Everything breaks eventually. For example, the rule about babies not sleeping in our bed. Recently Zev woke up right around 6 am. Clearly, he was not falling back asleep. The only result of a futile attempt to put him back in his bed would have been a woken Benya. Just as I was becoming resigned to another day starting early, Alla said "I will put him with us." I was too sleepy to enforce rules. Zev, pleased as peach, realized he was somewhere warm, soft, and with both parents around. He took some time getting comfortable, periodically checking to make sure we were both there, but he did fall asleep eventually. And gave us (and Ben) another hour of dozing.
Some two days later, Ben woke up at 5 minutes to six, wet and complaining. He was promptly changed and comforted. With all 6 am - promptness, it was still a few minutes after six and, like his brother, he would not fall back asleep. Naturally, we decided to pull the same stunt. Ben had different plans. He set up, looked around with some mistrust, and complained loudly that he saw right through the ruse. He was done sleeping, and he meant it. About ten minutes of trying to convince Ben to lie down later, I took him downstairs.
This weekend also saw the boys' first official downtown stroll. We went to meet our friends there. Drove in in the van, parked, rapidly deployed the stroller, strapped in the "cargo" and were off. Our friends, in the mean time, set down at a Japanese restaurant. As in, take-off-your-shoes-and-sit-in-a-private-room-on-a-tatami restaurant. We had our doubts. The stroller, as promised, drove right through the standard door, gave up its cargo and folded neatly out of the way to the amazement of the staff. The boys, pretty much to the amazement of the parents, took to the restaurant like they were born to it. Surely, the did try to grab everything on the table and ended up with a "denial zone" around them. And yet - there was no dreaded, ear-splitting, dining-experience-ruining shrieking that haunts the nightmares of every restaurateur. Instead, the boys ate some rice and tempura. They also let us sip our tea and snatch an occasional piece of sushi.
Yet another first was delivered by Ben - with me enabling him, naturally. Alla was feeding the boys some solid food and asked me to mash up a banana. Which I happily did and placed the plate on the table in Alla's easy reach. Evidently, in Ben's as well. Two seconds later there a squishy crash, as the plate landed on the floor, banana-first. Ben looked surprised, but not particularly scared. Alla reminded me (thank you, parents) that yours truly broke plates even at much greater age, with much greater malice. There was nothing left for me to do but to clean up.
The final experiment of the week was on one of the quieter mornings. The boys woke up and were taken downstairs to play. As I was preparing their breakfast in the kitchen, I heard music coming from their area. Which was strange, given that there were no toys on the floor capable of playing that particular tune (yes, I know some of those by heart and by toy, naturally). Thinking to myself a quite "wtf?" in I walked, to find Zev standing over a toy (about his mid-level), leaning on it with one hand and pounding at the keys with the other. I did get him to sit down and a few minutes later he repeated the exercise. Naturally, neither Alla nor I actually ever saw him get up - if we are around, why get up yourself if a parent can get you up?
Back to reality. It is now Monday morning. Ben woke up rather cranky (teeth again, I guess) and it is time for me to escape to work.
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