By Madeline Lau
There comes a time in every young, energetic, person’s life when someone, stranger or friend, asks you to babysit.
I never mind this, since children are the promise for tomorrow. I’ve sat for many babies and recently accepted a tantalizing offer to accompany some children and their parents on a Mexican cruise.
The deal was I had to arrive in LA and play nanny for seven days in the sun.
The catch was the family had not one but two babies to watch and they were 17-month-old twins.
The cruise took us to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta and gave us the opportunity to eat cruise food until our bodies could digest no more. The proposition was glorious.
Things only got better when I actually met the twins, who are rambunctious, adorable and hilarious. They had their own delightful vocabulary that I was translating mere moments after our introductions. “Buna!” (“I want that”), “Mooooowwww” (“More please”), “Pubu” (“Pillow”) and the list goes on.
It eventually became clear the highlight of my journey was going to be these wonderful children, and after initial sentiments that I, personally, would never have children due to the sheer amount of work it involves, I decided pretty quickly that there’s nothing better and more rewarding in life than spending time with kids.
So I was down on my hands and knees chasing them around and not even thinking about being on a cruise when we arrived in Cabo.
The last time I visited this famous port city was more than 10 years ago, but the scene really had not changed. There were cries up and down the street of vendors shelling out tequila, lots of vacationing Americans getting drunker and tanner progressively on the beach, and still more tour companies offering the best deal of your life on booze cruises and glass bottom boat trips. We walked around, had some lunch and soaked up the Mexican sun which was, sorry Oregon, delightful and completely needed.
Back on the boat we trekked on to Mazatlan, now deemed semi-dangerous by many experts so we stayed aboard, and finally to Puerto Vallarta, which was the jewel among our docking stops and a completely charming old style city.
PV, as I was calling it, also featured lots of tequila swilling Americans and aggressive Mexican salespeople, but it possessed a wholesome calm at the same time.
Picturesque Catholic churches reached majestically above the city skyline, and the beautiful, if not slightly grungy, beaches rested mere footsteps away from downtown.
Walking on cobblestone streets in the bright Riviera sun was the best medicine for weeks of Oregon gray and rain, and when the boat pulled out of port I was openly bummed.
Arriving in LA and dry land took a long time to get used to, but what was even harder was leaving the children I had grown so attached to.
While I’m only 21 and have plenty of time for procreating, hanging out with some seriously adorable babies really made me want to become babysitter for my own kiddies, so I may need to get moving in that general direction.
Or, to make things easier, if you need a nanny, just give me a call.
