Roll the Dice and Have Some Faith: Mommy for a Weekend

It has been a really long time since Mom and I got to spend an overnight with Cassidy (my niece) and this past weekend Nikki was sick so she asked if we could babysit for her so of course we jumped on the opportunity to get some needed "baby-time" and we got to keep her for the entire weekend!

Here's just a few things I learned from this weekend:

Taking care of a puppy/dog is a lot easier then a baby! - Puppies, while they require play time and need to be taken out and fed, are fairly independent creatures. You don't need to hand feed them or watch them every minute to make sure they're not hurting themselves or doing something bad. Granted, when I first got Kugel, I did watch him all the time and wanted to cuddle with him all the time, but taking care of Cass was very time consuming. She is a very content baby for the most part so putting her in her play chair works for awhile, but she doesn't sleep all the time like Kugel does. I also found myself waking up to every little sound or movement she made during the night. The last time she spent the night here was when she was only a few months old and she woke up at 4 am screaming and woke up everyone in the house. So this time, I really didn't want that to happen again, but it also meant I didn't sleep very well either night she was here. The only night I ever found myself doing this with Kugel was the very first night we had him!
I hate changing diapers, especially poop filled ones - I have never been a huge fan of this...my gag reflexes don't like it much either... For the most part when Nikki is hear, I hand her Cassidy and say "she needs her diaper changed," but since Nikki wasn't around, I gave her to Grandma instead ;)
People judge - Friday night after picking Cassidy up, Zach (one of my younger brothers) and I went to Dewey's Pizza for dinner and while there, I had a lot of people look at me (a 22-year-old girl with no sign of a ring on my finger and no boyfriend/fiance/husband around) and I know they assumed I was a single mother. The older women (typically about 45 and older) would tell me how cute she was and well behaved, but the girls more my age would just stare. Then Mom and I took her to the park on Saturday and she even said "you know people think she's yours, right?" to which I responded with "well I am old enough that if I wanted a family, I would be able to have one," but I would just like to take this time to say that I am very happy that I have not had to deal with this experience at this point in my life. While I love children and want them someday, at this point and time of my life I know I would not be able to take care of another human being and personally don't want to. I have a hard enough time taking care of myself, I wouldn't want to have someone completely dependent on me. On that note, I do love getting to spend time with my niece, but at the end of the day, I like being able to give her back to her mother...especially when she needs her diaper changed! I would be a hypocrit if I said I have never judged someone for being young and having a baby before, but this isn't the first time this has happened to me. I have been mistaken for being Drew's mom (just because he has red hair doesn't make him my son people!), and before when I hung out with my friend Seth (he has a five year old little boy) I overheard someone say "that really sucks, they're not engaged or married and they have a kid!"
There's a lot of things people don't tell you before becoming a parent - Saturday morning when Cassidy woke up, I changed her diaper, but then found myself stumped as what to do next. I figured she was probably hungry, but I didn't know if I should give her a bottle or put her in her seat and feed her. I also didn't know if this should be right away or if I should wait a little bit. I have also realized that I don't really know a whole lot about babies. It's been a really long time since we had a baby around a lot (my brothers are 15 and 13 now) so I don't really remember which came first: crawling, walking, teething, etc. I have since found out that teething starts typically first (Cassidy has two teeth at 8 months old), and she is just starting to crawl...sort of...she seems much more determined to walk then crawl. And while she babbles her baby talk, there isn't much talking yet, so that somes last, but before potty training.
Kugel gets very jealous - he knows he's my baby, so when she is here, he tries to fight for my attention over her by constantly following me around and sitting as close to me as possible. However, he learned that if he sits under the high chair when Cassidy is feeding herself, he's likely to get some good food.

That's about it, so I will leave you with some cute pictures from the park :D