Break out the baby on board sign!

Okay, not really—not in THAT sense (but I got you to read my blog. I'm tricky like that).

But, there is a baby at my home—my beautiful, super smart, extremely adorable 10 month old niece. I’ve been watching her all morning and will be keeping her over night until tomorrow. This will be interesting to say the least.

On Monday, my brother-in-law (the baby’s dad) had surgery on his left arm. My sister  (the baby’s mom) fell and broke her right arm and had surgery on Thursday.  The two parents were instructed to lift nothing more than a pencil with their bad arms. So, as a family, everyone is jumping on board to help care for this little munchkin.  

Tonight is my night.

So far, all I manage to do is yell at my own children: “Put the baby down”; “Stop touching her”; “Don’t eat her cheerios”; “Stop it! You’re making me and the baby very, very angry”; “It’s only pee. Don’t be a wimp”; “Get off her toy, you’re too big for that!” And my favorite: “This is why we can’t have any more babies! You’re mauling it!” (Yes, I said “it”. I shouldn’t have. “It” is a “her.” I know that, but “it” came out of my mouth. AND I am not planning on having anymore babies. I was just trying to make a point).    

I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m pretty sure I can manage to keep her safe and alive until she is back with her parents tomorrow. It’s been years, but I think I can do it. A good friend said, “Keep the baby away from the knives and you should be good to go.”  So that is my plan.

But as far as what to feed her and when she’s hungry, well, she better let me know. If she needs her diaper changed, well, again, she better let me know. But so far, she ain’t talking.

Here’s another glitch in the “Keeping the baby overnight scenario”: This baby HATES Scott. She always cries when he looks at her (though I must say, today she just gives him the evil eye and has yet to bust out into tears. This is progress). The reason she does not like Scott, I believe, stems from the time I was watching her when she was 3 months old (and less mobile). Scott was playing peek-a-boo with her and yelled “BOO!” kind of loudly. She was a 3-month-old baby. She didn’t find it funny at all. Since that time, she can’t stand the guy.  So to keep her happy, Scott can not have any direct eye contact with her, and to this point, it’s working. No tears.

Another glitch in the “Keeping the baby overnight scenario” is that this baby likes to sleep in bed with her mom and dad. She has also spent the night with her grandma and grandpa and guess where she sleeps . . . yep, in their bed. So, guess where this baby is going to be sleeping . . . next to her sworn enemy—Scott. Though, I am going to make every effort to have her to sleep in a bed on the floor. We shall see how that goes.  (I will let you know in the morning how my night was).

Oh, I just heard my daughter tell her brother: “We can’t have a baby because of YOU!”  (It’s probably true too. He is definately a good reason for not bringing infants into our home on a permanent basis).

I love babies. I do. I’m happy to get my baby fix. But to do this 24hrs a day, for like what two-three years (until it's grown some what), I don’t think so. I’ve done my time. Plus,  I’m old and I like to sleep. If I don’t get my full 12 hours, I’m a bear to live with. Ask anyone.

But for my sister and her husband, I will give up this one night for them and wish them a quick and speedy recovery.