Embrace the Porcupine

We've moved across the country and settled in a new home.  This home has lots of lovely things about it.

It's on a quiet culdesac.
It has a nice fenced yard.
It has a cute breakfast nook and front window and brick fireplace.
It has a covered pergola in the back yard for the kids to play under in the rain.  (Yes, we moved to Oregon. Some of you may not know this, but it seems to rain a bit here.  Just gentle little sprinkles of rain on and off.  So far I find it lovely.)

But there's two things that our different from our last house

1) way less square footage
2) no carpeting.

This makes for cozing living.  Both physically and auditorily.


A little back story:
Dalton has noise issues.  When he was little he had Noise Issues.  Parades with fire trucks?  Torturous.  Indoor swimming pools with kids yelling and splashing? Tears and covered ears.

I wondered, "Why does this child have noise issues?  Is it because his brain is so highly developed that he hears even more than the normal person? Are his eardrums unnaturally large?"

Since having a whole gaggle of children in the house I've come up with the real reason he has noise issues.  Both his parents have noise issues. 

I didn't even know I did, but I do.

Fun fact:  Carpet absorbs sound.  I had no idea how much. Until we moved into this lair of hard floors.

It's been an adjustment since moving in here.  And by adjustment I mean I haven't adjusted at all.

I believe there has been more than one occurrence of an adult female in the house yelling, "FOR THE LOVE OF CHRISTMAS WILL ALL OF YOU PEOPLE STOP HAVING FUN AND SHUT YOUR MOUTHS FOR JUST FIVE MINUTES?"  

You see, loud noises sometimes feel like porcupine quills jabbing into my brain.


Soooooo anyway, yesterday I decided that since there was absolutely no way I was going to end up with a quiet house, maybe the house and I could compromise.  I will send the children outside for nice chunks of time, and when they are inside I will embrace the noise.  Perhaps even contribute to it.

So we had this race/parade/free-for-all time yesterday which involved Dalton running some sort of Jedi  race, Belle running after him with an empty milk jug full of clothespins (noisiest toddler-friendly toy EVER) and Liam running after everyone just yelping and screeching to his hearts content.  I stood on the sideline and coached.  Loudly.

I was embracing the porcupine.

And as you can imagine, while embracing the porcupine I was jabbed often by sharp quills, but I did it.

I did forget that during this time Medman was upstairs trying to study.  He wasn't quite as happy about the proximity of the porcupine.  Oops.  I'm not even sure he's on board with embracing it.  I haven't asked yet.

But anyway, there's my goal.  Embrace the porcupine.

Today while Medman was at work we did cotton ball games (why, oh why, did I tell them we'd do this?)  It wasn't bad noise-wise until this game:

Yup, blow cotton balls across the floor (and around a hyper, cotton-ball-grabbing Liam) with straws.  Pure genius, right?  Do you know how much energy they expend in almost silent activity since they suck at blowing?

HOLY MOSES I FORGOT THOSE STRAWS MAKE AN EARSPLITTING WHISTLE WHEN YOU BLOW THROUGH THEM!

I video taped it.  But the noise is just too dreadful to post.  You're welcome.


So I'm choosing to think of this as good for me.   I'm going to have to tell myself that about 20 times a day, but I think it will be good for me.  Good for me to let others have fun even if I'm not perfectly comfortable.

Or maybe I'll just gather up those cotton balls and stuff them in my ears.

Embrace the porcupine.  Embrace it.