Awesome Day with Nephews

Oh...what a day! I had the choice of either dealing with the ins and outs of work, (and I love my job, but some days it's a little trying!) or building forts and playing with light sabers with two little boys that I love very much.

I clearly chose the better part!

It has been part of the plan for a while that I would go and watch the kids, because Kathy and David had the ultrasound for their little bundle today. I was so excited to be able to watch them and to hear the exciting results of the ultrasound for the new baby. Needless to say, my anticipation was not met with disappointment or being disillusioned. It was such a fun day all around.

It started off with my being a little worried Thomas would fret that mom and dad were leaving. Fortunately, the worries were swiftly put to rest when we jumped right into having fun. With Jack and I bounding down the hall to play with the train set, Thomas couldn't waste time being sad. Soon, he was toddling after us, anxious to get his hands on a truck, or train and play the fun games we were playing.

After fun times playing with the train tracks, pushing cars over bridges, and making our airplanes fly overhead, the action turned to the stuffed animals that were laying around. First, it was a little dog that Jack wanted to play with. That turned into me grabbing a very floppy Mickey Mouse (whose pants kept falling down!) and making it give lots of kisses to both Jack and Thomas. The soft Mickey Mouse brought an abundance of giggling, as well as competition over who Mickey would give kisses to next. Thomas kept walking into Mickey to make sure he got the next bit of action.

Then, the dogs came back into play. I forget what we were pretending...but it resulted in me speaking in a very high voice (pretending to be the dog) and then Jack using a high voice for his dog, and then Thomas grabbing a dog and using a high voice for his dog. Because of a limited vocabulary, our dogs' conversation quickly turned into a cacauphony of high-pitched squealing and laughing. It was way, way fun.

Then, Aunt Wheetah got really hungry. Though the boys ate breakfast, their eating was cut short by mom and dad leaving and the thought of getting right to playing. So as I ate my banana, they decided they wanted their bananas as well. So we sat down at the table again and resumed a second breakfast, which served as their snack. It was a welcomed break for Wheetah.

Next, we turned our attention to building cars with legos. But not after we all helped putting our other toys back in the bins from our earlier play session. While we were putting our toys away, Jack decided that I needed another haircut, so he took his toy spear from his pirate ship and gave me a haircut because, "Your hairlooks awful! It's all messy! But I'll fix it." Ok, Jack.

That ended when he wanted to see how much he could twirl the spear up in my hair. I quickly anticipated this experiment would end in disaster and a pair of scissors and it was halted. Thomas then wanted to follow suit but seemed a lot less understanding of the concept that tangling long hair does not feel good. So the spear was quickly hidden away.

We ran out to build cars with legos and that kept us occupied for a while. We had fun building up lego cars, rolling them around on the ground and tearing them up only to build them again. This yielded to Jack running to go get his light sabers, which dear uncle Michael provided for Jack's third birthday. After Jack was reminded that Thomas is little and you can't be so aggressive with him, he and Thomas had fun fighting with light sabers, and then I was put in charge. We jousted for a little while, until we were invaded by some enemy tanks. Then we teamed up and destroyed them together.

However, all this action of car building, car racing, and light saber figthing was taking its toll on sleepy Aunt Wheetah. While a nap was not an option, some more sedated fun was in order. And what can be more sedate, and yet at the same time more fun than a secret fort. Secret forts afford the luxury of the little ones not wanting to leave the fort yet, it is small enough that in order to stay in the fort, we have to sit down....ah! Tricking energetic boys into sitting down by building a fort. Genius!

So, we took dining room chairs and built a fort and stretched blankets across them. Jack loved it. He assessed: "it's nice and dark, but not too dark to be scary." He was so excited by the fort that he didn't seem to want to leave. Thomas wasn't quite as amused by the fort and wanted to go back to rolling cars around, but he gave it a good amount of time in there.

After adding some things to the fort, like more blankets and pillows, it was just about perfect, and nothing could tear us away except one thing: tree trimmers.

Outside, guys with noisy equipment were doing lots of damage. The most perfect combination for boys imaginable. They received (to the welcome of Wheetah) ample entertainment. And by "ample" I mean about 5 minutes worth. But, maybe one thing I am going to learn as a parent is, that five minutes of reprieve can sure be appreciated.

Next, it was on to Bible stories (I could hardly complain). Then, it was lunch time and so after dutifully washing their hands, they went to the task of eating. Kathy had prepared a delicious meal of chicken salad with grapes and apples which Thomas gobbled down. Unfortunately, Jack was more interested in my Macaroni and Cheese (not the instant kind, but the really creamy kind!) than his more gourmet lunch (as a side note, I could have had the chicken salad, but Mac and Cheese sounded so good...and it was!). After bargaining with Jack that he could have my Mac and Cheese only if he eats all that was on his plate, he elected to just scarf down some of his food and keep playing in his fort. No problem. More Mac and Cheese for me!

He added more blankets and pillows to his fort and wanted me to read him some books. He REALLY wanted to read Chronicles of Narnia, but I managed to talk him into the Jungle Book and 101 Dalmations. Nothing is more darling than two snuggly little kids, bundled in a fort, letting me sit and read a book to them. Again, Jack's staying power was greater than Thomas', who resumed playing with his trucks.

After letting the boys play a while by themselves while I took care of the lunch dishes, we spent more time in the fort until Kathy came home. It was an awesome day giving two people your attention was never so well received. Where blankets and chairs turn into something almost magical, and my appreciation for Kathy's energy levels was never so high!

All the while, these little nephews of mine were happy, well-behaved, obedient, and loving. What a joy to be an aunt!!