I had the opportunity to spend some time with a little person last night. Falcon and his wife left me with their little man while they went to her office Christmas party, and we had a grand time.
The little man is very nearly two - I think his birthday is a day or two before Christmas - and it was a hoot for me to spend time with someone that young again. It feels like ages since my girls were that small - they’re seven and a half and nine now - and it was fun to be with someone who speaks in single words and giggles at the kind of things that two year olds giggle at.
We watched the end of Toy Story 2 together - he’s a serious Buzz and Woody fan - and we talked about airplanes (if you’ve not watched the movie, the culminating action scene involves the toys making a daring escape from the cargo hold of a taxiing jumbo jet). We played with the cats’ scratching post (there’s a pink ball that rolls around a well along the edge - that was good for about ten minutes’ worth of entertainment) and we walked around the apartment identifying things - the cats, a stuffed snowman, the Christmas tree, books, a toy Squirt from Finding Nemo and, of all things, my cell phone.
His mom told me that he’d had a busy day which involved a birthday party but which didn’t involve a nap, so he was all settled in by about seven. We read a couple of books (here I was, all smug in my thinking that I’d read every Sandra Boynton book ever published when, lo and behold!, Little Man has one I’d never seen before! We read that one, and we read Horns to Toes, identifying all the bits just like MY girls used to do when I read that book to them. After the reading, we found his Buzz and Woody soft dolls in the crib, and he leaned in and settled right down to bed. I heard him talking to his toys for a few minutes after I left the room, but that was the only sound he made. No crying, no complaining - right off to sleep.
It was a good baby sitting experience for both of us and, while I’m still convinced that I’m done having my own babies, it sure is nice to borrow other peoples’ every once in a while.
On another note, Beanie was invited to a rollerskating birthday party today. I RSVP’d in the affirmative almost two weeks ago without really thinking. The party starts at 1:15. The Patriots’ game starts at…wait for it…..1:15. I should have checked the schedule before I told her she could go. Husband and Punkin’ are heading to Bowyer’s to watch the game (well, HUSBAND will watch the game. Punkin’ could care less, but it’d be an effort…) and I’ll take Bean to the party. Here’s hoping the rink has ESPN on somewhere, so I can at least catch the score. Oh, how we martyr ourselves for the sake of our children….
You can borrow my little person, once he arrives.
And, can your friend Mr. TIVO help you out with the Pats game?