The Nieces, the Ex, and The Weekend

Since my brotha is in Korea until June, my Sister-in-law has had their 2 daughters on her own and hasn't had a break. Last Tuesday was her birthday and I decided to give her that much needed break. I called her up and told her that I would pick the girls (ages 4 and 7) up on Saturday morning and keep them until Sunday evening.

On Friday morning, my ex, Dreads decided that he wanted to come to Atlanta and wanted to stay with me. I told him that I would have my nieces for the weekend, but he was welcomed to stay anyway. When he got in on Friday night, he took me out to dinner at Goldfish where we were greated by what were to become frequent strange looks from strangers. It was a pleasant dinner aside from people looking at us as though we were a black gay couple or something.

After dinner we decided to hit up a club even though I had to get up at 7am and drive 100 miles south to pick up the little ladies. We made it to Tower II about 12:30 and it was already crowded as hell. Surprisingly, I only had 1 drink and 1 beer *You can tell me how proud you are of me* and had an all right time. I did get a lot of attention because my t-shirt said "I may not be Mr. Right, but I will fuck you til he shows up". One lady even wanted to take a picture so that she could post it on her blog. Overall I had a pretty good time even though I was having some allergy issues and had to keep running to blow my nose. After the club, we just went to the house and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I hit I-75 south to Warner Robins to pick up my nieces and when I got there, they were packed and ready to go. My plan was to take them to the Georgia Aquarium and then come home and watch 2 movies and then on Sunday, take them to visit my brother and then for ice cream.

When I got back to Atlanta, Dreads said that he had not been to the aquarium and wanted to go. I am glad that he did because I needed the help cause B and J are a handful. I'm a pretty smart person, so I got the tickets online so that I wouldn't have to wait in line with the commoners. And let me tell you, when we got downtown, the line was a mile long. Since we were early, we went to the CNN center to get something to eat. And that's THEY started. THEY would happen to be the strange looks that we kept getting from people. I guess people didn't know what to think of 2 black men with 2 little girls.

And you can guess that I played right into the husband+husband+2 kids role. We walked with all of us holding hands or with him holding the 4 year old and me with the 7 year old riding on my back. We had strangers taking pictures with all 4 of us included. We sat down with the girls at a table and had lunch as though we were any other family. It think that we really did it when I got up and got J out of Dread's lap so that he could eat his lunch. And it was really cute how the girls interacted with both of us as though we were their actual parents.

After lunch, we went on the to the aquarium, but of course we were over and hour early, so we just went to the jungle gym at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, which is across from the aquarium. We let the girls play around a little while while we waited and they seemed to have fun. But you can guess that I was watching them like a hawk. I'll be damned if someone was gonna snatch these 2 and run. It was funny when I took them to the restroom and told they wanted to go in alone. I told them ok, but I would be standing outside the door and if anyone said anything to or touch them, to scream as loud as they could. B asked me if she could practice screaming while we were walking to the pavillion. I had to laugh at that one because she was serious as a heart attack.

When we all finally made it to the aquarium, we breezed right in and the girls went crazy asking quesitons. "Uncle Norris, why does that whale have a big body and a small head?" "Uncle Norris, where do starfish come from?" "Uncle Dreads, can I touch the sea lion?" "Uncle Dreads, why isn't the sea otter moving? Is he dead?" We answered all of the questions that we could, whether the answers was accurate or not. And they seemed to be satisfied. We took plenty of pictures because B has her own digital camera at 7 years old! They were simply amazed at all of the different types of sea life and I could tell on their faces that they were enjoying themselves. But can you believe they they said that they were tired after only 3 of the exhibits? So we loaded them up in the Expedition *I can see why parents drive big SUVs now* and hit it to the crib. Before I could even get on the interstate, they and Dreads were asleep.

As soon as we got home, I put them in the bed and I took a nap myself because all of that walking and all of those back rides had worn me out. But I had to make sure that they were asleep before I could fall asleep. Finally when they stopped squirming and fell asleep, I fell asleep ON THE FLOOR for about and hour. I figured that they would wake up and we would watch a couple kiddie movies and eat pizza. Unfortunately, they didn't wake to up on their own so I woke them up myself so that they wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night. We ended up watchin "Open Season" and "Over the Hedge" which I must say are 2 pretty funny movies to be cartoons. About midnight, I put them back to bed. But not before they requested that we go to IHOP the next morning.

So the next morning I was awakened to a gentle tapping on the forehead from a hungry 4 year old J. She was ready to eat. I mentioned cooking breakfast, but they looked at me like I had just told them that Barbie just had a heart attack and died. So after baths, brushing of teeth, ironing of clothes and refreshing of hair, we loaded up the truck and headed to IHOP in Marietta. Uncle Dreads tagged along also.

When we arrived, we were greeted with those same stares that we had seen the previous day. This time, I didn't feel like entertaining people because I was hungry, but the waittress did remark that "you 2 have 2 of the cutest little girls". I just smiled and said thanks. I ordered their food which included pancakes and eggs (no powdered eggs please) and chilled milk and them little gals ate it ALL. Do you hear me? ALL OF IT. After breakfast we just went back to the house and they took another nap.

After the nap, I took them to Brewster's for ice cream. I was kinda surprised that this was when they were happiest. I spent over $120 to take them to the aquarium and $40 to take them to IHOP and they were more excited about $10 in ice cream. I know where to take them next time. After ice cream, I took them home to Warner Robins to their Mom.

I gotta say that I did enjoy my time with the girls. It really reinforced my desire to have kids. But I must say that I am glad that Dreads decided to come into town and that he was willing to help me out with them. I told him thanks about 10 times. But it did make me wonder if I had it in me to raise a child or children alone. Now I have to sit and think about this for a few years since I want to adopt when I am 35 years old.

Question: Do you do a double-take when you see 2 men together with a child or children?