“Would You Like to Switch Daughters for the Night?”

Growing up, I had one of those best friends that they write books about. Ones called “The Babysitters Club”—you know, TRUE friendship. We met when I moved to Bellevue round about age 9 and were basically inseparable until I moved to Texas and she moved to Oklahoma after our freshman year of high school. During the time of our same-state bestie-ness, we lived a few blocks away from each other and virtually every weekend was spent at one of our houses.  Our moms like to tell the story about how our first homecoming, we were annoying our moms so much with our diva-like antics that Shayla’s mom called my mom and asked if they could trade daughters for the night. My mom got Shayla ready for the dance while Shayla’s mom put the finishing touches on my updo. She was my sister from another mister and there’s just no way to replace that kind of friendship—even if we don’t see each other all that often anymore. We stayed in touch over the years and visited each other’s new towns. When I moved back to Texas, Shayla had already migrated back to her home state of Lonestar goodness (she was truly a Texan lost in Nebraska…Oklahoma got her one step closer to where she belonged). This weekend, Shayla and her lovely husband Steve came to visit.

To say that Jack is in love with both Shayla and Steve would be an understatement. The kid cried every time either one of them left the room. He would wiggle out of my arms to be closer to Shayla. He freaked out if John took him away from Steve. It was slightly insane.  This wasn’t just a one time thing either. Every time Shayla and Steve have been around Jack, he’s been perfect and/or obsessed with them. The one time in his entire first 4 months that he went longer than 3 hours without screaming bloody murder was when Shayla and Steve came to visit him. I cried when they left. I told them they needed to stay so that my son would be happy. They drove back to Houston that night. And yet here I am still inviting her back into my home. I’m forgiving, what can I say?

The weekend was filled with greatness including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Learning that frozen margaritas sold in pouches for $1.97 at the local HEB is not a good idea (even if Shayla’s face doesn’t give away how they tasted like those sickly sweet freezer pops.)

2. If Jack is sad, a balloon + Steve will cheer him up.

3. If John has something coconut flavored, he will demand to go to the grocery store and buy coconuts for carving/eating as part of the weekend’s entertainment.

4. Getting water out of a coconut is not as easy as it may appear.

5. If Jack watches the boys use knives to bang the coconuts into oblivion, he will use a glue stick to mimic that behavior. Because a hot glue gun stick slammed on a table will obviously have the same effect as using a knife on a coconut.

6. Steve likes coconut. And he will eat it with the vigor of a man stuck on a stranded island.

7. Pancakes with pieces of bacon in the batter + scrambled eggs covered in cheddar + more bacon is a combination that once only lived in my dreams.  Now it’s in my belly AND my dreams.

Overall, it was a fantastic and relaxing weekend. Jack’s been crying ever since they left.