Our babysitter, Mallory, from across the street is wonderful. A very with-it, mature, genuinely nice, got-a-good-head-on-her-shoulders girl. Trustworthy from the get-go. I love her. I feel very secure leaving Hayden with her. She has TONS of experience and just seems like she would be able to handle a crisis if one went down while we were gone. Plus, how perfect...she lives right across the street...and her name is Mallory (Hayden was practicing last night, so at 18-months he can officially say his last name! Of course, right now, his whole name sounds like Hay Mamory, but that's close enough, right?).

When we left, I put on his favorite DVD (Baby Einstein Old MacDonald's Farm). He was already in his PJ's and his yogurt snack (that he eats before bed) was in the fridge. We gave him kisses and hugs and told him we would be back soon. As we left, he said, "Mama?". I heard him from the garage, so I pressed my ear to the door, fully expecting to hear crying on the other end. What did I hear?....Cow noises.....yes, my little boy had moved on in the span of 15 seconds from wondering where I was to showing off his repetoire of animals noises to his new-found friend. I must add here...that even though Mallory is Hayden's babysitter and she has "watched" him many times, he has never SEEN her...ok, once we ran into her in the mall and she said hi to him then, but that's it. She has never played with him or anything (I told you, I was paranoid, so we always left AFTER he was asleep). So, it was strange to see him so comfortable with her. It was great!

So, I figured he was fine and we left. Once in the car, I realized that I had forgotten to tell Mallory how to get the regular TV back after watching the DVD. So, you know, I just HAD to call. I told her the instructions and then mentioned that I would call again at around 7:45pm to see how things were. My stomach was a flutter! I called at 7:50pm (I wanted to give him another 5 min to calm down if he needed it - I would have hated to hear him crying in the background). So, I called, she answered and I heard nothing...silence. She said she read him his 3 books, put him in bed and he said, "night night" and she shut the door and that was it! WHAT?!!? That's it? That's what I was dreding...a cordial goodnight followed by silence and now nearly 12 1/2 hours of silent sleep!?

Lesson learned.....matinee movies and dinner afterwards...here we come!! -- mam