Aunt Jenny saves the day

Last weekend Casey and I went to the temple and did a few other things (like get the stitches out of his lip. When you live in an isolated area, you always combine errands.) Usually when we leave the kids on their own, I make dinner for them, remind them of the rules, and give them something to look forward to when they're done with their jobs, like staying up late to watch a new movie. But we learned that we'd have to leave early for Casey to get his second booster for the India trip and so there was no such preparation before we jumped and ran. Chaos resulted, as witnessed by my sister-in-law Jenny when she brought Meri home. I lifted this from her blog:

Violent Tendencies

This last weekend I helped babysit for my nieces and nephew. The violence that ensued reminded me of my own childhood when my parents would leave. I was witness to kicking, yelling, threatening, bawling, chasing, and machete-whacking intentions.
But I knew things were on the up-swing when I witnessed this tender moment:
My nephew hugged his older sister and apologetically said, "Sorry I tried to whack your face with a machete..."

Later, when I was recounting the horrors to my dad, I said, "Who in their right mind would give a machete to a little boy with violent tendencies?!"
Looking slightly abashed, my dad said: "Me."


When Anika related how Jenny had stepped in, she counseled us "You should probably pay her. Or at least buy her some shoes."

I'm pretty confident that if Jenny hadn't helped out it would have been a lot longer for Anderson to arrive at the point of apologizing. This is the same boy who, at age 4, chased Anika around the house while yelling, "I'm not gonna hurt you! Now come back here or I'll sword you in pieces!"