Adventures in Babysitting

We always love the opportunity to keep AJ so that she and Ali can play, and so we kept AJ last night while David and Ashley had a work-related dinner. As I have posted many times before (but I have a lot of new readers, so I’ll review), Ali and AJ and bestestest friends! They LOVE hanging out and talk about each other every day. It is so fun to see them relate to each other. Last time AJ came over, we had an absolute ball, and I think I took some of the best pictures I’ve ever taken. Although I didn’t dress them in matching jammies with matching pigtails this time, I did get some cute pictures. This time was more fun in some ways (we were much more comfortable chasing around two toddlers around since we’d done it once before), and less fun in others (Ali had the beginnings of a cold, so she wasn’t her usual excited, energetic self. And yes, I did warn Ashley that Ali was getting a cold!!). But it was a great time, and the girls LOVED playing together!
Here’s the pics:

Waiting for Mr. Chris/Daddy to get home!!
OK – getting bored. Hurry up Daddy!!!
AJ was obsessed with reading books to Elmo. She did it throughout the night. See the stack of world almanacs behind her? Yup, Elmo got the whole download. ;)
For some reason they look shocked that I’m taking their picture. Come on girls, you know that’s my normal mode of operation!!
AJ reading, Ali trying to hide a book in the camera case. Maybe so that AJ has one less to read to Elmo?
I took several pictures of them on this bench, and realized that my child is becoming gargantuanly huge. Especially her head!! She looks like a giant next to AJ! I mean, we all know that AJ will be more petite than Ali since Ashley is more petite than me, but come on, AJ is 3.5 months older! Ali, slow down on the food!!

Dazed and confused. . .AJ didn’t want to leave the bench. Reading to Elmo, again. . .
Still on the bench. . . .
On the bench so long she’s getting sleepy!!
Phew. Finally back to playing.

Uh-Oh. . .found a new chair. . .
Wanting to share!!
mmm. . . maybe not share.
Seriously – I don’t wanna share!!!
AJ sitting like a little lady and Ali. . . not so much.

“Lean on me. . . “
This was hard to come by last night . . . a double smiling picture!!
Such a CUTE, toothy smile!!
Another one. . .But Ali is still in a cold-daze. . .
Ali, being that she had a cold, was of course ready to go to bed. AJ, not so much. She was having way too much fun reading every bit of literature in the house to Elmo. Here’s a video of me asking them if they were ready for bed, and AJ trying to escape the bedtime police!!

All in all, it was a very fun night!! The girls had fun, we had fun, I think I managed to keep them from swapping snot, and of course I had plenty of photo ops! What else could anyone ask for?!?