Oops

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted. Life's been busy, what with the little one deciding that lying still is for chumps and the big one forsaking naps completely.

First, the little one: She'll be five months old this week. She remains rather easygoing, but at the same time absolutely hates being still. About the only time she complains is when she can't move around, either because she's strapped into her carseat or had run herself into a corner. Most of the time, she's happiest on the floor, where she creeps around, chewing on anything she can reach. She particularly likes the furniture, and has been known to take a casual tour of our family room, grazing first on the coffee table, then crawling over to the entertainment center for the entree, ending up at my computer chair for dessert.

She also loves paper and other chokeables. For instance, here's a list of things I have taken away from the baby just in the last hour (and yes, all of this indicates that I really need to clean up in here):

The newspaper
Three different hair elastics
Two pens, an index card, a tape flag and the packaging for the cards and tape flags (these were not lying around; I was working on a project on the floor and she raided my lap desk).
A child-safety outlet plug
M's hairbrush
a clothes hanger

Anyway, the baby's sheer mobility takes my breath away on a regular basis, and drives M plain up the wall. E's been army-crawling for at least a few weeks now, and has recently learned how to get up on all fours. She hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate her legs and arms for actual crawling (normally, she just rocks back and forth until she ultimately flings herself facefirst into the floor), but I know it's coming.

Meanwhile, M has gone and taught herself how to swim. She is now, for the record, a better swimmer than I am. It's crazy.

So, it's fair to say we're having a good time these days. There isn't much in the way of downtime, but the girls do a great job of keeping me amused, which is of course the whole reason for their existance.