22 April 2006
and then, it also just plain rocks
It was their cousin's birthday Wednesday. Our family is always late. (So're my sibs and their families--nature/nurture, whatever.)
So they are making him birthday cards today.
This whole big family thing so very totally rocks (see? I can be hip too, so there). It's true that I have moments where I wonder (and not optimistically) if there wil ever be anything but noise, noise, noise in my life again.
But this is not one of those moments. Right now, as I type, there are 4 busy little bodies toiling away at a round table covered with messy layer upon layer of paper, crayons, markers, staplers (usually broken), markers (mostly uncapped), scissors (safety, unless they've feloniously absconded with mine), shreds of paper left over from last week's "Snowflake Sessions," and I'm pretty sure more than one apple core. Three is helping the littler ones--really helping, not that annoying fake-mom bossy thing she also does with them--and since she's an incredibly good artist, her help really helps.
I am called upon to admire the work product. It's amazing. Five and Six each have a booklet, carefully constructed by Three: red covers (folded construction paper), 4 blank white pages inside (folded printer paper), 3 staples along the "binding" (Five's already picked off one of his staples so now we have to root around for the stapler to fix it). Four has a "real card"--one piece of red paper folded once; Three's is made with white paper.
Each is stamped by the artist's own particular genius and exuberance. Each has come forth as a result of peaceful (and not very noisy) collaboration. Five, for example, aspires to dinosaurs; his squiggles are abstractly Paleolithic, but once drawn he can't see the lines well enough to color within them. So Six patiently and expertly colors each Amoeba Rex for him.
It won't be long before the noise level rises and the cooperation level lowers. It won't be long before I'm doing the ol' "Ok, that's '1'" and "Do that again and no GameCube today" routine. And then they'll fuss and bother and whine about chores. And then 3 of them will go outside and shoot baskets and 3 of them will go to Two and Three's room and giggle about Two's field trip. And then 1 of them will want to play Gameboy, and 4 of them will want to go play freeze tag. And then....
Like I said, it really does just plain rock.
So they are making him birthday cards today.
This whole big family thing so very totally rocks (see? I can be hip too, so there). It's true that I have moments where I wonder (and not optimistically) if there wil ever be anything but noise, noise, noise in my life again.
But this is not one of those moments. Right now, as I type, there are 4 busy little bodies toiling away at a round table covered with messy layer upon layer of paper, crayons, markers, staplers (usually broken), markers (mostly uncapped), scissors (safety, unless they've feloniously absconded with mine), shreds of paper left over from last week's "Snowflake Sessions," and I'm pretty sure more than one apple core. Three is helping the littler ones--really helping, not that annoying fake-mom bossy thing she also does with them--and since she's an incredibly good artist, her help really helps.
I am called upon to admire the work product. It's amazing. Five and Six each have a booklet, carefully constructed by Three: red covers (folded construction paper), 4 blank white pages inside (folded printer paper), 3 staples along the "binding" (Five's already picked off one of his staples so now we have to root around for the stapler to fix it). Four has a "real card"--one piece of red paper folded once; Three's is made with white paper.
Each is stamped by the artist's own particular genius and exuberance. Each has come forth as a result of peaceful (and not very noisy) collaboration. Five, for example, aspires to dinosaurs; his squiggles are abstractly Paleolithic, but once drawn he can't see the lines well enough to color within them. So Six patiently and expertly colors each Amoeba Rex for him.
It won't be long before the noise level rises and the cooperation level lowers. It won't be long before I'm doing the ol' "Ok, that's '1'" and "Do that again and no GameCube today" routine. And then they'll fuss and bother and whine about chores. And then 3 of them will go outside and shoot baskets and 3 of them will go to Two and Three's room and giggle about Two's field trip. And then 1 of them will want to play Gameboy, and 4 of them will want to go play freeze tag. And then....
Like I said, it really does just plain rock.
