After Party Sleepover

Once Josh and I got all the kids back to his place and happily playing with Jesse’s toys, we settled on the couch together. “Are you ok?” I asked him, he was leaning back against the couch with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes were closed.

He nodded, “I’m just a little tired,” he opened his eyes and smiled at me. “I haven’t really slept that much in the past couple days.”

“Why don’t you go and lie down then?” I asked him as he closed his eyes again.

Shaking his head, he told me that he was fine. “I’ll just sleep like a log tonight,” he smiled.

But as it happened, Josh wasn’t the only one who was sleepy. First Jenna came over and wanted to get up, when I picked her up, she snuggled up with me and closed her eyes. Then I noticed Jesse was doing little head bobs while he was lying on the floor playing cars with Conner. Megan was already passed out on the carpet over in the corner of the living room.

“Daddy? Ama?” Jesse came over to us rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Jesse sleepy.”

Josh peeked out from under his lashes long enough to see where Jesse was standing and pull him up into his arms.

“No daddy,” Jesse mumbled against Josh’s chest. “Jesse go bed.”

Reluctantly Josh pushed off the couch, “I’ll be right…” his words trailed of into a laugh when he saw Jenna sleeping in my arms. “That’s two down,” he joked while motioning for me to follow him.

“Actually,” I nodded in Megan’s direction. “It’s three.”

When Josh and I went to Jesse’s room to put the kids down, Conner followed us. “Aunt Anna, I’m sleepy too.”

Turing towards Josh, I asked him what he put in that cake. He laughed, “It was all part of the plan Anna.” He winked and repeated, “All part of the plan.”

When it was all said and done, Jesse and Jenna were sleeping on Jesse’s bed while Conner and Megan were passed out on the air mattress Josh normally sleeps on in Jess’ room.

And me? Who wasn’t really sleepy at all? I let Josh talk me into lying down with him on his bed; he fell asleep not long after he pulled me back against him and I laid there in his arms, thinking about everything that happened at the party.

I’m not sure how long it took me to fall asleep but I do remember waking up to hearing, “Shhh daddy’s sleeeeping!” Opening my eyes, I saw four sets of eyes starting back at me. “Ama!” Jesse giggled as he tried to get up on the bed with us.

“Shhh,” I glanced over my shoulder at Josh, who was still snoring away.

Jesse giggled again, “Shhh daddy sleeping.” I nodded and then asked what they were all doing, he told me that they wanted to play but he wasn’t allowed to play without daddy being awake.

“Ok,” I felt kind of sad that I would have to leave Josh sleeping but I got up with the kids and took them out into the living room where I asked them what they wanted to do. “It has to be something quiet though,” I told them. “Josh is still sleeping; we don’t want to wake him, do we?”

“No,” the kids all said in unison.

“So what do you all want to do?” I looked at them; they all looked at each other because they didn’t know what they could do. After listing a few things, they decided that they wanted to color a picture; I helped each of them find a picture and set them up with crayons and sat with them for a few minutes before Jesse asked me to leave because he was coloring the picture for me and he wanted it to be a surprise.

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on the couch reading through some of the sports magazines that Josh had lying around when he plopped down on the couch next to me and cuddled up next to me. “Hey,” I kissed his forehead as he rested his head on my shoulder. “We didn’t wake you, did we?”

“No,” he mumbled still half asleep. “Not feeling you in my arms anymore woke me.” I smiled and lifted my hand to his cheek but I didn’t say anything. We stayed sitting like that for a while, he would move every once in a while to readjust his hold on me but it remained pretty much the same. Sometimes I could tell he was checking out the magazine I was reading and other times, I noticed he was watching the kids as they moved from coloring to playing with Jesse’s cars again.

It was just after 5 when Megan came over to us and told us she was hungry. “My tummy saying ‘grrrr’ Uncle Josh,” she said with a little giggled as she stood with her hands on her hips and her little tummy pushed out.

Josh asked the other kids if they were hungry and they all said yes so he got up and headed out to the kitchen where he opened cupboards and closed them again for a few minutes before he poked his head back in the living room and asked if anyone felt like going out for burgers and fries. “I really don’t want to cook,” he told me when I gave him a questioning glance.

We decided on McDonalds because let’s face it, it was easy, fast and the kids all loved it. Josh also suggested that we all go in my car because it was bigger and he wanted us all to be together, of course the only problem was that one of the kids had to sit up front between us and since Conner was the oldest, he got that privilege. “Just don’t tell your daddy,” I joked as I strapped him in.

On the way to McDonalds, I tried to find out what all the kids wanted but they kept changing their minds every five seconds. When we walked into the building, Jesse and Conner took off to see what toys were offered and which they wanted. There was a little bit of a line up ahead of us so Josh suggested that I take the kids and go find a place to sit. “But I have to get food for Jenna and Conner,” I told him.

“I got it,” he told me and then turned to tell the boys to go with me.

“But you don’t know what they want,” I said as he tried to shoo me away.

“Megan wants nuggets, Jenna a grilled cheese sandwich and the boys want cheeseburgers – all of them want fries and apple juice. You,” he smiled at me. “Would like a Big Xtra w/cheese meal – no lettuce, extra onions,” he made a face and then told me what he wanted. “Did I forget anything?”

“No one likes a know it all,” I told him with a laugh. “Ok kids, come on let’s go find a table.”

We ended up sitting in one of the corner booths, all the kids were on the inside while Josh and I were on the ends. I wasn’t sure how it would be having all four kids at McDonalds at the same time but it was surprisingly not that bad; sure they were loud and a little messy but they were really good overall.

When we left McDonalds Jordan called me on my cell and asked me when I was planning on returning his daughter to him. “I was just kidding when I said you could have her!”

I told him that I would drop her off right away and then hung up. “Jordan would like me to return Jenna,” I told Josh. I immediately regretted mentioning Jordan’s name when the smile disappeared from Josh’s face and a cold stare took its place.