Adventure with Tante (Guest Post)

Spending special one-on-one time with a niece/nephew has been an Aunthood dream of mine for a long time - BB (Before Ben, even).  Jess and Ryan traveled a lot BB and I would have lots of adventures with my 4-legged niece and nephew.  Luke even spent a day in college at CU with me and I took him to one of my classes!  Which explains why he is so smart.  Had I attended CSU, this would not be the case.

When we finally found out that Jess and  Ryan would be moving home from the ICT, this was one of the things I was most excited about - being able to "kidnap" Ben and take him out for a night day on the town!   This past weekend while Jess and Ryan were in the ICT doing some house stuff, MeeMee was on Ben duty.  Saturday, she had some dog-training classes and needed a pinch-babysitter to watch over the Nugget.  I, of course, leaped at the opportunity to spend time with the little beast and what I thought would just be a few hours at MeeMee's house turned into quite the adventure to northern Colorado.  My manfriend, JP (JPizz, as Jess refers to him), lives in Ft. Collins so we decided to head up there to spend the day with him and to watch the Bronco's game. 

I arrived at MeeMee's house around 10:30am to find a sleepy Nugget.  We decided to keep him awake to shoot for one long afternoon nap and MeeMee made his lunch while I packed everything into the car (MeeMee graciously traded cars with me for the day since Ben's carseat is already installed in her vehicle).  After quite the snafu with said carseat (once I got Ben in the seat, I realized it was too tight to fasten and was then too tight to get him out), we were finally on our way and Ben and Jelly went straight to sleep.  Ben napped for about an hour and 45 minutes and when he awoke, we met up with JP and ran some errands and had lunch.  Lunch (and Ben's afternoon Moo Juice) was at Fort Collins staple, Big City Burrito.  Ryan will try to tell you that Fort Collins is the birthplace of the burrito.  I haven't had one from here in years (Boulder has one, too) and it was better than I remembered.  Mmmmm!!

Then, since we were so close to campus we decided to stop by a CSU sign to take a picture for Dada.  Ben's disgust was immediately apparent. 

This sign was in front of a big garden on the CSU campus.  Obviously, there were no flowers, but lots of space to "run" around.  Ben seemed amazed at the space and was very excited to toddle around and chase JPizz and me.

We then headed over to JP's house where Ben was happy to meet a new dog, Annie, and explore a new house.  JP also has a sunken family room so he had some more practice with reverse stair climbing.  JP's youngest daughter and her girlfriend were there and it was funny to see their general fear of/distaste for children and all the hazards that a house contains.  In general though, they were very sweet to Ben and Michal (JP's daughter) found some fun coasters for Ben to bang together.  It was gorgeous on Saturday so we headed out front to enjoy the last hour or so of sunshine.  Ben didn't have much interest in the front yard as it is sloped and was hard for him to balance.  The cement sidewalk, however, was heaven for our dear Nugget.  He especially liked the cars parked on the street which allowed him to see his handsome reflection.  Back inside, JP whipped out his guitar and played a few Wee Sing songs (he even let Ben strum on his own!).  Ben was less interested in JP's renditions of his favorite tunes as the CD versions are sung by children. 

We then headed over to JP's ex-wife's fianace's house (yes, we are aware of the images of dysfunction this conjures up and we all had some laughs suggesting we be filmed for a reality show) for some food and football.  Jim (Marcy's fianace) has a beautiful kitchen and is a great cook.  He prepared quite the feast (sliders, wings, homemade french fries, shrimp cocktail, nachos, etc.) as we all knew this would be the end of the season for our dear Donkey's.  We were also joined by Marcy's friends, Rosemary and Glenn.  Ben enjoyed Charlie the cat, yet another new house to explore and more new people.  He was quite sleepy so was content to lounge and watch the game.  Everyone was absolutely smitten with the blue-eyed boy and couldn't get enough snuggles from him.  I was relieved that everyone loved him so much as not all people would enjoy a baby at a football party. 

At 8pm sharp we loaded a jammied Ben back into the car with Jelly and some nighttime Moo Juice for the drive home.  I plopped him into his crib for the night and back to dream land he went.  I am proud and relieved I was able to keep his schedule!!

After a day with Ben I am, once again, amazed at how my sister does it all by herself.  She and Ben have daily adventures out and about just the two of them and it just amazes me.  Everywhere I was on Saturday I had lots of help from people and really don't know how I would have fared had I been by myself.  JP absolutely loves babies and was constantly offering to carry things and get Ben in and out of his car seat.  He even held him during dinner (which came pre-prepared by Ben's Mama) so Ben would sit still long enough to eat.  MeeMee's assistance was imperative to us even getting out of the house and all the guests at the football game were eager to help and play with Ben.  I cannot imagine how single parents do this job.  As they say, it takes a Village. 

I was exhausted by the time I finally arrived back home in Denver around 9:30pm, but had the BEST day with Ben.  It was really our first day together solo and I will hold the time and memories in my heart forever.  I love you, Nugget and am excited to have many more adventures with you, Tante-style.