Had my nephew and dog-in-law staying over with us this last weekend.
They stayed over so Lisa and Tim could celebrate his birthday together in Chicago.
We took Shawn out for a Portillo's hot dog Friday night.
Shawn is super sweet, tells me he loves me and hugs me a lot. "Aunt Sheri, you know what?" "What?" "I love you." Pure cuteness.
He slept in between me and Brad. Slept close to me and kicked me all night, with a few flailing arm moments to boot. Sometimes he reached over and hugged me, held my hand, touched my face or played with my ears. I put a pillow in between us at 2am and then got a little sleep. Then he woke up at 4am and told us both good morning and that he wanted us to all go downstairs. Brad grumbled that it was still nighttime and dark outside and to go back to sleep. From 6am to 7am he started talking again, so by 7am I decided to go downstairs with him and let Brad got some sleep. I curled up on the sofa downstairs with him and we watched cartoons.

Later we went to Emily's house for a play date with Alex. I was tired, so this was a great thing. The boys played together and didn't need us for much of anything. They watched Thomas the Train videos on Alex's trampoline with blankets, ate waffles, and played with toys in his room. Chris went out and picked us up some Chinese for dinner, and I got to zone out and played with the dogs. I brought over a belated birthday gift for Emily and she gave me a Christmas gift. I think Shawn was tired when it was time to leave, I would have expected a meltdown, but he really didn't put up much of a fight. Of course I was ready with my camera for some crying pics if he did...but he didn't. He said he didn't want to go and pouted a bit, but that was it, and Alex said he didn't want him to go. They really played well together. Watching them have to compromise with each other.
















That night he fell asleep as soon as he got into bed. I placed the pillow in between us, he slept hard and didn't move until about 4am, then squirmed over to Brad's side of the bed and kicked him. :) I got to sleep in a little bit.
We went out to McDonald's for breakfast. He had an odd meltdown when we got home. I think he was just overloaded. He was upset because he was cold, I didn't put on his mitten to go from the car to the house like he wanted, and then when he got in the house he stopped to wipe off his shoes as he is used to doing but he was also blocking Brad from getting in the house and keeping the door open letting in cold air while he had his shoe wiping moment. Brad told him to move it inside and he just froze like a deer in headlights so Brad picked him up and brought him inside while he kicked, screamed and wailed bloody murder. Brad stood there and laughed for a moment, not even sure what he was upset about and to such an extent. But Brad had to go to the train station to pick up his parents from their weekend downtown. So I turned on cartoons and he sat on the floor collecting himself while I got his stuff together. Then I poured myself an iced coffee and got on the sofa under the blanket and he and Dauber (the dog) joined me. We all laid down and watched cartoons until his parents came in.

Poor guys got stuck in the Indiana snow storm on the way back home to Grand Rapids. But made it back home safe and sound. Said he fell asleep just about as soon as they turned off our street.

It was hectic at times, but all in all a good experience for us. We don't have kids so I enjoyed having a weekend of it. I'm just a short-term parent.