What do you tell people about us?

Well.

Where shall I start?

Just kidding.

T asked me this just over an hour ago while she and E were herding the screaming children off to bed.

We, and by 'we' I mean 'they,' let them stay up waaaay to late again, and by 'again' I mean 'as usual.' E actually got so fed up with them he threatened spankings, which doesn't happen a lot in this house. T swooped in and had everybody asleep in no time, and I just ignored it all and kept playing online, because I am off duty. (I didn't take my day off today because of the weekend.)

The drama started around dinner time, when T made her father's fresh catch of the day and I tried to feed it to the kids. Not one of them liked it, not even the baby, who I can usually force feed just about anything.

R ate her rice and veggies and was very cooperative about tasting the fish. She tasted, spit it out, proclaimed it "Ewwy!" and was excused from dinner.

J ate his rice with some coaxing and only let the fish touch his lips once. He turned down veggies as well, which I let slide tonight because the antibiotics he's on for his ears are making his poohs something awful.

But his ears are improving and hopefully in a few more days, T will dare to wash his hair again.

Tonight was day three without washing his hair. We've been bathing the kids every night because it's summer, and well, they stink.

Baby I ate one bite of fish, one bite of veggies and then started screaming. Really screaming. I thought maybe his diaper rash had returned, but no. He just wanted to get down. I've been working on getting these kids to sit for meals, something T encourages but rarely participates in. Baby I has been the easiest to tame since he's the youngest, but tonight he was having none of it.

I sincerely believe it is because he spent the entire afternoon with T and was expecting her to feed him dinner.

After a few minutes of screaming I had to cave and let him out. I refused to chase him with bites of rice, so I got him sitting on the little child-sized chairs in the playroom and he ate the whole bowl there. Then he ate veggies. Then he picked up the giant rubber ball that is bigger than he is, threw it, fell and spewed food across the room.

Willie cleaned it up.

On the nights that T cooks, she serves E dinner when he gets home. Literally serves. I'm not against this practice, it's just been a while since I've seen it in action. He just sits down and the kids run around yelling and T cuts his food for him and does everything but actually put it into his mouth. Ok, maybe I'm a little bit against it.

That one time I made tacos I swear he thought I was going to do the same, but I just waved him toward the fixings and left the kitchen.

Anyway, tonight he came in right as J was finishing up. Everyone else was done. They baby started talking and J started running around. R immediately got grumpy, something she's been doing every night when he gets home for the last two weeks. T served him dinner and then sat to eat with him. I ignored everyone and Willie sat beside me.

And two hours passed this way.

So what do I tell people about them?

Probably too much.

But I try not to be mean. I want to be fair. I tell people what I do because this way of life is one that not many of us know. I don't tell people who they are, but I do tell people how they are.

And I don't know how she'd feel about this, but from the traffic stats on this blog, they are entertaining.

So I tell people the entertaining stuff. And when people ask me what they're actually like I tell them what I told her.

They are the Jewish version of my brother's family, loud and funny.

And she replied, "Good answer." And ushered her noisy troop up the stairs.