Loud

Last night, after I tucked Alyssa and Olivia into bed, I tiptoed out of the room and prayed, “God, thank you for loud children.”

Because they were so very, very loud pretty much all day yesterday.

On Saturday I bought them both new swim suits for summer. With Alyssa’s sudden growth spurt, none of her old suits fit and hello, you can’t buy one daughter a new swim suit without buying one for the other daughter.

So yesterday, they ran around the house all day long in their new swim suits. No, the weather wasn’t necessarily swim suit appropriate, but it was warmish in the house and that meant they could run around pretending to horses (Alyssa) or Horton (the one who hears a Who (Olivia)).

The horse whinnied often and Horton was, well, an elephant and so she did what elephants do. I can’t exactly describe it but I can tell you that it’s loud.

There were moments, like say, at dinner, when I begged them to be quiet. There were other moments when their level of noise threatened to get on my very last nerve but for the most part, it was just a day in the life.

And…get this, it was mostly fun. For them and for me. I laughed at their antics, I enjoyed their rambunctious play even as I stepped over Horton who was trying to find her lost speck or when I almost tripped over Alyssa’s herd of horses, the ones she was in charge of because, duh, she was the lead female of the herd.

But I love their imaginations. I love that they play together (at times, Alyssa’s herd was threatening Horton’s speck and at other times, Alyssa’s herd was ON Horton’s speck.) I love that they boss each other around and then, in the next breath ask a favor.

I love their voices, the fact that they both use them as well as they do. I know how rare it is for a child with 5p- syndrome to use her voice as often and as well as Olivia does. And because of that, last night I was so, so thankful for loud children.