The Final Countdown

Well, my nanny-ship is nearing its end and I'm actually really sad. As excited as I am to get back to school, I'm going to miss this family a lot. Despite their frequent bouts of insanity, I've gotten really fond of the kids, and Amy and Gary are so much fun. I really lucked out with this job. Gary and Amy always back me up when it's Nanny vs. Kids, and they let me take initiative in doing things with them. They've been awesome about always letting me take the car and showing me cool things to do on the weekends. Amy would give the shirt off her back for anyone and while she maybe has her finger in a few too many pies, I can tell she loves being a mom and spends as much time with the kids as she can. Gary is hilarious to talk to and I think should be a motivational speaker. There is so much energy wherever he is and I wish I were more like him!

The boys haven't missed a day of school since the first and they don't seem to be suffering any consequences, although Amy berated herself for days. The school is only a few blocks away and Kate and I walk over to pick them up every day at 2:55. Usually we go over early and Kate plays at the park until the boys get out. Yesterday, we were walking across the playground right when Jared's class was at recess. Kate spotted him, and of course had to tackle him with a hug. I held back and only gave him what I hoped was a very non-embarrassing fist pound, but he still looked mortified that we were there, and said, "Oh, great. Now everyone is going to know there are women in my life."

Tyler was pretty nervous about starting school, mostly for the implications it holds for his comedy career (He's a big joke teller. His favorite? A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel in his pants. The bartender says, "What's the steering wheel for?" The pirate says, "Arrr, it's driving me nuts!" Classy, I know.) The other day before school started, Ty walked up to me, sat down and said, "Well. First day of fifth grade's coming up." "Yep," I said. He sat there silently for a minute. "Think I'm gonna need some new jokes."

Ty was also stoked about getting subpoenaed for a court appearance after witnessing a bike robbery and successfully identifying the 14-year-old culprits. Now he gets to go testify, which he thinks is awesome.

My proudest moment, perhaps ever, has come from the mouth of Kate. Since she's not yet in school, I've felt the whole time I've been here that I should be teaching her things. However, her daily dose of Barney seems to cover all the alphabet, number and you-are-so-freaking-special bases, so I wasn't sure what I should get into. Since the music of Barney is definitely sub-par, I decided to go with a little Music History 101.

We began with the Classical period (I thought Baroque might be a little much for a 3-year-old) and covered pretty much everything up to the 1950s in the first week. In the week after, we covered the beginning of Rock 'n' Roll, and after that, got to the really good stuff: the Rat Pack. We took almost an entire week for Frank Sinatra, and Kate's new favorite song became "Cheek to Cheek." We have also covered Big Band, classic rock (Kate did not sufficiently appreciate Stairway to Heaven or Freebird), Michael Jackson, the impact of "Smells like Teen Spirit" on the world of rock as we know it, Weezer and the inception of punk rock, R&B, Hip-Hop, Harry Connick Jr. and the ushering in of a new age of crooners, and white, middle-class America's obsession with singer-songwriters. I skipped boy bands and anything remotely close to Britney Spears.

By the time we'd hit Nirvana, Kate was begging for Frankie again, so we've revisited Ol' Blue Eyes a lot. The other day after the boys left for school, Kate was pretty upset that she didn't get to join them. Amy was singing her show tunes to calm her down, but Kate kept asking for "Cheek to Cheek." Amy (a country western fan) didn't know what she was talking about and just kind of ignored her. Finally, Kate put her hand over her Mom's mouth and yelled, "I just need Frankie at a time like this!"

I've never been more proud.