But, this summer I also made sure I listened to what was coming out of the mouths of my babies. On one of our many rainy days, we made it our mission to clean out the playroom. (Well, I cleaned, they played.)
Pulling old toys from the crevices of the playroom is like Christmas morning all over again. Toys the kids have not seen in months are once again superfun.
Before long the kids had an entire village set up in the playroom with action figures, a batman cave, Matchbox cars and plastic aliens.
They weren’t helping me clean, but they weren’t fighting with each other. Pick your battles, right?
Pretty soon I heard our son toddle over to his little sister with his action figure family and say, “Oh! Hey, Sissy, will you watch my kids?”
Our ever-the-little-mommy daughter eagerly agreed, “Sure!”
Some time passed and our son returned to “pick up his kids.”
“You LOST my kids!?” he said frantically.
A long discussion ensued then about the whereabouts of the lost children. Eventually they were found and the playtime continued.
It was good to know that, in addition to having a large pretend family, my son also had a job to support them.
I was quite proud, “He’s learning a good work ethic already!” I thought to myself.
And apparently, he also knows the importance of technology.
“Just send me an email!” our older son said to our younger son while playing.
“Dude, I don’t have Wifi! I work in an ice cream truck!” came the reply.
Driving an ice cream truck: the dream job of a 7-year-old.
Listening to our children converse like grown-ups was comical and enlightening. I’m sure there are worse things they could be mimicking or repeating.
And if our son grows up to drive an ice cream truck, at least we will know he achieved his long-term career goal, but hopefully our daughter doesn’t lose his children while he’s working.
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