Finally. Tell David he’s next.

I wonder if she’ll remember tomorrow? A few days ago, when she woke up the first word out of her mouth was “tractor.” That word she hasn’t forgotten.

Well-baby checkup today. I schlepped them all the way in to the doctor’s office to have him tell me they’re fine. Fine? They’re not fine, they’re marvelous!

C&D enjoyed talking to the doctor as he counted their fingers and toes, but did not appreciate the feeling of his stethoscope on their backs. After that, the visit accelerated downhill. I think they wondered if they were going to get poked. Despite just calling them “fine,” he does get credit for always being calm despite their Dolby-Stereo yowling at every visit.

Heights and weights:

Carmen weighs twenty-seven pounds, two ounces, and measured at 32″ tall. Today I found her lifting her shirt and patting her round little belly.

David weighs twenty-four pounds, six ounces, and measured 31.5″ tall. Today I found him lifting up my shirt and checking to make sure it was still me under there. That’s all I can figure, anyway. What else would he be looking for? As long as he doesn’t do that at the grocery, I don’t mind, so I just let him look around. Then later he pulled on the collar of my shirt and looked down. Yep, still a mama under that shirt.

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Yesterday morning Carmen refused to eat her oatmeal. She signed ice cream (our code word for yogurt) and then walked over to the refrigerator to try to open the door. I don’t think I’m in charge, anymore.

Today David lifted my shirt to kiss my back, my belly, or my shoulder no less than a dozen times. When I was standing, he would lift my pant legs and kiss my shins. He rolls on the floor with Carmen and kisses her knees, her hair, her elbow, her heel. At the Learning Tower, he leans toward her and kisses her shoulder while she squirms and giggles.

Carmen has been attempting a new word or a new sign every day. New words and signs include library, cooking, rock, pink, red, dump truck, daffodil, and, her longest one yet, pumpkin seed butter. “Pumpkin seed butter?” Couldn’t she try something easier?

And she is becoming quite expert at scolding the cat, waggling her finger in his face and saying something about biting (I’m assuming she’s telling him not to).

Can they stay this way forever, tender and generous and curious and funny and oh-so-independent . . . but still mine to soothe and hold whenever the mood strikes us?

The babes are outside with Matt taking a bath. When he poured in the hot water, he hadn’t yet added enough cold, so the water was very warm. Carmen stuck her hand in, signed hot and said “haaaaaah,” and then blew out of her mouth, pfooooh, indicating I should blow on it to cool it off. I laughed at the thought of blowing on their bathwater.

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They’re back from the bath. We horsed around on the floor for a bit and David lifted my shirt and gave my back several kisses. That is his favorite place to kiss.

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Circus today. We got tickets from the library for reading lots and lots of books. We didn’t think the babes would enjoy the circus itself (even though the ticket agent kindly gave us center seats), but we did spent a good hour visiting the animals and watching the preshow on the floor of the arena. The preshow was as good, if not better, than the circus–it gave the babes the opportunity to watch the acrobats and clowns directly at the rings, and no cannons, whips, or brain-rattling motorcycles were involved. We were also able to control what of the antics of the clowns C&D watched–when a clown fell off his chair, Carmen cried in sympathy. When the same clown started hitting another with a juggling club, we moved on to the Chinese acrobats. We’re sure C&D don’t need any ideas about using their toys in unsanctioned ways.

The babes’ favorite animals to visit were the zebra and the elphants, which we signed for again and again.

I put the big baskets away this morning. Maybe I should have left one out. Bad mama. Carmen tried to push him around in it, anyway, but David didn’t react favorably so she gave up on that activity.

David is called “Day-dee.” Sweet!

We’re also working hard to say earring and turtle (”tur-tur,” according to David).

But I’m still Daddy, and Daddy is still Daddy, too. More often, though, we’re just “eh, uh, uh!”

Now off to get more of baby kisses (on my arm, on my back, on my leg, on my face) and persaude them that oatmeal (again!) is a perfectly exciting breakfast. Maybe I will also give them some of the pumpkin seed butter I made yesterday. They liked it as much as the goat yogurt (i.e., a lot!).

Carmen rolling around in bed, trying to get to sleep:
“Hi, hi. Hi, hi. Ah-tchu. Ah-tchu. Wow. Wooooow. Wow. Wow! WOW!”

Sweet dreams, silly.

More words that we remembered as we walked with the babes through the Galleria today:
Up — Carmen sometimes says, “puh,” rather than “up”
Down — said with emphasis, more often by Carmen than David, and she actually got the “n” sound in there tonight. Good trick. (We rode the glass elevators tonight, and Carmen liked announcing when we were going up or down. Last week she could only say down, which is inconvenient for an elevator.)
Squirrel — “skwll,” but this one’s tricky! I’m impressed that they would even try it.
Spoon — “sp” by David or “spnnnn” by Carmen, this one’s tricky without the ASL sign
Fork — “fowk,” another tricky word that only Carmen attempts
Bathtub — “battub,” another Carmen word
Baby — “Bay-bee”
Light — “light,” but this is a Carmen-only word
Ducks — ducks (did I write down this one already?). Carmen says and signs “duck” whenever she sees a fountain, because there are fountains in the artificial ponds where she has seen ducks. So that means if she sees a sprinkler, she says, “DUCK! DUCK!” Today, she saw a broken water main on W. Alabama. Well, technically she saw a broken water main. But really, she saw a small gurgling fountain conveniently placed in the middle of the street. Duck, duck!
Pretty — “Pet-tee,” a Carmen word that she uses most when she puts on one of their Mardis Gras-style beaded necklaces
Boo — like “peekaboo,” but it sounds like “bew!”
Ah-choo! — This first was “aaahhhh-too!” but both C&D have nearly perfected the art of the imitated sneeze. Not sure where they learned it, but they think sneezes (and burps, but those are harder to imitate) are ridiculously funny. So sometimes they sneeze, and I sneeze back. Or I say, “Bless you!” and look surprised, and they sneeze again. Silly, silly, silly little people.

And they can say “wow,” of course. Wow!

Hurray for ASL. I’d have a hard time interpreting any of these words if they weren’t accompanied by the sign. Especially words like “squirrel.” Who’da thunk it?

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More before-bed antics tonight. David has gotten good at getting into a small Ikea basket without tipping it over; I think his legs are just long enough, now, that he can step into it comfortably. Tonight after a before-bed snack (more yogurt, but thankfully, less mess than last night), David crawled into the basket. Matt wanted to floss (which Carmen likes to imitate, incidentally, any time she finds a piece of string) and have a whole three minutes to himself, so he urged Carmen to go push David in the basket. Bedtime was much later than usual tonight. Can you guess why?


(Carmen is clapping because she is frustrated that David is all done. She learned to clap when she is angry because I clap loudly when I want to distract the babes from fighting. It’s funny, and I’d much rather her clap than hit or bite.)

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Sometimes Carmen just looks for trouble. While we were eating at the Galleria, David decided he was finished and bored and started throwing out his food. I held his hand while I scooped out his bowl and he put his teeth over my arm, contemplating a bite. Just as he was about the clamp down, I said “ow!” and pulled my arm back. Carmen, I guess, wanted some of the attention for herself, and stuck her arm in David’s mouth, hoping he would bite it. “Ow!” she said with feeling. In thirty years will she have a role in any class-action lawsuits?