Strange Harmony

This past weekend my dad, stepmom, grandparents and sister were here visiting and meeting Mia for the first time. I will be posting several highlights of the visit this week.

Austin was thoroughly enjoying having all the extra people around and the first day he was here he was so excited he wouldn't take a nap. I went up to his room three times over the course of an hour and half and each time he just said, "Out...swing with Grandpa." I told him that he could swing after his nap but he just couldn't relax enough to fall asleep. Eventually I sprung him from his crib and told him he could go downstairs and swing. Although, on the way downstairs I explained to him that Grandpa was taking a nap and he would have to wake him up. Actually, Grandpa, Papi (his great grandpa), and Abuela (his great grandma) were all napping in the living room.

As we began to walk down the stairs he stopped and looked at me with a quizzical look on his face. I knew what he was confused about, but let him keep going down to see his reaction. You see, not only were they all napping in the living room, they were also all snoring LOUDLY. When Austin hit the last four steps he could actually see them snoring and turned around to go back upstairs. I said, "Come on. I thought you wanted to go swing with Grandpa."

"No, Mommy!"

I convinced him to stay there and he just stared at them with a combination worried/curious/shocked look on his face. He had never actually heard someone snoring before even though he and Mark play a game where Mark pretends to be sleeping and snoring and then Austin wakes him up by jumping on him. So this was fascinating, though somewhat frightening. You see my family tends to have rather boisterous snorers. When my sisters and I were young and we would spend the night at my grandparent's house, we would sleep on twin mattresses on their bedroom floor. When it would near time for bed, we would happily volunteer to get our pajamas on and go lay down so that hopefully we could fall asleep before they did. Because if not, it became a very lengthy battle trying to go to sleep with the endless, earsplitting snores coming from my sweet grandparents. (I truly wish I had a digital recording for you to hear it!) As Austin sat on the steps he became fully focused on my grandmother. Within seconds her head bobbed backward and she let off a loud, roar of a snore. He backed up a few steps and it took everything in me not to crack up laughing. Then my dad let off a louder than before series of snores and he looked at me with a look of utter astonishment at the harmony of noises emanating from the room. I finally couldn't help myself and I started to giggle. That sent Austin into giggling himself.

My grandparents woke up, but my dad continued to snore away. I finally coaxed Austin down from the steps and told him to go wake Grandpa up. As eager as he is to wake Mark up when they are playing the snoring game, he was less enthusiastic with my dad. He stood there whispering for him to wake up and gently tapping on his hand. Then my dad practically growled during his snores and Austin quietly said, "no" while shaking his head. My grandparents started to laugh and that finally woke Grandpa up.

Austin got his shoes on and went outside to swing for awhile. I remained in the house and got dinner ready while the other snorers resumed their chorus. It was a great reminder of some really wonderful childhood memories and though it is a silly thing, it made me so thankful that my kids get to experience the snores of not only their grandparents but their great grandparents too.