The Crew

There is no 'pleasing everyone' when there are six children living here. Jon's sister and her husband are in Honduras, so we are keeping three of their four children. I love my nephews and niece. They make me laugh and they think I am cool. For now...

I've already decided that I can't make them all giddy, can't-stop-singing-Aunt Melanie's praise, peeing-my-pants-laughing happy. At least not all the time.

Take pizza, for example.

I made up some dough last night and thought (correctly) that Bella would like to help create pizzas. You probably know this, but I'm still learning this litle diddy: girls are different than boys.

That's right. Real brainiac, I am to figure that one out. Girls talk. All the time. And they stand close to you when they talk. Which is all the time. And they touch. A lot. And they ask questions about everything.

I found this out at camp, and what I discovered today is that it really doesn't matter how many boys you add to our mix - it is still pretty much the same. Louder and more dangerous, but just about the same.

Add one girl and the whole dynamic changes. It just brings more balance, more structure, more order.

But, back to pizza. Isabella went around asking everyone exactly how much sauce, how much cheese, how much pepperoni, how much chicken, and how much spinach they wanted. And then, the little peacemaker actually pulled it off! She had these little sections devoted to each person and actually listened to their requests. But, when the pizza came out of the oven after the intoxicating smell brought them off the game cube, nobody cared! They all just dove in, making lots of sounds...(except Jack, he stuck to his special just-cheese section).

So, although we only added three more to our family, the food we've gone through already is astounding! Boys eat A LOT! And then if they swim or exercise, they eat more!!!!

The best thing is that since these kids were born, they have loved each other with this crazy-cousin love. They are the best of friends and never, ever get tired of each other. They all, from youngest to the oldest, will all lay on the floor together all piled on top of each other watching a movie. I don't know about 'closer than a brother' from my own experience, but from my perspective, boys have this special love for each other that is shown in ways we female folk simply cannot understand.