Learning something new every day

They're changing so fast. I started this post DAYS ago and keep adding on and editing out those things that are no longer true. Time to just click "publish!"

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29 October:

C&D have been living on earth a whopping 9 months since Sunday, and are learning more every day.

Carmen has added a singsong "Da-da-da-da-da" to her vocal repertoire, but, alas, it is not enough. Sometimes when she wants more food she'll frown and twist her little mouth around in an effort to say something that finally spills out of her mouth in one long, wet, raspberry. (If that doesn't work, she'll start screeching . . . better to intervene before the screeching sets in!) Sometimes she signs "all done," but what she really means is, "more." Maybe she does mean that she is all done, and so she expects more? Hopefully in the next few weeks as her dexterity improves (and we begin noticing her attempts at communicating) we'll all be making a little more sense. In this picture she is preparing for Halloween weekend by smearing beets on her face. We won't do beets again until we're sure she has better aim when feeding herself.

David loves giving kisses, which have felt a little more interesting now that those two little bottom teeth are more prominent. We'll have to work on that.

Carmen had two top teeth come through, and is working on two more on the opposite side. With her top teeth and bottom teeth she has discovered she can take little (and sometimes very big) bites of things like sliced water chestnuts and pretzels and raw sweet potatoes and cool, crunchy haricots vert. She also thinks it's lovely to grind them together while I rock her at night. We'll have to work on that, too.

David has learned that it's really funny to be sitting next to your sister, and then give her a big shove and watch her fall over. Fortunately sister doesn't mind too much (right now).

But it's not like Carmen is victim to a big bad brother; the other day, while he was playing quietly alone, she kicked David's rear in a rapid rat-tat-tat rhythm while she flapped her arms and sang. Fortunately brother doesn't mind too much (right now).

Carmen still doesn't crawl; instead she alternates between flopping on her belly and sitting up. She can locomote this way, alternately flopping and sitting until she meets an obstacle (e.g., the wall, or the aforementioned brother). While this is not efficient, she does move forward and back and around like the knight on a chess board, moving nowhere fast but moving, nonetheless, and winding up someplace apparently random that to her might actually be very deliberate. (Although last week, when on the slippery hardwood and wearing a pair of Babylegs, she managed to move nowhere despite a good bit effort for at least ten minutes.) Last week Matt set her down on the rug while he unloaded groceries from the car, and found her kissing her her reflection in the diaper pail when he finished. Coincidence? Of course not, said Carmen. She rolls toward something she wants, too, but not very far. I would suppose rolling across the room would make her feel a little dizzy. She also loves to roll around in the bed, which is a little frightening because the bed, unlike the floor, has edges. For a few weeks now she has felt compelled to do downward dogs when she is on the floor, and her pose is actually looking better every day (what next, cobra? cat-cow?). She pulls herself up to her knees and tries to stand, but occassionally finds herself stuck or a little confused in this new position, and will experiment no further.

David finally began crawling today, but only a few crawls at a time before stopping. We were playing on the bed, rolling and sitting and flopping just like Carmen, and he wanted very much to reach my LED headlamp because it is bright and interesting and apparently tasty, as well. He drags his right leg behind when he moves, and he is not very fast, but I expect by the end of the week I will be glad I am no longer working because I will desperately need to finish childproofing the house. David enjoys standing up very, very much, but has not yet figured out how to transition from sitting to standing. He can easily pull himself to kneeling, so I wonder how many days or weeks will pass before he can finish hoisting himself up. One of his favorite activities is to hold on to or lean on a basket weighted with 30 pounds of barbell weights. Inside the basket are some toys that he will pick up and drop, and a large pine cone from the Big Thicket that he alternately drops, pets, and tries to eat.

Two of C&D's favorite things are the cat and any fish tank. The cat serves as an inspiration for crawling, squirming, rolling, flopping, stepping, or hopping in any one direction, and when he walks out of a room they crane their necks around the corner to see where he might have gone. Likewise, the fish tanks at Whole Foods, the Galleria, even Petsmart fascinate and captivate. The random, fluid movements and bright colors receive complete attention. So Friday, the Friday before Halloween, the zoo was open late and we took the babies to see animals larger and more colorful than the cat, and more numerous than the fish in the tropical tank at Whole Foods.

C&D could have cared less about the elephants, the giraffes, the tigers. These animals were maybe too big for them to get their mind around. Maybe an elephant is no different than an SUV, a giraffe no more strange than a UPS truck, a tiger no more real than a picture in a book. So the babies, politely bored, rode in their slings and watched the many naughty children run around like the wild animals Matt and I were futiley trying to point out.

All this, until I decided we needed to visit the flamingoes. The babies flapped and stomped, and leaned in toward the exhibit until I was afraid they might fall. The flamingoes chased one another and spread out their wings, all pink and loud and very, very real. After the flamingoes' show we decided to take C&D to another place that we knew would be a sure hit--the aquarium. Carmen watched the fish in the tanks while David lunged forward and tried to touch them, his palm lightly slapping the glass. We lingered at the last and largest tank, David standing nose to nose to a group of resting sharks.

Feeling adventurous, the next day we took a visit to the George Ranch with the intention of breathing fresh country air and visiting some livestock. We did, although Carmen and David liked the hay most of all, and David tried stuffing it into his mouth by the fistful. The ranch is wonderful, with several period buildings and actors from the 1830's to the 1930's. We found the hay (next to some pigs, oxen, and chickens) in the barn next to a dogtrout house. We liked going to the ranch so much that we bought a year-long membership so we could visit the gardens and the animals and the friendly pioneers, sharecroppers, cowboys and ranchers as often as we want. Maybe when the babies are bigger we can volunteer there in exchange for the opportunity to take care of some animals and wear bonnets and big straw hats. And eat more hay, clearly. Hmm.

Let's see, what else has happened recently? We had some fun tie-dying some shirts, can you tell? We needed some long-sleeve shirts for fall's cooler days, so I bought some nice, soft long-sleeved t's at Dharma Trading Company and one nice day Fiona and I experimented with different tie and dye combinations while Carmen slept and David rolled around on a blanket and studied the leaves in the trees. We dyed about 20 shirts, including some cut-up onesies . . . we are SO over the color white! More than our attempts at spirals and random splashes of color, I think I like the striped shirts best.

The perhaps unfortunate side effect of our adventure in the fiber arts is that our children are clearly the most color-uncoordinated children this side of Texas. Good thing they're pretty darn cute.

Whew. That's all for now. Will share more when I can!