What did you say?

Had a couple of hours with the BFFs last night - cupcakes to celebrate a mommy birthday. Don't ask me if it was the sugar rush, the hardwood floors or something else, but the noise level in this house was crazy! Ten kids ranging in age from 2 to 7. Ten really loud kids. Ten kids that seemed to be bouncing off the walls like ping-pong balls. Funny, because on the way there, I thought my head would explode from listening to my kids in the back seat - arguing, asking why, singing, chanting, blah, blah, bibble babble. I actually started humming to myself. At one point, I tried to put the iPod headphones in my ears, but they caught me! So, the four moms are sitting at the table talking. We're being interrupted every few minutes by someone tattling on someone else or a big crash or a cry that needs tending to. But, basically, we're working like robots. Like we know who is walking over to us before we even see them and we know what they are going to ask for - so someone just pushes the cupcake over for her son and the other one holds her napkin out to wipe a frosting-covered face and the other one removes her hands from her lap and sits back just a second before her little one shows an interest in climbing up to sit on her lap. It was amazing to watch these ladies work this way. As the evening was ending, BFFMG says she never thought she'd be one of those moms that could just tune everything out. Pre-kids, she would see moms in the store and their kids would be screaming and fighting and hanging onto her pant legs and she would just be quietly walking down the aisle looking for Ovaltine. Now that she has two of her own and, for some crazy reason doesn't mind being the host to eight other kids, she has learned to tune out the incessant noise. Kids will talk and cry and whine and yell and sing and hum and cough and laugh and scream and sob and chatter and just make noise all day long if you let them. Sometimes you just have to unfocus and let your ears adjust to their noise as white noise. Believe me, if there's a really cry (like from hurt or needing help) you'll know it. It will be different than the droning. Then, once you right whatever went wrong, you can go back to your tranquility.