Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day #2: The Sleepover

A week ago this morning I dragged myself out of bed after a night of fitful sleep. Clint had already let the dog out so I tiptoed into the kitchen to get my coffee. Sipping it groggily, I contemplated stealing downstairs to sit at the computer – but I dared not. I opted instead to slink back into my room to grab my book, and made my way stealthily to the upstairs couch to read for a while.



Why all the clandestine creeping? Was I hungover? Sort of...Sophia was still sleeping in the guest bedroom downstairs and I wanted to keep it that way. It had been her first sleepover at our house and while overall it was successful (i.e., everyone lived and everyone – especially Clint – got some sleep), it was somewhat of a very long night.






The night preceding bedtime went well: she played with Play Doh at the counter while I made tacos, then we watched Toy Story 3 (my first time seeing it...I had to hide my tear-streaked, snotty cry-face from her because I BAWLED at the end!) and got ready for bed. That's when it got interesting.


First of all, Sophia's at the "what's that strange noise" stage, evidently. Plus being in a strange bed at a strange house...not to mention the omnipresent trains that rumble by not even a quarter mile away; she came upstairs to ask me about all sorts of noises many times before I turned out my light. Each time I sent her back down with a logical explanation.




But at 11pm, I couldn't turn her away – the lightning was flashing like paparazzi cameras and the thunder was crack-boom-banging away. I myself don't like thunderstorms, so I completely understand this kid's fear of them...with Clint snoring away obliviously next to me I invited Sophia up onto my side of the bed, where she promptly curled up next to me into the smallest possible ball a skinny 6-year-old can make.



I tried to get some sleep but of course with a little body twitching, twisting and curling around under my arm it was more a case of staying comfortable. After dozing in and out for a few hours, I woke to see the storm had finally abated...it was time for Sophia to crawl back into her own bed. I led her downstairs and tucked her in – the addition of a teddy bear and a small lamp on inside the room aided in calming her – and finally fell back into my own bed, exhausted, for a few more hours of shut-eye.


Let me say here now: I wasn't mad or annoyed with her, poor thing...I was just a WEE bit tired from my own night of restless, broken sleep and needed some coffee and a little quiet time that morning :) After a little while she did come up and wanted to cuddle a bit...soon it was time for breakfast, playing with her camera and then we had to get started with our real plans: a day at the beach with the Van Tassels!



We donned our suits, I packed up a picnic lunch (PBJ sammiches, raspberries, rice krispy bars and juice), got sunblock and towels, grabbed my camera and we were off to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve. I'd never been to a man-made "lake" before so it was quite interesting to see a sandy bottom, the odd water bug and then drains and filters.




We had a great time! The day was hot, a tad humid and the sun was shining; all 3 girls played in the water, built lagoons and had numerous foot races. Christine and I had our fair share of entertainment –  watching the cute girls and also doing quite a bit of chit-chatting. At the end of the afternoon we bundled up and left, a tad sun-burned but tired and happy.

Michael was waiting for us when we drove up to the town home; Sophia's big eyes filled with tears at the prospect of having to leave. It was at once sad and cute: she SO didn't want the day to end; it was a good feeling I'd been successful at yet another Auntie Sarah/Sophia day!

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!