Happy Half Birthday, Babies!

The babies are 18 months old! Someday soon, it may no longer be appropriate to call them babies, as in, "Bath time, babies!" Or, "Hey babies, want a snack?" Or, "Babies! Stop eating the cat food! I mean it! I am making dinner!"

I think they might be the babies for a long time.

Anyhoo...what's going on with these girls?? So much. Except weight gain. The stats: Margaret weighs 23 lbs., 8 oz. and Josephine weighs 20 lbs., 4 oz. (That would be the third percentile...) On the bright side, that means we can finally turn Josephinie's car seat around! Yay! (Truth be told, we turned it around last month. All the other babies were making fun of her. "Nyah-nyah, you're backwards!" Sigh. It really wasn't very nice.)

I wish I knew how to attach music files to these kinds of things, because we all could listen to My Girl Josephine by Super Cat. It goes like this, "My Girl Josephine! Don't be mean! I know that's your bite mark on your sister's shoulder -- because, even though she can't talk, I recognize those teeth marks from my own shoulder! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Diddy-dum."

Josephine gives love bites, I think. She crawls up to the tippy-top of my shoulder, with a big right-foot boost on my left boob, and then she squeals "I made it to the top of the world!" and... chomp! Aie!! No biting! And then she just giggles. Giggles! Really, she has no empathy. And she doesn't listen. And she doesn't feel bad. Even though she is tiny, I think she is secretly in charge of everything. And she's a little like Kim Jong Il.

She's still more cautious than Margaret. She looks at people like, "Okay. I'm looking at you... and I'm not sure I like what I see." Until she does, and then she giggles like crazy. She's a wacky little monkey. Proof: she climbs and she likes fruit. She likes fruit more than cookies! Oh, Josephine, you'll never get fat if you stick to strawberries...

She loooves the animals. Goats, sheep, cows, doggies, kitties... She and Margaret have been trying to say, "Meow!" But they can just manage, "Owww! Owww!" And when they see Kitty Cat, they strike up a chorus of injury. Owww! Owww! Owww! Our neighbors just got a pair of pugs (cute, but barky), and Josephine stands by the chain-link fence... come on, puppies! I love you! I just want to... Puppies!! Come here!

Her second favorite thing is books. She'll carry one over -- current fav is My First Kitten, Touch and Feel -- and dump it in my lap.

Margaret thinks all that stuff is interesting too... But eh, not that much. Here is what Margaret likes best: ME! Finally! Somebody sees how wonderful I am!! This means I can not leave her sight (which is difficult -- what with work and all). She even claims my lap while I sit on the toilet. (Too much information?) The other day, she waited outside the shower, weeping pathetically until I emerged dripping. Oh, big blobby baby!

She stands in the kitchen, wraps her fat arms around my knees, and rests her head between my thighs. I have to pick her up. I have no choice. It is not easy to make dinner with a 23-pound baby in your arms, but it is probably good for my biceps. (Maybe I can wear a sleeveless dress to Cynthia's wedding in late October!! Yes! Can I? Or will it be too cold...)

Margaret still mostly gets what she wants -- because she is BIG. Lucy says so, all the time, "Margaret and I are big. Josephine is not." But occasionally Josephine will steal something away from Margaret and run off, holding it tight to her chest, delighted! And then Margaret will howl at the injustice. It is terrible to be big and denied.

She likes dinner. But when she is done, she clutches the points of her high chair and says, "Duh? Duh?" But mostly she likes people. When we go to the playground, she wanders over to groups of children and stands there, looking all hopeful: "You'll talk to me, right? And we'll play, right? I will be a very good friend, I promise!"

She does not like to be yelled at. It makes her very very sad.

She's probably a better talker than Josephine. In fact, I think she even says Josie. It sounds like this: "Yo-yee!"

So, happy half birthday Yo-yee and Margaret!