Kyle was having a hard time with a castle. His pirate had fallen into one of the bastions (a full circle, not the typical half-circle), and he couldn’t get it out. His hand kept getting stuck. He asked me to help.
“Turn it upside down,” I responded.
He picked up the castle, which was a bit heavy for him, flipped it, and shook it. Out fell the pirate. He smiled. “Mommy, you have great ideas!” Gravity must be taught, I suppose.
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Talon and Kendall have been practicing rolling and are attempting to crawl. Talon rolled back to front one morning. I found her in the crib, belly down. I didn’t put her like that nor did Dad. Kendall was found belly down in the crib by Dad later that afternoon. That was a few Fridays ago… October 24. Lately, we’ve been putting down blankets and setting the babies on the floor with toys just out of arm’s reach.
Kendall is controlling herself a little better than Talon in the sitting up competition. Actually, a lot better. She’s kicking Talon’s ass. She doesn’t sit up unassisted just yet, but she can balance herself for a second or two before leaning forward. Then she’ll be like that for several seconds before falling to her side – which never happens because we have terrazo floor and must be VERY careful to avoid babies’ hitting their heads on it. Talon just doesn’t get the whole sitting up thing. At all. She’s still like a bag of water.
But she’s winning in the eating competition and the complaining competition and in the waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night competition. Yes, it’s all a competition with these twins. But, hey, no pressure. Talon, by our hypothesis, is younger than Kendall. Not by a mere 68 minutes but by a few weeks, gestation-wise. “Are they twins?” “No, they are just born on the same day.”
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Our washing machine broke down. The switch that sets the agitator when the lid is closed has failed – again. The last time that happened, I spent twenty minutes shaking the whole appliance, jiggling the wire that connects to the switch until it finally started. That’s how we fixed electronic equipment in the Army. Shake it ’til it works. Unless it has obvious water damage or fried-black components.
I’ve been washing clothes by hand – diapers, too – in a five gallon bucket with a plunger. Agitating. Agitating. Agitating. It’s starting to agitate my nerves. But the clothes comes out clean, and my triceps get a much needed workout. After wringing them by hand, I hang them to drip dry on the solar drying array. That does most of the drying on sunny days. But even on sunny days the sun is so far south that the Royal Poinciana in the southwest corner of the yard spreads its shade across the hanging laundry before 2pm. So I put them in the drier. I know, it’s not very “green,” but we don’t have enough diapers not to be washing everyday. They need to be ready to wear before the sitters get here.
The solution to this is an old-fashioned wringer.
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My brother Joe and his wife had their first child on November 14th. Their baby boy was born at 1:12am and shares a birthday with Ty. They are exactly six years apart. My favorite cousin was born the day after my sixth birthday.
