I'm smitten with the babysitter

Day 1 at Miss Tracie's house was phenomenal. She officially rocks.

Noah was shy and reserved for, oh, about two minutes this morning. It didn't take long for the lure of the mini, candy-apple-red Cadillac Escalade in the living room to draw him out of my lap and into the mix of things. And when he opened the Escalade door and was greeted by a two-foot tall Elmo doll and a Tigger doll, his heart firmly belonged to Miss Tracie and her way-cool stuff.

And let's not forget about Jalen, Miss Tracie's super handsome, just-now-two-year-old son, who not only shares his toys in a spirit of goodwill far beyond his 24 months, but he also enjoys bringing treasures to his playmates (much to their delight). This was all good news to me since Noah has a long way to go in the art of sharing.

After going over Noah's schedule and getting him used to his environment (obviously not a hardship), I skated on off to work, my son not even batting an eye that mommy was walking away. After I shut the door, I even peeked through the small window panel to see Tracie waving at me, but Noah off and running. No sirree, no separation anxiety there.

Feeling like the situation was in good hands (after all, I did arm Tracie with a 4-page manual of all things Noah), I didn't even check in during the day. Instead, I showed up at 5:20 slightly anxious, hoping that everything went smoothly.

Greeting my doorbell ring was Tracie, aptly wrangling a toddler in each arm, bright smiles all around. Before I could even notice that Noah was only dressed in a onesie, she said, "I bet you're wondering why your son is half naked." Turns out that after a golden river leak in outfit No. 1, she'd put on his backup gear and decided to wash outfit No. 1. But then she felt inspired to toss in outfit No. 2 with another load of laundry, thinking the first getup would be plenty dry after only a few minutes. But stubborn cotton, it needed a second cycle. I love this, though: she told me that for the 20 or 30 minutes he was in a onesie, she cranked up the heat in the house so he wouldn't be cold. That cracked me up...

I also learned my son took TWO naps. For the record, he'll only sleep 1–2 hours for me, one time a day. Then she shared that he ate an entire grilled cheese sandwich and an entire apple for lunch (no picky eater for Miss Tracie!), and he was good as gold all day.

Capping off this glowing report were a few other things:

1. Apparently Noah learned the Spanish phrase today for "I love you" and broke out words like "Mexico" and "bicycle." Who knew?!
2. Every day Tracie likes to "dance" with Jalen to ensure he gets plenty of movement and to work on his coordination. They jump, march, move forward and back, clap, bend, twist, you name it. She said Noah bopped along for a while and then just laughed and laughed at she and Jalen bustin' a move.
3. I was presented with Noah's first art project away from home. I'm pretty sure my heart melted on the spot at the sight of his many, colorful hand prints on a piece of craft paper. Isn't it amazing?!

After tearing Noah away from the car and Miss Tracie, I left the sitter's house feeling buoyant and satisfied with the person David and I had carefully chosen to care for our son...and a whole lot relieved too. I see only great things ahead, and I couldn't be happier!