time warp

It has taken me 10 minutes to log into this blog. I thought I knew the password, but then it didn't work, and when I tried to go back, it told me my username didn't exist.
After some dawdling in existential crisis, I confirmed that I did in fact exist, and did also know the password, and here we are.

But everything seems to be taking longer these days. Except Thea.

Thea has catapulted herself into the world in an amazing way. Every time we go to the grocery store, we are stopped at every corner with adoring fans smiling at her. She smiles her full-body smile right back, and makes their day. We, her servants, answer the questions about how old she is, and yes, that is a natural Mohawk she has (is that a pc term anymore??) While this dance repeats itself all over town, it is a bit taxing for the eldest child of the family. He stares at his feet - shuffles a bit, and starts the "Hey, Mom, let's gooooo" routine well before Thea is done delighting the crowds. A few casual comments are thrown his way. "So, how do you like being a big brother?" But it is not nearly enough to make up for the inequity.

I think if Liam could answer honestly, instead of trying to tell people what he thinks they want to hear, he would say that as much as possible, he tries to ignore that he is a big brother. He doesn't actively work against it, mind you. He just omits it from his life as much as he can.

That is starting slowly to change. Tonight at dinner, when Thea rubbed mashed goo in her hair in such a way that it gave her two spikey horns, Liam and Matt laughed for several minutes straight. Thea joined in at first, then eyed these boys quizzically as if to say, "You're laughing at me, not with me, aren't you?" But then, she was overpowered by her driving force, her complete adoration for everything that is Liam. So she squealed and laughed along with them.

Attagirl.

In addition to working on her PR angle, Thea has been moving rapidly toward improving her mobility. She has pretty much mastered the art of the independent sitting phase and now is moving on. She hates push-ups, but has been struggling through them with vigor, and even gets those little legs up under her from time to time, poised to do the inevitable launch forward - face first into whatever toy lies in her path.

While all children are frustrated by this, Thea is particularly expressive about the inequity into which she was born. Given her druthers, she would already be sauntering about, picking up toys, chasing cats, eating everything in sight. Soon enough, I tell her, but that's like telling a teenager that their driver's license is nothing to get too worked up about.

So, she howls, rocks, growls and gurgles her way through the strength training needed to move on to the next phase -- crawling. And for now, she remains in that angelic calm-before-storm phase where when you put her down somewhere, she pretty much stays there. And while Liam may think he has it rough now, he has no idea how few days are left before Thea can follow him virtually everywhere he goes, get into his stuff, and generally reign terror down on his perfectly ordered world.

I should probably read a thing or two about it all before that happens, eh?