Babies, babies everywhere!

I've been rather quiet this past week because I've been buried under an avalanche of babies. I spent the week at my cousin's place, because he was going away on work and I was needed to give a hand with the kids. Ages 5, 2-and-a-half and 10 months. Why he thought I would be helpful is a million dollar question. I am not one of those girls who fawns over babies. I like them...most of them. At a distance. I can even play with them...for about 5 minutes. I'm reasonably fond of niece no.1. Nieces 2 and 3 were relative mysteries to me till last week. 2 is hyper-active and plays a lot. 3 would just shriek whenever I went there, so my goal was to try and not make her cry. By which I mean that I never paid much attention to her till I had to share living space with her.

So, the thing about houses with babies, especially when there are 3 of them, is that there are toys everywhere. And usually food everywhere as well. No.2 hid a half-eaten biscuit in my coat pocket. She also hid her breakfast inside the couch I was sleeping on. I learnt on day 1 that I needed to check what I sat on, slept on, or wore, before I did any of the above. I also learnt that babies are jealous, manipulative creatures. 1 is insanely jealous of 2 and 3. Resents them invading her space. Whines all the time to Mommy to pick 3 up, or not let 2 come into her room. She has kind of a high-pitched voice, so the whining grates on your ears. Not to mention your nerves. By day 3 I'd caught on enough to know when to retire to an inner sanctum and plug my ears with headphones. As you can probably guess, I wasn't much help at all.

I did run around behind 2, trying to get her to eat. She only eats french fries, and drinks SunnyD orange juice. Seriously..she won't drink any other kind of orange juice. I spent 30 minutes at the local grocery store looking for SunnyD, because Tropicana just wouldn't cut it. I helped 1 spell carriage, chocolate, and kangaroo. I still kept my distance from 3. 

So, by this time you are thinking I'm some kind of she-devil who hates kids. Not to worry. There's a "moment" coming right up. I woke up on day 4,(at the insanely early hour of 7am.) because I felt someone flicking my lip. Yeah..flicking my lip. I don't know what else to call it. I opened my eyes to find 3 standing there with this totally serious look on her face. Staring at me with her big, brown eyes. And flicking my lower lip with her finger. I think it was her way of saying: "Wake up you moron, its 7am. I'm not shrieking at you anymore. Which means I'm now comfortable in your presence. Play with me already." So, I did. And it was fun.
She's cuddly and plump. She has a gurgly laugh. And she likes to laugh. And after playing for about 15 minutes, she stole my heart by falling asleep in my lap. A baby who sleeps before you're tired of playing with her! I hope my kid inherits some of her genes!

On the whole...I think I had a good time. Even with all the feeding, pooping and toy-scattering going on, it feels warm and fuzzy. Because, sometimes, for no apparent reason, 1 will come and hug me and say "I love you athai". And 3 flicks my lip. And 2...well she's just 2. Finicky, but adorable. So, yeah. I had a good time.