I was really looking forward to watching the Pooglets tonight (Pooglets being my newborn niece, and 3 and 6 year old nephews). I imagined we’d play catch outside, create Pinterest inspired crafts, and take adorable photos together: 6 year old Brogan wearing his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask, 3 year old Declan chasing him with a pool noodle, me and baby Bridgy standing in the middle shrugging our shoulders and wearing casual smiles. The sun would be shining, the grass would be green, and the caption would read “a great day being babysat by Aunt Poogle”.
This was not exactly how everything turned out though..
It was more like team effort trying to comfort baby Bridgy, combined with me trying to keep the boys from eating the middles out of an entire loaf of bread.
Baby really has great temperament most of the time. I rarely hear her cry; she lets out small grunts whenever she’s hungry or needs to poop. Sometimes she makes really pissed-off faces, but they are usually unaccompanied by whining; and most of the time she’s a total smiley laughter-filled kid.
Thing is, baby Bridgy really likes to eat. Often. And from boobs.
Brogan, Declan and I do not have milk producing boobs. Not a one of us; though supposedly mine could have capacity for such things in the future.
Katie and Nick (AKA Mom & Dad) had provided us with some pumped milk and a bottle. But Bridgy is not a fan of the whole bottle thing- bottle is not equal to boobs.
To be honest, it took me and the boys extensive Googling before figuring out how to assemble the bottle in the first place. As a 21 year old, I am quite ashamed to admit this.. Those suckers are confusing, though! And the directions suck. They make no sense, and Google wasn’t much help either. I basically had to toy around a lot to figure it out (while holding a screaming, flailing baby, mind you!).
All parents should make their youngest kids take home ec.. There is so much to learn.
All ended up okay though. Bridgy drank half a bottle of milk, and screamed enough to exhaust herself to sleep.
“Do you think she’s okay, Brogan? Have you ever seen her this upset??” – Me
“Oh yeah! Even more!” – Brogan
Guess I’m not a failure!
All in all, we all had fun! Except Bridgy. Poor, sad baby!
Sometimes real life, with its singing your favorite songs to your crying niece while your nephews see just how much jelly they can put on a PB&J, is better than your idealized time playing catch in your perfectly manicured lawn.
I hope Katie and Nick don’t freak out too much when they read this.. Don’t worry guys, I know how to assemble a bottle now: press the nipple up into the cap, screw cap onto the bottle, pop the top level of the cap off. Bam!
Picture that Declan took of me and the (finally) sleeping baby. We’ll make a photographer of that 3 year old yet!
Ruthie Rambles 