We were asked to babysit Sophie Sparrow for the first time ever. She is 18 months old and goes everywhere with Mum and Dad.
“The party this Saturday says ‘no children’ could you come and watch her and put her to bed?”
Of course we said, “Of course!”
We thought they’d never ask!
So off we went, after I’d finished my shift at the winery, dinner packed in our cooler.
“I can make you a salad or some Artesan bread,” my son offered…such a nurturer!
“It’s Ok we’ve got it covered, maybe we’ll help ourselves to a beer,” I texted back.
We arrived before 7pm just as Sophie had finished her bath. She was all smiles and soapy smelling.
“I can’t get Beaker to come in,” Lindsey said.
Simon turned to me,
“Would you mind going out and trying a bit later? He just needs to go into his inside pen and you can lower the door.”
“Yes! Leave it to us!” we both said, eager to have them out of the way and Sophie to ourselves.
They snuck out while Sophie was going through her toy baskets.
And there we were, just the three of us!
We rolled cars, which made her giggle when they bumped her foot.
We rolled a ball, well I did, she very accurately threw it at me squealing with laughter as I dodged the flying missile.
We danced to Raffi, while Sophie tried to locate the source of the music which wasn’t my phone!
We wore ourselves out and Sophie and I took a series of selfies to calm down and catch our breath.
Hubs went out to check on Beaker and managed to lure him in.
“Oh good. He likes men,” Simon told us later.
After our romp for about an hour it was time to go upstairs and play in Mum and Dad’s room for a few minutes.
I think she spent the time doing everything she’s not allowed to do,
like going through the bedside locker drawers…”Sophie!”
and climbing onto the bed…
…her sneaky little look gave her away.
“Time for bed, Sophie. Where’s your room?” I said.
She came over for a hug and I picked her up; we traced the letters of her name on the plaque at her bedroom door,
“S.O.P.H.I.E. Spells Sophie!”
I laid her in her crib while she clung to me.
I kissed her and peeled her fingers from my sweater and gave her a soft toy to cuddle and left the room.
Her white noise is the sound of gentle rain. I thought how soothing and peaceful it was underneath her cries of protest.
We watched her on her monitor; she was standing in the corner of her crib, reaching out and whimpering.
We ignored her and laid out our meal of cheese and pickles and naan.
After a few moments she stopped and listened for our reaction.
Of course we were old hands at this, we remembered the routine from our child rearing years. No pulling the wool over our eyes!
Ten minutes was all it took and we sat down at the old and weary coffee table, that used to be ours, and has seen many a Saturday evening meal.
We watched her settle herself down in her version of child’s pose and rock herself to sleep.
I sent a photo to Mum and Dad to reassure them that her routine was still in place and we weren’t feeding her cookies and soda and staying up late…
…Lindsey later thanked us for playing child appropriate music!
We ate, washed up and waited quietly while browsing through Netflix.
They weren’t late. After a quick re-cap of the evening we drove home.
“I hope she doesn’t shun us next time we’re over,” I said to Hubs.
“She won’t remember…” Hubs said confidently.
The following morning I texted Lindsey to ask how she was?
“Her face lit up into the biggest smile when I went into her room this morning,” she texted.
‘MAM!’ I could just hear her shouting out her only word she uses for everything!
“She was probably so relieved when she saw it was you and not me and put the evening down to a bad dream!” I texted back.
“Well, she was a little clingy all morning,” she admitted.
‘She won’t remember’…my foot! I thought.
We all survived the milestone and I for one am hoping there’ll be more Sophster evenings!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
No comments so far!
2021-04-23 17:28:56
It was nice and brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for being with me through it all!
Leave a Comment