Mommy and Daddy Aren't Very Funny

Everything's about to change.

Kathy's going back to work on Monday, and we're all kinda freaking out about it. Well, Leah and Riley aren't exactly freaking out about it. But mommy and daddy are pretty much basket-cases right now.

We have a nanny named Elsa all lined up to start working full-time next week. She's been working part-time the past three weeks helping Kathy take care of the babies. The babies love her. Actually, let me rephrase that. The babies looooooooove her.

I didn't really get a full sense of this until yesterday. I don't usually get to see Elsa in action because I leave for work before she gets here and she's gone by the time I get home. But yesterday, I took a vacation day from work so I could spend one last day with Kathy before she went back to work. Kathy and I went out for lunch and had a nice walk around the City, and then returned home to find Elsa playing with the babies, who were both laughing. And not just laughing. They were laughing like we had never heard them laugh before. They were laughing like it was 1999.

Kathy and I can easily make Leah and Riley smile. On occasion, we can make one of them giggle. Very briefly -- a like "tee hee hee". But we have never even made them both giggle at the same time. This was both of them laughing. And this was no "tee hee hee". This was an extended guffaw that went on and on. It was like one of the laughs you have as an adult that make your sides hurt and tears stream down your cheeks. If Leah and Riley had been drinking milk, it would have shot out their nose.

Kathy and I have been sort of shell-shocked by the whole experience. You want your babies to love their nanny, but you don't really want them to love their nanny more than they love you, especially when they're not even with her full-time yet. So ever since then, Kathy and I have been a little off our game, trying over and over to duplicate what Elsa was doing to make them laugh, and failing miserably. Instead of making them laugh, we actually seem to be frightening them. And lately, we haven't been even getting the tee-hees.

Come on, Leah and Riley, throw your mommy and daddy a bone here. You could at least fake some laughter. Is that too much to ask? We promise to stop taking embarrassing pictures of you...