Knowing Their Giggles

A mommy learns the meanings of her infants cries fairly quickly. One cry means hunger, one means sleepy, one means dirty, etc. I've recently discovered that, though toddlers can get their point across pretty well with words, a pretty reliable language can be found in their laughter!

Katie and Josie spend 85% of their day giggling over some thing or another. I have learned to translate their different giggles into an understanding of their activities when I am not in a direct line of sight. (I am especially good at Katie's giggles. I'm not sure why)

This morning, after sleeping in far to late, I woke up to the sound of my twins giggling nearly uncontrollably. I laid there for a moment, sleepily enjoying the sound, when I realized what it probably meant. I jumped out of bed, dressed and checked that there were no plates left from last night laying on the coffee table. Then I opened their door. As I had suspected, they were completely naked, their sheets wet, and they were poking each others naked bellies through the bars of their cribs.

After getting them out of the room and cleaning up the used diapers that littered the floor (okay, there were only two of them, but it felt like enough to call it litter) I went out to the living room to diaper them. I had forgotten that we had used the last three diapers that were upstairs for bedtime last night so I had to go downstairs to get a new bag. While I was down there, I figured I may as well take a moment to start a load of laundry so, a couple of minutes later I began the trip back up the stairs, diapers in hand, to hear the almost evil giggle of a Katie gone bad.

When she heard me close the door she came running over to me with her arms out and a binky in her mouth. Upon first inspection, everything seemed fine. But then I saw it. Sarah had chocolate around her mouth. I had checked the coffee table, but forgot about the chocolate chip container I had left on the dining table from dessert last night. It was on the floor, half of it's contents spilled. With a defeated sigh, I put down the bag of diapers and began picking up babies from the sea of 'chalkick.' Josie, seeing that her good fortune was about to run out, grabbed a big handful of chips and shoved them into her mouth before quickly grabbing two handfuls more.

Once they were deposited on the couch I picked up the chocolate and put everything away from the table top that had any chance of causing a mess. Finally I was able to turn my attention to diapering my naked babies. While putting Sarah's diaper in the garbage I heard even more giggling. Josie was sitting on the couch with her arm extended down to Sarah, her hand open. Sarah and Katie were taking turns licking at the melted chocolate that coated her little palm!

Three sponge baths later I was finally able to turn my attention to cooking breakfast and starting our day. Sleeping in never really pays off, but knowing your children's giggle language really can!