Playing house...

This weekend life will be totally different in our little household, because we have the pleasure of taking care of our (James') niece Raven. She is three and FULL of energy. Actually for the next two weeks we will help take care of her while her mother is out of town. Her dad will do half the work and we will do the other half. It really hit me this morning that I was going to be responsible for this little one and I have been running around trying to get ready for her arrival. Any parents out there might laugh now and think "HA, good luck getting ready for a three-year old".

I cleaned the house - I figured at least we would have some level of cleanliness starting out. 

I picked up clothes and toys from her mom's house - how much clothes does a three-year old go through? We have only ever had her for 24 hours so I have no clue. She has about 75 teddy bears - how do I pick the right one? And what book should I pick for bedtime stories? She usually comes with clothes and food but not this time. 

What does a three-year old eat? My helpful also childless friends suggested I breastfeed her...I got some chicken nuggets instead, and a bunch of other more healthy food, and some emergency bribe snacks. 

So far, it's going good. She came around 6 pm, I cooked dinner (mashed potatoes and pork chop) while she dressed up in all my clothes (she was not impressed with the clothes I had picked out for her from her own selection), she ate the food (yay), then we watched Toy Story 2, which she actually sat through (helped by a huge bowl of fruit salad with chocolate chips), then at the end where the movie got really exciting she announced that she would like to go to bed (pretty bummed I missed the ending), we read two books, battled about whether she was going to wear a diaper or not (she did), ate some graham crackers (she announced she sleeps best with crumbs in bed), sang about ten songs (I could only come up with Beatles songs and an old propaganda song about Israel, but it did the job), and now she is asleep. I was pretty happy with that evening until I realized I have no idea when she wakes up. To be continued...