Average Jane Has Kids

I'm having an interesting adventure for a few days this week: I'm staying at my sister and brother-in-law's house while they're out of town and taking care of my niece (age 8) and nephew (age 4 in a couple of weeks).

Last night went well. Because it was Presidents' Day the kids didn't have school or daycare, so all I had to do was show up and relieve the babysitter after work. My sister had left a meal in the crockpot, so dinner was covered.

The evening was taken up by "Spongebob Squarepants," followed by some popcorn and a rousing game of Candyland, which has changed significantly since I was a kid. What happened to the cherry pitfall? That was the best part!

My nephew was pretty good with the game until he pulled a card that put him on a spot where he was going to lose a turn. His sister and I had to convince him that the luck of the draw applied to everyone. After that he was fine, even when he drew a card that made him go almost back to the start.

Both kids handled their bathtime nicely and I got my nephew into his pajamas and tucked into bed by 8:30 p.m. My niece dawdled a bit with her shower, but still made it to bed pretty close to her 9:10 p.m. bedtime.

My husband stopped by for about an hour to hang out with me, which was nice. I kind of hope he might decide to come over again tonight, just because I miss him.

This morning felt a bit more hectic. I woke up around 7:00 a.m., which was a tiny bit later than I'd intended. I showered quickly and then went around to the kids' rooms to wake them up. As my sister had predicted, my nephew popped awake right away but my niece lay in bed for some time.

I picked out clothes for both of them and helped my nephew get dressed, then headed downstairs to arrange breakfast. My nephew requested Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, but wouldn't eat the bowl I fixed for him because I'd made the unthinkable decision to put milk over the cereal. I gave him a dish of plain cereal and ate the bowl I'd fixed for him. Ugh – way too sweet.

The rest of the morning was taken up with reminding my niece to do her chores and pack her water and a snack. I got both kids out the door on time and watched my niece get on the bus, then drove my brother-in-law's enormo SUV to my nephew's daycare where I ran into Rita, who had just dropped off Dr. Arens.

So far the experience has been great, but I have the weird feeling that I'm living someone else's life for a couple of days.

Tonight and tomorrow morning I'll be doing it all over again, then passing the baton to my brother-in-law's aunt for the rest of the week.

Tonight's plan: pizza, the Game of Life and maybe a cartoon or two. Sounds like fun to me.