overheard...

This is what things have sounded like in our house lately:

"Momma, we're playing marathon." (Ella and Maya wearing Sandi's sneakers.)"Actually I think I want to wear your Brooks." Who knew this child knew that I wear Brooks sneakers? And is this a good or bad sign that our kids play "marathon?" I didn't see any crying or swearing or blisters or that why-did-I-get-myself-into-this look on their faces so I'm thinking they don't completely get it.

Following up with Ella after an interruption (probably Maya banging her head for the 10th time that day or falling off the couch or something equally as plausible): "Okay Ella, what was your question about vaginas?"

Ella, out of the blue:

"Do people get little when they get old?"

"Do you think Noah" (our blind 6 year-old relative) "would be happier if he could see?"

"Haley challenged me to wear blue to school today."

After running over a frost heave: "Did we just run over someone?"

After running back and forth in a dead sprint from living room to kitchen and back: "Momma, my boob is beating."

After being asked to decorate some white paper for the second time in a week to wrap a gift in for someone she really loves: "Don't we HAVE any wrapping paper?"

While Maya screams and screams about the food put before her at supper: "Doesn't anyone know that Momma made a yummy supper?"

Commenting on my necklace:
"Momma what kind of tree is that?"
"I think it is an oak."
"No, it is the tree of life and the branches are its children."

And then yesterday before leaving for school there was a MAJOR meltdown when I had to break the news to ELla that I had given away the stuffed Yertle the turtle from the Dr. Suess book. (The one that I had given away 6 months ago, whose absence had gone unnoticed and who, it turns out from reading the book the previous evening, was not really a very nice turtle. He was more like a dictator turtle.)

"Why would you give him away?" Teaching moment: there are some kids who don't have toys, who don't always even have enough money for food. You have everything you need and want and more. When you don't play with your toys, it lets me know that they aren't very important and I give them to kids who will want them. That is also how we make room for new toys. Imagine a little girl who is now holding Yertle lovingly under her arm and sleeping with him tucked in her bed at night...

"But I loved Yertle."

"What if its a boy that has him? I wouldn't want a boy to have him!"

"Are you going to give away my cat too? What about my blanket?"

"Its a good thing I still have the book to I have...(deep sob)...something...(hiccup)...to...remember...(heave)...him byyyyyyyy!"

Goodness gracious. Oscar worthy for sure.

Then there is Maya who throws her toys in the bathtub to clean up, who runs around the house shouting, "Ma lips!" "Ma feet!" "Ma diaper!" and any other pronouncement she wishes to make about herself and her body. She has taken a shine to cough drops (which have been plentiful in our cough-ridden house) and steals them whenever our backs are turned. "Maya's wheat drop?" as she calls them. She likes to be chased down, thrown over your head, likes when people pretend cry and likes to sharpen her teeth on any nearby flesh of someone who has angered her.

We figured it out the other day. Ella, the cautious, discerning one, took three hours for me to push from my body and in the end had to be extracted by vacuum. Maya, by contrast, came out in 3 solid pushes totaling a mere 4 minutes. Out like a rocket and shooting through our house ever since.