Baby Ana Gets Babysat by Cabana

I sometimes babysit my friend's 8-month old baby girl, Ana. It's a great baby fix for me, and Ana is adorable and incredibly easygoing. Usually, I go over to Ana's house, but this week, Ana came to our house.


Cabana LOVES it when Ana is here. Because Cabana is super excited for the first 10-15 minutes, I hold Ana up high to keep a bit of distance between them. But after the initial frenzy, Cabana calms down and becomes very gentle. She loves to sniff Ana's hair and face and feet and, of course, diaper. Luckily, Ana has dogs at her own house, so she's very comfortable about being sniffed. Ana laughs and rambles in her intelligible-only-to-her language and uses her forefinger and thumb to poke and explore Cabana's fur and paws.

This time, I needed to put Ana down for a nap. Since I didn't have a port-a-crib for her, and because she isn't mobile yet, I laid her down in the middle of my bed, with pillows all around her. I stayed with her until I was sure she was asleep, during which time Cabana invited herself up on the bed, too. She seemed to want to help with whatever responsibilities Ana's presence required. I guess I should have made her get down since I hadn't invited her, but she just curled herself up, out of the way, on the corner of the bed. Maybe she was trying to set a good example for Ana--"Look, Ana, this is how we take a nap!"

After Ana fell asleep, Cabana and I crept out of the room. I closed the door partially, leaving it ajar so I could easily hear Ana when she woke up. I went down the hall to do some work in my sewing room, but unusually, Cabana didn't come along with me! She has a dog bed in my sewing room and likes to hang out there. But this time, she just laid in the hallway in front of my bedroom door--for the next hour and a half, until Ana woke up. She's obviously taking her new role as a babysitter quite seriously!