Vuvuzelas.

Today was the first day of my new nannying job. I've babysat the kids before, but usually at night, when all I have to do is pop in a movie and carry them to bed when they fall asleep. This morning, I woke up at 6:00, promptly fell back to sleep, and woke up to my mom poking her head in my room telling me to get up. At 7:26, I pulled into their driveway. How any person can have so much energy 5 minutes after waking up is beyond me. These kids (two girls, 3 and 20 months) were all over the place as soon as they came downstairs. My saving grace was the baby pool in the backyard. By 10 am, I had that thing filled with water and the kids happily splashing away. Meanwhile, I sat on the deck with the hot, muggy breeze blowing on my face. At least I got a good tan.

You may be wondering why the title of the post is "Vuvuzelas." After playing outside for an hour, I brought the girls inside, and while I got a snack for them, they started playing with the vuvuzelas their dad got them. (Their dad works for the Red Bull soccer team.) While I don't mind the sound of the South African horns buzzing in the background as my favorite soccer teams dash around at the World Cup, hearing them indoors is a completely different story. Thankfully, 3 and 1 year olds have amazingly short attention spans, and 10 minutes later, the horns were thrown to the side in favor of a different, quieter toy.

I love babysitting, I really do, but I doubt that I will ever be a decent parent. I have a 5 minute tolerance for whining. After that, I usually give in to whatever the kid wants because I just don't want to hear it anymore: "I want the PRINCESS cup...I WANT the princess cup...I want THE princess cup...I want the princess CUP...I WANT THE PRINCESS CUP." I just can't take it. "Fine. Have the cup." This is probably the secret to my success as a babysitter. I let the kids have pretty much whatever they want, as long as it isn't dangerous, sugar-high-inducing, or loud.

In other news, I'm writing this post from my brand new Dell Studio laptop. If marrying inanimate objects wasn't so frowned upon, I would totally wed this lovely piece of technology. It's purple. It makes cute noises. It seems to know what I am thinking. I love it.

Well, I have to go to work. I like to pretend I'm driving somewhere really exciting on the way to the mall. Somewhere like Utah, where the grass really is greener.