Adventure with the Boys

A couple weeks ago, I babysat my three nephews. When I arrived, nephew #2 had built a tiny fort by the fridge. After my brother and sister-in-law left, the fort building continued, only all three boys were getting in on the fun. Almost all of the towels and blankets in the house were being used. I could have been the mean aunt who said, "You're making a mess. Clean it up." But I decided to be the totally-awesome-aunt-who-lets-her-cute-nephews-have-fun-doing-something-that-makes-them-happy-but-makes-a-mess. Of course, they had ridiculous amounts of fun, and I did too. A couple times I patted nephew #3 on the bum, which turned into him patting me on the bum at every chance he got. I thought that was a bad thing to have taught him. Anyway, I turned out playing the mommy dog and they were my little pups, and the fort was their doggy house. After about 45 minutes of playing Fort/Puppies, nephew #1 decided it was time to watch "Blues Clues." The fort was left without being cleaned up. I shrugged it off thinking I'll make them clean it up later.

Then came the moment I was expecting when nephew #1 said, "It's time for dessert."
I replied, "You'll have to clean up the fort to get into the fridge."
He said, "Oh," and sat back down to watch some more of the show.
I laughed inside thinking man we should make forts in front of the fridge more often. They won't want dessert if they have to clean up to get into the fridge. His little sweet tooth (he takes after his Aunt Julia) started biting about twenty minutes later, so we cleaned up the fort. Well, we took down the additions made on to the original part of the fort because nephew #2 didn’t want to take down his creation. It was so not in the way—sort of—so it stayed in tact. We had dessert and started watching "Scooby Doo". Soon thereafter, it was bedtime—at least for the two little ones. Nephew #3 was in bed, so it was on to getting nephew #2 in bed. The only problem was he really wanted to sleep in his fort. He snuggled himself inside it to where I would have to pull him out, and I would not have that. Luckily the power of distraction persuaded him out. I told him we could get his trains and he could sleep with them. He loves trains. He came out of his little fort quite happily. I got him to bed and, of course, let nephew #1 stay up way past his bedtime. It was a Friday anyway... I’m the coolest aunt ever—outside of my sister who is a pretty cool aunt too. Now, just if I could have babysat my 4-month-old niece too—the three boys’ little sister. That would have been total awesomeness. Ok, it gave me time to spoil the three boys, and that's what being an aunt is all about, right? I love my nephews and niece. They are priceless and super cool too!