"Soft" Issues

One word that's the same in the kids language and English is "soft."

Except they don't mean the same thing!

When we were in Ethiopia, one of the mom's had a travel size Kleenex pack. All my kids wanted one. Svanna came up to me, rubbing it on her face and saying "soft."

I knew that toilet paper and Kleenex weren't always available in ET, and so I assumed what they had wasn't nearly as soft as this little tissue.

Well...found out later while that is true..."soft" in their language means: tissue, toilet paper, and napkins. As in, all of the above.

This led to a funny in the hospital. Grandma had received a teddy bear. Brandy made the mistake of rubbing it against Svanna's cheek and saying...you guessed it..."soft."

At first she looked at him incredulously...then had a fit of laughter at her silly Daddy, calling a teddy bear toilet paper!

The other "soft" issue we've had. In Ethiopia it is quite common to put TP in the waste basket rather than the toilet because their septic systems can't handle it. This led to our bathrooms having a bit of, shall we say, an order. Much less that it's kinda gross here in the States to have it in the waste basket.

Summer, being 3, needs a little help in the wipe department. So one day a while back, I called Gabe and Svanna into the bathroom, wiped Summer, and then demonstrated throwing it in the toilet and flushing. As if to say, here in America, we can flush TP.

The flushing of TP has been going well, with a couple of nuances. A couple of times now I've seen Svanna blow her nose with Kleenex, then throw it in the toilet and flush (unfortunately in American our septic systems don't appreciate tissue). I haven't corrected her yet. I figure a couple of tissues won't hurt, and with the language barrier I'll only confuse her.

And...this one is quite funny. I've seen Gabe go number 1, standing up of course, then tear off some TP and throw it in the toilet! Apparently he believes that the toilet needs TP, whether he does or not!! Haven't corrected this one yet either. (smile)

I'll leave you with a couple of pics. Last week Brandy's sister Shari her husband, Steve, and their youngest Kaitlin came over for a visit. They had a good time. They played with the kids on the living room floor and the kids loved it.

You can't hold Summer without holding Jaden, too!

Kaitlin and the kids...It's funny, the days can get overwhelming, yet it doesn't feel like we have a mega family. But in pictures with all 7 kids it does look like a lot of kids! LOL!