General Discussion Thread

[Piney]

Most of my cousins are like 20 years older than me, or more, so my two cousins my age are always people I enjoy being with.  The elder one is a girl, but she and I are very alike: both quiet and introverted, both into the arts, but she's usually more energetic than me.  The boy is just growing.  His voice used to be all squeaky and high pitched, but now it's deeper than mine.  o__o. Either way, it's fun watching the learn and mature.

The cousins that I was specifically talking about are 20, 18 (3 months younger than me), and 15. The 15-year-old is the baby of the family, he's eternally ten years old in everyone's mind. It was weird just now, realizing he's actually fifteen.
I have three more significantly older male cousins on my dad's side of the family, one of whom I've never met, but who's also a cartoonist so we'd probably get along.

My sister spread 76 balloons over the carpet in the rec room and told my brother and I not to play with them. I'm sorry, how can we not play with them?

As long as you don't pop them, what could go wrong ?

[Eich]

The cousins that I was specifically talking about are 20, 18 (3 months younger than me), and 15. The 15-year-old is the baby of the family, he's eternally ten years old in everyone's mind. It was weird just now, realizing he's actually fifteen.
I have three more significantly older male cousins on my dad's side of the family, one of whom I've never met, but who's also a cartoonist so we'd probably get along.

As long as you don't pop them, what could go wrong ?

Yeah, the cousins on mg dad's side are all older.  He was the youngest in his family by a lot.

Oh yeah, and the baby thing I forgot to respond to...  I felt weird holding my niece the first few times, but now she's more substantial and strong, and I felt a lot more comfortable with it, which makes the baby more relaxed too, apparently.  And you can talk to them all you want, they're great listeners!

[Sunflower]

Edit: I was just playing with my niece, and I got her to laugh!  . Babies are the most awesome things in the universe!

Aw, Eich, that's so cute! 

Ha, I like babies in theory, and they're cute n' all, but I just never know what to do around them. Like, you can't talk to babies or anything, and sometimes they'll just stare at you and I'm like, "What? What do you want?" ...Clearly I have no innate motherly instincts.

Play peek-a-boo.  That almost always works, and it's good for babies' little brains -- teaches them about "object permanence." Or just make popping sounds with your mouth.  (It'll at least amuse *you*, if not the baby...)

And Eich is right -- just talk to them about whatever's on your mind.  It's also good for babies to hear lots of grown-up words, because they start building language skills long before they can talk. 

[Piney]

Oh yeah, and the baby thing I forgot to respond to...  I felt weird holding my niece the first few times, but now she's more substantial and strong, and I felt a lot more comfortable with it, which makes the baby more relaxed too, apparently.  And you can talk to them all you want, they're great listeners!

Play peek-a-boo.  That almost always works, and it's good for babies' little brains -- teaches them about "object permanence." Or just make popping sounds with your mouth.  (It'll at least amuse *you*, if not the baby...)

And Eich is right -- just talk to them about whatever's on your mind.  It's also good for babies to hear lots of grown-up words, because they start building language skills long before they can talk. 

Well, I meant talking as in holding a conversation. Like, I'm not even comfortable talking to myself unless I'm completely alone. I can talk to dogs, but it's all babble. With any other circumstance though, I need for the other party to actually respond to me - I could probably stumble through a conversation with a four year old. I have zero baby skills.

[Richard Weir]

If you can't baby-talk, just dog-talk to them - it's the same thing really! So long as you are making sounds and your face is expressive they will relax and start to interact with you. Once that gets going, it becomes easier.

[Piney]

If you can't baby-talk, just dog-talk to them - it's the same thing really! So long as you are making sounds and your face is expressive they will relax and start to interact with you. Once that gets going, it becomes easier.

I dunno, I'd feel pretty weird saying "Who's a sweet dog?? You's a sweet dog!" to a baby. 
But whatever. I'll probably have figured out baby-talk by the time my generation has children.

[StellersJayC]

Talking to yourself can be challenging in the wrong setting. The first step is to get comfortable thinking conversations with yourself in your head. Next, try telling yourself stories aloud. After that it's merely commenting on the stories and you're talking to yourself! (Note that this process has not been tested and I am not responsible for any unexpected side affects unless you want me to be.)

Is there something wrong with my grammar today? Something about it just feels... clunky.
In other news, one of the balloons has shrunk down to the size of a golf ball of it's own accord - I really hope the sister-unit doesn't hold us responsible when she inevitably discovers the balloon-defect.

[Sunflower]

I dunno, I'd feel pretty weird saying "Who's a sweet dog?? You's a sweet dog!" to a baby. 
But whatever. I'll probably have figured out baby-talk by the time my generation has children.

Most of the dialogue people have with babies is just like that!   
"Who's a cute baby?  You're a cute baby!  I'm going to eat you up, num, num, num, num!  Yeees, num, num, num, num!  Ah-boo-boo-boo-boo-boo!  [funny faces and fart sounds from blowing on my forearm]"

Repeat until the baby either smiles or starts crying.

Sunflower's Baby Amusement Imitation is available for parties and small corporate events.

[StellersJayC]

There are now five extra girls aged 10-14 running around the house for my sister's birthday party. This is somehow worse that having many many relatives about that I may or may not know. Oh well.

[OrigamiOwl]

Today I went ice skating with my little cousins. It was both bothersome and awesome. It was the first time I almost didn't fall at all (okay, so I did fall twice by myself and once thanks to a cousin, but it's progress), we taught one of them how to skate all on his own, had a lot of fun and I generally behaved like a good cousin. I lent the older one my gloves, teased him because they were girly gloves ("Come here, miss, let's circle the rink again!"),  held the little one's hand so she wouldn't start crying because she had fallen again and stuff. Gosh, I'm such a horrible person. Being happy because I was gentle and did what every cousin must do 

Awwww! You get a bazillion eldest-cousin-points! X) They sound pretty cute! And tiny! 8D

Cousins are fun to hang out with.  Sounds like a good day over all, though!
I used to haaaaate one of my cousins.  She's younger, and she used to do all kinds of annoying things.  She even put pickles in my drink one time... That was not very nice.  But then we just suddenly started getting along one day, and now she's one of my favorite people to hang out with when I'm home.

My sister is making fun of Australian accents, now.  She says she doesn't like the accent.  :O

Edit: I was just playing with my niece, and I got her to laugh!  . Babies are the most awesome things in the universe!

Pickles...hehehe...that does sound mean ;___;
I only have two first cousins on the island, and we don't get to see each other any more due to a family feud, but we all used to play in our grandparents' garden and watch AtLA all the time when we were little.

Your sister....said...what?? :0 Whyyyyyy? *cries* ;m; How did that come up in her conversation? Did she hear a horrible bogan accent somewhere....? D8

Slightly related subject: last night my sisters and I had a card game/scrabble marathon for our last night at the beach, and people thought we were drunk because we were laughing so hard... We changed "Go Fish" to "Sorry Neighbour" with over-exaggerated southern US accents. And we were crying because it sounded so ridiculous X'S We always go into a card berserker mode when we play, and come out with all kinds of crazy banter...but it was just too much to handle so we had to tone it down before someone hyperventilated and collapsed from silliness O______O

Most of the dialogue people have with babies is just like that!   
"Who's a cute baby?  You're a cute baby!  I'm going to eat you up, num, num, num, num!  Yeees, num, num, num, num!  Ah-boo-boo-boo-boo-boo!  [funny faces and fart sounds from blowing on my forearm]"

Repeat until the baby either smiles or starts crying.

Sunflower's Baby Amusement Imitation is available for parties and small corporate events.

Ahaha the best advice XD

[Piney]

Talking to yourself can be challenging in the wrong setting. The first step is to get comfortable thinking conversations with yourself in your head. Next, try telling yourself stories aloud. After that it's merely commenting on the stories and you're talking to yourself! (Note that this process has not been tested and I am not responsible for any unexpected side affects unless you want me to be.)

Is there something wrong with my grammar today? Something about it just feels... clunky.
In other news, one of the balloons has shrunk down to the size of a golf ball of it's own accord - I really hope the sister-unit doesn't hold us responsible when she inevitably discovers the balloon-defect.

Ehh, I can't even come up with conversations in my head. I think it's the improvisation that I can't do. Not sure I'll ever be able to improvise well, not everyone can

And I haven't noticed anything wrong with your grammar... Maybe it's just your wording?

Most of the dialogue people have with babies is just like that!   
"Who's a cute baby?  You're a cute baby!  I'm going to eat you up, num, num, num, num!  Yeees, num, num, num, num!  Ah-boo-boo-boo-boo-boo!  [funny faces and fart sounds from blowing on my forearm]"

Repeat until the baby either smiles or starts crying.

Sunflower's Baby Amusement Imitation is available for parties and small corporate events.

If I ever have babies, I'm hiring you 

[Piney]

There are now five extra girls aged 10-14 running around the house for my sister's birthday party. This is somehow worse that having many many relatives about that I may or may not know. Oh well.

That is definitely worse than relatives. Relatives are easy to ignore. And middle-school-aged kids are (to me) easily the most annoying age group.

[StellersJayC]

That is definitely worse than relatives. Relatives are easy to ignore. And middle-school-aged kids are (to me) easily the most annoying age group.

It's not as bad as I expected, but they're loud enough that you can hear them upstairs and on the other side of the house. We've been discovering that the house has really weird acoustics, so it might be due to that, but I was sure that the rec room had been unanimously voted a "dead zone" as far as hearing activity in there from the rest of the house goes.

[Sunflower]

It's not as bad as I expected, but they're loud enough that you can hear them upstairs and on the other side of the house. We've been discovering that the house has really weird acoustics, so it might be due to that, but I was sure that the rec room had been unanimously voted a "dead zone" as far as hearing activity in there from the rest of the house goes.

Oh, lord.  Five tween girls plus your sister, all hopped up on junk food.  I feel for you. 
Do they still have super-shrill, high voices?  Or are they big enough to have big heavy footsteps, even if they only weigh about 70 pounds?

[Sunflower]

Your sister....said...what?? :0 Whyyyyyy? *cries* ;m; How did that come up in her conversation? Did she hear a horrible bogan accent somewhere....? D8

Slightly related subject: last night my sisters and I had a card game/scrabble marathon for our last night at the beach, and people thought we were drunk because we were laughing so hard... We changed "Go Fish" to "Sorry Neighbour" with over-exaggerated southern US accents. And we were crying because it sounded so ridiculous X'S We always go into a card berserker mode when we play, and come out with all kinds of crazy banter...but it was just too much to handle so we had to tone it down before someone hyperventilated and collapsed from silliness O______O

Owl!  Welcome back from the set of "Tasmanian Beach Party!"  (Or was it "Gidget Goes Tasmanian"?)

1. What are "bogans"?  You used that term before.

2. Wait till I teach you and your sisters how to play "Spoons," about the only card game that's actually *better* with a couple of mismatched decks missing a few cards each.  Everyone will need supplementary oxygen by the end of the game.

3. I think your sisters were inhaling the same laughing gas as my little nephews, when at Christmas we were all playing "Dance Dance Revolution" (or whatever the dance game is on the XBox).  Every time the machine started to take pictures of us (and mine are under *strict* lockdown as potential blackmail material), they pulled up their shirts to expose their tummies and then literally fell on the floor laughing.