Sheer brilliance...at the speed of light

One night this week, as I was reading Baby Boy his good-night book he reached out and turned the page. Just like that. I got to the end of the page and he reached out his chubby, to die for little hand and very purposefully turned the page. I was blown away. He has had amazing focus for books and a love of being read to since the very beginning but had never really tried to grab the book or mess with the pages before. In fact he spends most of the book looking from the page to the reader and back to the page. He likes to watch your face while you read aloud. And then suddenly, out of nowhere....he turns a page.

I didn't react outwardly, just kept reading and at the end of the next page...HE DID IT AGAIN! And at the end of every page after that. And he has been turning pages ever since! Sometimes the pages get turned in an excited flailing (he is a baby after all) but most of the time he very deliberately turns the page. My boy. A GENIUS.

As for Baby Girl she also blew my mind this week. I entered the pit (our clever name for their fenced off play area) to play with the twins, like I do 20 times a day. But this time Baby Girl made a beeline over to me, doing her usual boot-camp scoot in double time. When she reached my lap, she bounced up and down and held her arms up. She was asking me to hold her. For the first time ever, she was asking me to hold her. I obliged and she nestled into my arms, looking around the pit like royalty. After about 2 minutes she was satisfied and wiggled down. And since then, whenever I enter the play area she immediately scoots over to me and demands I hold her. She never stays in my lap for long, just enough to claim me I suppose, and then goes on playing. And every time my heart sings.

I was a nanny for a 10 month old and a three year old...so I know a lot about those ages and up...but not very much about younger than 10 months. So it was kind of a shock to me when the twins came home at 4.5 months old to realize they didn't know how to 'ask' to be held or picked up. That whole "hold my arms up so you pick me up" thing has to be learned. So all these months I've just been holding the babies or picking them up when I wanted or when I thought there was a need... it was always initiated by me. Sure, they'd let me know they wanted me by crying but it was always a guess that being held was what they needed. And yet suddenly, that day in the pit, Baby Girl made it perfectly clear what she wanted: me.

Seriously... it is more than I can handle. These two developments. I am completely overwhelmed and overjoyed and overproud. My kids showing a love of books and a love of me....what could be better!?! But of course, me being me, I am also a tiny bit sad because I know where all this leads... today she crawls into my lap, one day she will crawl out...today he turns pages, one day he will read about a far away land and he will move there. Damn books! Damn developments!

I'm only 1/2 kidding. I cried when she crawled into my lap today...she's been doing it for a week now and yet today I cried. Because all I could think about was, "will I know when it's the last time? Will I realize when she has crawled into my lap for the last time?"

Fret not, I'm not sitting here binding their feet so they never learn to walk. 98% of the time I am joyful about every new development. But I figure I can admit to the 2% melancholy here because, well, it's MY blog. And if you can't whine on your own blog...

My children are gorgeous and brilliant and stunning in every way and I would not change one thing. Except to slow it all down so I can savor their stunning brilliance a little longer.

Happy 2010,
Kat