I Have Seven Daughters

 

(Posted By Scott)

I love my daughters. I have a lot of them… and I love them.

“How do you handle it??” people ask.

“Wow, you must be busy.” I hear that one a lot.

“Your poor wife…” That’s always a compliment.

“You’re going to need a gun when they’re teenagers.” Ummm… okaaaay. (You would be shocked how often I hear that statement from people, and even more shocked at the people I hear it from! I have a big, black, over-protective Great Dane instead.)

Can you imagine what it would be like to have seven daughters? Try this; can you imagine what it would be like to have six sisters? I guess for some people who have less than desirable relationships with their siblings that could be … a troubling thought. But for this particular group of girls, they wouldn’t change a thing.

This house is like a full time camp/sleepover/playdate/girls dorm/MMA event. Sometimes Jaclyn and I just sit with a cup of tea and watch. It’s always eventful. There is always something going on. I really am sometimes overwhelmed when I consider how God has entrusted to me this group of treasures. It gets me sometimes. I will be sitting here, watching home happen, and I will just have to bow my head in humble thanks that I get to be a part of something this special.

I blame the great “girl” culture in our home on the relationship Jaclyn and Keona have always had. From the beginning, while I was at work, my wife was all Mom. I mean, Keona and Mom did EVERYTHING together. Making dinner, reading together, doing laundry, all of the daily things that happened while I was out, were opportunity to build that relationship.

Keona was the ideal little kid. I wouldn’t change anything about her. I remember saying, “I would take a bunch more just like this one.” She melted me when I was tense. She loved to show off how she could sing. She would make me sing her songs and read her books before bed. She would do it not by whining and crying if I didn’t, but by asking so sweetly and nicely that I could never say no. In every stage of Keona so far, as a person, I have thought, “I hope they are all like this.” She has set the tone of respectful, sweet, intentional, good behaviour that has given us a third influence for all the others.

However, I cannot escape some of her side effects. For instance, nothing in this house is safe. I’ve literally seen stacks of dishes broken in bulk right before my eyes.

Today Lily was just standing there holding “her” iPhone and she dropped it, for no reason but genetics, and just looked down at it and said, “Wow.” Then she picked it up and went back to her day.

“Oops. Sorry. I didn’t mean to.” is definitely one of the top ten phrases used in our house. She caught it from Mom and has passed this blessed destructiveness on to all of my little princesses. I promise to post public warnings in just over a year when she begins driving. My poor insurance rates!

So then we had these triplets.

Jaclyn called me at work following a doctor appointment. (Her second pregnancy was going a little differently than the first, and it seemed like something might be wrong.) She asked me if I was sitting down. So, I sat down.

“Yes. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. We’re having triplets,” she replied.

“Are you serious?” Ha! … I thought she might be messing with me. Come to find out it was just God messing with me.

I remember how excited and shocked everyone was as we told them about the coming batch.

My boss, John, he was fun to tell. He just sat there like it was him having the triplets. “Oh man! OH MAN!” He kept saying.

My friend Greg just started laughing at me. Like I had told him the funniest joke he had ever heard. Hysterically laughing at me. How do you take that response???

I guess looking back, it is kind of an odd and exciting circumstance. We were SO young. We were ready for it. We were excited about it. We prepared for it, and braced ourselves, and after what seemed like 2 years of visiting Jaclyn in the hospital on bed rest downtown Toronto, we finally got what we had coming to us!

For the few weeks they were in the hospital the nurses treated me like a celebrity. “This is the triplet’s dad.” Oh yes. That’s right, ladies! Superman is coming through! Now I realize that was to be my new name for all time. “Who are you? Oh you’re the triplet’s Dad.” Yeah, thanks. I have a name too other than “the triplet’s dad”. However, I would be happy to be called that just the same. I think I am more blessed to be their father than they are to be the triplets.

 

Have you ever tried to bottle feed three babies at once? I have. It was a bottle in each hand and one between my feet while Mom caught a nap. Often there were three baby swings rolling like a cheap theme park in the living room. Occasionally, it was me getting a tired arm trying to keep up to spoon-feeding three little piggies at the same time. (I would use peas and beans because they would eat those slower and I could keep up!) I got to do those things.

Here you are thinking, “What a crazy man - having that many kids.” And here I am thinking “That dude is so missing a whole chunk of life experiences reserved only for those willing to have this many kids.”

These four ladies are mini Moms. They do laundry, and dishes, and cook, and bathe the younger ones, and feed the baby, and rock (sometimes violently lol) Addy to sleep. These four want to learn how to make fresh bread. (Which I currently smell!) They want to help host Christmas dinner. They want to paint art, and plant gardens, and grocery shop. They want to hang out with Mom while she does a photo shoot. They come with me to the store or somewhere “just for the ride”. I dreamt of them as teenagers, and my dreams are coming true. I always have someone to play a game with me, to cuddle me, or to joke around with. I bother them, and it’s just as fun as bothering their mother – except without the pain! These four little ladies make it all work. I am so thankful that they are mine and I am theirs.

Princess Arabella is, however, an entirely different animal. Where the oldest four are awkward and clumsy when they run and play sports, this kid is a Flash Gordon. Everything she does is at high speed. Where Keona requires.. ummm… inspiration to movement ... Ella is a raging comet of fire blowing through the house like a Road Runner, unable to ever be still.

The only time she sits still is when she has snuck up on me to cuddle. Have you ever had a cat sneak slowly into your lap and magically trick you into petting it while your mind was on something else? Ella has this skill. I call her my little Hobbit. She crawls up beside the couch like a burglar and slowly climbs right into a perfect cuddle spot and then completely relaxes you inducing a comatose state. I don’t know how many times we have fallen asleep watching movies together but it’s an awful lot. And I think it will be many, many more times. I can picture her in her mid-twenties breaking into my house and sneaking across the floor and crawling up beside me to watch the Leaf game and steal my chips. While everyone else’s initial response to “let’s watch a movie” is “Can we have a snack?” Ella immediately asks, “Can I cuddle with you?” She is a Daddy’s dream come true.

But there are side effects of her energetic condition. The thing is noisy. Ok don’t get me wrong, she’s nothing compared to the triplets. They have voices like thunder and fights like Baboons at the zoo. But Ella likes EVERYTHING loud. If you give her the TV remote and leave the room, it will be JACKED instantly. When she gets a hold of Mom’s phone to play Temple Run or Minion Rush, she can’t play on silent. “Ella TURN IT DOWN!!!!” Sadly Lily is now picking up this noisy trend! It’s all Eve and Prayer’s fault I tell you!!!!

I should make another well-merited note about the noise in this house. The noise in this house is enough noise for several houses. In fact, it’s a lot like a mall food court, or a day care, or bumper cars, or all three combined. In fact, it IS all three combined. Eve is like the dude on the loud speaker at bumper cars yelling “Turn the wheel all the way to the right!” (And if Eve is that dude then Prayer is definitely the blonde girl stuck in the corner turning her wheel all the way to the left…)

While in my nice sitting room a couple of kids play with 62,345 Little People of all races and creeds to our right, and to our left a little almost-crawling mini practices her new skill of screaming at everything that moves. In the kitchen one kid sings, while another kid whistles, while another kid has headphones on saying French words to a computer, while another kid with headphones hammers keys on a keyboard, and another kid begs another kid to get her a snack. Please pass me the almost empty value-sized bottle of Advil.

I feel like when the house is empty one day it will be a big change for us. There will be less Advil and more reading old posts like this one. I will miss the noise… one day.

Lily is unique. Well I guess they all are unique, other than the three with the same DNA. But Lily does so many things we have never seen before.

For instance, she is incredibly advanced mentally and socially at such a young age. Oh wait, that’s what every parent says about their kid… This kid seems genetically designed to challenge me. Sometimes I may tell a kid to do something or tell a kid off for something and Jaclyn will gently oppose what I have to say. Lily immediately turns on me. “Yeah Dad … such and such.” Each and every time, Jaclyn hides her face and tries not to laugh. The authoritative, finger-pointing, degrading, head-tilted way that Lily looks down at me from two feet off the ground is the punchline. You can’t help but laugh. Sure we have to remind her not to argue with Dad but really it’s all Jaclyn’s fault. I crave the day when she gets a taste of her own medicine from this mini Jaclyn. She is soooooooooo much like Mom. So smart. And so sweet. And So gonna take no guff from anyone. It’s amazing that the 8^th child has such an older sibling personality. It’s amazing to me how they all have such differing personalities.

I believe it should be noted that Lily has great hair, and she knows it, and she knows how to use it. She practices using it in the mirror often. Challenge her to a Barbie style “pose off” and you'll see.

Lily and I have a special relationship different than all the other girls. It’s sweet and storybook like. I can sing her to sleep. I can calm her down. I can reason with her. She comes over to me every morning and says; “Can you save me some?” whenever I have food or beverage to her liking. She’s promised to be my buddy and love me forever.

Addy adores me. And I adore her. She is an example all-in-one of all of the above. When she was in the womb I used to talk to the belly and say “Daddy loves youuuuu.” When she was in the NICU for a few days I would sit beside her and say over and over “Daddy loves you Addy.” Now when she is upset or freaking out if I just raise my voice a little and call her name she stops to look at me. If I am in the room, she is looking at me. She turns her head, takes a spoon full of food and then looks back at me. She’s my little paparazzi. It’s unique, and it’s so special.

It still hasn’t “sunk in”. I have seven. God’s number of perfection – I agree. Would I go back and change that? – Yeah right.

Having seven daughters is crazy amounts of fun.

(A couple of years back)

The girls, I think, sometimes forget they are girls. They each have their own lightsabers. The battles are epic. Usually they transform the backyard into a full on Geniosian battle arena. The poor dog doesn’t know what to do. He gets between anyone involved in physical altercations in our home, but when the backyard breaks into galactic conflict, he just runs from one kid to the next trying to take their lightsabers or push them back. We literally just sit in the window and watch them all go. It’s way better than TV in my opinion. Also, watching Lily chase down and beat her twelve year old sister (any of the 3) with a red lightsaber is kind of, well, kind of hilariously appropriate.

I’m not a big fan of “girly” board games but when I do get talked into one, it’s never a dull moment. My girls were given Cranium this Christmas. I guess you have to act things out sometimes and draw things sometimes, or something. I wasn’t really on board to be honest, until Prayer had to act out the character “Captain Jack Sparrow”. Wow. The dramatic capabilities of these three are, abnormal to say the least. The confidence and willingness to in full hyperactivity make complete fools of themselves is the real value in any game we play together. Captain Jack’s famous “crazy walk” was depicted perfectly by Prayer, much to my delight. I nearly had a stroke I laughed so hard at the kid. Seriously, if you are ever bored, just borrow these triplets, give them each a can of Pepsi, and play a board game with them.

I have seven daughters, and so far, they all love the Lord and want to please Him. Often I find children reading a good book, randomly cleaning up things or taking care of things Mom would have to do. Why? Well because they love their mom and know that honouring her is worthy of their time.

I think it is right that I thank God for the privilege and abnormal opportunity to have seven daughters. I am blessed far beyond anything I could have planned or imagined. Lord, thank You for my girls. May they always live blessed and to be a blessing, for that is what they are to me.