"Be now?"

I am not sure exactly what prompted me to think about this but it was a fun trip down memory lane. Perhaps I was thinking of when 'we' took all of Timmy's baby bottles, nipples, accoutrement's related to bottles and had them disappear one night. All that was left for Timmy to drink from were sippy cups---imagine that! We just had to remember to NOT open the cabinet over the ovens when he was around...shh!  That was how we went from bottles to sippy cups cold turkey, and it worked!

What I was thinking of, though, was when my little nephew, Jamie, stayed with 'us'. When he was born, I was my sister's coach, with her hubby cooling his heels in the waiting area. Then, when he was only 12 days old, Jamie came to spend the night, sleeping alongside our bed in a little fold-out bed. I can't remember if he slept all night, pretty sure he didn't, but we were attentive to his every whim. Like having a real live doll to play with! 

Since his mom worked and was in the Reserves, and his dad also worked, 'we' were more than willing to help out. I worked from home when I wasn't working at Shady Lane and we had a room all fixed up for Jamie. We'd built a 'big' house in this subdivision and had our office in our home. With the intercom system we could keep tabs on him during his naps, and he was in the office when he was awake. 

As he got older, we moved him from the little fold out bed to a wooden pack 'n play from my mother-in-law. It was probably not deemed child safe any longer but what did we know? It sure beat sleeping on the floor in the fold-out bed. As Jamie grew bigger and bigger, the rickety 'old' wooden crib was just not going to do it for him. We had a twin-sized bed in the same room where the crib was located. Well, one day, when Jamie came over, that little wooden crib was gone! We pretended to look all over the place for it, with him helping us. Opening the closets, under the bed, going room to room, with him asking his little question, "Be now?", whenever he was looking for someone or something. "Be now?"  

Not finding the crib, he had to sleep in the twin bed. My spouse put him to bed, tucked Jamie snugly into the bed, where he stayed all night long. That plan worked! Well, it worked until it was me who put him to bed one night, tucking him in snugly, I thought. But then, during the night, we heard a big thud! and a crying boy. We both flew from our room next door and into his, finding him on the floor. I could not tuck the blankets in tightly enough to keep him from rolling onto the floor, it seemed. 

Well, one day we were having the family over and everyone was going between the house and deck on the side of the house. Some of the folks were playing 'ball ball' with Jamie outside, him sporting his jaunty hat with the snap under the chin to protect his ears which had tubes in them. I can still picture his face when he came through the garage toward the back yard and he spotted the missing crib----hidden behind a door! Oh, my, was he ever excited to have found the lost crib! and we were so busted!!!  Too late now, he was going to be using the bed but he was excited over having found the lost crib. "Be now!!!"