Chapter Text
I’m doing something different here, outside of my personal research. You see, Kate is my best friend and like a sister to me. I would do anything for her, well almost anything. Which brings us to this adventure, babysitting. I’ve never liked kids. They were not for me. But my niece, I love her. She is very much spoiled by her grandma Cathy, her mother, and her father. None of them except Mama C will admit it. I’d like to add that I tend to coddle her. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of our stories about how these adventures work.
Let’s start at the beginning…
I brought Kate back to Oklahoma to chase storms. Correction- to help my team make decisions I knew only she could figure out. She met Tyler Owens, a “tornado cowboy.” Something about his charm worked and she fell hard for him. So hard that she mouthed off to me, took off with him, stole his truck (Kate will say she ‘borrowed it’) and drove into an EF5 tornado stopping it in its tracks. She saved a lot of lives that day. Now before getting on a plane to go back to New York, the cowboy wrangler chased after her, where she used his own catch phrase, “if you feel it, chase it” on him.
She never got on that flight even after it was rescheduled twice. Tyler worked his charm and begged her to remain in Oklahoma. They fell in love, he asked for her mothers blessing, and eventually they got married. A little over a year after they were married, they welcomed a beautiful little girl, Aurora Sky Owens. She had her fathers' green eyes and her mother's smile. The perfect combination of both.
How did I get wrangled into babysitting?
Simple. Tyler and Kate deserve a date night on occasion as much as any other couple. Finding a trustworthy sitter does not come easy especially when the kids' father is a famous YouTuber. Cathy enjoys helping out but her duties on the farm often keep her occupied.
Okay so you’ll have to excuse me because all of these adventures will be posted at random in no particular order. I think for this first one, I’ll share a moment when she was an infant. Boone offered to help out, so technically it could be considered as “both” of our adventures.
Aurora was around four months old, or maybe it was five. Kate had been invited to some gala with NOAA. I gladly accepted the invitation to babysit. She was five months old. How hard could it be to babysit an infant?
“Looking good Kate.” High school had been the last time I saw Kate in a formal dress.
“Thanks Javi. Are you sure you can handle this?”
“It’s babysitting my niece. It can’t be that hard.”
Tyler entered the room straightening his tie. “Depends on who you ask man.”
“Says the man who drives into tornadoes for a living.”
“Well have a good night, Javi and we will be home later.”
“Thanks again.”
“You would think they don’t trust me.” I brushed off the laugh and looked at the little angel who was shaking a rattle. “What have you got there? Is that a noise maker?” She cooed and it’s almost as if her eyes were hypnotic as she managed to get me to pick her up. “I was always told that holding babies too much means you will spoil them. I don’t think that’s the case with you. Uncle Javi loves you so much.” I made the mistake of picking her up and holding her above my head as she projectiles spit up followed by a giggle. “Ahh really kid. Why!”
—
I was sitting on the couch watching a sitcom. Boone had decided to join for the night, keeping me company because it wasn’t like Aurora understood what I was saying to her. She began fussing in her sleep.
“Hey Boone, when was the last time you changed her?”
“I’d say an hour ago maybe two, why?”
“Something smells.”
“Sorry man, it was those onions on my burger.”
I picked Aurora up out of her bassinet and a yellow stain ran up her back, some seeping onto my black shirt. “Oh, dear lord…why!” Boone snorted. I wanted to smack him. “Laugh it up. I think you should come over and change her.”
“What is this shit? Is yellow normal?”
After laying her on the changing table, and unzipping her footsie, revealing the mustard color, pasty poop, had covered her back. She began to kick. “No, oh god no. Sit still.” Her foot had the sticky shit on it.
Clearly, we both were not experts at changing diapers. Aurora laughed and began to blow bubbles with her spit. “You’re lucky you are cute. Hand me the damn wipes.” I took the package from Boone, and we did the best to clean her up. “Yo see if Kate has air freshener spray somewhere because this shit stinks.”
“What do I do with the diaper?”
“Get rid of it man.”
“Okay.” He tossed into the trash can.
I probably should’ve warned him not to do that because the messages from Kate that next day weren’t pleasant.
Kate: Javi next time don’t throw the dirty diaper into my kitchen garbage.
Javi: Where would you like them?
Kate: The diaper genie.
Javi: Right, I’ll make a note.
Kate: Also, next time please spray some shout on her clothes because shit stains.
Javi: Damn Kate, I’m not your maid but I can do that. Leave me a list because how was I supposed to know?
Kate: Details Javi.
—
After cleaning Aurora up, I asked Boone to prepare a bottle. “Hey man can you get her bottle of milk?”
Boone walked over with two bottles in hand. One appeared to have chocolate milk and the other cow's milk. “Seriously man?”
“You said bring her milk, I didn’t know what flavor she liked.”
Immediately I had to chuckle because this was Boone. He was a mess and clearly knew nothing about babies. “She can’t have cow's milk.”
I reached for the bag of breast milk in the door and carefully heated it in warm water before pouring the contents into a bottle.
“What kind of milk is that?”
“It’s breast milk.”
“Kate breastfeeds?”
“I think we have established that she does Boone. Why?”
“Is breast milk sweet like they say?”
I could care less to find the answer to that question. “Dude, I don’t know. Why are you trying to put images of Kate’s breasts in my mind.”
“She’s your friend.”
I shoved the bottle into his arms. “I could care less to find out. Feed her and let’s get back to watching our movie.”
I watched him pick her up, and she immediately grabbed his mustache pulling at it. “You’re such a cutie. Owe, owe let go of Uncle Boone. What did I ever do to you?” She giggled. He began to feed the bottle to her.
“This isn’t so bad, right?”
Aurora had fallen asleep in his arms. “Nah man.” He took her to the swing and gently placed her in the seat. Kate had told us she rests better in it. Something about the motion soothed her, physics. Boone turned the swing on then sat beside me on the couch.
“So…” I was about to start a serious conversation when I happened to notice the swing going full blast. “Oh, shit man!” I raced over and flipped it off. “Dude are you trying to send the baby flying?”
“My bad.”
I think my heart was racing enough to say Boone nearly gave me a heart attack. Kate trusted us, especially me, with her child. I would prefer if she returned home to Aurora in one piece.
Tyler walked in the door around 2:15am. He had a big shit grin on his face. "You survived! Congratulations."
"It's not rocket science ya know."
"I don't even want to know why Boone isn't wearing a shirt." He picked Aurora up to move her to her crib.
—
The following morning, I received an abundance of texts from Kate.
Kate: (picture of bottle with chocolate milk) Javi, what is this?
Javi: Ask Boone.
Kate: I don’t want to ask him. Did you give my baby chocolate milk?
Javi: I didn’t but Boone nearly did.
Kate: Why!
Javi: Aurora is fine Kate. Chill.
Kate: There is no chill. Javi, you both are FIRED from babysitting.
I looked at Boone. “Dude Kate just fired us from babysitting.”
He chuckled, “it’s only temporary. Let her be mad but the moment her and T need a date night they will call us.”
—
He was right. Two months later we were back at it with another adventure. I mean, who gets fired from babysitting?