Do You Hear What I Hear?

I was cleaning dishes yesterday morning when I heard a familiar sound, but it struck me as very strange. Most days I leave home I hear this sound, yet it surprised me to hear it at home. I hadn't heard it since the first month we moved here. I heard this sound at least once a month in the middle of the night and plenty of times during the day at our old neighborhood. Figure it out? A fire truck went down my street. I hadn't heard sirens here since February.

I began thinking about how miserable the sound traffic was living on a corner lot in a neighborhood. Especially with crazy neighbors that liked to call the cops on each other. The intersection was a four way stop and people ran it all the time. Horns from other waiting cars would blare at all times of day. There was a jack ass that lived two streets down. Every weekday he would start up his motorcycle and rev it for a good 10 minutes, gun it down our street, be gone for all of an hour and then drive back. He wouldn't go straight home though, he would go up and down the street for 10 or 15 minutes. This practice is annoying to begin with, but when you have toddlers trying to sleep it's maddening. It never failed around 1:30 he'd leave, around 2:30 he'd return, I was screwed trying to make nap time around this jerk's riding schedule. Noon was too early for nap, 3 was too late. Then of course at 3 o'clock all the neighborhood kids were dropped off beside my house and would commence yelling obscenities at each other or just screaming at the top of their lungs while running across my lawn right in front of my children's window. So if by chance they slept through the motorcycle they would definitely wake up after that.

Around here the only sounds are nature. Inside the house we hear dogs barking, turkey's calling, roosters crowing. If you go outside you may hear neighbors sawing or hammering things (a guy on the other side of the woods behind us is in the process of building a house himself). There is a firing range a few miles north so on the weekends you can hear gun shots in the distance while you are outside, but it's far enough away you cannot hear it in the house. Some weekends it is busier than others. Occasionally I will hear neighbors yelling at each other, but honestly I heard it far more in the neighborhood than I do now.

In the summer I tried to convince the girls to sit outside and listen. I want to focus more on teaching them how to be quiet and truly listen. Tamarin is my main culprit, the child has no idea how to not talk for even one minute. I constantly have to remind her during our school work that we are not discussing anything other than schoolwork right now. She used to tell anyone and everyone every little thing that popped in her head. Her soccer coaches last year thought it was hilarious. Not so much when your 5 year old has no filter! So glad you find our unedited family stories funny, not! She has gotten better about talking to random people about the details of our lives, but she still talks non stop. Now Lemur is beginning to pick up this habit. Something is going to have to change. I cannot handle everyone talking to me at the same time and then getting upset with each other because "I was talking first!" This is mostly a car problem, but it is beginning to come inside. Not cool!

I have been eyeing this book for a year or more. I think I am finally going to break down and buy it.


The reviews for it are pretty good. I know nothing else about it. I forget where I came across it to begin with. I'm sure I was complaining about how Tamarin would not quit talking and my brain was about to explode when someone suggested it to me. I think it was still over $10 last time I looked, it's a bit cheaper now so I probably will get it. I'll let you know how the girls like it.

How do you encourage quiet?