The Big Sleepover.

Well, I’m proud to say, I have my very first niece on my side of the family. My brother Jeff and his wife Beth have a beautiful baby girl! Keeping with Jeff’s request for me not to use his kids’ real names, I will refer to her as Bonnie. Anyway, while Bonnie was making her way into this world, my husband Ben and I were in charge of Rufus and Franklin. I arrived at their house at 7:15 in the morning- and they were waiting for me in the P-Jams. They were so excited, because we were about to have our very first sleepover!

The plan was that we were supposed to go to my house later in the day, but after 20 short minutes of the kids begging to come to my house, I relented and loaded them in my car. Ben, being the great guy that he is, had stopped at the grocery store the night before and stocked up on fresh fruit, and snacks for the boys. He also picked out a watermelon body wash for tub-time later, which I thought was well done.

Man, did we have fun! We played Lego Star Wars and watched a movie, then Ben thought it would be fun to take the kids to Target to pick out a toy for each of them, and one for their new sister, then go to Old McDonald’s (or McDonald’s to everyone else) for lunch so they could get a happy meal then play in the play land. At Target each of the boys picked out a Star Wars t-shirt and a toy. Franklin got Buddy the Dinosaur and Rufus a new Bakugan trio. Then, they picked out a fuzzy pink dog from the newborn section for baby sister. At first, they wanted to get a blue bear, but I explained that for a girl you usually pick out a girl toy. I suggested getting her an outfit, but that was pooh-poohed.

Me: We could get a cute outfit for baby sister that would be fun.

Rufus: I don’t think so.

Franklin: Bo-ring!

Me: Come on, your little sister would like that!

Rufus: Trust me Aunt Char-char, kids like toys best.

Can’t argue with that logic.

Next it was on to Old McDonald’s. The kids ate lunch really well, so it was time for the play land. When we opened the door to the play land, it stunk so badly. Apparently, some kid had an accident. Another woman informed us the tubes were full of turd’- and lucky for us- we came in just in time to see a turd fall out of the kids shorts. Plunk!

Rufus: Oh, man! That stinks.

Franklin: Did you see the poops?

Me: Yes, now come on guys, let’s just go back out and for the love of Pete, touch nothing!

I usher the kids out of the play land, Franklin was crying and upset. I apologized, promising we would come back another day and got him calmed down. Rufus could not for the life of him figure out why that kid just hadn’t asked to go to the bathroom. Ben tried to explain, but Rufus could not wrap his brain around it.

Now, here’s the part that floored me. I understand potty training can be difficult. I worked at a daycare for 5 years in the two year old room. We potty trained kids day after day- got them in, got they trained, then they moved to the three year old room and we started over again. It is so hard, believe me, I know! My question is this- if your child is not yet quite potty trained- why didn’t you just put him in the pull up or diaper to go in the play land? Kids have accidents when they are still learning- it’s no big deal- but did you have to wing it and have the play land shut down? It seems obvious to me that with all that fun and commotion, the kid won’t come up to you and tell you they have to go. What kid would?

Worse than that, is this woman actually covered the turd of the floor with a paper napkin, cleaned up her child, and DID NOT notify the McD’s staff about the turd’s up in the tube or the one covered feebly with a napkin on the floor…I am not kidding! I was appalled! I think she was embarrassed, so she just rushed out in a hurry. This other woman (the one who warned me about the poop) had to go and tell the staff. Honestly, I don’t know what people are thinking sometimes.

At any rate, Ben and I loaded two very bummed out little boys into their car seats, and headed back to our house. After that, we went up to the hospital. Franklin and Rufus were very excited to meet Bonnie. She is so beautiful! After about 5 minutes, they asked if they could go back to my house. I suspect they were worried I’d change my mind about the sleepover if we stayed too long.

After we got home, we had dinner then bath time. Giving the two of them a bath is like trying to rope in a couple of octopus- skinny arms and legs flying everywhere, constant giggling, water balloons bouncing off the walls in the tub (ok that was my idea, admittedly not one of my best), slip sliding around. I was laughing my butt off, but by the time we finished my back was killing me. Who knew bath time was so hard?

Getting them to sleep was also a challenge. We blew up the air mattress in our living room. I slept on the sofa, the boys on the mattress. We put on the Bakugan cartoon for quiet time- Franklin was asleep by 9:15. Rufus was up till 10:45. He explained the entire Bakugan show, all its main characters, why he liked it, and even told me his favorite episodes. I finally insisted he go to sleep. He did so in a matter of moments, once he stopped talking.

All in all, it was a pretty great sleepover. I’m looking forward to next time…minus the poop incident and the water balloons in the bathtub.