Babies!!

E and R in my now-babyproofed living room.

I love babies!!! Yesterday, I got to babysit the twins of a couple in our ward (church), who also live in my apartment complex. Laynie was home, so she also babysat them. They are so cute! They are 9 months old, and they are champion crawlers and cruisers. They can even stand unassisted for a few seconds, and I swear E tried to take a step. Fantastic gross motor skills.

Their babbling is a bit delayed (pretty common to develop either motor or communication skills but not both at the same time), but E plays with her tongue and makes a "lahdee lahdee lahdee" sound. R just started saying, "Da! Da! Da! Da!" I worked on "Mamamamama" with them, because babies who are at home all day with mom really ought to show some appreciation and say her name. No luck yet. They both SCREAMED with excitement when we brought them into the bathroom to bathe them. They were clawing at the tub, trying to climb in! We got to keep them right up until their bedtime--their parents showed up at the perfect time, just as they became truly crankified.

They are so cute. Seriously. And they have fantastic hair. And I get to babysit them again today! I wanted to help our their parents, who are packing and moving. :( But only about 15 minutes away. Sam is in med school at Johns Hopkins, and they are moving closer to where he is doing his rotations. When I said 15 minutes, that would be without beltway traffic. Where they are moving to is just inside the Baltimore beltway, so it will probably cut the commute greatly in the mornings and afternoons. I guess I understand why they have to move. I will miss holding babies during sacrament meeting, though. And watching Sam try to contain one baby while Sara is out changing the other. E loves to shriek randomly during the meeting. I guess she's following the infantile philosophy of, "If I've got a voice, I might as well use it!"

E is eating a maraca and a drumstick, and R is just looking pretty.