Busy, busy, busy!

Carmen is sleeping in the swing right now. She has been in constant motion today, even in her sleep. Hopefully the swing will help her rest.

Saturday we drove out to Saratoga for the Big Thicket Association Annual Meeting. I am the BTA Treasurer. After a rough night, an early morning, and then a long drive hearing the babies complain--or worrying that they might start complaining again whenever they did stop--I arrived just in time for the Treasurer's report. I huffed into the meeting room, stared at the crowd, and blinked. What was I doing there and who were these people, again? I don't remember what I said but Matt assured me it did make sense. Whew, good thing.

The babies didn't let us stay long, but we did at least visit a little bit. I want to visit Maxine and everybody again, but I've got to persuade the babies that they need to learn to sleep in the car. Sandi Elsik (in the plaid shirt) reminded me I never slept in the car, myself. I did bring them a couple of new toys and their Los Lonely Boys CD, and they did amuse each other for a little while by talking in their own little baby language to each other ("where are they taking us now?" they said), but it just wasn't enough. Fortunately on the drive back we didn't have to make any stops, although C&D made it apparent to us that they were happy to be home.

Today: . . . Carmen showed Matt that she could stand for a few seconds on her own. David probably could, if he wanted to, but he is more cautious, and instead busies himself by taking all toys out of--and them putting them back into--his wicker basket. The basket has about 30 pounds of weight on the bottom, so C&D can hoist themselves up without tipping it. (Not that they don't try.)

. . . Matt did help David learn the art of unpacking a bookshelf. Next lesson: putting everything back?

. . . a stray cat learned that at lunchtime two frazzled parents might put out two highchairs outside to be cleaned during naptime, and that the highchairs might be full, like they were today, of chicken, oat groats, zucchini, and butternut squash. The stray cat also learned that those two parents, one of whom was cooking and the other of whom was helping a baby stand up while being climbed upon by the other, are too busy to really stop him from having quite a nice lunch, and even the supposed resident cat considered himself to busy to do anything about it.

. . . while we were cooking, Carmen was practicing standing by using David as a bolster. While David is on all fours she'll push herself up, one hand on his back, the other high above her head as if she were riding a bucking bronco.
C&D try climbing up on each other pretty often; Carmen gets mad and complains when David tries to hoist himself up, but David often laughs and pulls on her shirt when she uses little brother as a piece of playground equipment. We tried to catch it on camera, but missed.