Tuesday, 02/13/07 - 11:42 pm.
It just hit on me what a HUGE responsability I have on my shoulders: running a house with kids for a week it's not easy, and that's what I'll be doing as of thursday. My brother and wife are going to Florida for a week, and, well, I'll be in charge.
However, I'm not that nervous. My nephew is not a problem at all, and my niece...so far I don't have a personal reason to avoid her, because she pays attention to what I say and we get along perfectly. I've even noticed how she reacts differently to things she's told, depending on who's telling her, and it's me who gets the kind responses. I'm not sure why, but I plan (and pray) on things staying that way while her parents are gone. I just am nice to her. I always have the most violent responses in my head when she's angry, but first, she's not angry to me, and two, I do much differently than what I think.
My SIL and I have made major changes in the house since thursday. Most of the second story has changed drastically. I switched bedrooms, so now my niece's former bedroom is the living room. It's wonderful, this room is huge, and it was truly being wasted: there's the TV and the computer, among other things, and a lot of space to walk around. This "living room" used to be in what's now the guest room, where there were a few inches from the TV to the PC, and instead of a sofa, there was a bed, and you had to have your head turned to watch TV. This new living room has great vibes (something it seriously lacked when my niece was in it). Last night everybody was here, the two kids and their parents, and it was good times all around.
My niece appreciates that I've been "remodeling" her new room, and she's full of Ikea ideas. I appreciate that she lets me in, because she doesn't let anyone in, and because it's a horrible mess and I have an urge to pick up stuff. I'm beggining to realize she does have something like ADD when it comes to organizing things. Even my SIL told me, it's not that she doesn't want to, she just can't. I wanted to ask if that trait had a name, but I feared it'd be uncomfortable.
It's a shame the grown-ups are leaving. With the new set-up, I have a room entirely to myself now, and since I've worked on the whole moving, I feel like this is my house, because I've taken part in the decisions on where should this or that go. Since sunday, things have been going smoothly, emotionally speaking. I cooked on the barbeque, lunch and dinner. My brother took me to buy beads for my bracelets, and he wouldn't let me pay for them. He always does that, and I'm thankful for that, though a little embarrassed.
My only concern about this week is driving to my niece's school, that's kind of far away and the easiest way to get there is taking the highway. Other than that, and waking up really early, it's ok. I already made the menu. My nephew has his own schedule, so I'll only have to work on my niece's.
Even though she's nothing but sweet to me, I keep my eyes open. On saturday night, her parents went out (dancing, yay), and she spent the whole night on the phone, since 8 to 12. I wasn't very sure how to tell her to cut it off, and I never knew when she was talking or not, because the phone would ring sometimes. She stopped at 11, when her parents returned, but she took her brother's cell phone behind their back and kept talking. But I believe that if I set the rules clearly from the beggining, there'll be no problem. Sometimes I don't insist on things, because I place the responsability on her parents, but this time will be different.
And now I'll go to bed, because my nephew has invited me to have donuts for breakfast, and I need to wake up early. And not to worry, I'll be hitting the gym afterwards (but it doesn't work! since I've been exercising I'm more hungry, so it's been a month and I haven't changed at all).
prev / next