just jessica

{July 16-20}

5 days, 4 nights

i was a mother to 6 children 

ivie. avrie. christian. ellie. hayden. lochlon.

meet the whittwers.

(not pictured: ivie & ellie)

when i was about 12 years old i used to babysit for the whittwers almost every weekend, back then they only had 3 little munchkins. their family has now doubled. shane and kari were going on a cruise to alaska and asked me to step in for the majority of their vacation. i excitedly said yes but as the time got closer i was seriously questioning my abilities. i didnt sleep for two nights before because i was so stressed. 

it seemed like the second i was in that house alone with those kids my motherly instincts went to work and it all felt so normal. we had a good time dancing in the kitchen while making dinner, watching movies, painting the girls nails, swimming, having competitions on dance dance revolution and playing mario kart racing on the wii. im ashamed to admit that i lost to hayden, who is three, every single time. and i was trying really hard. i didnt let him win on purpose. 

i kind of know what moms are talking about when they have their 'mother moments' when they say it makes it all worth it. it really is such an amazing thing to walk into the room of a little baby in the morning and have him smile because he is so excited to see you. or to have a three year old hold your hand and come snuggle while watching a movie. or to have an eight year old girl want to sleep next to you every night and fall asleep reading stories. to have a ten, twelve, and fourteen year old kids say they dont want you to go because they were having fun and liked having you around, that was especially rewarding.

my favorites were definitely bath time with hayden and loch. they would just pour water down each others faces and giggle. but their favorite was to pinch each others bums. it got the biggest kick out of it. hayden is seriously a character. some of his best lines in his darling three year old voice:

• when telling a story he always starts with 'its like weird'
  
• he says 'thats disgust!!' instead of disgusting
  
• in primary his sunbeam class sits in front of my class, he noticed me sitting there and turned around saying in a loud voice 'hey jessica what the heck are you doing in here' i answered telling him that i was a teacher, he replied 'you cant be a teacher you're my babysitter'
  
• and my favorite, i asked him after church how his class was and he said 'primary was just really hard for me today' i asked why it was so hard, he said 'it like weird, anna (a little girl in his class) kept giving me mean eyes the whole time! it was just really hard' at this point im trying not to laugh and i asked what mean eyes were where he proceeded to scowl at me and say 'im kind of scared of her'

people told me that watching 6 kids would be the best birth control. but i can honestly say i can not wait to be a mom. i am seriously missing those kids.