Sara is my niece and the light of my life. This weekend Josh and I took care of Sarah so my sister and her husband could have a special night out. It was their anniversary, and my brother in law thought it would be a wonderful way to surprise my sister. He planned the whole thing out, a night of dinner and dancing and a stay in one of the most beautiful hotels in town. He just needed a sitter for Sara, and knowing how crazy I am about her, he asked me. I invited Josh along, and it was kind of a fun experiment. We arrived at my sisters about 3 and we also had some fun plans of our own in place. We were going to take Sara to Chuck E Cheese and play for the evening. We figured this would tire her out and give us the rest of the evening alone. Well we saw my sister and brother in law off and got Sara ready for her big trip to Chuck E Cheese. I told her where we were going and got her ready and changed and combed her hair. Sara was born bald, but now has a beautiful head of shoulder length brown hair. I am really glad that she is not one of those kids who stayed bald until they were two, that looks a bit silly and I am afraid a wig at that age would just look down right silly.

Anyway, we got her into her car seat, and took off for our adventure. I felt a little like an old married couple, but it was kind of nice. Sara kept throwing her sippy cup on the floor of the car and then whining to me so I kept giving it back to her which was a bit annoying, until finally I told her if she throws it again, I am not picking it up. So of course she had to test this, and I didn't pick it up, so of course she pitched a fit. The whole time Josh is telling me I should just pick it up, and I am telling him, no I warned her, and I am not picking up the sippy cup again. I tried to explain to him that you can't tell a child something and not follow through, they do understand what they are doing and they need to be accountable for their actions.

Well, I had never been to Chuck E Cheese before, but we had a blast. Sara played in the balls and climbed through the tunnels. Josh followed her through. She rode on those little ride-on animals and cars and she smiled the whole time. When we brought her up to see the Chuck E show, she was in awe, just staring at them. Then when we brought her up to see Chuck E after the show, I was careful thinking that she might be afraid, but not Sara; she jumped into his arms and hugged him. Of course, I got a really nice picture of them and I am going to have it framed for her mom. On the way home Sara fell asleep in the car and when we got back to my sisters house, I ran in and pulled down the bed as Josh carried her into the house. In that moment I knew that he would make an awesome husband and father. I felt kind of strange that I really had not seen it before. It left me speechless. We locked up the house and sat and watched TV for a while, just sitting snuggled together. We did not really discuss the evening at all although I think we both felt the same way, this just felt right. In the morning, we fed Sara breakfast, and her parents returned home, and we all got back to our normal lives, but not untouched by the experience.