I Try to Remember to Be Thankful When....

Sometimes my kids go into crazy mode.  I mean flat out, giggle fest, sometimes screechy, howling with laughter loudness.  This mode often involves wild body gyrations, incessant repetitions of phrases that have no apparent meaning (ex. ferret, parrot), and wild cackles.  These crazy fests occasionally occur at home, but they are more frequently found while we are in the car.  Crazy time is especially prone to arrive if the Woodsman and I are trying to talk about the upcoming day, or talk about how the day has gone.  The likely hood of an crazy eruption is further magnified if mama has a migraine. 

I know that there are families where the siblings battle (my sister and I were more likely to squabble in the car than laugh), and I am truly thankful that my kids rarely fight.   They are fantastic friends - I'm thankful for that too, and I'm so glad they do such a stupendous job of entertaining each other.  I realize that not all kids behave this way.

I'm glad they listen to NPR and then repeat names and phrases which make them giggle.  Even if they don't really understand who Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was, I'm glad that his name is planted in their brains.  It will rise up one day in an AP class as if arriving from thin air, and it will have been their childhood glee that lay down that neural pathway.

Riding the Jackalope:  Wall Drug, South Dakota 

 I know that I will miss their crazy chatter when they are gone.  I know that the house (and car) often feel entirely too quiet even when they are gone for a few hours.  But sometimes, just sometimes, I want to install sound proof glass between the front and back seat.   Until then, I'll just try to be thankful - and maybe I'll carry earplugs.