The last week or so has been rather joyous form a parenting point of view. The twins are mostly very happy little things that bring us so much joy. Our timetable seems to be working better1 and the little bits of childcare help we pay for give us enough of a break to retain our identity, as does the ability of both babies to sleep through the night.
But a new problem has entered our world and it's nothing so simple as both babies being on their fourth or fifth cold of the last month.
Nope.
The problem is that the babies seem to have decided they are in Gladiator school rather than safe at home.
In the interests of fairness I should add that Patrick isn't really the major culprit here. He's a delicate little flower at the best of times and I doubt he could hurt a fly even if he wanted to. He loves to play and (almost) crawl around, but best of all he loves cuddles from his mummy.
Kitty on the other hand enjoys playing with whatever toy Patrick is playing with at the time, stealing his dummy2 and in the case of yesterday – kicking Patrick in the face.
We picked up a rug this week from Ikea because we believed3 that the hard wood floor was too slippy and hindering the twins' mobility and progress learning to crawl. It's been fantastic and they love playing on it with their myriad toys.
Yesterday I was working at the other end of the room and the babes were playing happily on the rug with various toys. Suddenly Patrick let out a scream and burst into tears4 and I dashed over to see Kitty looking sheepish and poor Patrick in some distress. The poor lad is now sporting a fat lip courtesy of his sister's kung-fu abilities.
Finally in their eighth month they are showing an interest in each other where previously each seemed invisible to the other. That's great. It's lovely to see them gravitate towards each other when put at either ends of the rug. The problem now is that Kitty tends to play a bit rougher – often scratching and grabbing and is fond of stealing toys. She's getting to hear "No Kitty" quite a bit from both of us this week.
Last week we bought a play pen via ebay, a wonderful eight-sided wooden job. If Kitty's bullying of her big brother continues we may have to put them in two four-sided pens made of the fence pieces like a couple of jailbirds.
None of this post is really a complaint though, watching them play now they are more mobile is fantastic. The rug was definitely a great idea and is clearly so much fun to play on. We just need to get through to Kitty that it's no place for rough and tumble, unless you're a grown up that is!
1Well it didn't last week but that was exceptional.
2He's mostly dummy free now, but sometimes needs it.
3Correctly as it's turned out.
4This can happen if a feather falls on the sensitive little pickle.
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