We had a good weekend. Got some stuff done. Jim and I got to see Teatro Zinzanni with our friends. And Ione went to her first sleepover. There is this family in our church, the Ketola’s. They have 4 kids. Two of them, Anna and Rachel, 15 and 13 respectively, babysit for us regularly. They also have an 8-year old named Ellie. Ione is in love with all of them. Anyway, they invited her to come spend the night on Sunday and we figured that if she was going to have a first sleepover, the chances were pretty good that it would go well at the Ketola’s. So we said yes. Ione was beside herself with excitement.

 

We packed her little backpack. Jammies. Toothbrush. Clothes. Stuffed animal. Pillow. Sleeping bag. Epi pen. The usual. I dropped her off around 4pm on Sunday. This in itself was a bit strange since she’s never been away from us overnight. But I knew she was in good hands so I took a deep breath and drove home, willing myself to enjoy the time, not frett over what might or might not happen.  

 

The experience of being without Ione for 23 hours (we went to their house for a BBQ the next day at 3pm) was like some kind of twilight zone experience. There was a calm over our house, a pervasive quiet, that was almost eerie. In 5 years, our house has not experienced such a respite.  I tried to liven up our dinner with conversation but the boys just looked at me like “are you crazy? why would we talk and make noise when we can enjoy this PEACE and QUIET, however fleeting??!!”

 

 

When we got to the BBQ she was totally busy playing with the kids and barely registered our arrival. She spent almost the entire time we were there jumping on the trampoline with 4 other kids, Thelonious included. The combination of a sleepover and 8-10 hours of trampoline jumping pushed her right to the edge of reason. By the time we tried to gather her to head home, she lost it and basically started crying hysterically and screaming, “I”M NOT TIRED!!!  I WANT TO STAY AND JUMP ON THE TRAMPOLINE!!! I SAID I’M NOT SLEEPY!!! YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!” This rant lasted about 45 seconds into the drive home when she fell dead asleep. The rest of us enjoyed those few minutes of quiet on the way home, knowing that first thing the next morning, things would be back to their noisy normality in the Fox house.