Rent-a-kid (or three)

So my big babysitting night was not nearly as frenetic as I thought it might be, and I think that’s quite possibly because I had only three of the four G. children. At the last minute, Nate went to a birthday party and spent the night there. And while Larry encouraged me to take all four children any time I’d like, I think it will be a while before I have all four of them. Between sports and school and Hebrew School, they have a pretty full schedule. Although, maybe in deepest, darkest February, when I can’t stand winter any longer, I may take the kids again. Because it was certainly a very cheerful home here for some twenty hours. In fact, I called Sarah on her cell about five minutes after everyone left and said, “Bring them back. The house is too quiet.”

I had completely forgotten how far food gets spread around when you feed very young children. I cleaned the floor under the kitchen table after every meal, since Tig has become a kitty vacuum cleaner. You drop it, he’ll eat it. And oh yeah—asking seven-year-olds to eat over their plates doesn’t work, either. “We did!” they will say indignantly if you suggest that perhaps they didn’t do what you asked.

There was much playing of the Wii, of course. Max declared that he absolutely loves the cow racing on the Wii Play disk. Rebecca declared a hatred of all things Wii because she didn’t win anything. This did not, however, discourage her permanently. And (sigh) Max beat me by three pins in Wii bowling, and I was not trying to lose. I was a little off my game, but not by that much. He even got a 7-10 split, which impressed the hell out of all of us.

When bedtime came around, which of course was later than usual, it took Max and Rebecca quite a while to drop off. Jake and I spent some time reading quietly, because I knew that Max would get out of bed a dozen times for a dozen different reasons, and having the Wii on would make him get out of bed more often. It was the strangeness of the place. He and Rebecca have only slept in their own beds, or at their grandparents’ houses. They’ve never been without Mom, Dad, or Grandma or Nana. I considered it quite a triumph to have Max finally drop off by ten p.m.

Gracie came down to check things out a few times, but she didn’t stay. Tig went back and forth over trying to decide if he wanted to stay in the guest room or not. He stole one of Max’s toy rubber snakes, at which Max got horribly offended. They have dachshunds, and once you put something on a bed, a dachshund is unable to get it. Max didn’t count on Tig’s ability to jump on beds. But he did learn to close the door to his room if he didn’t want Tig stealing his toys.

Rebecca decided to sleep on the floor. In fact, when I got up this morning, I saw that Jake was on the floor, too. Apparently the mattress in my sofabed isn’t as comfortable as it used to be. What I found really interesting is that a little after midnight last night, when I told Jake it was lights out (he was so engrossed in his book that he lost track of the time), I didn’t really have to raise my voice. He was downstairs at the opposite end of the condo from my bedroom. Reminder to self: Never, ever get a roommate.

Tig came downstairs after the twins went to bed, and hung with Jake and me for a while. Jake made Tig a Tig Tunnel out of two pillows, which Tig loved. Jake’s a smart boy. He observed how much Tig likes being underneath things and made something that would entertain Tig and amuse us all.

Breakfast this morning was an eye-opener. Jake requested French toast again, and tried to persuade his siblings that they had to have the best French toast he’d ever tasted. Rebecca tried it and loved it. Max went thumbs down (literally). So out came the waffle iron and the mix that I bought. Turns out that the other two weren’t nearly as full as they said, so everyone had waffles as well. A thumbs-up from Max, and everyone was happy.

Mom and Dad and Nate came to pick up the kids around 11:30, the Wii was played for another hour or so, and then off everyone went to lunch. Now the house is too quiet again.

Really liking having rent-a-kids on the weekends. I could get used to this.