Full Life Circle

Before we know it, we are in playoff season. Jon is back to playing hockey and the three of us have moved into a house that I found without Sandra’s help. It is only fifteen minutes in traffic from Abby and Patrick’s, twenty minutes at maximum from the UC and only ten from Johnny’s Icehouse where the team practices. It really is the perfect location for a Blackhawk and his family. Well, his daughter and her nanny to live with him.

Jon and I have become close friends, besides Abby he is the only one I can trust in the city. I mean, Patrick counts too, but I haven’t exactly been welcomed in by the rest of the Blackhawks WAGs. They all seem to look down on me for being the nanny and disregard the fact that I also happen to be Abby’s sister.

Little Brooklyn has grown like no other. It is crazy to think that I have only been around since the middle of January and we now find ourselves at the end of April. The Blackhawks have defeated the St. Louis Blues in the first round are going to play the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. Abby, the girls, and I had driven down to St. Louis for game 5 which the team had won. But we had already decided that it wouldn’t be possible to drive to Colorado for a game with the girls still in day care. Therefore, we were going to have watch parties at both Jon’s house and Abby’s for the times they were on the road. It would switch and some of Abby’s closer Blackhawk WAGs friends would join us. The rest of them would travel to be with their men, but that was mostly the WAGs without children to take care of.

Today is game one against the Aves which is in Colorado because they ranked ahead of us in the seeding. This road watch party is at Abby’s because her two girls have day care tomorrow, it will be easier for them both to sleep in their own bed while I only have to cart a three month old around. Brooklyn is at the stage where she will sleep anywhere and everywhere, so I wasn’t worried about going over to Abby’s for an 8pm start time.

I arrive at Abby’s around seven so I can help her get the appetizers ready for the other WAGs. They were set to arrive at seven forty or so and so I wanted to make sure she had everything ready and the girls all set.

“Hey Abby, what can I help with?” I asked after letting myself into the house and left Brooklyn in the port-a-crib in the family room where my nieces were watching the Wiggles on the couch.

I found her in the kitchen putting some of her appetizers into the oven. It looked like they were pizza like things, so I figured they were her homemade pizza bagels. They are so much better than store bought ones we grew up on and they are quite delicious. I take every opportunity I can get when she makes them because it isn’t often, even in the three months I have lived in Chicago.

“Can you just sit in the other room with the girls? They will probably want to get up as soon as the show is over and I can’t have them come into the kitchen right now. I’m still cleaning up my mess from making the pizza bagels which needs to be done before the ladies all get here. The kids will just want something to make even more of a mess. I know that you are already a nanny but it would be super great, Sis. Thanks!” I turned right around and settled myself in between my nieces. It made them giggle and I loved it. I have made the most of using every moment I have with them to play and make them laugh. It makes me so happy to hear my nieces laugh and have fun.

“Auntie Em, you’re squishing me!” Madelyn says through her giggles. Maddie is two and a half and Sadie is five months old sitting in her baby chair on the couch next to her sister and I. They are both the cutest little things besides Brooklyn who I believe to be the cutest, but would never admit that to Abby. I think it’s because I have completely fallen in love with Jon and wish I was something more to him than a friend and his daughter’s nanny.

“Am I? Am I really? I can squish you more!” I start to squish her more and hear her giggle even more. It’s music to my ears and then I switch positions to grab her up and pull her into my lap. I slobber a lot of kisses on her cheek and hear her giggle again, even louder.

“Now Em, I told you to sit with them. I didn’t give you permission to rile them both up. That makes them impossible to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Thanks, Sis!” she tells me sarcastically. I love to do it to her, but the girls always go to bed for their favorite Aunt. Always.

“Maddie will go to bed when her Auntie tells her to, won’t you Maddie?” I ask the little girl and she nods enthusiastically. “See, Maddie will go to bed. And Sadie, she will fall asleep before we know it anyways. She’s easy peasy. Auntie Em will get all the little girls to sleep.”

“You better. Patrick’s not here to work his Daddy magic.” Abby says with her mommy sounding voice. I feel like she’s scolding me sometimes, like I should be her child. I admit, sometimes I act like a child, but I am definitely wiser and more mature than my twenty three years.

Sadie falls asleep before everyone even arrives so I gently and carefully bring both Sadie and Brooklyn upstairs to Sadie’s room to put them both in the same crib. The two are really close considering they are two months apart. But I am over here a lot when Jon is gone after making sure that the house is getting put together and clean. We’ve only been in the new house since the end of March, so it’s still a work in progress. With Jon not being around a lot, it’s hard to set things up around the house because I don’t want it to be inconvenient or in a place that he doesn’t like.

It’s a weird balancing act sometimes. We are close friends and it’s nice, but we aren’t to that point where we are completely comfortable around each other. I think it’s the unresolved sexual tension between us. There is a lot of it and it’s impossible to take it anywhere – for now at least. But it is still a big dream of mine.