By Vicki Brown
Usually, Memorial Day is special for my family and acknowledged by attending a memorial service, honoring those who gave their lives for our freedom, and remembering my grandfather who died in World War II.
This year was different. This year we were babysitting.
Our son was married around this time 12 years ago and to celebrate their anniversary, they decided to hand over their 6-year-old daughter and one-year-old son to us for the weekend. The baby had never been away from mom overnight.
Things seemed to have been going rather well when our other son called and said they were coming from Florida for the weekend to stay with us. They have a 2-year-old boy who is like a mouse running on a wheel while on steroids. He always runs and rarely stops.
Now, there were issues with this scenario. First, I had promised the granddaughter that we would make brownies together. But we were told that we would have to bring her home on Sunday for a recital practice on Monday. Then the whole family would come back on Monday afternoon for a family get together.
So I put off the brownies until Monday when she would come back. In the meantime, she decided to practice for her tumbling recital …in my living room.
Her baby brother is a human example of the giant Venus Flytrap plant in the “Little Shop of Horrors” movie that constantly screamed “FEED ME!” He eats. All. The. Time. It seems as though all I did was refill bottles and hunt food for him.
At the same time, the 2-year-old ran from room to room, opening every cabinet, drawer, and box. He is especially fond of remote controls for televisions. In our “spare time” we hunted for the remote.
We took our granddaughter and the baby home Sunday and returned to some semblance of order and more time to chase down the 2-year-old.
When Monday rolled around, I cooked to prepare for all of the family. But time went by, and our other son and his family didn’t show up. So we called and were told that they were on the way….2 hours late. Our other son was irritated, because they had to leave early to drive back to Florida. They would have exactly one hour together.
Well, the rest of us went ahead and ate. The other family finally arrived and ate. Meanwhile, I grabbed my granddaughter and we made brownies, hoping they would finish baking before her uncle had to leave.
The late arrivals began to regale us with why they were delayed. It seems as though after tumbling recital practice, they decided to give their daughter a bath. While her mother was washing her hair, her dad took the trash outside. Meanwhile, the baby, who is learning to walk, pulled himself up on some bookshelves. Seeing a plant on top, he grabbed the dangling ivy and pulled the entire thing down on his head. Dirt fell out, and unfortunately, the cat, who was standing by the baby, ended up covered in soil. He yowled, jumping all over the house and slinging potting soil in every direction. The baby started howling at the top of his lungs. My daughter-in-love ran in and found the baby with a pot upside down on his head, ivy hanging over his eyes, and dirt in every direction flung around by a wild cat. My son returned to find mayhem while his daughter screeched that she was ready to have her hair rinsed.
I understood why they were late.
Things seemed to have settled down once we were all together, and I have to admit, I found it hilarious that my son had been forced to deal with such a mess. Been there…done that…and he deserved pay back. He had been a handful while growing up.
While the men went outside in the backyard to chat, the mothers and babies went into the front yard and I watched the brownies bake. Just as I took them out, my granddaughter came in and said, “Yaya, come see the trail I made with your rocks!” My blood ran cold.
Now, my husband and I had just spent a small fortune to have the front yard landscaped with decorative rocks. They were in a pattern…or should I say, they HAD BEEN in a pattern.
I quickly ran outside to find all the children picking up pea gravel and throwing it in every direction. My daughters-in-love looked on smiling.
I was horrified. This was what I got for laughing at my son.
It took me two entire days to correct the mess in the yard, and another day to fix the mess in the house. Luckily, I found the TV remote between the window blinds and window, along with a hangar. The day after that I stayed in bed all day to recover.
I don’t know how many more holidays I can survive.
