The two little ones have names.  He's Scooter and she is Ashling.
 
Today was a big day since Steve recalled an old trick which can be useful
when they very young and are teething.  Fondle their feet while cuddling and
if there is a move toward a teething-bite just place the foot in front of
your finger.  Today there have been no bites since the first few attempts,
no one got hurt worse than a surprising self-inflicted pinch, and many, many
kisses have been shared.  All the big ones met them without bars between
today, and Ashling, Scooter and Jumpstart all got to try a Tigers Milk bar
as well with the result that the two boys really like it and Ashling has
decreed it "the perfect food".  The two babies also tried Nutrical for their
first time today and Scooter loves that as much as Ashling loves carob.
Scooter has discovered that he can play with a bell on a string hung from a
doorknob.  Ashling and Scooter also at one point had their Newt Gingerich
catnip doll in a split with one pulling one leg in a direction and the other
tugging the opposite way.  Both still have that rear-legs-held-too-far-back
infant walk, and their round bellies touch the carpet as they move along,
providing an extra point for stability.  It's big time cute.  There are
still many times of baby wrack-wracking for attention or teething or
whatever, but she felt big enough to try to tackle a few pieces of hard
food.  For me the sweetest time was when Scooter and Warp (who was meeting
him) both decided to kiss me simultaneously.  Warp was standing up , and
Scooter was cradled completely in one of my palms (I have small hands, but
they are only 7 and 1/2 to 8 weeks old right now -- tiny, tiny guys.).
Yesterday's cutest time was when Ashling was having teething problems and
Meeteetse walked over to the baby cage and said something gentle along the
line of "Brrah, braah, brah..." and Ashling just stopped wracking
immediately and lovingly accepted 'Teetse from that point forward.  'Choppie
doesn't seem to care one way or the other about them, and Spot is accepting
them so far so things are going smoothly with all the big guys.  Of course,
we are spoiling the big ones rotten to help this.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 1909]