10/ timing is everything

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"West, do you have a seven?" Maison asks her brother, who is sitting across the table. Me and all the kids are sitting in Jared's kitchen playing go fish.

West shakes his head, but he has a small smile on his face, so I can tell he is lying. I give him a look and quirk an eyebrow, and he gives in, throwing his seven across the table, almost angrily. Of course, the card is about as light as air, so throwing it with great effort doesn't really get it very far.

I laugh a little as Thomas reaches next to him and picks the seven up off the floor and hands it to Maison. She slaps her pair of sevens down with the rest of her matches and throws her hands in the air, a big smile on her face.

"I win!" She says. West sets his cards down on the table and gets up.

"I hate this game," he mumbles, clearly upset that his sister beat him twice in a row. He storms off into the next room. I sigh in frustration, lift JJ off of my lap, and follow West into the next room.

All the adults went out to dinner, so I got stuck babysitting. Well, technically, I didn't get stuck with it, because I sort of volunteered, but I figured they would make me do it anyways. I'm not really bothered, in fact, I love spending time with the kids because they are all so adorable and tiny and they remind me so much of their parents.

They said they should be home around nine, which is in about half an hour. They said that they want the kids to be in bed by the time they get home. I'm halfway there, considering that I've already made them dinner and helped them get baths. Then, they wanted to play so we played hide and seek for a while, then we played go fish.

"West, come on," I say, going into the other room and finding the little boy sitting on the bottom of the steps that lead upstairs. He has a little pouty angry face on.

"No!" He says, angrily. "I lose every single time!" When he says this, he reminds me of me when I was little. I smile a little.

"That's okay," I say, trying to think of something else to say that won't set him off again. "You might win next time." He shakes his head.

"I'm not gonna play ever again," he mumbles.

"Hey, if you keep on playing, you'll probably get really good at it and win a lot. But you have to learn how to lose before you learn how to win, okay?" I raise my eyebrows at him and give him a small smile. He sighs a little, but nods. "Okay, let's go back in the kitchen." He gets up and walks to the kitchen, and I trail shortly behind him.

I look at my watch and realize it's already quarter to nine. "Okay, guys, time for bed!" I announce, and they show very clearly that they are not ready to sleep yet. In fact, they don't even move from their seats. "Guys," I say louder, hoping that they will move on their own so I don't have to drag them to bed.

"Okay, you asked for it." I go up behind Thomas and Maison and lift them both up, one in each arm. I'm not sure how I manage to carry them both at once without falling over. "To bed we go," I say. They start laughing and yelling for their siblings to help them, causing me to smile. They are so adorable.

"Westy, help!" Maison says, laughing. I laugh at West's attempts to pull his sister out of my arms.

Before they left, Jared said to just let the kids all sleep on his and Gen's enormous bed, and they will sleep somewhere else. So, I have to drag the kids all the way up the stairs.

After five minutes of failed attempts, all the kids finally get into Jared's bed and under the blanket. "Okay. I'm going to shut the light off, and you guys are gonna go to sleep, okay?"

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