A little girl from down the street came over to play today. Actually she comes over every day. Its not just her though, its all the kids in the neighborhood. On any given weekday afternoon, I will have 1 to 5 extra children at my house. That’s in addition to the three that I created myself. Somehow my house has become THE house to be at for kids on our block. I don’t know how it happened. I must not be mean or yell enough. I’m gonna have to work on that, seriously, because I don’t think I could correctly describe the chaos that is my house from 4 to 6:30 every day. All the noise, and the messes, and the incessant need for snacks. It’s not at all what I envisioned when I gave birth to my children, and then asked them to interact with their peers.
I put up with it however, because my children enjoy it. Especially my youngest, Badger, who is 3. It is possibly the only time during the day that he does not follow me around. I spend most of the day going from room to room with him so close that I cannot distinguish between our two persons. This includes bathroom time, people! I have not had private bathroom time since he became mobile, so over 2 years.
So when the little girl knocked on the door today, I didn’t scream, slam the door, and go hide in my bedroom, as was my first instinct. I said hello very sweetly, and let her in to give me a 2 hour break from my living shadow. I’ve also found that when I’m quiet and observe my children’s conversations with each other or their friends, I hear some of the most amazing things. These amazing little things are what help me make it through the day.
There was the time I heard my son Leo, who is 6, tell my daughter Sunny(7), that “When I get married my woman is going to lay eggs!”. Or the time when Leo heard Sunny trying to poop and he yelled “Maybe you are pushing out an alien baby!”. Leo has a knack for saying funny things. I’ve come to expect it of him. However today it was Badger.
The little girl from down the street was eating a purple sucker, that I had happily given her as a healthy after school snack, when suddenly she yells “Guess what this sucker tastes like! Guess!” It was almost a dare. Everyone paused, doubting their first hand knowledge that purple = grape, simply because of the tone in her voice. Badger would not be intimidated however.
“Candle!” he yelled
“Noooo!” was her annoyed reply
“Fire!” he yelled again
“Nooooo!” she said
He decided to give it one more shot. “Rake!”
She gave up at this point, seeing that she had been out done. “Its grape. ” she said
My child came up with candle, fire, and rake. It doesn’t get much better.
Oh my God. I almost fell off my chair when I read this one. Laughed out loud. For real. “Fire! Candle! Rake!” It’s like a school pep rally cheer about murder weapons. Already by age 6, your kids are cooler than I was at 15. And you know how cool that was.