Pillow forts and lollipops


My sister and I babysat our cousin’s four kids this Saturday, so we had our three kids (two small babies), as well as her four kids (another baby). We have four hands, and ONLY three babies, so I just can’t figure out why it was so wild and crazy at times! Ha! It was all fun and games until we had to figure out how to keep four kids quiet while we put the three babies to sleep. Then it became a long battle of two 8 and 9 year old little girls convincing two toddler boys that they would ALL LOVE to watch a Barbie movie, and two disinterested little boys building pillow forts with the very pillows they were supposed to be sleeping on. Every time I tried to make them more comfortable, they added a new wing to their fort.
I’m like “Shhhh! Lay down and be still right now!” and they are like “Hey, let’s build a pillow fort! Yes! Yes! Yes!” And anytime it starts to calm down, the two little girls start sneaking off to get snacks and lollipops and eating them underneath the covers so the boys couldn’t see them.
I was excited though, because while my sister was putting our cousin’s crying baby to sleep, her baby woke up and I got to go soothe her. I had my own baby boy just a couple weeks after my niece was born so I haven’t gotten to cuddle and coddle my little niece as much as I would love to. So finally, I got to rock and sing her to sleep. It’s such a special sweet time, rocking babies to sleep. I don’t think I’m as good of a singer as my sister, so baby Audrey was a little confused. In the glow of her blue nightlight, I could see her big little eyes grow wide…like “What happened to your pretty voice mommy? And why don’t you know the words to my favorite song?”
I had calmed her down, repeatedly singing the one verse of Mommy’s going to buy you a Mockingbird (the only verse I know), and was about to get up and lay her down when I think she realized I was indeed, not her mommy. So she got mad all over again. When I put her to sleep the second time, I got up and was lowering her into the crib when I just HAD to cough. So, we started all over, and I finally located her pacifier in the dark. Third time’s a charm!
It reminded me how lucky we are to have these sweet little babies. I get to rock Tucker to sleep all the time, but it was a special treat to rock little Audrey to sleep. Some people scoff at people like me who hold the babies way too much, and “spoil” them, but they are only babies for a little while. After all, it won’t be long, you know, before baby Tucker is the one building pillow forts and baby Audrey is sneaking into the pantry for another lollipop!