Reports from Baby Bacchanalia

I have never left my children with someone I didn't know. Until last weekend.

Rom has a new job, and the company he works for just had a major celebration by sending everyone in the company (it's a small company) with their families to a resort on one of the San Juan islands.

We had a whole weekend to enjoy the sun, the wildlife, the food, each other.

On Saturday we could choose one of the company-sponsored events, such as whale watching, kayaking, golfing, being pampered at the spa. Or you could choose none of it and do your own thing.

On Saturday night, there was a company dinner for the employees and their spouses/partners and a separate babysitting dinner for the kids.

By separate, I mean not just a separate room, but another building altogether. A building about 400 yards away.

By babysitting, I mean there were a handful of young women on hand.

Or maybe I mean to say that by babysitting, there were movies.

And by dinner, I mean hot dogs.

Rom and I dropped the kids off. We met the babysitters, introduced our kids, told them our names and gave them our cell phone numbers. Orlando was immediately absorbed in the movie that was playing (Peter Pan) and Mica was busy chasing balloons.

We left them there.

We had a good dinner, and then we came back.

We opened the door to find three little girls banging on the piano and running around in various states of undress in the foyer as the lead babysitter sat dazed and overwhelmed on the couch.

We found most of the other kids staring into the pulsating screen of the movie (didn't recognize it this time) in a darkened room. I think there was a babysitter or two there. The movie was so loud that I couldn't really concentrate. I found Mica manically hording a pile of unblown-up balloons. It wasn't until later that I thought, "Uh, choking hazard?"

We scooped up the kids and said goodbye to the lead babysitter, who was still on the couch.

I marveled over the similarities to certain parties I attended at college. The noise, the chaos, the pure experience of music, bodies, movies. It was funny, and a little creepy.

When we arrived at our hotel room, Orlando announced that he was hungry and proceeded to eat cashews and raisins for about twenty minutes.

"Didn't they have dinner there?"

As far as Rom and I could tell, he either didn't like what was served and asked for something else or he liked it so much that he asked for seconds, but in either case, while the answer was yes, the babysitter never brought it to him.

"Did you have fun playing with the kids?" (This was something Orlando had been anticipating all weekend.)

"Uh, not really."

"Why not?"

"Well, we didn't really play. We just watched movies."

"What movie did you watch?"

"Well, there was this witch and they tried to get away from the witch but no one could because her tail was so big."

Rom and I gave blank stares. Does this movie sound familiar to any of you?

"Did you play the games with the babysitters?" (They had assured us they had entertainment other than movies planned.)

"Well, they tried to line us up but then the kids went running and the babysitters were like 'eh-eh-eh,' and so we didn't really do that."

"Did you have fun?"

"Yeah."

And it seemed like they did have fun. They were tired when we picked them up but fine. And one of the babysitters did tie a balloon around Mica's pants since they kept falling down. That was nice. I'm glad they helped him keep his pants on.


Picture by Banana Custard.