First-Ever Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day

Earlier this spring my sister approached me and said she had a handful of Mondays on which Sophia didn't have "camp" (whatever that means) and would I be willing to hang out with her for one of them?

I immediately said I'd take them all – so we marked our calendars and I dubbed them Auntie Sarah/Sophia Days – while secretly wondering in the back of my mind, "what does one DO with a 6-year-old all day long?"

Well, I'll tell you. The first-ever (long-awaited) occurrence of Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day #1 was this past Monday, and here's how it all went down...

Michael brought Sophia over around 9am, accompanied by her car booster seat, bike, helmet, sweatshirt (just in case), the plate I'd left at their house from the grill-out (Michael's graduation party!) and a sticky note that said "DEXTER DVDs!"

After waving Michael off to the car – greedily clutching 4 seasons' worth of Dexter – it was time to start our day. She promptly showed me how she'd lost her second tooth the night before and then asks me, "what're we going to do today, Auntie Sarah?" I had a general, vague idea of how things (I thought) would go down, but of course the weather wasn't looking too promising so I was hastily revising ideas on the fly.

First and foremost, we had to head to the grocery store (Clint and I are sort of day-to-day shoppers so we had no kid-friendly food in the house), with Sophia helping to carry the basket and preening for the checkout lady. We got back and she helped put things away and then it was, "now what?"

I'd planned on driving over to Lake Como for a walk/bike ride, but the ominous clouds quelled that idea so I said we should probably hang out near the house just in case. We ended up cutting a bunch of flowers off my potted plants, choosing vases, arranging them and then deciding where in the house to place them all. Then she thought it was time for a snack so I got out some pretzels and milk, which evidently was the perfect combo because she said she likes dipping the pretzels IN the milk.

After that it was time to get out the sidewalk chalk and get to work decorating the front stoop. She kept looking up at the clouds saying, "but what if it rains? That cloud is darker than the last one...if it rains can I watch a movie?" I had to put the kibosh on this line of questioning and re-focus her efforts on the task at hand. I think we did a pretty good job with our artwork and afterword it turned into a game of getting-from-one-side-of-the-sidewalk-to-the-other-without-touching-the-chalk-lines. Lots of jumping, pirouetting, and chalky feet :)

It was STILL cloudy at that point so I said she could choose some fingernail polish and I'd paint her nails. She settled on using all 9 colors I had and wanted each nail a different color, so I set up shop outside on the deck and went to work. The sun ended up coming out and helped dry all the little colorful nails.

It was almost lunch time at this point so I told her she could color for a bit and then I began preparing lunch: grilled cheese sammiches (mozarella for her; pepperjack for me), pasta salad, pickles and a drink (Gatorade for me; milk for her). For dessert she was pumped to devour a yummy ice cream bar.

Since the weather was gorgeous at this point, she was excited to head to the park – I bundled her, the bike and myself into the car and zipped over to Lake McCarrons where her first observation was, "you said there wasn't a playground here, Auntie Sarah, but there IS." Oops. Guess I don't pay much attention. So she played around on the jungle gym for a while, and then wanted to go put her feet in the water (she didn't have a swimsuit plus it was so windy it was just a bit cool). Then it was being pushed on the swing for a while and right back in the water. She ended up getting all her clothes wet – how could I tell her not to have fun and splash around? – but at that point we were at the end of our day, anyway. All played out, we headed back to my house to get the rest of her stuff and I gave her a t-shirt of mine to wear so she wasn't sopping wet.



We got in the car and headed over to Robbinsdale, her chattering away in the backseat and me still trying to keep up with all the "guess whats." After hanging out with her all day, then standing in the chilly wind, I began to feel nice and comfortable in the sun streaming through the windshield and all of a sudden it hit me: I was exhausted.

I began yawning and couldn't stop. Sophia asks from the backseat, "why do you keep yawning?" I replied, "well, I guess I'm tired from today's activities." There was silence while she contemplated this for a few seconds, then she pipes up, "my mom never yawns."

Too defeated to think of a proper response, I merely smiled and thought, "yeah, but your mom's USED to this!"

Arriving at her house, it was off to tell her dad all that we'd done that day and then I said my goodbyes and headed back home. Amy said for the next few days it was "Auntie Sarah this," and "Auntie Sarah that"!

It was a VERY fun day, and she's a great kid...but I sure need to build up my kid stamina for the next edition: a Sophia Sleepover!