Too Much Excitement

Carmen went to bed excited last night. Even as I rocked her, she fought me in her sleep, rolling onto her back in my arms and slowly, softly, kicking her feet, as if walking in her dreams. I finally put her down for the night at midnight, and at four in the morning rocked her again until dawn.

Figures.

Just before bed last night, she and David decided that they would walk about the house, up and down the hall, in rooms, out of rooms, into each other, around each other, toward each other, away from each other.


They couldn't walk far without getting excited and losing their balance, but as soon as they fell down they stood back up, ready to try again.

We knew this was coming. David has been taking steps here and there, and Carmen has been making figure 8's around and between my legs all week (do you know how hard it is to do chores with a baby pulling on your legs all day?). But before bed? Why then, of all times, to walk so much?



She is just like you, Matt says, as Carmen hops up and down in his lap in the dark living room while I am feeding David his last milk of the day. She keeps squirming, laughing and giggling and maybe thinking about all the places she might try to walk next. "Now you know," he says, "what I had to put up with for five years."

I do go to sleep. Eventually.

Tonight Carmen made more figure 8's, blowing raspberries and moving faster and faster, around my legs, through me legs, around, through. As I stood immobilized and wondering if I could wobble with my orbiting satellite over to the kitchen for a drink of water, I couldn't help but feel surprise every time I watched David stand up and walk from one toy to the next. How funny to see my little people walking, all on their own!

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Last night was also exciting because the UPS truck stopped at our house and brought a box of two new toys. The first was a shape sorter from Tag Toys. The sorter comes with several discs which can make the sorter progressively difficult (from just a circle, just a square, or just a triangle to two shapes, or three). We started with the easiest disc, the circle, and then watched C&D use it. We laughed at the difference in reactions between the two babies: Carmen was very happy to congratulate herself, and then move on to something else


while David enjoyed the suspense of waiting for the clunk of the block falling down and then rolling out.



The second toy was a set of three very simple puzzles. David mastered the circular puzzle this morning (he got very fast at his ring stacker this week, too). Carmen, however, could care less about such things; she would rather practice her figure 8's or climb on Mount Parent.

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Well, I am going to throw in the white flag and let myself go to bed. There's been too much excitement this week, and I'm tired!