Teens and babies...

I was just reading my sisters’ blogs. One was sharing the victories of being a mom of teenagers leaving childhood behind and the other was enjoying the life of babies and toddlers and I laughed thinking, of course, that I also had it just as great!
I am a mom of teenagers plus a baby! That makes a GREAT combination. Teenagers love to be funny, strange, weird, silly, etc. and babies love to watch and be a part of that kind of stuff…in other words…babies love to give teenagers the attention they need. The teens are just as content to have their audience applaud…even if it’s just a six month old! The baby is basking in endless attention and the teens have their spectator. Only a baby loves to see and hear drumsticks being played on pillows in the living room for long periods of time. A baby won’t think that noise is tiresome; he’ll “coo” them on. Only a baby can laugh hilariously at a teen pretending he is a famous music star or soccer player. Only a teen can be silly enough to totally capture a baby’s short attention span for ten minutes. When the mom is already tired of the endless chores of taking care of babies, only the teens have the amount of energy and patience to take over and make the baby feel “king” again. And, the amazing thing is that the baby makes the teen feel like a “king”, also.
Well, to be totally honest, there are some drawbacks. What do you do when the teens want to do their teen thing at church till 10 pm on Friday nights? Well, the baby has to become a “teen” and stay. He struggles through finding a comfortable spot to sleep in and cries because he can’t find the warmth of his bed. At that moment, the teens are enjoying the company of their peers; they don’t want babies around. What do we do when the teens are studying for their finals and the baby can’t stop fussing…and mom has to help all three at once?
It’s like having a whole new family. Our teens are old enough to go on the city buses by themselves (no driver’s permit till 18 years here in Paraguay). They can go to sports at church in the afternoon. Our baby keeps us home…a siesta is MANDATORY!
Our family is a neat mix. I think we are all having fun.