Wednesday, November 19, 2008

"They're coming to take me away..ha ha ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho hooooooooooooo"

A little externally imposed madness today.

The girls were both home sick. I spent at least an hour morosely weeping over my Catalan books (you think I'm joking, but no. Subjunctives are killing me).

Then, as both girls were feeling better and wildly well rested, they thought they would see if they could make me completely crazy!

I was reading an e-mail peacefully in that quiet moment between dinner and bedtime (about 5 min. max) when they set on me.

It started out innocuously...a chat window opened up! Well, look at that...!!!! Someone wants to chat with me!!! EXCITING! (Hi elPadawan)...that's good...then another window opens up(Hi THERE!!!) ...m'kay...two simultaneous chats, and reading the e-mail in the pauses; starting to get a little wonky here, but I'm rolling with it. Then the kids arrived. Eldest, who is capable of the world's longest monologue...I kid you not. The Guiness book should check her out...and she had been at home sick all day(OMG) so had MORE than a little bit bottled up to say...she also articulates so badly that I can only understand about one word in three (a new-ish manifestation of adolescence)...and she shouts it all for good measure - that kindergarten inside voice thing was outrageously unsuccessful here. I only exaggerate a bit. Really.

Well,

She decides that the best place for this particular bit of performance art (really, that is what it is like sometimes) is sitting on the arm of my chair, which - with our relative heights - puts her mouth approximately five millimeters from my ear.

OK

I'm working with this...long honed maternal skills at ignoring her completely come into play. Good parenting, no?

Then youngest joins in, alternately yelling, singing, and fighting with her sister, interspersed with a variety of shrill squeals.

I'm holding my own, but I was starting to feel like the men with the white jackets were going to start circling like so many vultures...

Eldest's messenger then started to bing insistently as one of the multitude of lovely Catalan girls that want to reach Eldest chimed in....

Then.

Then;

then,

Chuck joined in the fun. Jumped his front feet onto the couch and started play-gnawing on whatever stray bit of anatomy or wardrobe appealed to him.

There were voices in my head that WERE NOT MINE and had NO place there.

Hello? Anybody home?

YES. SI. OUI. YES INDEED-Y. CIAO!

Still managed to chat bravely on, though the e-mail mysteriously sent itself to another folder...disappearing from my screen.

Maybe it was sulking 'cause it couldn't attract my attention with bells, whistles, barks, flashing lights, shrieks, teeth...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhh I remember those days! Hang in there, it does get better when they are older, much older. LOL!

Anonymous said...

woops, sorry I added to the madness.

Catalan subjonctives... Are they similar to French subjonctives? I wonder...

oreneta said...

Carla...good to know, I'll miss them when I get there, won't I.

LP, it was calm when we started chatting...weird how it is so impossibly to get any background on a chat....I am not to sure about French subjunctives, but I suspect there is a lot of similarity...I think that (insert subjunctive)

when you (subjunctive arrive) at the placa, turn left.

look familiar?

Anonymous said...

Mother said there would be days like that. When I arrived home this evening, there were 3 extra kids in the house and I was imploring my kids to get their chores done and they were making some supper all the while visiting with each friend and each time someone got up, Frodo would start barking his fool head off. It was so nice when they all left including my family. The dogs are still here but have nothing to bark at with all the kids gone.