Adventures in Babysitting

Ok, so I've not yet experienced anything like Elizabeth Shue's famous outing, but I keep hoping that someday I will....

I baby-sit fairly regularly for a local family with two little boys (Spot and Rover) who are pretty much the cutest kids ever. They are smart and funny and well-mannered and really just COOL kids. AND they think I'm cool because I throw baseballs with them and I can beat them at tag but not at Wii Mario Kart.

And sometimes I throw some nerd bits and they love it...like how many Star Wars movies I've seen or anything about Pokemon.

Say all that to say, I really do love hanging out with these kids and I think they dig me too.

So I was baby-sitting last night and they wanted to play Star Wars. On any given day, "playing Star Wars" takes on different meanings (sometimes I get to wear a child-sized storm trooper helmet) but it almost always involves light sabre duels. This time it was decided that two kids vs. me was a fair fight. The older one (Spot) had an actual light sabre toy (that alternates glowing blue and red, depending on the need); the younger boy (Rover) had a blue plastic bat and I had a wooden baseball bat and a wicker clothes hamper lid. (Apparently since I was outnumbered, I got a weapon and a shield).

We fight until someone gets hit five times and then they're dead. Well, in this case, it only took one hit. I took a blow to the face, from a blue plastic bat, despite my stellar hamper and child-sized bat wielding skills. It hurt! I mean, the kid wasnt swinging that hard and it was just plastic, but it hurt! Fortunately my nose didnt start bleeding (or I would have passed out and then it would have been all kinds of trouble) but it hurt.

After that, we only fought one-on-one light sabre duels, tournament style, until I could talk them into playing catch, which proved much safer.

It's been more than 24 hours and my face still hurts. Anytime I move my mouth vigorously or touch my nose for any reason, it really hurts. Dang.