Emerging from blobdom, times two

The babies are 2 months and 12 days old, and it seems like they're changing faster than ever. Abruptly, they are no longer just sleepy needy little blob people. Don't get me wrong - they were always cute, and they exhibited very different personalities from the very beginning - but now it's almost like you can see them learning and growing. I have other children, so this shouldn't strike me as so amazing, but it's a miracle each time. They've already learned so much, and yet they know almost nothing.

As I tried to write the above tribute to the wee ones, my mean-spirited daughter bit me while nursing. I think she's an early teether - she's been drooling already and fussy as hell. My least favorite manifestation of this teething is the biting. She wants to nurse all the time, but when she's not really in it for the food, she opts for chomping over sucking. Not fun. Is she too young for a time out?

I was going to go on to say that she's joining her brother in cooing. He's been making deliberate, interactive noises for a couple weeks, but she's more of a one-note song (and that note is loud, angry-sounding crying, though mercifully not too often). Tonight, though, she spent a good 10 minutes working out vowel sounds. It's so funny to see how hard they work on these first noises. You can almost see the nerve impulses lumbering their way from brain to mouth. It's similar to how they slowly turn their heads, then eyes, to focus on you when they hear your voice. Somehow the things they struggle to do seem more impressive for all the effort they take.

None of this was twin-specific, but babies are strange and wonderful, and watching two at once is even more so.