Why Melinda Will Never Ask Me to Babysit Again

A while ago my sister-in-law and her husband went on vacation and I got to babysit my cute little niece Ava. Ava loved Emma--and especially Emma's room. Ava loved Evan and how fun he was to play with. Ava loved me and followed me around calling me Mama because she couldn't say Aunt Kasey. And Ava loved Uncle Michael more than all of us because...well, I don't really know why. But to her he might as well be Santa Claus.

There was one person in the house who Ava did not love. There was one person who I must admit, was not very nice. One person in our house had his own secret weapon for striking terror into his older cousin's heart. Let me just put it this way: When Melinda later asked Ava about her stay at Aunt Kasey's, she had this to say, "Zee-ah bite. Zee-ah bite."

Yes, it is true. I had to dive in numerous times to prevent my little jaws from setting his chomping mouth onto his cousin. While I believe I saved her 99% of the time from actual infliction, she did go home with teeth marks. Whether it was Zay or his younger-cousin Peter, with whom Ava also stayed, is not known. It is most likely though that the culprit lives in my house.

Each time I would discipline the little turkey, he would do this chomping jaws thing with a naughty smile on his face. I was sooo not happy with him, but at the same time it was just a little bit funny. He knew he was being bad and he was showing me exactly how he was terrorizing poor Ava.

After Ava left, we tried to see if we could catch Mr. Jaws on camera.

According to the nursery leaders, Isaiah is an angel at Church and never ever bites anyone. I guess he saves it up--or the threat of it--to harass his cousin.