I wish to inform the Office of Spectacular Parenting that April and I have completed our latest and greatest challenge. A task so harrowing that April and I nearly lost our sanity on several occasions. It took guts. It took skill. It took lots and lots of snacks and a strategically placed DVD player, but April and I hosted our first sleepover with Michael and a friend and we are still here. Barely.
We will be expecting our Spectacular Parenting merit badges in the mail post haste.
To call it a crazy and wild time would not begin to scratch the surface. There was screaming, running, lots of laughs and a few tantrums. And that was just the first half hour. It was a night we'll never forget at the Ward castle and it was crazy awesome!
I kept thinking about Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins during the entire ordeal. How he would stride militantly around his home singing lovely verses like:
"It's 6:03 and the heirs to my dominion
Are scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed
And so I'll pat them on the head
And send them off to bed
Ah! Lordly is the life I lead!"
If only the old man could witness the mayhem at our house that night! Each time Michael and Josh ran by me clutching guitars, racing toy fire trucks or engaging in serious indoor-hockey battle, I chuckled to myself and thought, "Well, Mr. Banks wouldn't approve of that at all." In fact, I believe he would have suffered one of those "conniptions" Bill Cosby used to joke about. Yes, I believe a conniption would have been just the thing.
I never waltzed around my house singing about the heirs to my domain being "scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed," but like all newbies to the sleepover game I did have a few somewhat unrealistic expectations.
Before Josh arrived I remember calmly thinking, "I'll make them some dinner, and we'll sit down and eat. Then I'll let them play a bit, before they watch a movie and get ready for bed." Well, as most of you know, I might as well have added, "And then we'll all skip side by side whistling 'Just a spoonfull of sugar.'"
Yeah, my plans might have been a wee-bit unrealistic.
The moment Josh arrived a tornado swept through our home. In a flash the boys were out in the back yard cruising along on Michael's toy John Deere tractor and laughing. Seconds later they were back inside with guitars in hand and singing at the top of their lungs. When I took another breath they moved in front of the television and began "pew-pewing" away on the V-Smile.
I glanced up, saw that less than a half an hour had passed, and realized I was in for an extremely long evening.
The rest is a blur, kiddies. There were glo-sticks, hockey nets, fire trucks, movies and lots of popcorn. It was wild, wacky, crazy, wonderful fun and I loved every second of it. Michael and Josh achieved Nirvana for 5-year-olds and the smiles on their little faces melted my heart.
Even Jordan caught the sleepover fever. Our little Yorkie courageously fought off being oh-so-tired to hang with the fellas late into the night. He followed Michael and Josh around in a sleepy stupor with a look of "What's going on guys? Where are we?" Jordan usually crash lands into a comatose state sometime around 9:30 every night, so you can imagine the dedication this took.
I believe it was around 11 when we finally forced the troopers to bunker down in the tent set up in Michael's playroom (cool right?). We had a small TV in there so the boys could watch movies while "falling asleep." We heard giggles and talking over the next hour. I'm not sure what happened next. I was out cold.
So please mail those merit badges. April and I definitely earned them. Our first sleepover is in the books and what a learning experience it was. Like all of life's great treasures, Michael's first sleepover was nothing like I envisioned. Which makes sense. I never could have envisioned having that much fun!
Party on kiddies!
- Dave
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