Scallywags and Mousey

During a hike with TAASC this weekend, the boys were pretending to be Civil War soldiers (some from the North, some South) while the girls were talking about their favorite foods and vacations. It wasn't uncommon to hear, "And then, if your musket is broken, you can just use a bayonet!" (while they "shot" sticks and ran up the trail) at the same time as, "We were playing hide and go seek, and this 2 year old who I was hiding with in the closet kept saying, 'This dress is pretty and yellow... this dress has puffy sleeves...' I thought she was going to give away our spot!"

At one point, I had A on one side saying, "KD, you know all the slang names for Union and Confederate soldiers?" while KK was on the other side saying, "Well, of all of us in the house, I take care of the animals the most.. like our mice."

This conversation was happening at the same time:

"Johnny Reb, Billy Yank..."

"We had several mice to begin with. And they aren't snake food... these mice have brown or black spots or colors and don't have red eyes..."

"Little coot. Rebs-- that's short for rebels..."

"And then one had fatty tumors, but you need to change the water..."

"Yanks or yankees..."

"So then the other one had babies and we gave them to the pet store..."

"Sesch... that's because they were secessionists. I like that name most of all of 'em..."

"But I wash our dog and you need to hold the mice for at least 15 minutes a day, especially because all of their friends died..."

"Blue Coats...Graycoats... Blue Belly...""

"And then I brought all these toys into Mousey's cage to keep her company. And we had to get a glass water bottle from a special company..."

Sometimes my little kids interrupt ongoing discussions with their own random thoughts. A and KK didn't seem to notice that there's an entire other conversation going on while they are talking.

In fact, I was able to ask questions to each of them while the other one hiked next to me and continued to talk about their subject. Many times a strong, "Really?!" would cover both conversations, but I found myself saying, "How come those mice don't live so long?" followed immediately by, "Wow, A. How did you learn about all of these names?"

Strangely, around the same time that A ran up the trail to attack some of the Rebs, KK hung back and started to talk with someone else. After the wave of words, I found myself hiking alone with the fake valley girl accents and fake musket fire floating in the distance.