Mama's Helper

Mama's helper? More like mama's savior! Twice a week, a 5'4" brown-haired, brown-eyed miracle walks through my door and transforms me from a frazzled, edgy, about-to-lose-my-mind mom into a calm, placid lifeforce who can tolerate the intolerable. Even though Brad endured a week from hell with the salmonella scare, it saved my life as a newly crowned stay-at-home mom. A few weeks ago I was desperate for something to do with the kids one night Brad had to work late and took them to Hernando Square's free summer concert. It was a great idea in theory, but I quickly learned that a feisty two year-old and an infant are quite different in terms of mobility. Layne was running across the Square faster than I could get my old bones off the ground and Harper, well, she couldn't exactly run with me. A family seated nearby took pity on me and soon distracted Layne with a Frisbee. If a light bulb could have gone off over my head it would have blinded the crowd - I had the best idea ever! What if the little girl playing with Layne could help me with the kids once I was at home full-time? I asked her how old she was: 11. I could work with that. I asked her if she babysat: Yes. I asked her what she charged: "Nothing really" was her answer. I knew I couldn't get away with that, but when her mother called me to set up her first gig we agreed on $5 an hour. What a deal! Today was the second day she came over to help. This girl is too good to be true. Not only is she polite, well-mannered and Layne's new hero, she cleans up after herself, has more patience than I've ever had with my own children, teaches them new things and loves to organize. She even ASKED me if she could organize Layne's closet. I'm tempted to call her "Mini Me" because I'm known to organize something that has just been organized. When I went upstairs to find the clothes in his closet color-coded by type of clothing and season, I knew then that she has therapy in her future (or a job hosting Clean House), but her OCD is working for me! So far the $24 I've spent on this God send has allowed me time to wash our comforter, mop floors, vacuum rugs (twice), organize Harper's clothes and hang new blinds in her room. I've also had the chance to get to know a pretty amazing girl who has a very bright, and well organized, future! See Brad, something good did come out of that contaminated lot.