Girls Night Out

Or in, actually. I traded my son and nephew off for a night with my two goddaughters, Belle (5) and Lani (1).

We spent the evening at a softball game at which Belle and I tried to fit into one spectator chair along with her purse, numerous sport drinks, bottled water, a couple of snowcones, nachos, bug spray, my cell phone and keys. Lani got passed from lap to lap and each person that held her felt obligated to give her a taste of one thing or another.

Afterwards, we went to Trinity's house for a little while. Belle proceeded to beat my ass at deuces wild (she's been playing since she was four... at least). She scolded me about my lack of finesse at the game ("You shoulda held that deuce!" "It's your turn to deal!" "You forgot to turn one over!"). I am still amazed by the fact that she can really play. Really.

I also gave Lani a wash up because she was so sticky and gritty. Only, bathing babies and changing diapers has always been a challenge for me. Especially bathing them while trying to hold them in my lap--because of my breasts, I have little lap to speak of, and I know babies must always feel they are on the verge of cliff, about to plunge to the floor below. To make things more interesting, she'd messed up her diaper for real and I had no baby wipes. So, I sent to the bathroom for tissue and dug one of those "feminine" fresh wipes out of my purse.

Well, the fresh wipe didn't go far and the tissue just stuck. Plus, she finally did plunge off my lap and took off towards the back of the house where the other kids were. Her sister had to catch her for me and hold her with her bottom in the air while I cleaned it. I finally got her bathed.

But then came the new diaper. I got it on well enough to not fall all the way off. Rather, it sagged quite unattractively with the implied threat of a butt-crack flash at any moment.

Of course, the moment she was clean, she threw up all the mess people had been giving her. Luckily, it was all over Trinity :-p.

They slept through the night (I was worried about Lani). But this morning brought new challenges.

Desecrated ponytails. And I cannot comb little girls' hair. There are numerous missing barettes, a couple of broken ponytail holders, no comb fit for their hair and one disgruntled godmother.

And now, since I need to re-initiate the bath debacle and since Ms. Lani has decided there's never been a more interesting pasttime than banging my keyboard (and pulling down the clothes that I just ironed!!!), I must bid you all farewell.

And ask you to bid me good luck.