Every day is a great day for screaming and playing, screaming and crawling, screaming and cuddling and screaming. The girls express their feelings, all of them, with yelling. Why do I feel like there is a scientific study out there that I should have read about baby screaming. That said, the girls are hitting their milestones with aplomb. B crawls and pulls herself up to standing, but can’t necessarily get back down. Today, she climbed onto her booster seat which was on the living room floor. After awhile, when she wanted to get back down and I wouldn’t help her, she lowered her butt slowly and carefully into the midair in front of the chair and dropped herself. She landed like a fine rubber baby, and started blubbering. I said, “come over here and get a hug, little one.” So she started crawling over to me, laughing like a silly rabbit. Big faker.

C is perfecting the wounded soldier crawl. She favors her right arm and shoulder at all times. Meaning, when it is time to crawl, she scrapes along the carpet on her left elbow like a wounded soldier. If her destination is a far distance, she will try to angle herself perpendicular to her target and then roll all the way there. The only problem with that is that she doesn’t recalibrate once the launch sequence has been initiated and sometimes winds up far from where she intended to go. I think her big belly knocks her off course.

B has turned full-bore needy. Gotta have daddy, gotta be picked up, gotta be carried, gotta get attention, gotta hear somebody say “good girl.” C is still a little bit stuck in her own world if you let her. We get her out and make her laugh though. C is a terrific little giggler. But we have to watch it or she goes over the edge and gets hysterical, and yes, then the screaming with all its joy and anger.

Well, we will need prayer and courage this week. The mysterious skin condition has finally surged to the fore, not to be silenced without another fight. B has a slew of tiny bumps on her belly which coincide nicely with the colder weather/ warmer clothing combo. A remnant of the fungal infection she brought home from Ethiopia, no doubt. So into the fray we go again, bathtimes, ointments, laundry and isolation.

At least they’re cute.

Fidelle

So much exciting is happening with the girls, it’s just that it’s buried underneath homeschool schedules, migraine headaches, overworked parents and visiting relatives. But here is a quiet moment in which I shall not clean my house for the company that is to arrive shortly, instead, tell you funny things.

B can crawl. Speedy little thing, too. C is content to watch her, but not ready to make a fool of herself. Both girls are capable of eating a meal without screaming; not that they exercise those powers all the time. They like to pull down the curtains in their bedroom. We are not sure who is to blame… C learned how to wave bye-bye, so B immediately learned it, too. B waves on command. C only does it when nobody is looking (just for mommy). Both girls are falling in love with mommy and daddy very well; more smiles and cuddles than ever.

We are ready to baby-proof a playroom for them. Both girls love to eat videos and power cords. They can also eat Cheerios, but mostly 50 at a time. They love their bath time. C laughs out loud when she sees some one get splashed with water. We got that on video. B loves to swim all by herself after C gets out of the tub. I fill up the water a little bit and hold her head as she kicks her feet wildly and splashes her hands and smiles like a crazy lady. She also likes to listen to herself talk while her ears are under water, floating on her back.

They eat well; peas, butternut squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, pears, applesauce, bananas, and mixed grain cereals, and, of course, Cheerios. Somehow they became vegetarian along the way. They both weigh 20 lbs, so they are thriving.

They adore their rigid schedule of naps and meals and bottles and bath. Whoa betide the parent who messes with the normalcy of a day. We went to a wedding a few weeks ago for almost the whole day. The girls behaved as good as gold, but mom, dad and our friend worked hard the entire time keeping them happy. (I missed the ceremony entirely, but I think they did actually tie the knot.)

Ron and I now think that perhaps we have to work harder in order not to have to work so hard. So, we spend every evening doing major projects of organizing and catch up housework, and even the odd reconstruction job, thank you water damage.

And remember folks, having twins is not like having two babies, it’s like having one baby 48 hours a day. They are so cute, we just want to gobble them up. In fact, I do eat a lot more chocolate since they are always making me think about it. mmmm, chocolate. I just baked a chocolate zucchini cake today. It was not perfect. I need the ultimate recipe of chocolatey power.