When Babies Get Too Smart

As the parents of twins, Kathy and I are always living in fear that one of our twins is feeling totally attention-starved. There's really not much we can do about it though. Fact is that there are two of them and there are two of us, and at best each parent can pay attention to one baby at a time. And of course there are times when the other parent is off doing something else for the moment and you're left to entertain two babies at the same time. For those times, the best that you can do is try to quickly bounce your attention back and forth between babies, hoping that neither of them notices that you're only giving each of them 50% of your attention.

But somehow even though these babies aren't smart enough to talk or sit up without falling over or go to sleep when they're tired or eat calmly when they're starving, somehow they're incredibly perceptive when it comes to noticing when you're not really fully paying attention to them. They're much more perceptive than us adults are. Sometimes when I'm reading or blogging or something, Kathy will talk at me for a long time and I won't hear a word she's saying, but it'll be minutes before Kathy realizes this. But Leah and Riley can sense within about 2.5 seconds if nobody's paying attention to them, and you better believe they don't let mommy and daddy get away with it.

Sometimes Leah's playing in her Jumperoo and seems to be off in her own little world of joy, and I think it's safe to temporarily turn my attention to the newspaper or the Entertainment Weekly or my Ipod. But thirty seconds later, that girl who had just been dancing and laughing like there was no tomorrow is suddenly stonefaced and glassy-eyed with boredom. And if I don't immediately turn away from the newspaper or Ipod and start singing to her or dancing in front of her or something, the pouty lower lip comes out, and it's all over.

Those girls have us right where they want us.

But at least we're bigger and stronger than them and can make them dress up in silly outfits and take pictures of them against their will: