Getting to Know You

D3 and D4 in typical poses.

It has been four weeks, which is long enough for the babies to start feeling like part of the family instead of unusually uncommunicative visitors. The umbilical cords are gone, the first layer of flaky skin has peeled off, they are taking real baths (not very often) and are starting to feel like they fit in their names.

Having two babies at once gives one an unreasonable opportunity to engage in those obnoxious parental practices of comparing, categorizing, and over-generalizing, even at this early age. D3 gets dubbed the princess, and it's not just a gender stereotype. (D1, despite her best efforts at dress-up, doesn't really resemble a princess, except maybe Elizabeth Tudor.) She admires the world placidly when all is going well, waves with proper beauty-queen style, and expresses her opinion loudly when she is not pleased.

D4 is the perpetual motion machine. If he's awake, he's flailing. He's already rolled himself front-to-back numerous times. He's still noticeably skinnier than D3, no doubt because all his calories go straight into movement. When we swaddle him awake, he settles down and stares around him with big eyes, astonished and apparently grateful to be able to notice that there's something out there besides his own arms and legs. I think we'll be babyproofing early for this one.