Ambient Noise

This morning, as I was sitting at the computer, doing something probably very important, I looked blankly up at the wall above my computer monitor and noticed just how noisy it was in my house. That isn't to say that I hadn't heard the noise. I had. I always do. But I have gotten VERY good at ignoring it for extended periods of time.

It is, I expect, something that almost all parents do (except for the really good, and really bad, ones, probably). I know my parents did it. I would stand and repeat "Mom, Mom, Mom, MOM, MOM, MOM! MOM! MOM!" until she eventually looked over at me with a mildly put-out look in her eyes and say, "What?" To which I would reply something like "You don't even know who the Power Rangers are." (Note: I would have NEVER said this to my mother as a child. Because Power Rangers didn't exist until I was in high school or so, I think. But, amusingly enough, while I was typing out the beginning of this paragraph, Gabe, who's sitting on the floor in here, playing with Legos, was saying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy," over and over. When I said what, he said that Power Rangers thing. But I'm sure whatever I had to tell my mom was just as useful.).

But today, when I looked up at my wall, the kids were bickering, sort of, in the dining room. I tried to get the best parts of it on video, but Gabe saw me with the camera so he stopped the shouting that he was doing in reaction to Norah. They had been doing this for probably five minutes before I took the video. It's probably also worth noting that Norah was getting this much pleasure out of tormenting Gabe after five minutes of already doing it. She's trouble.