Best Friends Forever

For those of you who have seen the musical, my dream is to be Auntie Mame. My four year old niece, Keely, slept over last night. It was her first sleepover, and I was nervous that she wouldn't make it through the night. This may be because I was traumatized by MY first sleepover with Teresa Scanu when I was about 6 or 7. She came to sleep at my house and right before bed she started crying for her dad and had to go home. Of course in that case my brothers had been chasing her and beating her over the head with a frying pan which hadn't happened to Keely...but still...I remembered and I feared this would end badly.

I am pleased to report that she made it without once asking for her mom, crying or wanting to go home. Our girl's night consisted of Red Robin (with milkshakes - her request), a little shopping, and then pulling out the futon to make a big bed with pillows and blankets in the living room while we painted our nails ate treats and watched movies until we fell asleep. (Oh, I may also have bought her a few toys to open.) Her dad only packed her pajama bottoms (although Shawn and Lisa were still debating at breakfast who was REALLY at fault on that one)

so you can see we made do with one of my T-shirts which fit her like a glove. (The shirt hung down almost to her ankles, but she refused to let me take the picture w/o her pulling it up and holding it tight in the back so "it looked right." Wow.)

Because I was so nervous she was going to wake up and wonder where she was and where her mom was I slept pretty lightly. Once I woke up to see her getting back in bed. I'm still not sure if she used the bathroom or was sleepwalking. From there on out, I barely slept with each move she made. (What if she killed me in my sleep? She's small yes, but crafty.) She sat up twice and I thought she was awake...no. She also stretched her arms quite a bit and rolled around a lot. I'm pretty sure I checked on her once an hour between the hours of midnight and 7am when she finally opened her eyes and said, "Good morning Aunt Shauri." Good morning indeed! There's a reason I'm not a mother and it's because God knows I would die an early death of sleep exhaustion.

This morning she told me some of her favorite HILARIOUS stories about poopie (which I'm here to report is the funniest word EVER to 4 year olds.) and which she blamed on learning from her cousin Gavin. They were pretty simple stories like, "This boy had poopie on his face and then he showed it to someone." HA HA HA!!!!

We rolled out of bed after sharing a bit more good bathroom humor, and got dressed for our grand finale - breakfast at IHOP. Lisa and Shawn met us there to pick up their daughter, who I think the sleepover may actually have been more traumatic for than Keely, and then we said our farewells.

When I came home and spent a few days with them in Michigan several weeks ago, Lisa told me that Keely was taking the "best friend forever" picture she and I took in one of those machines at the mall and was sleeping with it. She told Lisa that she was really sad that I always had to leave. This morning I feel the same way.

It's pretty great to be an aunt.