It doesn't help that there are just so many kids. And while the big ones are generally well behaved, Finn sometimes isn't and Jack, well Jack is just a huge wild card.
We have gone out a few times and the usual protocol is to put all the kids to bed before we leave, except Ava, and then she and the babysitter can watch a movie before Ava goes to sleep. Honestly, I think it might be a babysitter's dream.
But a few weeks ago, we really wanted to go to dinner with some friends. (Have I ever mentioned that our old friends from college, Reid and Emily, welcomed us to Colorado by moving to a house just 10 minutes away? Well, they did and we have been all the happier for it!) And since most people like to eat dinner before 8:30pm, we needed a different plan of attack.
So I called in the big guns. I arranged for two 15 year old girls to tag team. And since bedtime has the potential to be a genuine crisis, we got them a movie and told them to keep everyone up until we got home at 9pm. I did tell them they could put Jack to bed at 8pm because he lays down easy.
We went to dinner. It was wonderful. We agreed that we should eat dinner at a more appropriate hour more often.
We returned a bit past 9pm. And I will forever remember the scene that awaited us when we walked in the house.
As we entered, we could hear Jack is fussing. We walked down the hall and it was clear, between the lack of other noise and the dim lights, that perhaps bedtime had commenced after all. But through the open french doors of Jack's room, I peered through the dark and saw Ava, bouncing on the bed with a fussy Jack, as a babysitter stood helplessly looking on from each side.
The big boys had gone to bed after the movie finished.
Ava had already put Finn to bed.
And now Jack would only quiet when Ava bounced him.
I know from experience that fussy babies are not much fun, but really, the other babysitter's dream scenario is the one where the oldest child you're watching does all the dirty work.
You know what this did? It gave us the tiniest taste of the built-in-babysitter days that await us!
But mostly it revealed how grown up and responsible our little girl has become and how grateful we both are for her. She is so special to us.
A few weeks later she just went and turned 10.
She wanted a horse party at home. She planned the entire thing. That's a mom's birthday party dream. Honestly, she had the guest list, the food, the games, the favors, the schedule, everything planned out to the minute.
It was great and she was very happy with it, though all the party pics are on Dan's phone.
And then this morning, Ava got in the van with my parents and rode away. They had stopped over on their way west and we loved getting to see them even if it was just for a day.
I was left in the driveway wondering what just happened. 12 hours before, this was not in the plans. That left very little time for me to come to terms with the idea that she is old enough to go away without me. I started wondering if I was old enough for her to go away without me. But she came up with a pretty good plan last night as she watched her grandparents pack up for their drive the next morning.
She could ride with them to Idaho and spend time with her cousins, and meet back up with me when I came for my nephew's wedding next weekend. Her original plan included staying with her cousins another week and meeting back up with us in South Dakota at our family reunion the following weekend. Two weeks was too much for me, and she doesn't know it, but it would have been too much for her as well. Instead, I was able to buy her a fairly inexpensive ticket on my flight back to Denver after the wedding. Thus, Ava's idea made a lot of sense and forced me to be a big girl and let my big girl have an adventure.
All I know is that I missed her before she even left, but I'm pretty sure she's gonna have a great time.
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Ava's my girl!
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