Oh, Ethan!

I recently found out that Ethan's mom is going to be quitting her job which will make me as their part-time nanny pretty darn obsolete. I'm okay with it, though. Change tends to excite me. I start to imagine what awesomeness is just around the corner. But don't get me wrong...it's a little anxiety producing that once again, I need to figure out how to pay the bills. However, considering what I've managed to put together these past few years, I know it will all work out.

Along with all the financial nuts and bolts, I also need to prepare for the massive shift of no longer being a caregiver/playmate to little Ethan twenty hours a week. I have been caring for him since he was a tiny six-month-old. (Now he's a shrimpy 2 1/2 year old). In all of my years with children, I've never spent as much individual time with a kid as I have with him. Since I first met his drooly self, he has learned how to sit, scoot, hurl massive amounts of food on the floor, toddle, shake his booty, talk (and speak a little Spanish, thank you very much), throw the most entertaining temper tantrums, swear (oops!), find the one thing in my purse that he should NOT have, climb a jungle gym, run like the dickens, and in general, turn into one of the most fun, inspiring little people I've ever met.

Today was a day like many others. We just got back from taking the ferry to Staten Island and back for the sheer hell of it. We stood along the railings, enjoying the breeze, spotting boats and seagulls. During our ride back to Manhattan, both entranced by the whirring motor, Ethan looked at me half-dazed and said, "Go home now, Rachael?"

Once home, we colored together and he managed to pummel half a dozen stickers from his Elmo Goes Potty coloring book on my left arm. In fact, they're still there because I dread that something along the lines of an arm wax is in my very near future. But I also have kept them there as a reminder that I won't have many more days with him like this. I need to treasure these moments, even if it means staring at the Cookie Monster sticker that seems to be shouting, "GREAT JOB!" at me.

Hmmm, I think the tiny one might be waking up right about now. We will probably have more coloring to do or banana bread to bake or a fort to build. All I know is that we have lots to do in these next few weeks whether he likes it or not. This little peanut isn't going to get away from me that easily.