A What?

During college, I was a camp counselor for two summers. One of the games I remember playing was called "Whosit-whatsit". To play, everyone sits in a large circle and the leader has two objects, a "whosit" and a "whatsit". The leader hands the object to the person on her left and says, "This is a whatsit." The person to her left replies, "A what?" and the leader repeats, "A whatsit." The person then turns to his left and repeats this information to the next person. When that person responds, "a what?", the first person turns back to the leader and asks again, "a what?" As you have probably guessed, the leader repeats "a whatsit", which is echoed by the first person to the second person. Confused yet? Just wait.

The leader then takes the second object, the "whosit", and repeats this pattern to her right. Somewhere in the middle of the other side of the circle the two objects cross paths, causing crazy hilarity. The poor person who is caught trying to hand off a "whosit" at the same time as someone is handing her a "whatsit" is faced with a few seconds of pure chaos.

This game occurred to me a few days ago as my two wonderful boys were both vying for my attention, alternately asking me questions and telling me absolutely vital information. It sounded something like this:

"Mom, I have a question for you." (Lucian)

"Yes, Lucian?" (Me)

"Mom, do dragonflies really eat mosquitoes?" (Max)

"Yeah, Max, they do." (Me)

"Can I have a glass of milk?" (Lucian)

"Is it because they like us? Are dragonflies nice?" (Max)

"Yes, you can." (Me, directed at Lucian)

"Yes, they're nice?" (Max)

"I want the blue cup." (Lucian)

"No, that cup is dirty. Here's another one. Yes I guess they're nice." (Me)

"What did you say?" (Max)

"I want lots of milk. Not just a little." (Lucian)

"Why are they nice?" (Max)

"You can have this much. I don't know, Max." (Me, handing Lucian his cup)

"Can dragonflies get into the house? Are they usually blue? I like blue, but red is my favorite color" (Max)

"I like blue, red and orange." (Lucian)

"I don't know, Max." (Me)

"What did you say?" (Max)

"I like blue, red and orange. Those are my favorite colors." (Lucian)

"What did you say?" (Max)

I could go on. But I won't, for your sake. This is my reality, sometimes for what seems like hours on end. Lucian simply hasn't developed an understanding of the word "wait"... and Max just doesn't want to.

I remember hearing once that women generally have more words that they want to use during an average day than men. Early in our marriage, this was definitely the case between me and Paul; anyone who knows him knows that he is a man of few words. But as my two little boys have gotten bigger and more talkative, I feel as if I use all of my words for the day before lunch! Now more often than not, my time with Paul is spent in glorious silence. Ahhhh, silence... something I never truly appreciated until it was gone.