It's different when it's your kid

I would have never really imagined just how cool watching a baby is.  I used to babysit a lot as a young girl and I never found watching kids very interesting back then. Of course I was busy talking on the phone and trying to invite friends over instead of watching them but never mind that! I was seriously the town's most popular babysitter for a short time period (keep in mind it was a very small town). My phone was ringing off the hook for babysitting jobs until I got my first car. I was (of course) too good to babysit after that. In all my babysitting jobs there was never really an incident well besides this one time at my uncle's house. I was watching his two sons and they decided to get rowdy and fight over the remote. I got fed up and took the remote and decided to hide it on top of one of those tall stand up lamps. I just set it in there because it was high up out of their reach. A few minutes later the lamp started smoking! The remote had melted onto the light bulb. The boys called my uncle right away and reported what had happened. Lets just say I got off work early that night. I also stayed with my aunt on her farm for the entire summer after she had her first baby.  I was about twelve at the time and this is when I realized that a baby would be a lot of work! I heard the baby crying at all hours of the night and a lot of fighting between my aunt and her husband. I also folded endless piles laundry to help my aunt out. I am really thankful for these babysitting experiences because I am an only child and would not have been exposed to many babies and kids otherwise. I can look back now and really appreciate those memories instead of being annoyed that yet another family member wanted me to watch their damn kids!
 Everyone would say "it's different when it's your kid." My aunt always said this to me as she let her baby's drool drip on her face and as she wiped up the poop explosion from her baby's back. I was so grossed out at the time. Come to find out it is so true! Jude drools all over me and has had more poop explosions that I care to count but it doesn't phase me a bit. Things are so different when you have this little person in your life! When I watch my son learn things for the first time it is so amazing! I am giving myself goosebumps just typing about it. I love the way his face lights up when he finally figures out a toy or sees himself in a mirror. Everything is new to him and he appreciates all the little things. I look forward to watching Jude grow into a man and I know that someday I will be wishing he would be back in that car seat having a poop explosion I can clean up.