Adventures in Babysitting!?!?

This weekend, I volunteered to watch my sweet little 5 yo niece, Shelby, who happens to have been born with Down Syndrome. I soon discovered it was going to be an even more interesting weekend than I had anticipated. We picked her up from my sister yesterday after the parade, and hung around for some of the other festivities in town. She and I enjoyed dancing to one of the bands that played there during the day, and played on the playground there at my old grade school.

On our way home, we decided to stop and pick up a couple of things at ShopKo. I knew Shelby probably needed a change, and she told me she had to go potty. Ok, I took her into the larger handicapped size stalls, and we did our business in there. When I walked out, she promptly closed the door behind me...and quick-as-wink...locked it. Oh goody-now what? I tried my coaxing skills with her, but she wasn't having any of that. She had a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye the whole time she stood there, refusing to come out. Finally, not having my 11yo with me in the bathroom, I decided the only way to get her out was to slide under the stall door and get her...but the moment she saw me doing that-she promptly slid under the stall to the adjoining one, and had that one locked too, lickety-split! Okay, I'll try the coaxing thing again. "Shelby, would you like some candy?", "Yes." "Than you have to come out.", "No", "Then you can't have any candy." "Please?" It was evident this was getting me no where...so I slid under that door and got her out of there. Thankfully, she didn't crawl into the next one this time. I was thinking while sliding under the door, that it's a good thing I lost weight. I may not have been able to get under the door without getting stuck otherwise. Wouldn't that have been a hoot??



I have also figured out that you don't tell Shelby something if you're not going to do it...she's smart as a whip and has a one track mind...she will NOT let you forget it. This morning, she wanted to go to her house. I told her her mom wasn't there. She said, "Amber?" I said, "Yes, your big sister Amber is there." She asked if she could go see Amber and like a fool I replied, "Maybe later". She has been asking me all day, "Go see Amber???" Right now the little darling is napping, and I should go get a few things done around here before she wakes up. I have to watch her like a hawk when she's awake, because she loves to unlock doors and run outside. I guess she likes to LOCK doors too.