Marley Darling

So all my sisters get to blog away about their adorable children. Frankly, I'm more than a little bit jealous. But, as I thought about it, I realized that just because I have never given birth to adorable children, doesn't mean I don't get to help take care of some!

I have had the chance to watch lots of different kids and, fortunately, often on a repeated basis. Currently I go to the Hill home every Friday morning at 7:30 when the mom heads off to work. The kids I get to watch are 9-year-old Aiden and 5-year-old Marley. I help them get ready and we mess around until 8:15 when Aiden leaves for the bus and I get the real treat of taking Marley to school.

Marley is perhaps the cutest little girl I have ever had the good fortune of meeting. I call her darling. The first time she protested, "I'm not your darling!" But I didn't stop and now she accepts it.

The first time I met her she introduced me to her two favorite stuffed animals: Unicorny and Dogbark. I bet you can tell what kind of animals they were. Later on I also met Sheepy-Lamby.

Lately Christi's (the mom) regular babysitter has been sick so I've been able to pick her up from school as well. And let me tell you, there is nothing like a little alone time with this cute girl. The first time I picked her up, her class had just read The Polar Express, and got to take a silver balloon home with them to represent the silver bell Santa gives as the first gift of Christmas. Naturally Marley named hers "Balloony" and declared that he was her new best friend.

Here she is, showing off the blue tongue she got from the sucker she so generously shared with her new best friend. As Aiden and I played a game on the wii she'd laugh and say things like, "Silly Balloony, this isn't a TV show! it's a game!" then turn to me and add, "Balloony thinks this is a TV show."

Maybe my favorite Marley moment was on the way to school one day when she was asking where my kids were and I had to tell her that I wasn't a mommy and I didn't have any kids. She responded, "When you grow into a mommy, maybe I can ask my mommy to bring you a baby!" and after more adorable comments she finished, "And you can name her Marley. And then there will be 3 Marley Darlings!" (I found out a moment later that she already knows one other Marley). But seriously. Whenever I get this cutie in the car the first thing I do is turn off the radio. Who needs it?

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