One of the funnier parts of parenting is hearing my older kids recognize that their younger siblings are being raised in a different household than they were (as much as we’ve tried to remain consistent!)
Hallie’s still adjusting to life back at home and learning the rhythm of our home and lifestyle. One of those rhythms involves Briggs getting home from soccer practice after 9.
Just the other night, Briggs walked through the door after 9; Hallie looked at him in disbelief and said, “That could never be me at his age — rolling in at 9:22pm with his hands full of Dairy Queen and milkshake spilled down the front of him!”
And honestly, she wasn’t wrong!
There was something so funny about the comment because it captured the reality of birth order. She was raised in a very structured home, with bedtimes, consequences, and additional sizes of clothing and shoes in her closet. Briggs is being raised a little differently. There is still structure and consequences, but we’ve learned to loosen up on things that don’t matter quite so much. (Which seems like an injustice for those who endured the stricter environment!)
And truthfully, I loved getting my kids to bed early when they were younger because it meant I had some personal time to do what I wanted. But now that I have kids staying up late into the night, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to let the youngest stay up a little later because it’s not like I have personal time at night anymore!
We were on a walk when out of the blue Briggs said, “If I were to rearrange the alphabet I would put U and I together.” I looked down at him and he was just grinning at me. I couldn’t help but laugh.
I’m not sure which one of his brothers taught him that exceptional pick-up line but that is just one of the many benefits of being the younger brother. 🙂
I was cleaning up some notes on my phone tonight and I came across a note from just over a year ago. Bennett was in 6th grade at the time and was in the was in a dual language elementary school.
His teachers were amazing but the district person over dual language was less than qualified to implement this program and we struggled for years with direction.
One day Bennett came home from school after the district leader had visited his class.
“She has our lives already mapped out for us. I am at an intermediate to advanced level Spanish which means I could be a cashier.”
He said it so confidently.
As if the she had given him the perfect career path – his spanish training has led him to be a cashier.
I wasn’t sure whether to be excited his 7 years of Spanish was paying off or disappointed he had only learned enough Spanish to be conversational as a cashier after 7 years. 🙂
Hallie keeps a running notes list of funny comments the kids say and every once in a while we read through them and have a good laugh.
I’m trying to include more of their funny comments so they make it in the blog books.
Over the summer when Briggs had broken his arm, he somehow managed to get a cut on his other hand. Hallie was trying to get him to do his chores and he was not having it.
“Hallie, do you know what it’s like to have two broken hands?? That’s what I thought. Well, I do and it’s so hard for me to carry this stinkin’ laundry basket.”
Doesn’t he sound like Michael Scott from the Office? Or perhaps a youngest child?!
We had a quiet Sunday afternoon with all the kids lounging around looking through old blog books. I think it’s safe to say they like the pictures, but they love the funny comment posts. When Hallie was younger I recorded so many funny comments. I just don’t do it like I used to. I have 5 kids and they all say things daily that I think I should write down. Part of me thinks it’s funny enough I’ll remember to record it later, and part of me can’t keep up with all the shenanigans going on in this house!
Hallie just told me this afternoon, she actually keeps a notes page on her phone with funny comments she hears so I can start adding a few more of the kids favorite posts for years to come.
Today’s comment is courtesy of Cannon.
I was working on the laundry room renovation and I had the power turned off at the breaker box because I was adding some can lights.
Cannon entered his room and tried turning on the lights and found they weren’t working.
So he says, “My lights aren’t working, the internet must be down.”
So evidently electricity and internet are interchangeable in his little mind – I can see why he would be confused!
