Jaylon's babysitting DRAMA

We had an invitation to an adults only dinner party on Saturday night, so that left us with the task of finding a babysitter. Now here and there, for short periods of time, we have recently started allowing Jaylon to babysit for us. After all, he is 13 1/2 and I began babysitting when I was a mere 11. So we decided there was no time like the present to try it out for a longer period of time.

We had pizza for them to eat and a movie for them to watch. They each got the lecture about Jaylon being in charge and reminders about their behavior. We reiterated the rules of staying inside and not answering the door. So we were fairly confident things would be just fine. And of course the baby came with us.

The dinner party was relaxing and enjoyable, with no word from the home front...that is until my phone started ringing about an hour and a half into it.

No one had broken a bone. The house was not on fire. A stranger hadn't come to the door. It wasn't even that anyone was disobeying Jaylon, or arguing with each other. There was an issue with Gracie. She was screaming hysterically in the background.

She had managed to get a comb stuck in her hair.

Poor, flustered Jaylon. He didn't know what to do. Gracie wouldn't stop crying and screaming (and if you know Gracie, she is our most emotional/dramatic child in any situation). She was begging him to cut her hair, which we promptly told him not to do. We coached him on how he might get it out. He kept calling us back...Gracie kept screaming...the comb was still stuck. I suggested she get in the shower, get her hair wet and try to get it out by herself. No luck.

After eight phone calls, lots of tears and plenty of frustration on Jaylon's part, the situation subsided. I told him to put a movie on, leave the comb in her hair, forget any attempts at putting her to bed and told Gracie to wait until I got home and we'd get it out.

We got to enjoy the dinner party, even if my phone did ring a total of ten times. The kids survived. The house was a disaster. We found Emmie passed out in our bed amidst many random things. We were proud of Jaylon. And we got a great laugh and a funny story to tell thanks to Gracie. Apparently she was trying to see if she could curl her hair by rolling it around the comb. It could have been worse...

Emmie didn't last until we got home. She went to sleep, painted face and all.

Gracie didn't seem to think the situation was as funny as we did.

My ever resourceful husband solved the problem thankfully.

The goal was to cut as little hair as possible.

It was an eventful day for Gracie...she had lost her tooth that morning.