A Weekend of Little Kiddos

This past weekend was pretty unexpected, but very good. I had the opportunity to go to four Christmas parities, but I had decided that I would limit myself to one per weekend. For future reference for myself: THIS IS A GREAT DECISION! I always want to be able to do it all, but then none of it is fun – it all ends up being too rushed. So I just stuck with the basics and really enjoyed better quality time at the things I chose, saved myself stress, and had the availability for unexpected situations that came up.

Friday was low-key: had an AMAZING dinner on my sister’s dime, laid in her bed watching Law and Order while I crocheted, said hi to my parents (and Happy Birthday to Dad) as they came to her house, then headed home. Nice.

Saturday I had plans to watch one of my FAVORITE BABIES while his mom had a meeting and then we were going to have lunch together and go sledding! I was excited….but then (unexpected event #1) his mom got VERY sick VERY quickly, so plans changed. I had SO much fun giggling with the baby (well, 15 months old now) all morning….he is at SUCH a fun age. He likes to run around kicking balls and jumping into your lap while you hold out his blanket. He was SO EXCITED when he saw his dad come home early from work, and I ran to the store to get fluids for his mom (who ended up with an IV @ the hospital anyway). I had to take off to get ready for the Christmas party I was going to, but I was a little worried about my friend and the baby in her belly all night. I was admittedly not my usual self at the party, partly because I thought I was also getting sick, partly because I was overly tired, and partly because I wanted to know how my friend was doing. But my small group is very gracious (especially my accountability partner [AP]) and they put up with my mood, because I was certainly in one. On the drive home from the party, (unexpected event #2) my AP realized that she didn't have her keys (we found out later that they fell out of her bag when I dropped her off next to a bank of snow and she tripped as she stepped out of the car) so I ended up driving her back to her southern suburb, but thankfully she was able to track down her keys via people who were still in the northern suburb where the party was.

Sunday morning was Welcome Team where (unexpected event #3) I hurt my foot. Sunday afternoon was a major improvement: we had a game day with some of my favorites from LP after we watched the Vikings game. We laughed SO MUCH and I almost forgot about my foot. Almost.

I didn't have plans for Sunday night until (unexpected event #4) some friends called for me to watch their two oldest girls because their baby is in the hospital with meningitis (pray for her!). I ended up having one of the best babysitting experiences I've ever had. It started off with an abbreviated dance show which somehow led into talking about the Christmas story. I found a Bible and we read the story in Luke 2 a few times. I taught the older sister some actions to go along with the verses (thanks to my kindergarten-teaching-AP who showed me actions she taught her class) while the younger sister stomped around the living room in every boot, scarf, and hat she could find. I think my favorite part of the evening was when their mom called to talk to the girls - the older sister chatted while the younger sister sat on my lap waiting her turn. The questions that were asked were precious: what is the baby wearing, what are they doing to her, what are the doctors' names, is she awake, what is she doing now......etc......when it was the younger sister's turn to chat, it turned into tears, so we quickly cut off the conversation and settled down by reading stories for an hour (LOVED snuggling with them on the couch). Just before bedtime, a tickle fight erupted (during which I was accused of being Nellie ("the mean one" on Little House on the Prairie) for breaking it up - which made me laugh really hard and I rewarded them with five more minutes for their tickle fight). After I got them into bed, we said our prayers, which definitely brought tears to my eyes as the girls prayed for their little sister to feel better. These girls are seriously just the best: sweet, creative, silly, smart. Please keep their little sister in your prayers!

It was definitely an unexpected weekend spent with great kiddos, and I really loved every second of it. Except for that whole foot thing.