The Sights and Sounds of Parenting

I want to take you on a journey through the sights and sounds of parenting. Not unlike walking through a South American jungle or African savannah, with little effort you can become immersed in the environment.

Just like on the African plains, you can hear the trample of stampeding wildebeest as the two older boys come running down the hall. You don’t have to imagine what a bushpig sounds like when it squeals as the two-year-old does just that to protest some toy related injustice the three-year-old perpetrated on him.

In the wilderness you can look up at night and lose yourself among the stars. In the van, if you look up you can lose yourself in the constellations of dried milk drops dotting the roof.  (That reminds me: Honey, I forgot to tell you: when I was working on the door of the van earlier I glanced up and noticed the interior of the van looks like a shoddy Jackson Pollock knock-off. Did some sort of milk-based grenade go off in there that I don’t know about?)

Back inside the house, you might imagine a rowdy game of parcheesi was taking place between two monkeys and a hyena one room over. Of course, with a quick look you’d see it’s just the older two laughing while throwing wads of paper and the baby howling in delight at the spectacle.

I’ve been told that a crocodile taking a zebra into the water makes a terrible sound, but I think I have an idea what that sounds like. The other day there was a splash/crash sound followed by a yell and crying from the bathroom. I rushed in to find the two-year-old with his head in the jaws of the the toilet seat and his body halfway in the toilet. He had apparently fallen off his stool while attempting to go potty alone. Apparently, just like for zebras, it’s safer for toddlers to bring someone with them when they go by the water.

But, the most striking similarity between parenting and wandering through the wilderness is  that they're both an  adventure you'll never forget.

Well, that or the bushpig squeals.