My home is quiet. It is the quiet that two older adults live in. There is the occasional sound of the television and radio, conversation - when my SO and I are in the same room, footsteps going up and down the stairs as we put all of the toys away, plates/bowls/pans being removed from the dishwasher, the washing machine doing its job, the coffee grinder as it prepares the substance which will provide artificial energy as we deal with our they-came-and-took-them-away funk, the clunk and clatter of toys being put back into the storage bins. Too quiet.
Gone are the sounds that accompany a visit from our grandchildren. My SO and I look at each other, trying to remember what our regular voices sound like, instead of the higher-pitched and happy voices that we use to talk with our granddaughter - the sentences that all end with the voice pitch going up. (I can hear myself saying 'up' in a higher, squeaky-type voice.) Or the sound of our voices when we chat with the boyz, (intentional misspelling), ages three and four.
With the boyz, our voices are closer to 'regular', but the chatter is so vastly different. With the boyz, especially TLV, the four-year old, most of our conversation would go like this:
TLV: Why did that dog lay down on the ground?
Gramps: Because the owner told him to.
TLV: Why?
Gramps: Because having a dog lie down is way to get the dog to obey.
TLV: Why?
Gramps: Because then the dog doesn't bother other people eating their ice cream.
TLV: Why?
Gramps: Because some people are not comfortable around dogs.
TLV: Like David?
Gramps: Yes
TLV: Why?
Gramps: Why do YOU think?
TLV: I do not know.
Talking with three and four-year olds can be like walking into a conversational mine-field. You never know when the body-parts topic will come up, but when it does, it is not a topic that is easily nor quickly put to rest. The hardest part of being in a body-parts conversation is not laughing because then the whole world is a stage and three and four-year olds instinctively know when they have a captive audience. And who is a better captive audience than grandparents? Grandparents laugh (mostly) at the antics of their grandchildren, sometimes even becoming goofier than the grandchildren, which is always popular with the 'short' set.
That is what is missing here, at Quiet Central........Laughter. I haven't been silly for about sixteen hours. Silly is more fun. Quiet may be more adult but there is nothing like reading book after book, using your voice to illustrate the different book characters. I haven't heard Donald Duck's voice coming from Gramps since late yesterday afternoon.
I suppose it would be a little odd to read "Duck Soup" to my SO. Then again, maybe not.
Ancora imparo
