Baby sitters

We went through plenty. Well I guess I don't know what "too many" is.
But we went through four.

The first on was a teenager (I can't for the life of me remember her name).
It was the summer after her sophmore year. I'm not sure what the problem was since I was mentally the same age as her. But I just wasn't comfortable with someone so young watching Andrew. While I was at work, I pictured her on the phone, or watching soaps or doing her nails, while he sat in him pumpkin seat in front of the TV.
It was her summer break. Was she really going to take the summer to watch a newborn?
I kept her for about a month. Then it was time to move on.

Next was Carla. Carla was (I hope you can keep up with this) Jimmy's, sisters, ex-husbands new wife. Carla was amazing. I knew she loved Andrew.. She had her own child, and also took care of Andrew's cousin Cheri. Bonus, she didn't charge.
Here was the problem. Carla lived in Muncie Illinois. 45 minutes from us. She would come in the morning and pick Andrew up, and I would make the drive to Muncie after work to get him back. Carla watched him for several months.. I think until winter came. After that, the drive was just too much for both of us.

Then we found MaryAnn. MaryAnn had 4 kids of her own and was so patient with Andrew.
Again, I just knew she loved him.. She didn't mind keeping him a little later so I could run errands, or keep him over night when my sister got married, so I could enjoy the evening (I would say so I could have an adult beverage. But I wasn't legal yet. So surely I did not).
MaryAnn kept Andrew for almost two years.. We absolutely loved her.. And when I see her now, she still asks about him.

But, Andrew's best buddy Dalton, who was 6 months younger than Drew, was going to Marie. I thought it would be neat for Drew and Dalton to spend their days together, and I have known Marie since I was a little girl. So It was a great idea to switch sitters again. Marie had Dalton, Andrew and Derrick. Three very busy toddlers. But she was great with them. She did crafts, took them on field trips, took them to ride the city bus, and overall let them be boys while still insisting they show her respect. Andrew loved "Ree"

There were early signs that Andrew had issues (I'll get into those later). But Marie was the first one that said it out loud. I will never forget her telling me that Andrew was either going to grow up and be Hitler or the President of the United States.. It wasn't a mean comment. She explained to me that he was just so smart it was scary. And that if we could channel it, he would go on to do great things. If we couldn't channel it, he would get bored and get into trouble.

I want to say there was a 5th sitter in there somewhere.. But I'm really not sure.
But this babysitter hopping was the start of a long line of changes in Andrews life.
I'll go through his many school changes soon.

It's probably a good idea to add that even though Andrew changed caretakers/schools frequently, I always made sure he was somewhere that I knew he had someone to love him.

Keep reading.. I promise we're getting to the issues. The good, the bad and the funny.