Growth Spurt

I babysat my half-brother's two year old this weekend. My previous experience with children has been...sparse. It's not so much that I find them annoying.* It's more about the fact that they fill me with a gripping fear, it feels like they're looking right into me and they have so many questions, I can't swear in front of them, and they don't get my pop culture references. I guess I've always felt this way, and besides watching my younger cousins here and there growing up, I'd never actually babysat before Saturday (had I told you that, brother who reads my blog, haha?!). Anyway, in preparation for my first foray I was sure to pack some polish for my toenails and some gum I could snap while rolling my eyes at her incessant requests for...pizza? Because that's what kids like? We actually did have pizza, and our time together was delightful. We built forts out of books, colored, ate watermelon, good timez.
I was starting to feel pretty confident in my childcare abilities when Lina solemnly informed me that she had a dirty diaper and that my swift action on this matter would be much appreciated ("I made poopies"). That's when I realized I had never changed a diaper before. I panicked-ly lifted her up onto the changing table. "I've uh, never done this and I don't want to put in on backwards or sideways or something. I don't suppose you could walk me through it?" Lina giggled and wrapped her arms around my arm and tried to lift herself up like a monkey. I started laughing too and with that, I got incontrovertible proof that this whole moving to Chicago thing wasn't a completely terrible idea.

9th Wonder ft. Mos Def, Jean Grae, Memphis Bleek - Brooklyn In My Mind (alt link)
(buy)
My favorite 9th Wonder production is Little Brother's The Listening, check that out here.

*That's kind of a lie I find many of them annoying.