Communication in a House with Five Kids

Our house is wonderful. I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it, almost 7 years ago. However, 7 years ago things were different. There were 3 of us who moved in here. Something has happened over the years. I can't explain it, but the house has shrank. Seriously, it's gotten a whole lot smaller.

I'm not complaining, not even a little bit. I still love my house and we fit perfectly as far as I'm concerned. The only problem that we do run into, from time to time, is trying to find a place to talk where no little ears are listening.
I have to say we have been very creative in finding ways to get our point across without the kids catching on. Over the years we've had to evolve our methods. In the beginning Spelling worked beautifully. Then I went and taught the kids to read and BAM they knew what we were saying. "ICE CREAM?!?! WE'RE GETTING ICE CREAM!?!?" I really should have thought this "education" thing through! 

Next, we moved on to French, this has served us well. It has also resulted in a lot of hilarity, as we try to come up with words to use when we can't think of the real French word for what we are trying to say. I fear this method will soon be obsolete as the little people are starting to pick up words here and there! I told Mark we could learn Latin together, but I want to teach them that at some point as well. Perhaps German is a safer choice! 

I really shouldn't worry though, I think we are starting to pick up on each other's thoughts. The evidence of this happening was overwhelming this week, when Emmitt decided to give us both a few extra grey hairs. 

We've gotten used to not having a baby around and had gotten lax about putting up gates. I left the baby playing with Mark and walked away. Assuming I had put up the baby gate he put Emmitt on the floor to play. I was doing Elianna's hair when I happened to glance towards the stairway, and noticed my wee little man happily bum scooching his way towards the top of the stairs! He was a mere half scooch away from toppling right down our hard wooden stairs and landing on the ceramic tiles at the bottom!

My mind froze! My mouth froze! My body froze! I screamed! All I could manage to get out of my mouth was  "MARK MARK MARK MARK!!!"
In the time it took me to screech out the last MARK at the top of my lungs, my knight in shining armour was at the top of the stairs with his arms around my sweet baby. 

After we both started breathing again, I apologized for incoherently screaming like a banshee at him. My Knight's answer? "That's ok, I knew what you meant, I got him!" 

Phewph - I guess when the kids learn French, I'll just start speaking banshee.  

The Gender Gap

Anyone who tells you there's no difference between boys and girls, has obviously never raised both. My girls aren't girly girls, at least not all the time. They can be very rough and tumble and enjoy a lot of things with Daddy, that I have to admit I really don't understand.

Jack isn't always the classic definition of "all boy" either. As evidenced by various blackmail photos I have taken, and am saving for when he's a teenager. He enjoys glitter, pink, and stands in line to have his nails painted right along with the girls (Much to Daddy's chagrin, it's my payback for the times I have to listen to my girls speak geek to me. "You know mom, when Luke was on the ice planet Hoth...").

But when it comes down to it, they are different. I love when I get glimpses into just how different their little brains really work.

We have been geocaching (if you don't know what I'm talking about, head over to www.groundspeak.com and check it out). It's a great family activity, and I'd like the kids to be able to remember as much as possible about it as they get older, so I've been keeping a journal of our time together. Each time we find a cache I interview the kids about it. I want them to be able to read about it later through their own eyes.

This has provided a great example of the differences between a little boy brain, and a little girl brain. Here is the interview from our find on Saturday.

"What do you want to tell me about the treasure?"

Elianna: "The treasure was the airplanes! There was a little box with a lid on it. It had stickers, marble and 2 things I don't know."

Libby: "It was hanging on a tree. It was so exciting to find it. I got it out of the tree! I got some stickers, train stickers. We thought it was a box in the tree, but it wasn't, it looked like a jam jar!"

Danya: "I love how it's like a treasure hunt, because if we change the GPS to a map it really looks like a treasure hunt. I really like that we brought our dog because of the clue about huskies."

Notice how the girls all use a lot of words, I'm not even sure I captured all that they said because they spoke so fast. I know I didn't get all that Elianna said, she wouldn't slow down for a second. The cache was hidden right by our airport in Lachute and she talked about the airplanes and what everything looked like before even getting to the "treasure" part!

Then I called in Jack. I asked him the same question I asked the girls. His response?

"It was in the tree, that's all I know"

That was literally all I could get out of him. He later told his grandparents that he got a toy soldier out of it, but he wouldn't elaborate at all for me. He's already the strong silent type!

oops

Posted to the wrong blog

What would I say on a Wednesday?

We'll never know because I forgot to finish my post! I am able to multitask, but apparently not well.

Summer cleaning

I kind of missed the Spring somehow this year. Maybe it was because the majority of my time since Christmas had been spent in someone else's house. I'm really not sure. Somehow it escaped me and I didn't get any real decluttering done.

I've actually decided I like Summer cleaning better anyway. It's hot outside right now. I have the air conditioners running and inside is nice and cool!

I've really started to get the "left behind" areas of my house put back together today and I can see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel. I can't wait to have my craft area back. I'm itching to have a usable space and I have actually had a few inquiries for jewelry.