Adventures in the New "Workplace"

 

Dress up time. Basically everyday.

 

Dressed as a pirate at the kinderzoo, riding a horse. Yup.

 

All the kids, snapping the ends of the green beans for lunch. A task that oddly they all loved & felt compeled to contribute towards. Now if only I could inspire this sort of energy during 'straighten up time.'

 

Rocking big girl sunglasses, which incidentally now have scratches, but I'm pretty sure it's worth it.
Often I leave work dirty, scratched, colored on, exhausted, yet joyful. I am in awe of how people do this, working, running a house, having kids. Literally, I am close to non-functional by the time I get home after work -- Joe is relegated to dinner duty -- aka heat something up, but honestly, it's more than I'm in the mood for, so I take it & happily.
As goes with all kids, and adults, we've had our hiccups along the way. However, I/we have settled into a better understanding of what we all need to have a happy, successful stress-free day. One of the most endearing/scary things is the way kids pick up on language, and so quickly. All the kids have gorgeous British accents (from Mum) and then I come into the picture and they are picking up, sometimes subtely, on things that I say. I sort of do this thing where I say 'nneennneenn,' understandably this is not a word & most likely a sound you may not be able to hear, right now, in your head. However, I do it as a 'are you sure you should be doing that?' sort of noise. And the other day I heard one of them doing it, to her sister! SweetJesus.
The family has an amazing, open way of communicating to the kids. However, the youngest is only 2.5, and sometimes things get a bit confusing. She keeps saying things like: 'My penis is dirty.' 'My penis feels funny.' And everytime, I have to try to keep a straight face as I tell her, yet again, 'You don't have a penis. You have a vagina.' Then, the next time I am there: 'You don't..' Rinse, repeat.