Attack of the short people

On Sunday, our niece Betty Jo called and asked if their family could come up for a visit. I said sure, hung up the phone and then proceded to panic. I even had to hustle some people out of bed. They woke up fast with the news. We held a family meeting around the dining room table with our cleaning plan of attack. Mostly it was pick up everything off the floor, make sure all the toys are in the playroom and hide everything sharp.

Oh, I forgot to mention – BJ & Greg have 5 children aged from seven on down to a few months. Three of them are boys. Batten the hatches!

By the time they got here and tumbled out of their vehicle, with PUPPY and 4-wheeler in tow, we were all ready. Partway through our long and wandering conversation and house tour, I realized I probably should have laid out a snack. This was confirmed when we got back inside and discovered two of the boys making microwave popcorn under Meaghan’s supervision. We then proceeded to eat every snack we had on hand. It was GREAT! I have forgotten how much small children can eat, especially in a herd. The inherent “make sure everyone has the same sized cup and a straw is” still automatic to me though.

Greg drove around the yard for a bit, giving the kids turns on the 4wheeler, and I was almost bowled over by E, who is no bigger than minute. “IgottagowifmyDad,” she muttered as soon as she heard the engine. Good thing she was wearing a jumper, as they are handy to grab running children with. I then helped her outside to her dad. She is outright adorable, and growing up with 3 older brothers is a tough little gal. This picture says it all, I think.

And we played pass-the-baby. Although I think Ron and Sarah did most of the holding. (Not that I’m counting, really.) The baby sure loved it.

I had to speak to Emma beforehand and remind her that although it is fabulous she shares all her toys, it was not necessary (and possibly not desired by BJ) that Emma give away her toys to the kids. I reminded her we had a bag of clothes and a couple of too-small dressup costumes for them.

She still tried to give them stuff. It was cute, though.

There was only one bout of tears when Emma came to us with a broken fishing rod. Both moms did the Calcualtion of Angst and Comfort. This takes in consideration the following factors:
- how loved the toy
- if the toy has been forgotten in the past
- how expensive / cheap it was

Given it was a dollar store item and was recently redicovered after hiding in the playroom, we declared it a non-emergency and it was forgotten in five minutes. Also, when asked which kid helped break it, Emma bellowed, “THE BLONDE ONE!” We all laughed. They are all towheads.

Eventually, we did a head count, rounded up shoes, gave out hugs, kisses, more hugs, and they left. I did assure BJ that yes, one day it will not be quite so much chaos. People will sleep in and you will be able to go more than five seconds without hearing “MOOOOOOM!”and some rooms will stay clean-ish for more than 30 seconds. I know I clung to that hope for years.

You know, it’s funny. I enjoy kids. I enjoyed mine, and I love when people come to visit. But I don’t know how I ever did it! It was exhausting! (She knows we love them!)

And today I discovered than soemone with little fingers must have turned up the temperature in our fridge. The ice in the milk was the kicker. Also, we eventually got all the movies back in their cases and off the floor.

Ahhh… kids.