Author's Note: My right hand is hurting a little bit, so apologies if anything is a bit off. Also, I'm keeping fingers crossed that I can get this chapter up, without my computer giving me grief, as it attempted to be a pill when editing the first chapter, and let's just say, I was very thankful for Microsoft Office Word Recovery in the end. Anyway, let's move on, to the next chapter of this story. Also, I'd like to thank one of the reviewers on the last chapter, for giving me the correct spelling for Helen's name, I'll see that it's spelled correctly in future chapters.
Chapter 2, Sunday, Boys and Beauty, Don't Mix
Nell POV
Dear Journal,
Well it has finally come and gone, my first full day of watching over Tommy, Dil, and my younger sisters, Madeline and Sabrina, along with the help of Peter. If there's one lesson I can take from today's adventures, is that boys and beauty, don't mix, despite of what some old photographs might say otherwise. Though before I explain that story, let's just go, from the very beginning of the day. Surprisingly, I, myself slept relatively peacefully in the master bed of Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, and nobody awoke during the night, needing my care. Morning came though, and it was no surprise, that I was awakened by the familiar little hands of my two younger sisters, trying to drag me out of bed.
"Come on Nell, wake up! You promised us pancakes the next time you'd be in charge of making us breakfast!" Madeline yelled in my ear.
I sleepily opened my eyes and stared into her face, with its messy red hair lying all over the place.
"All right, I'm up, I'm up." I said sleepily, as I yawned and stretched, getting out of bed.
I pulled on my peach bath robe I had brought with me, and saw to leading the girls downstairs, when I found Peter in the hallway, with Tommy and Dil pulling at his pajama pants legs.
"Morning Peter, let me guess, you had a wake up call from two of our tiny tots." I said.
"Yes I did, complete with a poopy diaper thrown in my face, and sniffling in one ear." Peter replied, seeing to taking Tommy, who did have snot dripping down his face, and Dil, who was no longer wearing his diaper, only dressed in his red Goober nightshirt, down the hall to the bathroom to get them cleaned up and ready for the day.
"The girls and I are heading downstairs to get breakfast started. They're itching to have pancakes." I said, as Madeline and Sabrina ran down the stairs, and I sleepily followed behind them.
Turns out everybody was in the mood for pancakes, and luckily, the Pickles had all of the makings for them in the pantry. I let Madeline and Sabrina help me mix up the batter, while Peter went and had Tommy and Dil finish the Reptar movie in the living room while having morning bottles of hot milk, since he had seen that the Reptar TV series and made for TV movies, would be expiring on Hulu in just a few short days, plus, with Tommy being sick, and Dil being a bit young to be helping out in the kitchen, he felt it better that they not help with breakfast, so wanted to get something put on to keep them occupied. I did check to see how everybody wanted their pancakes, before we got to work. Dil wanted banana pancakes, Tommy wanted blueberry pancakes, while I already knew what Madeline and Sabrina wanted, chocolate-chip pancakes, with strawberries and chocolate cool whip on top. Peter and I had ours plain, with maple syrup on top, and he and I had orange juice, while Tommy and Sabrina had apple juice, and Madeline and Dil had cranberry juice, which they call red juice, because well, it's the color red.
Everybody enjoyed the pancakes, and after breakfast was consumed and cleaned up, Peter and I sat down at the kitchen table, and got started making a grocery list, since several items were starting to run out at the Pickles home, due to the fact that Peter was helping Stu get items packed to take off to his inventor's convention the day before yesterday, and well, yesterday was spent in Enchancia, leaving no time for grocery shopping. However, before we started writing up the list, when I got dressed for the day, I pulled out an old blue notebook I put into my stuff, that had a bunch of old recipes of dishes my late mother use to make for me when I was little, thinking my younger sisters, Tommy, Dil, and Peter might all enjoy some of these, in particular, my mom's famous, chetter mash potatoes. Boy did memories come flooding back, as I skimmed through the recipe book, jotting down all of the ingredients I'd be needing to pick up at the store for each recipe.
"Chetter mash potatoes? Never heard of these." Peter commented, glancing at the recipe I had the notebook open to in my hands.
"Yes, they're like chetter bake potatoes, only they're mash potatoes with cheese in them, and extra grated cheese on top for extra flavoring. My mother use to make these for me a lot, but especially if I had been having a bad day, or if I was sick with something other than a stomach bug, like a bad cold or something. This comfort food, always made me feel better." I said, blinking back some tears, as I started to miss my mother a little bit at that moment.
"You okay Helen?" Peter asked me, as I wiped a tear away from my eyes.
"Oh yes, I'm fine, just, got a little dust in my eyes is all." I said, just as I heard a scream from the living room that caught my attention.
"Stop!" I heard Tommy's voice scream, as I dashed out of the kitchen into the living room to see what was going on.
I couldn't believe what I saw. There, in the fenced in playpen towards the back of the living room, sat my makeup kit next to Madeline on the floor, who still had my red lipstick in her hand. And close to them on the floor was Tommy. I couldn't decide at that moment whether to be angry at my sisters for playing with my makeup kit without permission, or to stifle my laughter, as I looked at Tommy, now wearing one of Sabrina's sparkly blue dresses she brought with her, with his face all done up. There he was, covered in purple eye liner around the outside of his eyes, pink blush on his cheeks, and red lipstick on his lips. While I thought he looked adorable, as I saw Sabrina trying to put his short purple hair into a pink ribbon without much success, from the look on Tommy's face, I could tell he wasn't having any fun.
"Stop! That hurts!" Tommy cried, causing Sabrina to drop the ribbon to the floor.
"Girls? What's going on here?" I asked.
"We're just, making Tommy look pretty that's all." Madeline said, pointing to Tommy with the makeover still on his face.
"Madeline Elizabeth O'Mally, you know my makeup is off limits. And what made you think Tommy would want this done?" I asked, picking up my makeup bag off of the floor and taking the lipstick from Madeline's hand and stashing it into the bag.
"Sabrina said that Tommy looked terrible, so I decided to make him look pretty after finding this old picture." Madeline explained, pulling a box she had found over, and pulling a picture out of the box to show me.
"Let me see that please." I said, taking the picture from my little sister.
In the picture, it appeared to be a younger version of Tommy, wearing a yellow wig on his head, dressed in a blue party dress and shoes to match. It looked like the picture was taken at some show, as he had one of his legs tangled up in the cord of a microphone, appearing to have just fallen on the ground, showing a pair of lacy underpants.
"Awe, you're right Madeline, Tommy does look cute in this picture." I commented, only to glance over at Tommy, seeing a look of embarrassment spread across his face.
"Something wrong Tommy?" Sabrina asked him.
"I didn't like that picture, and I don't like it now!" Tommy screamed, trying to reach for the picture in my hand, nearly ripping it in half.
Before he could destroy it, I placed the picture back into the box and picked up the box of old pictures up off of the floor.
"What do you mean Tommy, you look great in that sparkly towel." Madeline said.
"Madeline, we putted him into a dress, member?" Sabrina asked.
"I know, but he's a boy, a Tom boy. Get it? His name's Tommy, and he's a boy? And while girls wear dresses, boys wear sparkly towels." Madeline commented.
"First of all girls, where did you find this box of old photos?" I asked.
"In a drawer in Tommy's mommy and daddy's room." Sabrina replied.
"Now girls, you both know you shouldn't play with my makeup without my permission. And while we may be using their house and staying here, there are some things, we shouldn't touch. The dresser drawers not emptied out in Mr. and Mrs. Pickles bedroom for us to use, should be left alone, though you've got me curious, Tommy, Dil, what is the story behind this picture?" I asked, showing the picture of younger Tommy in the dress and yellow wig again.
"I know nothing." Dil replied, continuing to build a block tower in a far corner of the playpen.
"You wouldn't no nothing Dilly, it happened before you were born." Tommy said.
"What happened?" I asked, scooping him out of the playpen along with my two younger sisters, as I saw to taking everybody upstairs, where we'd be getting Tommy cleaned up, and putting my makeup stuff, back where it belonged.
"The day my daddy and grandpa decided to make me wear a dress to go fishing. I didn't think I looked so good in a dress, and we never even went fishing. We went to this place where you dance and smile in front of lots of peoples. My cousin Angelica was there, and she sang terribly. I was entered under some name of Tonya, and mommy founded us. She was mad at my daddy and grandpa, took my wig off, and Angelica won the contest. Grandpa road home in a boat on the back of my uncle Drew and Angelica's car, and that was the lastest time I wore a dress, well, I member wearing one anyways, till today." Tommy explained, as I saw to wiping his face clean and taking the dress off.
"Well I'm sorry you had to go through that. Madeline and Sabrina like to play beauty parler, and seeing you're a little boy, I can understand why it's not something you'd really want to play." I said.
"No it's not! Plus, I've gots a headache and just, wanted to sit and play quietly with a puzzle, but they insisted on making me pretty." Tommy said.
"I'm sorry you don't feel good. After you're clean, how about you go take a nap until lunch time." I said.
He let out a huge yawn, as I helped him blow his nose, and I put him down for a nap. The rest of the morning, I had Sabrina and Madeline help me dust the bookshelf in the living room, and mop the kitchen floor as punishment for playing with my makeup without permission, as while making the pancakes, Peter did ask that I not spank anybody, mainly because Mr. and Mrs. Pickles were against such forms of punishment in their home, believing it to be too violent. Peter offered to go to the store, and he took Dil with him, so things would remain quiet so Tommy could rest, and allowing Dil to get some energy out of him, as he took him to the park on the way to the store. Come lunch time, I got Tommy up from his nap, and as soon as Peter and Dil returned, we all sat down and had a lunch of some tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
"I must ask, while it is Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, they don't, you know, take their kids to church, do they?" I asked.
"No. In fact, well, they're half Christian, half Jewish, Stu's side of the family being Christian, while Didi's side is Jewish, but where religion is concerned, they're not very religious at all. Though when it comes to religious stuff, while they celebrate both, Christmas and Chanukah, and Easter and Passover, while they celebrate Chanukah and Passover religiously, Christmas and Easter, well the commercial aspect of the holiday is celebrated in this house, more so than the religious aspect." Peter explained.
"So they celebrate those holidays with Santa Clause, Christmas trees, eggs and Easter bunnies, not, well, you know." I said.
"Yep exactly." Peter replied, taking another bite of his grilled cheese sandwich.
I found it interesting that while Peter and I struck up conversation at the lunch table, the kids hardly spoke to one another, and Tommy still looked pretty tired, even after having a nap. I wasn't sure if maybe he was still angry at Madeline for making him play beauty parlor like that, but decided to not say anything, giving the kids time to cool off. After lunch, all of the kids took a nap, Tommy taking his second nap of the day, and his longest nap at that, as everybody else awoke before he did, and I sat quietly in the living room for a while, reading a book I had brought with me from home, a book Bianca recommended to me called Uncle Tom's Cabin. Later, Sabrina and Madeline watched Frozen, when Tommy was still not awake, but prior to that, Dil awoke first, getting the TV to watch the Goober movie he had been wanting to watch the previous day, but didn't get to, because it grew too late in the day to do so.
I couldn't help but think how ridiculous Tommy's father and grandfather were for entering him in some beauty contest, but I'd just, shake it off, seeing it happened a long time ago. The rest of the day was more or less, uneventful, as my younger sisters at a point in the afternoon, colored pictures in the Frozen coloring books they had brought with them, and I saw to making dinner, cooking the chicken Peter had picked up at the store, as he told me upon returning with the groceries, that chicken was on sale, along with my mom's famous, chetter mash potatoes, and Peter and I prepared some lovely roasted mushrooms, red bell peppers, broccoli and colliflower to go along with our meal. Peter tells me it's a vegetable medley that Mrs. Pickles will make a lot, and he knows Dil will eat that, so I followed her recipe, and saw to making it up. He also told me he picked up the ingredients for her famous chicken squares, which I agreed to make later on in the week, along side several recipes from my childhood, as a compromise, so everybody would get something they liked, but at the same time, some of us would try some new dishes as well.
Finally, it was time to eat dinner, and I'd see how I did making mom's chetter mash potatoes, for the first time in a couple of years. I couldn't bring myself to make these ever since she died, and it was hard at points, keeping a straight face in front of Peter, who was chopping up vegetables and putting them into the pan with salt and pepper on them, along with the other spices he used, before roasting them in the oven, which is when he let me know that the next day, Alliance Appliance would be coming to replace the filter in the fridge, along with a couple of other things they wanted done.
As I was preparing the potatoes, I kept recalling the last time I made them with my mother, shortly before she died. Regardless of how emotional this got to be at points, I got through it, and to my pleasant surprise come dinner time, the potatoes were a huge hit with everybody, and while we had leftover chicken and vegetables, there were no potatoes to put up, they were that good. Even I found them quite tasty, and they tasted just like how I remembered my late mother cooking them a few years ago.
"Well everyone, it's time for bed, you have school in the morning." I said, getting the last of the dinner dishes off of the table and giving each of my sisters a Reptar bar for dessert, since they had nicely cleaned their plates.
"I've gots school too." Tommy said, letting out a sneeze and a little cough.
I came over and felt his forehead, which still felt warm.
"I don't know about that Tommy, let's see how you're doing in the morning." I said, wiping his nose and having him and Dil take their vitamins and florride, and giving Tommy some Benidryl, or as I would call it with my younger sisters, the nose medicine.
Then came the dreadful part of the evening, and one I can't stand on Sunday nights before a new week of school began, but it had to be done. Yep that's right, bath time. Sabrina's not so bad, but Madeline has been a wreck at taking a bath, ever since her accident last summer.
"No bath! No bath!" Madeline screamed, as I saw to getting her undressed and taking her into the bathroom, where Peter was finishing up giving Tommy and Dil their baths.
I thought maybe having Madeline watch them take their baths and see how much fun they were having, might help out, but not this time. Then Peter gave me an interesting idea, after I explained to him what was going on.
"Why not, give her a sponge bath." Peter suggested.
"Great idea. Sabrina I know will want to take a regular bath though." I said.
"That's fine, I'll gladly help out with that." Peter said.
"You don't mind?" I asked.
"Oh no, I don't. I've given Lil Deville and Kimi Finster their baths before, just because I'm a guy, I don't have a problem bathing little girls if that's what you meant." Peter said.
"Well then it's settled. Next time, I'll bathe Tommy and Dil." I said, helping Sabrina get ready for her bath, while I saw to having Madeline stand by the sink, and take her sponge bath, while I washed her hair in the sink.
To my surprise, she did just fine with this method, and I'm glad I took Peter's suggestion. And Sabrina had fun in the tub, while Peter saw to reading the boys their book, giving them their hot milk and putting them to bed. I then saw to doing the same with Sabrina and Madeline, reading them a new book I had brought with me, Beauty and the Beast.
However, while I was pleased to introduce them to a new book from my childhood, Madeline kept interrupting the story with lots of questions.
"Why is the beast so mean?" Madeline asked not long after I started reading to them.
"If you stop interrupting Madeline, maybe we'll find out." I said, clearing my throat and continuing to read the story.
It took forever, but we finally got through reading the entire book. I kissed my sisters goodnight, got them tucked into bed, and went into the hallway where Peter had just finished putting Tommy and Dil to bed.
"So, how did it go for you?" I asked him quietly, as we headed downstairs to feed the dogs and get lights turned off.
"It went fine. Dil couldn't make up his mind of a book to read, but Tommy wanted his pirate book, so I read that to him, and then, while we were reading, I received a text from their mother, asking if it was okay for them to call and say goodnight, to which I said, yes, so Stu and Didi called, getting to tell the boys goodnight." Peter replied.
"Glad it worked out, since, I could overhear you on the phone late last night when I was getting ready for bed, and it sounds like they missed them." I said.
"Yep." Peter replied, shaking his head, as we saw to turning off the kitchen light.
"So, up for a movie tonight?" I asked.
"No, I think it's best if we hit the sack early tonight, since tomorrow is a school day, and Alliance Appliance could be here as early as nine in the morning." Peter said.
"Okay then, well, goodnight, and thank you for all of your help today." I said.
"Not a problem. Those mash potatoes you made, were totally out of this world!" Peter exclaimed with a smile.
I just quietly smiled back at him, as I went off to get ready for bed, and call it a night. It might have been somewhat of an emotional day for me, but I got through it, and we'd see how the rest of my week went on, as my adventures in babysitting twenty-four seven, continued.
End of Nell POV
And just as she did the night before, she put her notebook up in its special pocket, said her prayers, climbed into bed, and drifted off to sleep.
Author's Note: In this chapter, I made references to the season 1 Rugrats episode, Beauty Contest, as well as references to The Loud House episode, Toads and Tiaras, in particular, with that comment about the sparkly towel, which is what Lana calls a dress in the episode, and that comment Madeline made about Tommy being a tom boy, while it was pretty rude, it does sound like a pun Luan might say. For those of you who don't know, a tom boy is what people will often refer to little girls who like boyish type activities. And some of the foods presented in this chapter, my nephew's mother use to make for us, back before everything happened. My mom would even make the roasted vegetable medley, though she hasn't made it in a long time. Same holds true for chocolate-chip pancakes, which are my favorite way to eat pancakes. I also hope the chapter came out okay. At points while typing, my computer did this stupid thing where the cursor jumped up in the document to a point prior, screwing up my paragraphs, so I had to do some cutting and pasting, so I hope everything written here makes sense. Anyway, it's getting late, and almost time for a two hour marathon of Rugrats on The Splat from 2 AM to 4 AM this morning, so gonna go off and watch that now, but hopefully, I can get some more chapters up later on today, after I manage to get me some sleep, assuming my computer continues to cooperate, or if it messes up, it's nothing I can't easily fix, and I say that, since I had the paragraph issue to deal with while writing this chapter. Just, ug! Technology bites sometimes, but I'm not letting it win. One way or another, I will get this entire story posted, which, I'm hoping to make 10 chapters at most.