Adventures In Babysitting - Friday

So, as most of our friends know, Sharon and I babysit the Hensley Girls - Kayla Zane and Jenna Grace - every now and again, and when they come over, it’s always an entertaining if somewhat stressful hoot: Two tiny hyperkinetic bundles of estrogen, fueled by some heretofore little understood and highly unstable source of energy that will one day be harnessed for the good of mankind.

This visit, though, would be different.  This was Hensley Girls 2.0: not quite so small; not apparently quite so hyperkinetic.  At least at first glance...

It’s Friday night, and Cheryl drops off the Girls around 7pm.  Within minutes, they are trying to push her out the door, as in: don’t let it hit you in the butt on your way out.  This is actually pretty funny, mostly because it was such a departure from previous babysitting adventures over the past few years.  Times past, both would be weepy at the prospect of Mommy leaving, with much clinging to legs and Cheryl patiently explaining that she would be back on Sunday, and no, Sunday is not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow.  After this, she would cut her losses and hustle out, at which point a snack would magically appear, this not being Mama Sharon’s first rodeo by a long shot.

This go-round though, they are older and more sophisticated: Kayla Zane is just three months shy of  age seven, and Jenna Grace just three months shy of four.   Mom leaves, and they get right down to business.  We all sit down on the couch, and I pulled up YouTube on the laptop.  Kayla politely but firmly elbows me aside and browses the various My Little Pony selections.  She settles on an hour-length movie.   A one hour long My Little Pony: Who knew?  In this one, Twilight Sparkle has her crown stolen by Sunshine Shimmer.  Twilight has to follow Sunshine through the Magic Mirror, where they both are transformed from horses into teenage girls.  Well, you can just imagine how traumatic that was: Twilight and Sunshine both had to learn how to walk on two legs and flirt with all the human boys, even as they engaged in their epic struggle for control of Equestria.

I am on the edge of my seat.  The Girls are riveted.  And I would like to tell you how it ends, but I fell asleep on the couch about a half hour in and slept through a series of snacks, potty breaks, miscellaneous interruptions, some preplanning to turn the dining room table into a fort, and then the rest of the movie.  Or so Mama Sharon tells me, because when I wake up, she’s already taken them up, read stories and put them to bed.  I ask her if they’re all right.  She says yes, why do you ask?  I remind her that every previous bedtime experience featured protests, loud voices, dramatic hand gestures, unsubstantiated assertions as to what they were allowed to do at home, followed by stages Two through Five of the Kübler-Ross model, after which, there would be the sound of small feet reverberating overhead for some period of time, punctuated by the sound of furniture in some terrible distress, and giggling.

I naturally assume something is wrong, like maybe they have a fever or something.  Sharon just smiles knowingly.

 

STAY TUNED FOR SATURDAY....