Dog Tired

As any mother knows, when a child asks if they can have ‘a sleepover’, it means one of two things, 1) that sleep will literally be over for the night and 2) that something is going to happen on the one night that you are responsible for someone elses kids.  Little Man was the one that made the special request this time, and as it was his birthday weekend, I couldn’t exactly say No.

And so it was that two other very excited 7 year olds descended on the house along with teddy bears, pillows, both had the exact same electric toothbrushes- which Little Man said immediately was the only thing he wanted for his birthday (eeek!) – and neither had ever been on a sleep over with friends before.  Little Man, having the advantage of being the youngest of three, and having social butterflies as parents, has had quite a few sleepovers and counted himself as quite an expert, so took control.  Unfortunately he forgot to tell Muttley.

As soon as the two hot little bodies arrived in the house Muttley launched himself at them with great enthusiasm and knocked them both down like ninepins.  Little Man tried to rescue them and they all ended up in a small pile with puppy on top of them.  The mums looked dubious as I grabbed Muttley’s collar and yanked him off the giggling collapsed kids pyramid whilst assuring them that he was perfectly harmless.  As I tried to put him in a separate room the kids all shouted No and the mums beat a hasty exit without either of their treasures bothering to look up and say goodbye…

Amazing how sleepovers can go.  And it did, like a dream.  All the games that I had sorted out for them were ignored as the three 7 year olds rediscovered an old puppet theatre that had gone through the first two boys with much hilarity, and had lain in the corner of the loft ever since.  Of course the puppy was involved and had a starring role which suited him down to the ground.  Whenever the woodcutter appeared (he was a baddie), Muttleys role was to wrestle him to the ground.  This of course meant that a little hand was regularly denuded, but added to the thrill of  the whole play.  Scripts were written, songs composed thanks to an old keyboard that had only one  prerecorded song and that was Jingle Bells, and the whole thing was videoed thanks to Mummy’s iPhone.

Then there was popcorn and a dvd, and pup laid curled up at the feet of the kids, hoping to catch any tidbits that fell.

As I said, something always happens – and it did, but in a minor, unassuming way.  One of the two had a nosebleed in the middle of the night, which he dealt with in a far better manner than I did, and the other  disappeared just before bedtime and I wondered if he was feeling a little homesick.  Seeking him out, I found him sitting in his pj’s with his arms around the dog, giving him a goodnight cuddle. 

I guess that maybe sleepovers aren’t so bad after all…