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I have very little experience with infants. Their combination of neediness and fragility makes me instinctively avoid them. Children over the age of four I’m completely fine taking care of, but younger than that and I’ll gladly to leave it to the experts.

Yesterday however, my policy of infant evasion failed miserably. My Aunt needed a babysitter, I’m unemployed, and I can’t ever say no to family.

So, at 8 a.m. my two year old cousin showed up on my parent’s doorstep. Mom was there in the morning so at first she did most of the work. Then noon came and Mom left me alone.

It wasn’t all that bad really, at one point  she looked me straight in the eye and told me that I had put her diaper on wrong, but other than that all was well. Finally she settled down for a nap and I relaxed a bit.

Once she woke up from her nap I followed her around nervously, searching for anything that might harm a toddler. Suddenly she spotted my fight stick sitting next to the TV.

“YOU use this,” she spoke haltingly and with heavy emphasis “to play games.”

I was surprised she remembered, the last time she had been to our house was for a family party. During the party her Dad told her what the fight stick was for, but that had been a long day for her.

“We play now,” she said looking up at me.

I plugged in my PS3 but had no idea what to do once the console turned on. I couldn’t play a fighting game with a two year old. So instead I put Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection on because it was the only appropriate game I could immediately think of. Really though the game I picked didn’t matter, she seemed to think the fight stick was the game.  

“The buttons have pretty colors!” she told me grinning happily as she pounded away on the stick.

At first I was concerned she might be too rough with it, but she wasn’t nearly as bad as I am during an intense Super Street Fighter 4 match. And anyway, one of the buttons has been sticking and I was thinking about replacing them.

The fight stick occupied her for about 15 minutes before a sudden rain storm stole her attention.

Several hours, two more diapers, and a few homesickness induced tears later my little cousin went back to her home and quiet was restored to mine.

As Mom and I cleaned up various toddler induced messes, I picked up the fight stick and found that the buttons didn’t stick any more.

Maybe I should hang out with toddlers more often.