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The first week my aunt and her two kids came to visit my family in San Diego. They stayed at our house. It was interesting experiencing a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old living in an unfamiliar environment for four days. The four year old was probably given more sugar by my mother than she has ever received her whole life. (It's a good thing they live 500 miles away.) Mum bought those tasty little Circus Animal cookies. You know, the pink and white ones with the little multicolored sprinkles. At the park, she bought the four year old an orange dreamsicle. Worst of all, the little one would refuse to eat anything green. For example, I made dinner one night: eggs with turkey, baked oatmeal, and strawberries. There was a bit of green on one of the strawberries, and she looked at it with disdain and gave it to my sister. I probably sound like I'm complaining. Believe me, I love children, but when they're staying somewhere other than home, they're out of their routine, they're tired, you're tired, and it can become overwhelming.
They left Saturday and got on the plane with two guests: me and my sister! The airport experience was uneventful. Both the two year old and the four year old were extremely excited about getting on the airplane. The two year old (my godson) made it clear that he wanted to sit with me and his mommy and the four year old thought it would be great fun to sit next to my sister. Our flight left at 9:45am, which means I got up at 6:15am. We got to the bay area around 11:00am. Our uncle (aunt's husband) is an amazing musician and that very night was going to be conducting and directing the music for a production of Yeomen of the Guard (Gilbert and Sullivan). So, my sister and I got to babysit the little rascals while my aunt and her friend went to see the show. By this point, the two little ones were quite used to their big cousins, which made things, quite fortunately, easy as pie. They were in bed by 8:30. Bridget and I were exhausted. We had both gotten up in the wee hours of morning, traveled by air (which is always exhausting no matter how far you're going), and our other aunt had been visiting all afternoon. We stayed awake as long as we could, debated as to whether or not we should go to bed, stayed up a while longer, decided it was probably okay, and both got some shuteye. Bridget woke up at one point to check on the kids, but I was out.
(For future reference, Bridget and I are generally night owls and excellent late night babysitters. We make a great team. We're both certified in CPR and have taken care of lots of children. Bridget's good with the loud extroverted ones; I'm good with the quiet introverted ones. We schedule ourselves and make sure everything stays in order. For example, with our cousins it was: playtime, bath, books, drink of water, potty, prayers, bed.
Most recently, we've been split up as a result of receiving higher education, but we're happy to watch your little ones if we're in the area and/or are on break.)
The rest of the week was spent traveling to/fro from relative to relative: grandparents, cousins (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), aunts, uncles, you name it, we saw all that were available. We just got back last Friday. Bridget's friend from TAC came for the weekend and we had a wonderful weekend watching movies, eating good food, sunbathing, swimming, etc. Thursday is Dad's birthday and our aunt (another from the bay area who we just saw last week) is coming down for the 4th of July. I hope to put together a Europe photo album before I head back to school, make a French Toast casserole for dinner, wash the truck (it's filthy), and maybe read one or two more interesting books.
"To see the summer sky is poetry..." ~ Emily Dickinson
