Beauty Sleep

Last night Ellie and I lay in her bed, post bath and pre-book. As she adjusted her pillows and blankets just so, I reminded her there was no school tomorrow (Yom Kippur) and shuttered inwardly at the reminder that our babysitter would be Home Alone with all four. Not my favorite scenario but luckily it doesn't happen often.

So I don't have to wake you up at all tomorrow! I practically cheered. As I've mentioned before, Ellie is...not a morning person. Unless there are chocolate chip pancakes involved.  You can sleep as late as you want, I exclaimed (knowing full well Ellie--who climbs in our bed every night around 1, would be awake at 5:45 a.m. like the rest of us, when the dual wails commenced).

Can I ask, once again, why is it that babies and children almost always seem to wake up earlier on weekends and holidays (when there's no school)? It truly is one of life's profound and unanswered questions. I reminded Ellie of this.

"I know!" She said. "They always wake up early and annoy the beauty sleep!"

She said it. Why is my beauty sleep being annoyed?

In spite of how it may appear by today's choice of photos, the babies do things other than eat. But they are most definitely in that stage where they are on the move so much that any picture of them where they are not contained is blurry. In other news, I don't have a fancy camera. Also, we didn't punch Harry in his left eye and he has not taken up boxing. You should have seen him by the afternoon the day this photo was taken (Sunday). Couldn't. Open. His. Eye. Thanks Mosquito Bite on Eyebrow! (Also, thank you Benadryl for helping out.)

Speaking of an aspect of sleep that is not annoying, bedtime for the babies continues to be fascinating. I am committing the ultimate sin here (talking about it on the Internet, therefore daring it to change) but I just feel compelled to record it here. The way it's been going is, one baby finishes a bottle (usually Harry sucks his down faster), I clean him up (you'd be appalled by how often these poor babies get actual baths), change him into his pajamas, take him upstairs and rock him/snuggle with him a little--I'm a sucker for an end-of-the-day-cheek-to-cheek snuggle. I just want to breathe them in. I then I plop him down in his crib and he immediately turns on his weird, blue light crib toy. I turn on the sound machine and music box, close the door and move on to do the same routine with Lucy.

When I bring Lucy into the babies' room, Harry practically cheers (if a fifteen month old did in fact cheer). He gasps and sort of laughs at the same time, as if to say "Hey! It's you! My roomie! Welcome roomie!" Lucy in turn, pops up (I always lay her down on her tummy) and seems to greet Harry. A bit of "conversation" ensues back and forth between them as I close the door.

We hear everything on the monitor. Sometimes there's a bit of crying. More like whimpering. Always, there is some kind of what seems to be dialogue between them, though they definitely also "talk" at the same time. Are they just doing what one baby would do (sort of, babble oneself to sleep) and it's just extra cute and unique because there are two of them? Is it some kind of secret twin language? Bedtime stories? Who knows.

I know it could all change tomorrow (and probably will tonight, now that I've blabbed to the world about it). There's probably some sort of sleep regression on the horizon and molars, but what can I say?  For now, it's just such a wonderful way to end the day after all those months in the beginning when bedtime never came and they seemed to just wake each other up all night long and I thought Oh My Goodness How Will I Ever Live Through This?

Their adorable sweetness here (seven days old) belies the fact that they didn't sleep for more than an hour at a time and took turns waking each other up. All together now: OY.