Something Different!

I did something different yesterday that I was a little bit anxious about, but I'm here to tell you that I lived through the experience, and would even consider doing it again. 

(This is the only photo I took and it has nothing to do with what I did yesterday other than these pinks are at my nieces' house.)

John's youngest sister went on a Caribbean cruise for 10 days before Easter and got back on April 8th. She is the mother of one of my nieces and lives barely half a mile away from her daughter. My niece (let's call her Danielle) has five children, ranging in age from 7 years old down to 3 months old. My SiL helps her daughter out a lot, except she hasn't been able to during the last 10 days because she returned from her cruise with Covid.

Danielle is very Covid-aware and had said she didn't want her mother around her kids until she had been home for a week, just in case. That was fine until my SiL tested positive on the afternoon of the 8th and continues to test positive. Danielle had an appointment to take her youngest child to the pediatrician to start her series of childhood shots yesterday and she didn't want to cancel it, so she asked me for help.

I told Danielle I was a little nervous about watching the four older children, but she's got a system that works for them, so I went along with it. She drives a huge black Ford Expedition with three rows of seats, providing the necessary room for five car seats. She gets all the kids buckled into their car seats, goes to the appointment, heads into the doctor's office with whichever child is scheduled, and a responsible adult waits in the car with the remaining children. Usually, that responsible person is my SiL, but yesterday it was me.

And I had fun! I was treated to stories from the three older children about three little moles, three little dragons, and five pink unicorns. These sounded a lot like the Three Little Pigs, but they all featured a big bad coyote. I heard jokes, doled out organic birthday cake-flavored bunny snack crackers (I might need to get some of them for myself), and read a lot of books that I grabbed on my way out the door. Except for the youngest boy, the other kids all unbuckled their car seats and got out of their seats, but they were all content to stay in the car. Danielle was gone for about 45 minutes but the time went by quickly.

I haven't read stories to young children or heard any kid jokes for decades, so it was a fun way to spend a morning. Sometimes something different is just what you need!