We had a unique Friday night in that we were babysitting William and Philippe (Phil and Will!) overnight while Eric and Annie headed to Montreal to see a concert. To some, babysitting a three month old along with a 2 1/2 year old may be daunting, but to us, we figured it would be easy (insert laugh track here).
All in all, I will tell you that it wasn’t overly difficult but at the same time, they were pretty easy to handle. What I’m trying to say is, I didn’t have to change any poopy diapers. My wish came true. When I arrived at their place, Emilie was there and she said I just missed a big mess of a diaper. I thanked the Gods above and then Simon and Emilie and I hung out with the kids until Vero arrived.
The rest of the night was fairly simple…put in a movie to keep Philippe interested while reading to him and playing around and make sure the baby doesn’t scream. Ha ha. Alright, there’s more to it than that, but all in all, it wasn’t killer.
What was killer was waking up at 2:30 and then staying awake for 30 minutes feeding the baby. By the time you go back to bed, you’re wide awake! So I had trouble getting back to sleep along with the baby making sounds through the baby monitor while sleeping. Eric did mention that you get used to this part and I have to share a great story about Mom and Dad that they shared with me last night. Supposedly on Day One of me entering the Palmer house, Dad said “I don’t know if I can handle this!” when I was up in the middle of the night. Clearly, I was interfering with Dad’s much needed sleep. Day Two resulted in Dad waking up in the morning and asking Mom “Did he not wake up at all?”. Clearly he slept through just fine.
I found the aspect of looking after the baby an interesting science experiment. For example…feeding the baby. Do I need to burp him every time? What if the kid just doesn’t burp? Doesn’t that mean his digestive system is getting stronger? These questions I pondered at 2:30 in the morning when trying to offer up great suggestions to Vero on how to keep the kid from screaming. It was quite an interesting experience.
The next morning we hung out with the kids while watching cartoons and I felt myself getting restless just sitting around so Philippe and I went outside where we proceeded to throw a ball (kid’s got a wicked arm), play some hockey and blow bubbles. He was quite helpful in cleaning off the tables. He really loved doing so and I wonder if Annie has trained her child to be the ultimate help. Further proof is that the kid really loves his toy vacuum cleaner. I say well done, Annie. Well done indeed.
All kidding aside, the night went well and Annie and Eric arrived in time for lunch so they treated Vero and I to Biggs which had a decent Philly steak sandwich. I must admit I will always have a spot in my heart for the Philly from Broadways because it was loaded with banana peppers, but the last time I went, it was off the menu.
After we said our goodbyes (and the kids secretly wanted to hang out with the cooler people…aka us!), Vero and I headed to her house for a nap and then we picked up a bike rack and some things from Mountain Equipment Co-Op. Vero had a brilliant idea of making some chili for supper and then we settled in to watch Slumdog Millionaire.