Rock and Roll Out People

The secondary choice for a title today was "We Live in a Parrot Aviary". You see, when we settled into our new life with a tiny baby Miriam, and even a tiny baby Vivian, we had no idea that we were taking care of parrots. Mimics who absorb every syllable of every word we mumble and repeat it back to us at the most opportune moments. Most of the time it is adorable.

Blueberries fresh off the bush

The parrot-child really came into focus when Mommy loaded the girls into the car for some errands one morning when Miriam was about 2 years old. As they began the car ride, Miriam suddenly hollered, "Rock and roll out, people!" with a giggle. WHAT!?!? It sounded absolutely ridiculous and hilarious coming out of that little mouth. Mommy realized she said those words pretty much every time she stuffed the girls into the CR-V and pulled out of the driveway.

Anyone for ladder golf?

The moment we discovered a parrot was among us, our conversations changed. They were listening...but what were we saying? And what did we want them to say?

Miriam LOOOVES the fair!

There is a lot more spelling. This was particularly challenging for Tim. He's a perfectly capable "speller." Sarah isn't. So Tim is left trying to decipher exactly which word Sarah is attempting to spell. Miriam also learned how to spell P-A-R-K rather quickly. Felicity was probably born knowing those letters. No code talk over these girls heads can stop them from sniffing out their parents' plans for a trip to the park.

Vivian the Cheeser

And there is a bit of Spanish. Also a challenge for Tim for all the wrong reasons. Sarah took three years of Latin in high school and was not so hot with Spanish come college Spanish 102. Again, he's left trying to understand which Spanish words Sarah is trying to come up with and pronounce. Besides Vivian's love for Dora is going to expand her Spanish vocabulary beyond Mommy's any minute.

Baby Felicity just hours old.

It's a real communication hailstorm sometimes.

Sisterly love.

And that's ok. It's worth it. We don't want our little girls running around repeating four letter words (everyone will know where they learned those...horrible parents). And we don't want to ruin their innocence prematurely. You only get to be young and innocent and sweet once. ONE TIME. You cannot have it back. It's a priority in our house to preserve that right now. Soon enough they will know all about the kind of pain that is in the words we're spelling. And they'll know which words are mean and cause hurt. Today, however, is not that day. Today we're holding them in our teeny, tiny bubble, in our arms that are all too short. We're letting them have a childhood the only way we know how.