This being the school holidays, we end up going out more often with the kids. This usually entails a lot of time in the car together and the child noise level can sometimes get to me, the long-suffering driver.
Me: "Oi, all you kids in the car stop being noisy! It's driving me nuts."
Joy, 6: "You mean you are now an acorn?"
Everyone's a comedian in this household.
The wife and I try to keep Faith, Isaac and Joy entertained as much as we can (Faith is easier since she just likes to look out of the window). Games are a fun way to do this. I started singing songs with "banana" as the lyrics recently. First with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
"Ba-na-na-na! Ba-na-na-na!
Ba-na-na-na, ba-na-na-na, ba-na-na-naaaaa!
Ba-na-na-na, ba-na-na-na, ba-na-na-naaaaa!
Ba-na-na-na!
Ba-na-na-na!
Ba-na-na-na! Na, naaaaa!"
You get the picture.
It soon extended to other songs, like The SWAT theme, Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and the Glee version of Don't Stop Believin'.
You will be surprised how many songs can be sung with just the word "Banana" as the lyrics.
We had the kids singing along to my silly Banana song game, which entertained them for a few minutes.
Then they got back to talking loudly and arguing over small things. Needing some peace and quiet from the 8-year-old and the 6-year-old in the car, I announced the Quiet Game. Whoever spoke first loses.
We had 10 minutes of silence.
If I had known this was so effective, I would have used this years ago. It helps when you have competitive kids.
Joy broke silence first. She just HAD to ask, "Are we there yet?"
I didn't want her to feel bad about losing so we had Round Two. I even tried to bait Isaac into talking by mentioning his Christmas present and saying I might buy him something he didn't want.
"You know, Mommy," I said, making sure Isaac could hear me, "I think I will get the Transformers for his Christmas present instead of the Megazord he mentioned."
The wife stifled a giggle.
But Isaac was a rock. He kept his silence until I declared that the round was over and that both of them had won.
Without missing a beat, he burst forth with, "Papa, I didn't say I wanted Transformers leh."
The wife and I tried very hard not to laugh out loud for the rest of the drive.
