I think I've been doing constant laundry since we got home. I think it has actually outsmarted me and started to regenerate. I've also seen socks dirtying themselves, and shirts flinging themselves in the middle of the hallway. Well, almost. It sure seems that way. Anika seems to be sensitive to dust (no shortage of that here; we missed a huge wind storm that left telltale streaks of dust all over our windowsills) so we now have to run her sheets on the allergiene cycle twice a week and invest in allergen covers for her pillows and duvet. And with the pool now open for business, there is no shortage of towels and pizza-and-pina-colada-stained tablecloths, and little bathing suits with capri sun dried all over them.
Eh, it beats worrying about answering a stupid client e-mail at 2 a.m. on the crackberry.
Also, the kids are growing up. Gasp! When does this happen? I see them every day and don't notice, and then suddenly, a photo from two months ago looks like WHO THE HELL'S BABY IS THAT? and AW why didn't I notice that your ears have grown or your mohawk is lighter now or your legs are brown as cinnamon and long like a LaLaLoopsy doll?
The simple answer to this is that since my kids are usually in my lap or around my neck or stuck to the side of my body by some magical night time magnetic force, they're just too close for me to really see. Or I'm just too tired trying to keep the floor free of pee and Cheerios and batteries that Anika has taken out of something and that Reni has just about lodged down his throat.
Speaking of taking things apart, our little engineer was at is again yesterday; we were installing our dishwasher, and Ani would NOT ABSOLUTELY NOT leave the kitchen, not for ice cream, not for Nutella, not for puzzles, not for trains, not even for a present from SANTA (we use this a lot since I store gifts in the garage and she pretty much believes that he lives there and doles out presents when the bribe necessitates). She was THISCLOSE as the guys hooked the thing up and even had her head in the cupboard to observe the water line. She touched just about every part, inside and out, in that dishwasher, and I swear she understood more about it than I do.
Reni was more interested in winning over our friend who had come to help us install the thing. Huge, open-mouth, toothy Reni smiles, and loud "BA! GA! MA!" when the friend failed to look up from the instruction manual on time. Wiggles, wiggles and giggles as the friend gave him the attention he wanted. Then he was content to sit with me and play with his tool box, which is to say, bang things together and eat the hammer. I don't remember Anika banging toys together like Reni does; he really seems to delight in the noise and the movement.
And speaking of movement, this little guy is *almost* there. His current form of movement is mostly L--E--A--N--I--N--G very slowly and patiently, and R-E-A-C-H-I-N-G for something until -- Flop, he's on his belly, and his little toes and tiny little feet are working, and he starts inching forward. Less of an inchworm movement and more of "the worm," that unfortunate 80s dance move. He works on pulling himself to standing, too, but his legs are still like a weight lifters and his tiny feet just can't support the weight.
The little man is also more interested in books that Anika was at this age. He actually sits and listens (that is, if he's not trying to eat it), and will let me finish a book and actually interact and laugh and smile at the pictures. Anika used to give me this bored stare when we would read Peek-a-Boo baby, and then grab the book from me and proceed to rip off all of the flaps and try to put them back on.
We have been trying to work on colors and numbers, and Ani's got the numbers down pat - can even count to ten in Spanish and nearly 20 in English -- but colors not so much. I think she knows more than she lets on, but when I ask her what a color is she either looks at me like I'm slow or shouts out "Pink! Yellow! YELLOWPINK!" then runs away screeching. The other day she pointed to the button on our headboard and said, "circle," and she's pointed out the square of a street sign to me as we're out and about, so I'm going to go ahead and give Dora the Explorer a shout-out on that one.
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