Baby Borrowers

This is the weekend we have been waiting for- the weekend that we got to babysit our niece Lizzie. Rico was VERY excited- maybe more than I was. You see, when we go "back home" we often have SO many family members to see that sometimes we have to split up. Usually this means that I get to have some Aunt Alli time with Lizzie, and he just gets to watch the videos of whatever super cute things she did. He always misses out. 

Well- NOT this time. 

The cuteness began even before our true babysitting began, as she got to know the house while her mom and dad got ready for a wedding. Here she is exploring the dog door. 

Then...the REAL Adventures in Babysitting Began:

Lizzie fell asleep within 30 seconds of us getting in the car to drive her back to our home- which is good because we were so flustered and excited that we were headed the wrong way through a 1 way parking garage. 

My bad babe, my bad.

Let's keep it real here, we were fake parents for less than 1 minute before we were bickering in the car at each other. It was pretty hilarious. Don't worry, it ended as soon as we escaped the evil parking garage. We spent the rest of the night laughing at ourselves and Lizzie- even through "the time which shall not be named" (but a time which you shall get a play by play of)

Rico realized about 10 minutes into the drive home that there was a mirror where he could see Lizzie. "How in the world do parents EVER focus on driving?!" he asked every time he glanced back to awww at her. It's a valid question- one which would be proved to a WHOLE new level in the next hours.

We went home and got ready to take Lizzie on a walk. A "quick change of clothes and grabbing the dog and a jacket" proved to be a 15 minute ordeal. I don't think I have to explain this to anyone who has kids. Rico decided that there needed to be an invention where there was a mirror in the stroller, because it didn't seem fair that we couldn't watch her cuteness at every possible second of the day. 

FYI: We are obsessed with our niece- in case you hadn't figured that out yet.

We stopped at the clubhouse to swing. 

Please note the difference in a gentle, boring aunt Alli swing: 

and a (shall we say robust?) uncle Rico swing. 

Clearly his swings were WAAAY more fun. 

We came home and thought we might make "a quick trip" to the grocery store to return the Redbox, grab some Guinness for Chiefs tailgating the next day, and pick up some ingredients to make dinner. That's when it happened. 

THAT IS WHEN WE WERE BEATEN. 

DEFEATED.

LOST, WITHOUT HOPE.

What could have possibly gotten the best of us? 

Baby meltdown? 

NO! (Well, not yet)

The CAR SEAT.

"We'll just put her in the car seat and go"

HA!

When we had taken her OUT of the car seat when we got home, Rico had pulled on the strap to show me how cool it is that "When you pull on this tab here, it just adjusts to fit baby."(a new trick he had learned visiting his first time daddy friend and his adorable new baby girl on Friday.) 

The problem was that now we had straps tight enough that a doll wouldn't fit into the car seat, much less our chunky little nearly 1 year old niece. The more we pulled, the worse it became. 

Oh. No. 

We fussed. 

We hemmed. 

We hawed. 

We sighed, and took more than a few moments to scratch our heads and laugh at the fact that an inanimate object made for children was stumping 2 college graduates- 1 with a dual major and the other with a master's degree.

The straps would NOT loosen. In fact, by this time they were as tight as they could be to the car seat.

I sat in the front seat with Lizzie while uncle Rico tried to solve the problem for a sold 10 minutes. 

We switched and I tried to fix it. Lizzie was about out of distractions fun games to play in the front seat (which include pretending to put on chapstick and playing the cups in the cup holders like drums)

We tried calling my mom- no answer. 

We tried calling his brother- no answer. 

THIS CAN'T BE THAT HARD! 

It's just a car seat, right?!

Finally, I went inside. It was dark and I was cold. We then followed the sage advice his brother had given him just a week before, "When in doubt- google it." 

There was a hidden button. VERY hidden might I add. 

35 minutes after planning to leave (I kid you not), we were finally able to put her in the car seat. We weren't done being beaten by the car seat yet- oh no! We put her in. We tightened her up. And then it started. 

The screaming. 

Well, last time she fell asleep as soon as we turned the car on- so we both glanced up at each other and read each other's minds, "Get this car in MOTION". We JUMPED into the front seat to get the car rolling. 

It was of NO help. 

The screaming continued. 

The. Entire. Way. To. The. Store. 

Mind you, the store is MAYBE 4 minutes from our house, but I am pretty sure that Rico aged 3 years in those 4 minutes. Frazzled is the best way to explain how he acted at the store. Once she was out, she was her angel self again- but he was having flashbacks. 

You could see the terror in his eyes. 

He may have been shaking.

We walked through the store half looking for things to make for dinner and half trying to recover from the last 4 minutes. We needed a time out to get our brains back. Finally, after wandering aimlessly with our half focused brains we decided we would just go around the strip mall corner to grab Chinese takeout. 

I looked at him and said, "I think I might just walk with her over there rather than put her back in the car seat."

He stared at me. He didn't blink. He just said- "Oh, you thought I was even CONSIDERING putting her back in to go over there? No way. Get to walking!" 

I laughed...and got to stepping. 

She was great as we waited for our food- but we all knew she HAD to go back in to the car seat. 

As we put her back in, she started the crying again. A man walking from the back part of the parking lot jokingly yelled, "Get that girl a crab Rangoon!" 

Thank you stranger, we needed another person who thought this was as entertaining as we did- ok as entertaining as I thought we were. I even considered taking a picture- but I didn't think Rico would appreciate that or see it as in any way a contribution to the team effort. Rico was still trapped in wide-eyed survival mode. I rode in back with her and she quieted down quickly. Ahhhhhh. 

The rest of the night was glorious. Seriously. If the car ride was hell, than we had turned it all around and arrived in babysitting heaven. You see, we have a secret weapon (besides the adorableness that is our niece.) His name: Maximus. 

Max is, apparently, the most fascinating creature in the entire world. Any babysitting success we had should really go to him and Rico. I was so proud of Max. 

We have been VERY curious to see how he would interact with children- more specifically, children on HIS turf. 

You see, he HATES having his paws touched. Lizzie stumbled upon this, and quickly made it her mission to do it as much as possible. 

Here's 1 of the MANY play sessions they had throughout the night- ending in her pulling his jowls nearly off his face (check out Rico's reaction)

We literally never even opened the toy bag. Not once. 

A few diaper changes, 4 trips climbing the stairs, 1 bottle, a few "air-Rico" flights around the house, 1 pajama change, and a lot of baby-giggling later, we tried to calm her down for bed. Every time she seemed to be tired, I would start to lean back with her and she would immediately see what I was up to and POP up. 

Uncle Rico to the rescue again. He seemed to just know what to do. He made the room so calm that even I fell asleep on the opposite couch-and woke up to maybe the sweetest thing that I have ever seen in our living room chair...

What a great night. 

What a great baby to get to play pretend with.

 Thanks for letting us be baby borrowers.