Kids are Loud!

I'm writing a blog post! And what topic have a chosen to break my long writing hiatus with? Answer: the topic that came to me this morning as I was lying in bed at 6:00AM with two kids tucked in on either side... that kids are loud. I don't know if I thought about this fact before having children and I'm sure it would have made no difference regarding my decision to be a parent, it's a tiny sacrifice. However, I'm also pretty sure that when Spencer and I decided to expand our family we had unknowingly sentenced ourselves to a home operating at four times the decibel level than we had with the two of us. Think about it. Babies... they come to you with all these built in noises of which include: grunting, snorting, gagging, sighing and screaming at the top of their lungs. These noises persist whether the infant is awake or asleep, happy or sad, bored or entertained. Noise. Then they grow up a little and start learning to make lots more sounds in addition to the other ones. They're really cute additions to their noise making abilities and louder than their previous gruntings. Finally, after much coaching and naivety from the parents, the child learns to talk. As far as noisiness is concerned, this opens a whole new world of being loud. Of course, it's absolutely wonderful to hear your child learning to express themselves verbally. Once it starts it will never stop. At a very young age they become parrots copying everything they hear. As they get to be preschool age they have so much swimming around in those little heads that they have to be talking almost non-stop to let it out! This need doesn't discriminate against nighttime. I often hear Braden and Jade talking in their sleep while I'm working on my homework. Preschool age is also about the time that imaginative play starts coming to the forefront of their daytime entertainment and along with it comes car sounds, sword sounds, vacuum sounds, pretend crying sounds, pony sounds, dramatic bad-guy sounds and also shrill screeching sounds if you're lucky enough to have a girl. This is the stage that our children are at now. It's funny because the more excited they are, the louder things become. If something is particularly thrilling, they will report to me at such loud volumes that it seems as though they are yelling in my face. The volume switch is broken! So, at first I began thinking that when they mature things will quiet down and there will be peace once again in the land, but then it hit me it won't get quieter! Who am I kidding? I think about our house when I was a teenager... if we were home each bedroom had different music playing all at once. If we had friends over, we were talking loudly and laughing or making silly movies together or Jacob was wrestling with his buddies in the front room. Things weren't quiet at all! Jacob and I would practice swing dancing to Glen Miller turned up loudly. There were blow dryers and stereos and sub woofers and bass guitars, flutes, trombones, violas, and pianos going every day. All good, but noise noise noise. Anyway, I was thinking about this as I lay in bed trying to catch one last chance of sleep. Braden was awake and talking in a half whisper. I was feeling threatened that it would wake up the little loud one known as Jade. When he wasn't talking he was fidgeting and making clicking sounds with his tongue. And Jadelynn, fast asleep was wiggling around and every time she turned over she would sigh loudly and flop her arms dramatically wherever they wanted to land (usually on my face). Then, comfortable again, she would smack her lips in sleepy contentment. Ah well... sleep is overrated. I've been deprived of it for years now and I'm still functioning. I am sure there will be a time when I am older and starting to shrivel when I will want for nothing more than the noises that I get to hear daily from my lovely children. Until then, I stand behind my earlier statement and declare to all those who may not have noticed, "Kids are loud!"