3/07/2005

Other people's children

As I mentioned on Friday, two of my nieces slept over on Saturday night. L is 5 years old and no trouble at all, and M is 4 years old, is developmentally delayed, still in diapers, and is just an odd kid. Sweet, but odd.

They arrived around 4pm on Saturday. They had a great time. Loki walked with them down to Cumberland Farms to get some snacks and picked up a pizza at the neighborhood pizza place. They played hide & seek, lots of pretending and dress up.

At around 9pm, I started rounding them up for bed. This is when we started to have problems. M started crying "I want to go home! I want my mom!" Monkey actually did a great job of calming her down, which is good, because Loki went to work and I had no car, so M couldn't go home.

And then, the whole evening almost fell completely apart when we couldn't find her Pep. M, like many children, is obsessive compulsive. And one of her obsessions is Pep - she cannot go to sleep at night without Pep. Pep is a small plastic dog. Monkey and I tore the entire house apart looking for Pep before we found him in a plastic bag in the dining room. (Unfortunately, my house is messy enough that trying to find anything can be difficult.) By then, it was nearly 11. I laid out some sleeping bags, and tucked everyone in.

An hour later, I was awakened by M, because her diaper had leaked and her pajamas were soaked in urine. So I had to locate some new jammies for her - I gave her a pair of Monkey's, which were way too big, but they had the Power Puff Girls on them, so M was pleased.

Sunday morning, Loki got a chance to be alone with them while I was singing at church. They had breakfast and did a lot more playing, and SIL showed up to get them about 1:30pm.

Call me a horrible, mean person, but I was so glad to only have my own children in the house. I don't like handling other people's children.

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