Miguel, Patron Saint of Three Year Olds

Tonight I went to a dinner for my friend NK, who's expecting her second child in the not-so-distant future. I know that it's mostly my college friends who read this blog thing, so I realize that you don't know NK - but she is our kind of girl. If she had been at State, she would have been our friend, and I daresay we would've run her for homecoming queen. :-) She would have won, too, because she's just that sweet and lovable.

I should also mention that NK is the Cutest. Pregnant. Person. Ever.

But I love her anyway. I'm not even bitter about how cute she is when she's pregnant, despite the fact that I was not cute at ALL when I was expecting Alex. I was, however, very swollen, and I had to use so much BenGay on my aching hip that by month nine David finally banished me to the guest room upstairs, where I would groan about said aching hip and hardly sleep at all, but when I did sleep, I had some MAJOR sleep apnea that no doubt caused our neighbors to awaken in the middle of the night with a great deal of certainty that the killer hogs, they were a-comin'. In my defense, my newborn weighed 10 lbs., 7 oz., so don't you judge me. I was carrying a three-month old.

We planned a little dinner for NK a few weeks ago, long before the words "gallbladder sludge" became a part of our household's daily existence. Over the last 10 or 12 days, NK has probably been the most aware of how David's being under the weather has created a bit of a juggling act for our little family. Nothing major, but chasing a toddler hasn't been very high on D.'s to-do list...because he literally cannot do it.

This past Sunday night NK mentioned that, in a fit of goodwill and questionable judgment, her destined-for-sainthood husband, Michael, offered to sub for D. and keep Alex tonight during the dinner. Alex AND AC, their 3 1/2 year old little girl, whom A. loves very, very deeply.

To sum up, here is what Michael offered to do:

1. Serve supper to a 3 1/2 year old and a nearly-3 year old.
2. Engage in activities with said toddlers.
3. Maintain a reasonable amount of order for the toddlers.
4. Refrain from running into the street screaming "HELP ME, HELP ME, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE."
5. Perform all these tasks during the absolute worst time of the parenting day: 5:30 pm until 8:30 pm.

I've got to tell you - Michael did an awesome job. He and the kids played, they colored pictures, they used scissors, they listened to music, they watched movies, they went outside...he really pulled out all the stops. Alex had a blast.


Here are Alex and AC after we got back from dinner (by the way, that's Michael's cool video-game playing chair that AC is in. NK and I were laughing before supper that if David and Michael were in charge of our respective home decors, there would be lots of black plastic and foam employed in the decorative "scheme").


Here's what they did while we were gone. :-) I should probably point out that AC made the orderly, architecturally-pleasing castle of blocks. Alex, on the other hand, pulled out all the books and DVDs into a large, disorderly pile.

Big fun for all.

And Miguel - muchas, muchas gracias. You are, without a doubt, a saint among men.