Last night my daughter had a friend sleep over. Now normally this is a great thing because if daughter has a friend to play with all night I don’t have to entertain her. I don’t have to read the directions or hints on the games she plays online. I don’t have to type in the names of all the Miis she makes. The friend can do all these things because the friend is 11 years old and knows how to read. I look forward to sleep overs.

And all was going fine last night. They sat down and watched Kitt Kittridge On Demand. Well the friend watched, daughter watched for all of five minutes. Five minutes was more than I thought she would watch so I told them they could paint their nails while watching. Bad idea.

Not only did daughter put at least seven different colors of coats on her nails she also left every bottle of nail polish just open enough to spill all over the coffee table. Why wasn’t I watching you ask. I was, and I had prepared by placing layers of paper towel down on the coffee table. I also asked the friend, who really is a babysitter in my eyes, to make sure that she and daughter closed the nail polish before opening a new one. Whatever. I cleaned up the mess and went back to doing my thing which I will get to in another post.

Things again settled down and were going fine. The kids had decided to sleep upstairs in sleeping bags. They set up their camp in front of the TV and watched Hannah Montana, a really annoying show I might add. I was in the next room while they watched TV and when they fell asleep I turned off the TV and went downstairs to watch some History Channel in peace.

I grabbed my son’s Snuggie and a pillow and stretched out on the couch with Stanley and the cat. I was there for about five minutes when I heard screaming upstairs. Coming down the stairs was daughter and friend. Both crying.

Now what!?

The friend’s mom explained that she had a history of sleep walking so I wasn’t sure if she was awake or asleep.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I feel sick” She cried. She was clutching her stomach.

“Do you need to go to the bathroom?” I asked. I asked this because, at least with my kids, this usually solves all sick feelings in the stomach.

“No, if I go back to sleep I’m sure I will be fine.” She said

“Do you want to go home?” I asked. She lives next door and her parents were still up, not that it would matter if they weren’t.

“No I don’t want to go home” She cried as she ran into the bathroom.

Meanwhile my daughter is crying at the top of her lungs. She is not crying because she is sick she is crying because she doesn’t want the sleep over to end. I didn’t know this at first because I couldn’t understand a word she was screaming but eventually I deciphered it. But I couldn’t deal with her at the moment and was rather frustrated with her that she couldn’t calm herself down for a few minutes while I took care of her friend.

When her friend emerged from the bathroom I asked again if she wanted to go home. This set my daughter off to new levels of ear shattering screams.

“Chill out! Daughter” I shouted as I tried to hear what her friend was telling me.

“I think I should go home” She said.

Thank God! I called her mom and explained the situation. Her mother arrived within minutes. I apologized for her daughter’s sudden illness and went over the list of things she had to eat while in my care. All they ate was some Kraft mac and cheese. They both ate it and daughter wasn’t sick so I didn’t think that was the problem but you never know. Her mom apologized to me, probably for the smell emanating from the bathroom, and worked on gathering her daughter’s belongings. Two pillows, a blanket, sleeping bag, American Girl Doll, clothes for the American Girl Doll, shoes for the American Girl Doll, a stuffed animal, and her diary. Also her boots, mittens and coat. We were going to be a while.

Through it all my daughter is still crying about the end of the sleep over. Friend’s mom, who loves my daughter and thinks she is the cutest little girl in the world (except for her own of course), asks her what she is crying about. She is worried that she is sick too. I quickly and shamefully explain that my daughter is not the least bit concerned about her sick friend but that she wants the sleep over to continue. Mind you it’s midnight at this point and the sleep over would have been all over except for the actual sleeping.

They leave and I try to calm my daughter down with little success. I know she is tired, I know she is sad the party is over so I pull her next to me and try to get her to settle down. I notice she is very warm.

Damn.

After taking her temperature, something she loves doing don’t ask me why. I give her some children’s Tylenol and wait for it to take effect. She eventually falls asleep and I pick her up and carry her to bed.

It’s about 1am at this point. I am too wired up to fall asleep so I go back to my History channel and immediately fall asleep on the couch.

What seems like minutes later I hear the pitter patter of my daughter followed by Stanley clicking on the hardwood floors ( need to take him to get those nails clipped since the Petipaw was a disaster). It’s time to wake up! Daughter feels just fine, the dog needs to pee and the phone is ringing. Daughter’s friend also feels better and wants to come over and play.

I need a nap.