends, Josh and Scott, saw me and wanted to hang out with the kids. Kasper had fallen asleep while I was holding him, so I gave him to Josh, and then after a lot of coaxing, Lukasz started showing Scott the toy that he got in his happy meal and Dominik sat on my lap. We were all sitting in the hall way of the music building when Roza came back. She looked and said (in her extremely thick Polish accent) "This is what happens when you hire attractive babysitter...you end up with three babysitters!" (ha ha ha ha!) and I told her, "yeah, I'm using your kids to find a boyfriend." She got a real kick out of that one. Even told her husband when he came in too. It was kinda awkward, but we all had a good laugh.

Well, so thats the newest joy in my life. They keep me one my toes. I do get really weird looks, and people have asked if they are mine. Which is kinda strange... but oh well. I guess stranger things have happened. I wanted to write this all down so that I don't forget it. Life changes so fast, and some things, like kids, it's good just to take some time to slow down and just enjoy.

Much Love,
lisa.


Next on the agenda...... MEXICO.