Jack-Jack Attack!

I laughed for the first time this week as I drove down to Evanston after working all day in Lake Forest at a nursing home. I was listening to a message left by one of the 4 babysitters I had this last week. For my main-stay childcare provider decided to, spitefully, end her services for me the night before I was suppose to work a 3 day string at the Kellogg. God, in his all knowing and very miraculous ways, provided 4 babysitters to care for my little Audrey Anne over this last week and then he gave me a new babysitter (long term) for Audrey which I am extremely thankful. His provision is quick and timely. I shouldn't question it or doubt his care for me and my family.

Back to laughing. So it has been a stressful and emotionally exhausting week. My faithful Jetta, Jubilee, died on Sunday on the way to church. We bought a Toyota Sienna XLE minivan the next day (which, if you have ever purchased a car, you know how darn stressful it is). Tuesday night, my babysitter called at 7pm leaving the message that she will no longer be taking care of Audrey sending me into a mild panic attack and a gut full of anxiety. I worked a lot this last week and I have just been feeling incredibly low, isolated and sad.

So that is why I haven't laughed in a while.

Well, I was listening to a message from the 4th babysitter who was giving me an update. The phone was breaking up and all I could hear was something like, "Um, Shanel, I am having a hard time changing Audrey's diaper because she keeps flipping over..." And it just tickled a funny bone in me. It reminded me of the babysitter, Carry, in The Incredibles when she calls on the phone to Mrs. Park (Elastogirl) and says, "Weeeiiird things are happening. You got to call me and tell me what to do!" Images of the little baby catching on fire, shooting laser beams from his eyes, transporting and evaporating through walls, being resistant to gravity. I laughed aloud. I couldn't help it. I pictured Audrey Anne flipping her body this way and that trying to frustrate the babysitter, her little butt exposed to the air and crawling away with all her might. I have a super hero of a daughter with "weeeiiird powers"--like not being willing to lay down and get her diaper changed. She can't help it; she is an active and curious child.

[If you have not seen the movie The Incredibles it is a must! And you have to make sure the extra clip called Jack-Jack attack is on there. Watch it and laugh till your tummy hurts and your urethra sphincters are about to burst. And if you are a new mom, you will appreciate this movie more for all the humor of family and child raising.]