Babies on board!

The Baby-sitters Club #45: Kristy and the Baby Parade

Oh, I totally remembered this book as soon as I started reading it. Why, you ask? Because when I was eleven, I too took one of those Red Cross-sponsored baby-sitting courses like the "infant care course" the girls took. It was a one-day course in the summer at the local community center. And I too thought that it made me the shiz-nit. I liked to tell people that I was a Red Cross-certified baby-sitter, and I carried the little card with the Red Cross lady's signature on it everywhere I went, in case anyone wanted me to prove it. However, pretty much all I remember from the actual class is the pizza we ordered for lunch.

So the Baby-sitters are baby-crazy these days. Mrs. Prezzioso wants a sitter to watch Jenny and four-month-old Andrea on a regular basis, but she wants that person to take an infant care course first. I have to say, if I were really uncertain about whether or not someone were capable of caring for my baby, her attendance at one of those Red Cross seminars would not particularly sway me. But apparently, Mrs. P does not share my concerns, and so Kristy takes the job and signs up for the course. Then, the rest of the BSC decides that they want to attend, too. After all, according to Claudia, then maybe they can advertise themselves as "infant care specialists." Um, after a few hours in the basement of the community center? In that case, my baby-sitting class plus my day camp counselor training ought to make me Exalted High Queen Baby-sitter over All the Universe. I wonder how that would look on my resume.


Moving on: Stoneybrook is having a baby parade! Honestly, WTF? Kidnapper's paradise! Who attends these things? Especially in a tiny town like Stoneybrook? How many freaking babies can there be? As ever, why am I looking for logic in a BSC novel?

Kristy wants to enter Emily Michelle (Can I just ask what is Mrs. Brewer's obsession with double naming her youngest children? And if she is going to insist on it, why doesn't she find some original names? What's with the whole David Michael/Emily Michelle thing? There are like 6 bajillion names out there that don't start with Mich. Also, why is Emily Michelle often referred to as just plain Emily, but David Michael is never just plain David? Seems to me that if you're going to do the whole double name thing, you've got to commit. I mean, no one ever calls Mary Anne just plain Mary./end rant>)but Mrs. P wants her help entering Andrea. Solution? The BSC will create an entry in the float division, and Kristy will help Mrs. P with the stroller division. There are divisions? Again, I ask, how many freaking people are involved in this thing?

So the BSC rounds up some babies (9 in all) to be on their float, including Emily Michelle, Squirt, and several of their charges. Unfortunately, the float is a total disaster because no one works together on it (uh-oh. Is that the "Moral of the Story" train I see coming around the bend? Choo-choo!) Their theme is "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" but when Claudia creates the "shoe" it doesn't really look like anything. Then Stacey paints it a bright orangey-brown, which totally clashes with the bright pink fabric that Mal bought to make costumes for all the kids (costumes which make them look like clowns, BTW.) Dawn is totally snarky about the whole thing, and suddenly, everybody thinks it's someone else's fault, and everybody's mad. Fun times!

Basically, the BSC is humiliated at the parade when all the other floats are professionally done and theirs looks like... well, like it was made by a bunch of 13 year olds who have no idea what their doing. Ten points for realism! Also, Charlie gets pissed because some of his friends see him pulling the appalling float behind the Junk Bucket and totally make fun of him. That's what you get, Charlie, for being your little sister's bitch. Maybe now you'll take my advice and start developing a social life.

So the BSC doesn't win a prize, doesn't pull together in the end, and just has to endure the embarrassment. And I like it. It's good for them. It's realistic. I certainly don't want to see them fail at everything, but once in a while, it's a nice change. Plus, they totally all make up right after the parade, so all's well in the 'brook.

PS, in case you were wondering, Kristy decorates Andrea's stroller to look like a coach and Mrs. P dresses up like one of the guards at Buckingham Palace to push Andrea's stroller in a "Queen Andrea" theme. Luckily, they win a prize, as Kristy is concerned about what sort of shit-fit Mrs. P might throw if they don't. I genuinely like Mrs. P, but I don't even want to imagine the therapy bills that her daughters are going to wrack up someday. Holy Freudian issues, Batman!