I Should Start Taking Inventory

In order to kind of sort of pretend that we still maintain a somewhat normal life, TB and I hired a sitter the past 2 Sundays in a row to watch SB for a few hours while we go out and eat/run errands. TB has taught both Alec and Erika (brother and sister) for many years and knows both of them, and their family, very well. Their parents are very strict and they both seem to be smart kids. Alec has watched SB in the past and we've been very happy with him, but Erika has recently expressed an interest in watching her, so we decided to let her have a go.

Last weekend was the first time I met her. She came in and started talking immediately- not a shy kid. She asked about SB's allergies, habits, food preferences, and all sorts of stuff, so I felt pretty good about things. While making small talk, she asked me what TB and I were planning on doing. I replied that we were probably just going to get a bite to eat, then run some errands if time permits. She advised me that I should go to Sephora because they had really good body butters. That threw me off, partly because I wasn't sure if she was trying to tell me that I smelled, and partly because what 30-year old goes on a rare date with her husband and drags him to the mall to hit Sephora?

Whatever. The day went on without incident and we decided to ask her back this weekend so TB and I could get a bite to eat and go look at curtains for the bedroom, without bringing SB with us. We totally could have done that with SB, but TB was painting most of the day on Saturday, and prepping most of the day on Friday, so we both knew I would welcome a break from having her attached to my hip all weekend. Since we sometimes hire Alec to help TB do some work around the house, he came with Erika to make our landscaping pretty for when we put the house on the market.

I was alone when they got there, so Alec went right to work and Erika and I hung around the backyard with SB. We commented on the weather, since it was a beautiful day, and I told Erika that we had gone to the zoo the day before, when it was really windy. She told me that she did some pilgrimage with her church. Then she asked me what I did yesterday. She got a blank look from me for 2 reasons: 1- Didn't I just tell her we went to the zoo?, and 2- Who asks some random 30-year old mom what she did the day before? I felt like she thought I was 16 and she was trying to be my bff.

Anyway, she then told me that I should go to Sephora. Major deja-vu. I laughed and said that she had told me the exact same thing last week. She said it's a cool store, and did I ever go? I told her we didn't make it over to the mall, and I didn't think the mall near me had a Sephora. I didn't mention that I wasn't exactly in the market for body butter. She said I should definitely go when I had the chance. I dropped the subject.

SB decided that she wanted to go inside so we both followed her in. TB was at Home Depot and I was just killing time until he got home so we could leave together. As soon as we walked in the door, SB asked me to get the Candy Land game out and Erika asked me for lunch because she was starving.

Huh? I had told her outside that SB had already eaten. By this time it was 2:30 pm- why would someone come to a babysitting job (which was only for 3 hours) starving? Usually we tell the sitters that they are welcome to anything in our fridge, but I don't expect them to come in asking for a full meal! If they are sitting for extended periods of time around a meal, I'll usually bake a pizza and tell them to split it with SB. I'm certainly not against feeding the sitter. But this was from 2-5!! After lunch, before dinner!

I told her there was sandwich stuff in the fridge. She made a sandwich, then went right into our snack cabinet and grabbed a handful of these pretzel chips that my mom had brought for SB (we don't usually buy chips- I'm not even sure how Erika knew to look there for them). I set up the game and retired to my office to start looking at curtains online.

While in my office, I heard Erika help herself to another serving of chips, then heard her ask SB if she wanted some "gummies", which I refer to as fruit snacks. There were 3 packages left (which I know because just that morning I had transferred them from the box to the cabinet to make room for other stuff). SB ate 1/2 of one. When I checked later that night, there were 0 left. You do the math. A few minutes after the gummies, I heard Erika rooting around the snack cabinet again and she came into my office to ask if it was ok if she had the last little box of yogurt-covered raisins.

Upon returning from dinner (we didn't have time to get the curtains because we had gotten a late start) we saw that one of the Lunchables we recently started buying for SB had been attacked. I have yet to see her eat an entire Lunchable, but this one was gone. And somehow, there were 2 juice boxes open (we don't buy juice boxes separately, and each Lunchable only comes with one, so......).

After Erika left and I cleaned the 3 yogurt-covered raisins off the counter (wtf- the girl is like 16 or so- can't she clean up her own raisins?), tossed her juice box and drained her glass of apple juice that she had left on the floor in the living room, TB and I joked about how much the girl ate. We compared her to her brother, who was doing physical labor around the house on a warm day, yet had to be told 3 times before he took a bottle of water from us.

But the kicker came later that night.

I was getting ready to take my prenatal vitamins, and as you may know from previous posts, I need pudding in order to get them down. We had just gone shopping on Friday, and knowing that I was on my last cup of pudding, I had purchased a new 6-pack. I took one cup on Friday to use. Since getting pills down is the only reason I eat the pudding, one cup usually lasts me 2-3 days. So as I reach in to get a new pudding, I realize that there are 2 cups of pudding left. Hm. That's not right.
6(in the pack) - 1 (Friday night) = 2 5.

She ate 3 cups of pudding. SB prefers yogurt over pudding, and TB never touches my pudding because it's practically considered medicine, considering its purpose.

I couldn't believe this. I went downstairs and asked TB if he had been eating my pudding- just to give her the benefit of the doubt. His response was "Don't tell me she ate all your pudding too?!" I told him it was just 3 cups. He put his hand on his head and muttered something about living on a deserted island because we can't find any normal people to watch our child.

So just to reiterate- in the course of about 2.5 hours, this girl consumed (of our food PLUS got paid to watch our child):
a sandwich
chips
more chips
the last box of yogurt covered raisins
2-1/2 packages of fruit snacks
a Lunchables
apple juice
3 cups of pudding

And this is just the food we know about. There was lots more food that she could have eaten that I just haven't come across the evidence yet. We should have guessed something like this would happen when SB informed us last week when we got home that Erika had eaten all of the frozen dinner that I had bought for SB to see if she liked it. Erika said SB had liked it, but SB later told us she hadn't eaten any of it. In this case, I tend to believe SB.