The Elie & Booth Greatest Show on Earth

Every so often, and almost always at the dinner hour, the circus comes to my house.

By this time of the day hunger and fatigue set in quickly which heightens the thrill of the show. Lauren and Claire morph from their human selves into feisty lion cubs as they snarl and claw at my legs. Unlike many lion tamers before me, I won't put my head near their mouths.

C the juggler works fast with no less than 4 items on the go at a time. One hand flipping food in the frying pan while pouring glasses of milk. The other hand cutting veggies and tossing a salad all the while whipping plates onto the table. The legend goes that he grows a third arm for the act, but it's hard to tell because it's all a blur.

Once seated Claire morphs again, this time into elastibaby showing off her super flexibility with one leg swung up on the tray of her high chair. As a bonus feature and if the mood is right, she'll smear food on her toes before putting them in her mouth. The crowd goes wild every time.
 
In the other ring Lauren has become a nimble acrobat, balancing on her chair stretching across the table to reach the ketchup bottle.

Back to elastibaby who by this short time has already made her food disappear. She then pulls a Houdini by freeing herself from  her bib.

Lauren continues her act as by leaping from her chair to perform a pirouette or two. She then makes her way around the table to gives hugs and kisses to her adoring fans.

Come one, come all! There's always something spectacular to see and the show is guaranteed not to disappoint.

The not so funny giggles

I love it when my girls laugh. The sound brings joy to my heart. At 2 am, however... not so much.

At around half past midnight this morning Lauren woke up crying that her underwear was wet. Great. I quickly checked out the scene and concluded they were dry, but her sheets were damp. It was warm in the room so I suspect she just got really sweaty.

Claire was up at this point so I hauled both girls back to my room. Co-sleeping is the quickest way to get us all back to sleep. Usually.

C woke long enough to ask what was going on, and of course Lauren fell asleep again in seconds. Claire spent the next hour flip flopping around and I was wide awake with my nose centimetres from the wall. Sometimes 4 in a bed is too close for comfort.

Thinking she'd settle down if we snuggled together, I brought Claire back to the girls' room and tucked us both in to Lauren's bed, throwing a towel over the damp spots. By this time new clean sheets didn't really matter.

I lay as still as possible so Claire would get the hint and close her eyes. Fat chance. Instead she flopped around some more, perhaps in an attempt to get comfortable, but eventually gave it up to rummage through the dozen or so stuffed toys that Lauren has piled in her bed. No wonder she got so hot!

Moments later Claire started to giggle. Giggle! I opened my eyes just a sliver so she wouldn't notice that I was really awake, and saw that she was clutching Lauren's purple Monstaz, or Fuzzball as she calls it. This is a newish toy that she received from a friend for her birthday and currently holds the top spot of her favourite toys. According to Lauren's strict instructions, Claire is not allowed to touch Fuzzball for fear that she will chew it and make it all "yucky and wet". Fair enough.

So there we were, 2 in the morning, 4 hours from when the alarm was set to go off to start a brand new day. C and Lauren were in my bed enjoying sweet dreams, I was faking sleep in Lauren's sweaty bed and Claire was pleased as punch to finally be holding in her hands her sister's prized Fuzzball. Not such a funny situation for me, but to Claire, absolutely!