Valentine's Weekend with 10

This past weekend we had the chance to play parents to 8 kids, while we hosted the 4 kids of fellow missionaries as they went out to do a medical clinic, making a total of 10 in our house. We've done this before, and it was great - I know a lot of people think I'm nuts, but I actually find it easier sometimes with more kids, because they all have someone to play with, and I never have anyone come up to me saying they are "bored". We tend to do things in a more organized way just to get everything done in an orderly fashion. Maybe some would call it the "assembly-line" mentality - call it what you want, but it works. I am a creature of routine and order. This weekend we decorated Valentine cookies (around 150 altogether) and they disappeared by the end of the weekend. We also had other friends drop in, the more the merrier! I think there is something in me sometimes that craves the crowd of kids, as if I was made for a large family. I love the special closeness everyone feels, and the sense of belonging to something special that only exists in a big family. I love seeing the older kids pull together to help the little kids along, and everyone sharing a little piece of the bigger task, getting it done faster. It's the same special feeling we get when our whole extended family gathers for the holidays. It is a feeling of community and togetherness, sharing the knoweldge that together we are something more than merely the sum of each individual part.

My Daughter the Negotiator

Our youngest daughter, Aisha, who is 6 years old, is a negotiator. She likes to be in charge and dictate to others the way things are going to be. She has an uncanny knack for cunningly orchestrating things to go her way.

Today Aisha wanted to play a computer game, which Gabriel wanted to watch, but the older kids had the video camera out on the tripod near the computer (as they were editing their most recent stop-motion movie), and so we couldn’t permit Gabriel to be there because he is too prone to messing with things and breaking them.

So Jim told Aisha that she either needed to play something else with Gabriel in a different room, or she would have to exclude him from the computer game.

She looked at Jim and said with a questioning look, “Exclude?” to which Jim replied, “Yes, exclude, meaning he will have to play something else while you play the computer game.”

So right away she said, “Okay!”, and then hopped down, ran out, showed Gabriel her Barbie dolls, and said, “Here Gabriel, play with my Barbies.”

Gabriel, overjoyed at this prospect (since they are usually off limits to him), easily complied, “Okay!”

Then Aisha ran back into the room, sat in front of the computer game and said, “Ok Daddy, I sclooded Gabriel.”