The Babysitter Trial Run

On Tuesday, David and I left all three girls with a sitter for the first time. We decided to do a trial run for Friday, when David had a work dinner that I was invited to attend, too. So we had our sitter over, went over the details of how to put Alexa down, and went to Taco Bell ( :-) ) and then Kroger. Our whole outing took only an hour; by then Alexa was supposed to be asleep, and we wanted to be back in time to put the big girls down ourselves; this was, after all, just an experiment to see if our sitter could manage Alexa. Before we left, we told Lucia and Rhea that they should play in the playroom for 30 minutes, and then they could come down and watch Tom and Jerry until the babysitter was done putting Alexa down. That way, we hoped, the kids wouldn't go in and disturb the process and she could do whatever she needed to do.
David and I enjoyed a few chalupas and tacos, respectively, and went to do our grocery shopping. I left my purse in the car at Kroger, forgetting that it had my cell phone in it. I remembered later, and I thought: "The ONE time I leave my phone behind, I bet the sitter called..." And... of course, when I got back to the car, I had a missed call. I called her back right away and she told me that Alexa was sleeping, but that Rhea had had an accident in her pants, and that there was "poop everywhere." I reassured her we were on our way home and apologized for the situation, but didn't really think it was all that bad.
When we got home, the sitter was trying to clean up a completely stripped little Rhea with wipes in the kitchen. I said to Rhea: "What happened?!?!" Rhea's reply: "I went poopie in my pants!" Here's how the story went: The sitter was in our bedroom trying to put Alexa down when Lucia came in repeatedly, telling her Rhea had messed her pants. Since she was still busy with the baby, she told Lucia she'd be there shortly, so Lucia went back upstairs and helped Rhea undress (!) and "clean up" (!!). She was so sweet, explaining to me that she put Rhea's pajama pants in the laundry basket, and she got a washcloth and wet it in the sink and "squeeeeeezed it" and then wiped down Rhea's legs to "get off all the poopie". I asked her, "Where did you do this? In the playroom or in the bathroom?" Lucia: "Oh, sorry, Mom. I forgot to do it in the bathroom." (...Uuuh, that's ok, sweetie. Thanks for being so kind and helping your little sister clean up. :-{ ) So I went hunting for traces and removed what I could find while David gave Rhea a much needed bath. And reminded Lucia to wash her hands. Never a dull moment. And we were gone for only one hour. :) What would Friday be like?!?!
In terms of our expectations, it was a full success, though. The babysitter managed to get Alexa to bed (which currently really isn't all that difficult).
And yesterday went great, too! We had Alexa asleep by the time the sitter got here, so that made it easier for everyone. And we reminded Rhea to make sure to say something BEFORE she had to go (which she usually does anyway). So... it all worked out great, and we might, just MIGHT, be able to go on an occasional date together now. If babysitters these days just weren't so freaking expensive!!