Family Ties

This one is actually a follow-up to last week. There are many families who have had more than one child here at Bobbie's house. Which is a lot of fun to see them grow and see the school age kids come back. My sibling families are:
Pookie and Johnny
Hannah, Ella and Leah
Alice and Vada
Jack, Van and Nell
Chloe and Mason
Cooper and the newest one, Avery
One of my favorite times is "Camp Bobbie" in the summer, one week where it is only big kids, no babies, no diapers and no having to run your day around naptime...though i DO love naptime...which was a whole other blog. Not sure what this blog is about other than the sibling thing.

Friends

We sing this song, "friends, friends, one-two- three, all my friends are here with me" and then we name everyone in the house, including the pets..."Maggie's my friend, Jack's my friend, Nell's my friend, Mason's my friend, Bobbie's my friend..." you get the idea.

But where do we go and what do we do when our friends don't act like our friends? Well, we cry, pout, tattle, grunt, yell, AND the all time most horrible response anyone can give...

"YOU CAN'T COME TO MY BIRTHDAY!!!"

That is the most terrifying thing that can happen, that someone does not get to come to their friends birthday. Some kids use this threat daily to get their way, with other kids it pops up once in a great while....
SO--- to give a funny example, Van was yelling about something I was doing that was annoying him (like I don't even remember what, maybe I told him the sky was blue) and he whipped out the "YOU can't come to MY birthday". Well, I decided to tell him that was fine cuz HE can't come to MY BIRHTDAY. "Well", Van said, "you don't have birthdays cuz you're old-- you're a grandma" (which I am OLD, but most certainly AM NOT a grandma....)

Anyway, i guess i "got told"

characters

I have observed there are quintessential characters that exist in the kid world. I would like to talk about some of the kinds of kids that have come thru Bobbie's house to fill these roles....

First one that comes to mind are THE DUMPERS. No, this has nothing to do with diapers, but yes, there are those occasionally too. The Dumpers are the kids that come into the house, find the nicely organized baskets of toys (thanks Katie!) and then they dump. They don't play with anything, just dump, walk away and dump some more....not naming any names....
THE MOUTH are the ones that can't stop talking. EVER. Sometimes I just sit and watch their mouths move and think, when will they take a breath? sorry, again, nameless...
THE WHINER, THE FIGHTER and THE BOSS need no elaboration. rarely the same person at the same moment which is a good thing...
THE PARROT is adorable, says anything you say, on cue...Mason.... and then there is Alice who knew all her animal sounds before she knew any words which was oh so cute!
THE HUGGER is also nice to have, some babies just cling right into your side and love being held.  often these turn into huggers who brighten every day...Ella!
THE MOM can change diapers at the age of two before she herself is potty trained, loves to play babies all day everyday...Leah...
THE SHOW GIRL loves to sing into the microphone and her sidekick THE DANCER is right there with her...Hannah and Alice...

and last but not least, at least for today's list...THE DOCTOR DOOLITTLE...loves the pets, all the pets. Feeds the fish half a jar of fish food...Pookie....Feeds Maggie dinner at 4 p.m. when i am not looking...Nell...Carries her new kittens around at the age of 1 until her arms are scratched raw...Ella...Picks up bugs, any time, any day, Van, Jack, Alice...Taught Maggie how to "crawl"...Ella...knows all there is to know about dolphins, penguins and most sea creatures...Jack...Knew how many of which pills Luke dog got every day for breakfast...Leah...(when she was 3)

OK commenters, any ones i missed?

Naptime

One of the nicest things that happens some days is that EVERYONE at Bobbie's House naps at the same time. Except Bobbie, of course! We have our routines we follow, and one of them is the older kids helping me put the younger kids down for naps. On Delaney's second day here, EVERYONE decided to put her down for her nap. Mind you, Delaney is 7 months old and this is her SECOND day here, which means she is firmly entrenched into transitioning. So here, we go, Van and Nell, age 3 and 1/2, Kate, age 2 and 1/2, Mason, age 2 and Cooper crawling along behind. Cooper just turned one and crawls 90 mph, but doesn't walk yet. Oh, and Maggie too, who runs in and jumps on the bed to get a better view of little Delaney. So we pop Delaney into bed and everyone says nite-nite to her. Amazingly, she fussed less then a minute and went right to sleep. Some babies take a lot longer to adjust, but not her!

Another translating story

As a child care provider, I attend a lot of birthday parties for the kids in my care, current and alumni. A few weeks ago, I was at Mason's second birthday party. He is bopping around, like Mason does, good-natured and busy boy. At one point, Grammy was holding him and talking to Mason's Daddy over near the pile of gifts. Mason said "Ah wah opa penneh". They didn't get it, so he said it a few more times. Finally, Grammy brought him over to me. She told me Mason wants SOMETHING but they could not figure it out. So I asked him to tell me. Mason said "AH wan ope penneh". I told them he wanted to open another present. Almost a story you had to be there to appreciate but anyway, there you go.