Whew. We’re not as weird as we thought. (An article about elimination communication from the Boston Globe.)

. . . it’s two. That’s what Dr. Harcombe used to say.

Early this morning David woke up and Matt took him to the back bedroom to rock him. Carmen and I remained in bed to continue sleeping. Soon after, I heard a crash and then David sounding very upset. I hopped out of bed and flew to the back room. “Check David,” Matt said. “The rocking chair broke.” And it was broken. Not squeaky-broken, but snapped and in pieces, broken-broken. When Matt leaned back to rock, the chair back completely gave way. Matt kept David safe and in his arms as he tumbled out of the chair. When he handed him to me David had already stopped fussing. The wiggly baby made himself comfortable and gave me a sleepy wince as he looked into my backlit face. He yawned, blinked, and smiled. We decided to call it morning and wake up.

Matt feels really bad. That beautiful, old rocking chair once belonged to our neighbor. It rocked way back in a lazy, West Texas sort of way, and it squeaked in a characteristic fashion that the babies had come to like. All but one of the back vertical spindles is broken. Any other person might throw it away, but we like the chair too much. Matt is going to get a lathe one day, and as a first project we’ll make it good as new.

Until then, we had to add another task to today’s to-do list: find a replacement. The glider we bought two weeks ago is now in the back room, but it’s helpful to have two rockers in the front room because with the big picture window it’s a more pleasant place to soothe a baby. In the evenings it’s nice when Matt and I can rock the babies together for a little while at night (until Carmen starts singing, anyway). And a rocker in the back room is helpful when someone is fussy and needs to be insulated from the rest of the house for a little bit.

While the babies took an uncharacteristically good nap this morning (what a blessing!) Matt installed his mini-shower while I trolled the web researching local consignment stores. I didn’t want to drive the babies all over town and come home empty-handed. On a lark I checked eBay and found a glider for sale in Katy. I contacted the seller and this afternoon made arrangements to have the glider delivered tomorrow at noon. We saved some money, and saved ourselves the hassle of driving around to find a replacement. I love eBay!

Meanwhile, the mini shower was a lot more work to install than it was supposed to be. While I was working on the rocker situation Matt wound up having to replace some plumbing in this old house. Whew.

The rest of the day felt a little more relaxing. We visited Nadia and talked about babies and birth and funding for her Community Doula Program. As a doula Nadia was with us when the babies were born and helped us navigate the red tape at the hospital. My favorite picture from the visit, even though the shutter speed was a wee bit slow:

When we got home we had lots of NBT (nakey butt time) and had smashing good success with our BBLPs. The babies enjoyed being diaper-free and David was able to sit up for quite a long while without the bulk of the diaper to disturb his sense of balance.

C&D were also very munchy today, and chomped on everything from knuckles and teethers to thumbs and toes. I wish those teeth would just hurry up and get here already. Some days I feel like I’m drowning in drool.

Wow. Already 10 o’clock. I guess I’ve been pretty wordy lately because I haven’t had a chance to talk or e-mail much. Work is going to pick up significantly, too, so that’s going to make it even harder to communicate with everyone; I have a meeting in Dallas at the end of September that I need to plan and coordinate.

Mom: did you read the rest of that e-mail that I send the other day (you were supposed to scroll down)? Tell me if you want the Twinlab vities. And tell Zelda that the headlamp she gave me a few Christmases ago we use every night. Leave it to Matt and I to use our backbacking equipment to cope with all this babyness. Works great, though. Really.

Ashley: send me pix! Congrats on closing!

Better join everybody in bed.

Funny how we can find things that we never were looking for. Stuff on clearance and cool articles on the web are two examples that come to mind.

For example, Monday at Target we found a Pitter Patter Caterpillar collapsible tunnel on clearance. It’s in the style of the of the Miss Spider books. We could imagine a hundred games to play with it, and appreciated the fact that it collapsed flat so we could put it away (it’s five feet long!).

Then, from the land of the Teletubbies (so creepy they’re cute?), an article saying TV ‘may stunt toddlers’ learning’. Of course it does, when they learn to speak like Dipsy, Tinky Winky, Po, and Laa Laa. Buh-bye!

Speaking of synthetic, soft, and squishy, the BBC also recently reported that the EU has banned the use of some phthalates in children’s toys. Phthalates are what keep some plastics pliable. Substitutes for phthalate plastics include wood, cloth, and C&D’s favorite, my skin. I have the hickeys on my arm, neck, and collarbone (ow!) to prove it. Sillies.

We tried to take the babies to the beach today, to see how much their opinion of the car has improved. We drove for about half an hour before we had to stop because Carmen was feeling lonely, or maybe she just needed to stretch. We got to the beach with just that one stop, but had to stop three times on the way home (David was tired, then Carmen got hungry, and then David needed some cuddling). The beach is about an hour away. No baby needs to cry like that, so we’ll continue to stay close to home and try another trip in a month or so. The worst part of the drive, next to the crying, was having to find a nice place to stop in the hot, treeless, washed-out generic exurbs between here and Galveston. Yuck.

Tomorrow we visit Nadia, our wonderful doula. We are going to show her the twins–she hasn’t seen them since the day they were born. Then we are going to give the babies some nakey butt time and install the mini shower on the toilet. Matt is very excited. You would be, too, if you had to clean out a poopy BBLP (Baby Bjorn Little Potty) first thing in the morning.

Babies are still sleeping soundly. Time to fall asleep myself.

The babies are sleeping and I thought I would take a moment to catch up.

We didn’t do anything special on the 4th of July. We went to Whole Foods to stock up on supplies. We were expecting Tropical Storm Cindy to hit later in the week, when we usually go. As usual, Carmen and David played the role of local celebrities, smiling and talking to customers and cashiers and letting anybody who so desired squeeze their yummy turkey-leg thighs. It seems that when people suspect twins, they lose all those usual social rules, and fingers point and children giggle and ladies ogle at the young couple carrying two little chubba-wubba babies, legs a-flopping, down the aisles. Arms extended, they leave their carts to have a touch.

Even though sometimes it make me cringe, I always let their fans experience the babies’ soft, smooth skin. Some people approach them with a sense of wonder, others with the memory of their own children, others with thoughts of the children they hope someday to know.

At Central Market C&D have their own fan club, made up of cashiers and Foodies who have known them since they were just a couple of months old.

People also frequently ask about the baby wraps we use to carry C&D about. A demonstration is usually in order, and then an exchange of websites or e-mail addresses.

Needless to say, grocery trips can take hours, and are more an event than a chore. So we didn’t feel sorry that we had no fireworks or BBQ on the Fourth of July. Getting provisions for the next week had been adventure and fun enough.

Carmen has added a musical, Tarzan-like yell to her list of vocal tricks. Her voice rises and falls, and she sounds like she’s practicing for a charreada, or maybe imitating those Linda Ronstadt tracks she heard in the womb. Today she also perfected a series of growls, from a Roy Orbison Pretty Woman gargle to a gutteral, backwards snore. “Sprechen Deutsche?” I asked her at dinner today. Her noises follow her wherever she goes, in the swing, in the car, at the store, and must be released before every sleep.

David is my master of movement. He’s always curling and opening his hand, extending his toes, wiggling them, kicking his legs. He wants to crawl but his crawling is a lot like my swimming–a whole lot of flailing and nobody going much of anywhere. He hasn’t figure out that he needs to keep his back straight and butt up. He was very pleased to remain sitting up for so long yesterday. He needs help getting into position, but like everything else he will figure that out when he wants to.

They are both doing very well with the little baby potty. They are learning our cues, and we are beginning to learn their habits and patterns. We have a long way to go, yet, but the success is encouraging.

They are both also doing better in the car. We might try a longer (not long, just longer than 20 minutes) trip this weekend to see how far they will let us go before registering any serious complaints. Right now we hear an occasional mumble, some sucking and smacking, and a lot of singing on Carmen’s part, but nothing like the wailing and weeping and whining of a month ago.

Tuesday I went to the gym in the late afternoon. While I ran on the indoor track David slept in the stroller while Carmen charmed the staff on the second floor. When David awoke he waited for me by talking and making motions to the cartoons on the large television. The cartoons didn’t respond as the television was on mute, but David didn’t seem to mind. After twenty five minutes Carmen became upset, so after a nice chat and thanks with the day care staff we all went home. (Ashley, when you called, I was getting them ready to go in the car. I had an appointment yesterday afternoon, and the Nancy & Leib meeting today. Will you be around this weekend?)

Well, that’s basically it. Now we are all caught up.

We might be a little top heavy, but we do enjoy sitting!

We tried six times this afternoon and caught five pees, woo-hoo!

I figured everybody would really want to know . . . (ha ha!)

This was a good Saturday for our dynamic duo.

First, we took a nap. This was David during the nap:
After the nap we played with our new Fourth of July bears. They’re so fun to look at at, and yummy, to boot.
Then we took a dip in the pool. Davey wasn’t very fond of it, and his reaction made Carmen a little anxious. She wondered if she shouldn’t be liking it, either.
She quickly realized that the water felt quite nice on her twinkly little toes . . . and decided to plop right in. She splashed around a bit, and swirled her fingers in the water. Her Nana helped with the splashing while I helped Carmen sit up, since she’s still a little floppy.
After the pool, David finally took a nap while Carmen sat in her Bumbo and tried on a new hat . . .
which she found a wee bit big. Troublesome, those brothers and hats.

Carmen and David topped off the day with a trip to the store to buy a Baby Bjorn Little Potty. Since we’ve been so busy feeding, napping, and just plain parenting these rascals our start is a little late, but we’re hoping that pretty soon we’ll be diaper-free babies. Our washer will thank us.