Love - I know it when I see it.
Announcing...

It's not a competition, but everyone wins.

A new family moved in down the street recently. They have six kids, officially making us no longer the weirdy family on the block. (Actual conversation with neighbor this summer: Him - "Wow! ANOTHER baby! Are you DONE yet?" Me - "Whoa. Did you just ask me about my sex life? Because that seems...inappropriate somehow." Him - "NO NO NO, it's just that there are ways to AVOID HAVING BABIES, you know." Me - "Really? Do you have a pamphlet or something you would like to share?" Him - "...") So that was nice, handing off the baton of public scrutiny and angst over our family size. Welcome to the neighborhood!

But even nicer still is the fact that all six of them seem like really great kids. They range in age from 15 years to 10 months old, and all the boys threw themselves into the mess o' kids that plays out front. You know how playground dynamics are sort of mysterious and shifting? Well, I can say with almost certainty that these kids have only added good to the mess o' kids dynamics out front. They've also added football, which...*sigh*...okay. Fine. Why does an increase in the possibility of bodily harm = an increase in joy? WHY?

But one of my favorite things about this particular group of kids is that they are just as smitten with their 10-month-old sister as our boys are with Sophia. One day a few weeks after they arrived, it snowed. After hours of play in the snow, our boys and three or so of their boys trooped into the house for some hot chocolate. As I prepared it, they all gathered around Sophia in the living room. Everyone agreed she was cute, and then the comparisons began.

"You know, OUR baby can walk," one of their boys said casually.

"Huh," replied Max, "well, OUR baby can crawl BACKWARDS."

"OUR baby talks. She says Mama and Dada and bruver, which is brother, you know."

"Well, yeah," said Raphael, "but OUR baby can screech so loud it hurts your ears. For reals."

I listened from the kitchen, delighted by all of these scruffy-headed boys. There they were, looking like a pack of hoodlums and sounding like a pack of competitive mommies at the park.

The fact is that all of us with babies secretly believe we have the very best baby there is.

And we're all right.

Nov09 062

Especially us.

Comments

Mir

Crawling backwards totally trumps walking. Obviously.

Karate Mom

What a great story!
I think the best thing about babies is that the moms always think their baby is the cutest and most adorable. And they're right!
(Except for a friend of mine whose baby honestly looked like an alien. And my friend knew it and was okay with it because, as she said, "She's the cutest little alien baby around!" Luckily, the little girl outgrew her alien-ness)

erin

Hee! I love that they brag on their baby sister.

We have a family like that in our neighborhood too. SEVEN kids! And all good ones. They are a bit older (youngest is now 11), and they are so sweet to our little ones. It's really cool to live on the same street as them.

Swistle

Your title is SO PERF.

Amma Always

No, MY babies (BOTH of them) are the best and most... the most whatever you can come up with.

Heather

The delight you take in the boyness of your boys makes me smile every time you write about it.

Linda Sherwood

A few years ago, a new school superintendent came out to Merritt (the town where I live). He first met a mom with three children, he then met me who is a mom of four, and next he met a mom who has 10 children. He asked if there was something in the water. I am always glad about the mom of 10. A couple of her kids and my kids are friends, and she keeps me from being the "woman with all the kids."

Aimee

I agree with Mir -- I'm a lot older than Sophia, and I'm not sure *I* can crawl backwards.

I love that picture. She looks so sassy!

Melody

You are so blessed to have 4! I have two and would have liked more, but we had to have help with the first two (twins), so I guess we're done. You're little cutie pie is adorable. Does she favor you or your hubbie? Her hair color looks like his right? We have one of each, one daughter is the spittin' image of my husband's sister and the other is a mini me! Children are wonderful :-) when they're not driving you crazy!--Melody

Shelley

Living in the housing equivelant of a clown car ("you have HOW many people living there?") I can relate. And they're all the best too!

Kira, I emailed you a few weeks at your gmail address and have not heard back - did I get the right address?

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