JP Sleeps Over

Last week at the Rock-n-Romp, Satchel (and JP of Urf! and Sweet Sassy Molassy fame) came up to me and said, "Can JP spend the night next Friday?"

Impressed by his ability to pick a weekend night and put me on the spot in front of his very best friend, I couldn't think of a reason to say no. "Sure," I said. "As long as Kristy says okay."

Kristy called me on Friday and said, "JP woke up this morning and said, 'I get to spend the night with Satchel tonight!'"

Satchel had been distracted from the sleepover when we started anticipating Friday as the day of the Overton Park Hayride. However, when we picked him up from school and informed him that not only were we going to the hayride, but JP was coming with us and then spending the night, he could hardly contain himself.

"You mean he is still going to be in my bed when I wake up?" he asked excitedly.

When we pulled up to JP's house, he was in the front yard with most of his siblings anxiously awaiting our arrival. We had already put in an extra child seat and he was in the car sitting between Satchel and Jiro in the blink of an eye.

"Don't you want to say goodbye to everyone?" I asked.

"Bye!" he said.

Kristy handed me his backpack filled with extra clothes and extra food in case he didn't want to eat any of our food. She said, "He'll probably want to come home at some point tonight, so just call. It's no big deal. We can pick him up."

"Okay," I said. "See you in a little bit." (After the hayride I was authorized to make a brief, solo appearance at Elizabeth's art opening which Kristy and RJA would both be attending. (And later writing about much more eloquently than I.)

We were some of the first people to arrive at Overton Park and got the first seats on the hayride.


Satchel, Jiro, and JP all seemed to enjoy the ride although Jiro asked numerous times, "Where are we going?" and "What's that noise?"

Once we made the rounds through the trails, we headed to the fire to make smores. I wondered if JP would like them. He shunned the Hershey bars and graham crackers, but was very happy to roast and eat several marshmallows, as were Satchel and Jiro.


Realizing we had yet to feed them dinner, I wondered if this was the best way to start off the evening. Oh well, I'll soon be at the art opening and Warren can deal with it... Just kidding!

Once each of the boys had a chance to roast a marshmallow or two, they were very eager to get to the house and start attacking the toys. We unloaded everyone and as I got ready to make a break for it, I enjoyed watching Satchel give JP "the tour."

"Here's where you can put your shoes," he said as he opened the closet door.

"Here's where my Mommy hides the movies," he said as he pointed to the very top shelf of my closet.

"Here's where we can take our bath tonight," he said as he pointed to the tub. "JP gets to take a bath with me, right Mommy?" he confirmed.

"Okay, JP, let's go see the toys," he said as he dragged him to the living room.

I ordered a cheese pizza per Kristy's instructions and said good-bye to Warren and Jiro. I walked into the living room to say good-bye to Satchel and JP. "Remember to put away each toy when you are done playing with it, like at school," I said to Satchel in a very optimistic/anal-retentive way before I left.

After an hour and a half of good art, good wine, good friends, and good conversation, I returned to the house to find it in shambles. Every toy and and every pillow and every blanket we own had been piled into a heap on the living room floor. A trail of crumbs led to the kitchen where I found abandoned sippy cups and discarded pizza crusts covering the table and most of the counter tops. I followed a giggling noise to the bathroom where I found Satchel, Jiro, and JP up to their eyeballs in bubbles.


Warren was busy gathering pajamas.

"I take it they are having fun?" I said.

As they continued to bury themselves in bubbles, Warren and I cleared off the living room floor and made a pallet for them to sleep on. Once in their jammies, all three boys lined up on the floor anxiously awaiting the start of Spider-man 2. (Satchel and Jiro fought over who got to sleep next to JP, so he ended up in the middle.) After twenty minutes or so JP was sound asleep. Ten minutes later Jiro knocked off. At some point Satchel seemed to be asleep too, so we turned off the TV and went about cleaning up the kitchen, checking email, etc.

"I'm not sleepy," Satchel said as he came out of the livingroom.

It was 10:30pm.

"What!?" I was in shock.

Clearly he was too excited about the sleepover concept to actually sleep. He and Warren colored for awhile and I attempted to quietly watch "Grey's Anatomy" while Jiro and JP slept. That worked for about 5 seconds. Jiro woke up and angrily said, "Where is Spider-man!?" and commenced crying.

I turned off the TV and attempted to pat him back to sleep. Everytime I tried to get off the floor, he woke up. Eventually I just picked him up and took him into the big bed with me.

By now it was after 11:30pm. Warren came in and said he was going to sleep on the sofa with Satchel and watch the rest of Spider-man. It was after midnight when Satchel finally fell asleep. JP was oblivious to all of the commotion, although he did make a full 360 on the pallet.

I woke up repeatedly throughout the night worried that JP was going to wake up wondering where the hell he was, but I never heard a peep. I also worried that everyone would be up at 6am.

Surprisingly they all slept until 8am. Pretty amazing for a Saturday morning. Satchel was very excited to take JP back to the Overton Park trails with us and the dogs (our weekend ritual). They immediately got fully clothed and starting packing their backpacks full of Hot Wheels and snacks.

"Hold on, guys," I said. "We have to at least eat breakfast and in order to do that I need to get milk."

"Okay," they said despondently.

"What kind of cereal do you like, JP?"

"Fruit Loops," he said.

"Okay, Fruit Loops it is," I said as I ran to Schnucks for milk and cereal.

When I returned, the house was once again in shambles and Jiro was doing his best to win JP's affection. JP would quietly stand and wait for Jiro to stop hugging him. He barely made a peep when Jiro had him in a head-lock. He just smiled when Jiro sat on him and pinned him next to the ottoman.

"JP, please let me know if Jiro is bothering you," I said.

He never said a word.

The Fruit Loops went uneaten and we headed to the trails. Satchel and JP's backpacks were crazy heavy but they both insisted on carrying them. Jiro had given up on keeping up with the big boys and desperately tried to get me and/or Warren to carry him. I called Kristy to see if she and the other kids wanted to meet at the playground for the "Return of JP."

We dropped off the dogs and headed to the playground. We pulled in just as Kristy and the kids did. S and C ran over to greet JP and he briefly said, "Hi," before turning towards the slide.

"Hi JP, did you have fun?" Kristy asked.

"Yes," Mr. Cool said before running off.

I can't wait to see what this Friday is like when Satchel and Jiro spend the night at JP's house.