Lovely evening. . .

Tonight my eldest, who is a clattering of noises good and bad wherever she goes, bought her brothers sleds for their January birthdays. They went to the backyard where we have a small hill. The hill had very little snow as it is often wind-blown. The eldest eight kids were out there putting snow on the new sleds (the littler ones were scooping with their mittened hands!) and TeaCup was "supervising." I loved hearing them laugh and yell going down the hill. One of the sleds was a blow-up one that spins as you go down; TeaCup would not get off this sled. She looked like she was sitting in a hot tub. No one minded because she is little and they went down with her each time. It lasted about an hour until it ran into a plastic sled. We will take it back tomorrow because it shouldn't have done that so easily! The kids were out there howling at the moon. I hope the neighbors don't get worried. I bite.

Now they are loudly making hot chocolate and laughing. Tiger is wearing a t-shirt that says "WildCats" on it-- it's from a school in Arizona. The kids are teasing her that she likes High School Musical. Corbin Bleu who is the dreadlocked guy on there with a high pitched voice who plays basketball and is the most annoying, well, the kids have paired her up with him. Guy Smiley, who is almost ten, just said she should "make a baby with him!" He is laughing so hard and saying that "My nephew's first words will be [mocking CB] 'You wanna play the Wildcats? Are you maaan enough?'!" She just said that with them both being short it will be a munchkin baby.

And now they are singing Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkle but working her and Corbin into it. "Corbin get up and runs down the hall and he is in his underwear running with a basket ball. Oh T-Tiger, you're breaking his heart!" The lyrics get worse with words that sound like "fart" and armpit hair. I don't know if I have poets in there or what!

Will it be like this as they get older? I hope they always like each other like they do now.