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Out of the Mouths...

At 9:00 tonight, there was a knock on the back door and it was Liza, but for a moment, I thought our sitter had forgotten we cancelled her because I was sick, and if it had been our sitter, I would have grabbed her by her shirt and begged her to stay.

I told Liza that I had just been talked at for four hours straight. And it was true.

My oldest can talk. Boy can he. And my father will read this and laugh and say, "What are YOU talking about, Miss Motormouth?"

But honestly. You get it back in spades.

And tonight, it wasn't me, and it wasn't my oldest. It was Christian, the middle.

First, I got them fast food for dinner because Dereck had a Religion dinner to go to (he is in the Religion Discipline-- it was for work, not some Religious thing he was doing), and then Christian did his homework and Sam worked out, and Christian talked at me the entire time. And he talked at me as I tried to download some kind of media flashplug for this computer for Tommy, and then while I tried to get the DVD on the other computer to work, before I suggested that we could watch Harry Potter in the living room while I worked out.

(I just went to check on the lovely tub I'm filling, and discovered, to my absolute horror, that I didn't plug the drain!!! You can see that my nerves are raw, can't you?).

And that child talked during the entire movie. If the captions hadn't been on, I wouldn't have been able to watch it, and even as it was, I was out of breath by the end not from my work out, but from being made to answer questions throughout the movie. And I think he has a much better grasp on the entire movie now.

I am not usually so indulgent with the kids talking through movies, but tonight it seemed like the thing to do, though I did tell them at bedtime, "I am NOT lying down with you tonight. I need a break. I need to go read my book. And if I hear anything in this room..."

"Your hand will be on my bottom?" Tommy asked.

"That's right!" I told them.

Actually, I told Dereck that I needed a break and asked him to go in if there were any noise, but the little darlings actually went to sleep quietly, despite a barking dog, whom I escorted unceremoniously OUT.

While Christian and I were in the bathroom and he was brushing his teeth, he said, "Harry's aunt and uncle sure were wicked, weren't they?"

And I said, "I don't know if they are wicked so much as mean and stupid."

Christian: "Maybe they just needed more sleep."

Me, nodding: "Could be."

Christian: "Or maybe they just needed to have more beer."

And then, with barely a pause he continued: "Maybe YOU just need to have more beer."

Indeed.