Parenting 101

A few weeks back, Mark and I helped out my older sister Shelene and her husband Eric for a weekend. They left Thursday morning, leaving their 4 children (7,5, and 16 month twins) in my hands. Mark came up Thursday evening and took the day "off" on Friday so he could be there to help.The kids are all wide awake by 7 am so their 7pm bedtime is greatly welcomed. I'm always reminded of how hard my sisters work when I step into their shoes for short spurts of time. How each of them do it day after day is amazing.

Eric and Shelene have some great kids. Although they know "Aunt Brittany" is a sucker and will let them get away with a little much at times, they were great helpers. One of my favorite parts was getting to drop off and pick up the kids from school. Another was watching Mark interact with the babies and seeing their eyes light up as he played with them. I left too early to pick up Alexis on Friday with Spencer so he was left alone with the babies once they woke up from their naps for a good half hour. I was pleasantly surprised/relieved to find the babies were happily playing and Mark seemed to be enjoying himself when we returned.

We brought the camera but I just didn't have time to snap as many pictures as I'd like.

This is what happens when I leave Mark in charge of all 4 kids while I go take a shower:

Alexis was in the same position as Spencer only on my laptop.The babies were using the big monitor in the corner to watch signing time.

You can't really tell but the girls actually have pony tails in! Thanks to "Baby Signing Time" for keeping them occupied and still enough while I did it! They love this series and as you can see, they can sign quite a bit!

Spencer really loves to draw and as you can see, he is quite the artist at age 5. Mark started drawing and then Spencer decided to copy his picture. Spencer is great at drawing but he really has a talent for copying original pictures.
We really had fun watching the kids. Spencer said at one point "you guys are just like our mom and dad". I'm not sure if he meant by our "roles" or how we were making them toe the mark with rules and their behavior. Thanks Eric and Shelene for letting us hang with your awesome kids!