Hanging with Karlee: Part 1

A couple of months ago, Tim came up with the idea of having his four year old niece, Karlee, stay with us for a week. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous at the thought. After all, I had never spent more than a few hours being responsible for a child. There was that one babysitting session when I was about eighteen, but that only lasted about four hours. This was promising to be much longer.

The idea came about, I believe, after Tim and I visited his family to watch Karlee's first dance recital. It was a weird recital, with the teacher's seemingly paying more attention and time on their own dance routines than on their students. But anyway, I digress. Afterwards, Karlee decided she wanted steak for dinner to celebrate her performance, and so we all went to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner.

Dinner was good and filling, and in the parking lot, as we were leaving, as her Uncle TJ (Tim) was trying to get Karlee into her dad's truck, Tim mentioned Karlee coming to visit us in Dallas. Karlee wasn't so sure of the idea. She kept saying, "Maybe." That's when her Uncle TJ brought out the "big guns," so to speak, and promised that if she came to Dallas, he'd take her Unicorn Land.

Well, as any little girl, or boy, who thought seeing a unicorn would be awesome, Karlee said she'd come to Dallas to see the unicorns; and, of course, she wanted to take one home with her. Tim told her that taking a unicorn out of Unicorn Land wasn't possible, and when she inevitably asked why, he responded, "Because unicorns turn into rocks when they're taken out of Unicorn Land." Naturally, Karlee then became fascinated by all the rocks in the parking lot, of which there were many.

Weeks and weeks of planning followed. Nerves kept building, so much so that I ended up breaking out around my lip (ery attractive, I know). Tim planned out the entire week she was to spend with us. Just looking at the plan was exhausting. His theory: "Keep her going for as long as possible so she'll fall asleep sooner." Karlee is famous for not wanting to go to bed, using every trick in her arsenal to stall, and we soon discovered just how large her arsenal is.

Karlee kept informing her Uncle TJ that she was only going to spend one day with us and then come home that same evening. Time and space apparently don't mean much to a four year old. There was an exception however: If her Nana (Tim's mom) came, she'd stay two days.

Most of Tim's family, myself included, didn't believe she'd stay the entire week. I mean, it was going to be the longest she'd ever stayed away from her mother ("Firsts" obviously occurred all over the place during that week). And right up to the moment when she flew into Dallas, she kept reminding us that she was going to spend only a couple of days with us. In fact, just a day or two before she arrived, Karlee told her Uncle TJ that he only had one chance to make her happy. Just one.

Well, the time kept coming closer and closer, and I kept getting more and more nervous because Karlee's trip coincided with finals week of my first summer class. In my foolishness, I decided to give my students six writing assignments, completely unaware that I'd have to grade all those writing assignments at some point. I am not the fastest grader.

Anyway, Tim flew out of Dallas to pick up Karlee. The flight back was her first time on an airplane, and she was excited and a little scared, naturally. During the flight, Karlee looked out of the window the entire time, informing Tim that the plane was flying higher and going faster than it was supposed to. Having never been in a plane didn't stop her from criticizing the pilot's flying.

Also, Tim got a lovely preview of what our week would be like: Karlee never stopped talking throughout the entire flight. Thankfully, the other fliers were amused by what she said, thinking her an adorable little girl, and she is.

Upon her arrival, Karlee did something she'd never done before, at least not without being pushed to do it: She ran up to me and hugged me. Now, I'm not the most comfortable around kids, although I have frequently found myself either being followed or being begged to play with kids. It seems whenever I do play with kids, they want me to play with them all the time.

For instance, just a couple of weeks ago, we were at a friend's house. Tim and a couple of people he met through work were "talking shop" and Peyton (who Karlee met during her week with us) kept asking if anyone would like to play "Barbies." Naturally, since no one else seemed willing to partake in the request, I said I would. As many of you may guess, this would not be my first time playing "Barbies."

Well, she didn't have any of her Barbies at her mom's house, so we played Legos instead. I think I played with her for about a couple of hours while Tim and his friends talked. After that, she wanted me to sit next to her in the car; she wanted to show me ALL of her toys.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me. One time, while back in Odessa, I was doing laundry at my apartment's laundry room when a couple of kids came in and just started talking to me, informing me that I looked like Spider-Man. I was flabbergasted. These kids didn't know anything about me, and there they were striking up a conversation, no parents in sight.

Personally, I feel like kids can smell fear, and they glory in the chance to make an adult feel nervous.

But, back to Karlee.

Karlee and I had always been super nervous around each other, but not when she got off the plane. She flew right into my arms and allowed me to hold her hand while we walked back to the car.

On our way to a McDonald's to pick up dinner, Karlee kept talking about how she was only going to stay one day with us, and that after she saw Unicorn Land she'd go home. It was at that point I wrote the first of many Facebook posts indicating what Tim and I learned about children while hanging with Karlee:

1. When you promise a child Unicorn Land, you better be prepared to deliver Unicorn Land.

Karlee was excited about her time with us throughout the entire car ride home, right up to the point when she passed out in the car from exhaustion, but through her excitement I sensed that she was starting to get a little scared. The "big city" was starting to seem a little too big.

Well, we got her some chicken nuggets to go and finally arrived at our apartment. Inside our apartment for the first time was the moment when fear seemed to over take Karlee's excitement. She sat down on the floor and said, "I want my Mommy."

Tim was getting the rest of her luggage, and I didn't know what to say. I asked her, "Don't you want to stay with us? Your Uncle TJ has so much planned for you." She responded with, "No, I want my Mommy." So, I just got our food ready and waited for Tim to get back. Please hurry! was the thought running through my head, I believe.

When he returned, Karlee told him the same. He informed her that we couldn't go back right now, but maybe after she ate something. It was a brilliant move because the moment Karlee's attention was pushed onto something other than her own fear, she transformed back into the extremely talkative and excited girl she had been on the plane.

Whew! One crisis averted!

It wasn't the last time she'd ask for her mother, or her Nana, or her Daddy, or any other family member she could think of, but we learned something that I never posted on Facebook:

1a. When a child starts to go to THAT place out of fear, it's best to distract them with something shiny. 

Thankfully, Karlee's visit was filled with mostly moments of fun, but there were those moments when we truly had a taste, the merest of tastes I know, of what it'd be like to have a child of our own. There were moments when we'd get frustrated with Karlee, and there were definitely moments when Karlee'd get frustrated with her uncles.

To find out more, keep reading, as I plan on writing about our entire week hanging with Karlee. In small chunks to make it more manageable. :)