Sunday, April 06, 2008

Eulogy for an Off Limits Zone

W: A couple of months ago we increased the kid-zone to include our dining room. It was a no-brainer for us - we were able to remove the gate, the kids got more space, and the dining room table became an instant "fort" for the Deuce.

The table also served another, more valuable service: D and I could put our stuff up there - cell phones, laptops, cameras, cups of coffee - and the Deuce couldn't reach it. Ah, but they grew taller, and their pudgy, probing fingers breached the perimeter of the dining room table off limits zone.

This resulted in an ever-narrowing zone that inched closer and closer to the center of the table. As of last week, the zone was all of 6 inches wide, down from 29.

That was last week. This week we suffered a complete and utter breakdown of the dining room table off limits zone.

I first became aware of the breakdown when I walked into the dining room to find F standing at the center of the table, a little toddler centerpiece. In a word, he looked triumphant, as we all do when we reach goals requiring physical fortitude. To celebrate he did his little "happy feet" dance that I taught him.

OK. So I admit, I was proud of the little guy, and as such, I let a smile show at the corners of my mouth while simultaneously giving him my new dad-disapproves-of-this-behavior look. All he saw was the smile, mistook it for approval, and did the dance again.

It keeps happening. If we leave the room for 2 seconds, the little guy is up on the table, passing our off limits stuff down to O like a bucket brigade.

Then the mystery yesterday - I walked in and F, happily smiling and sitting atop the table, this time holding my coffee mug...upside down. Quickly, I looked for spills - couldn't find any. Hmmm. Searched my memory - did I drink all my coffee? I'm still not sure, but he napped just fine nonetheless.

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Posted by Walker Lockhart @ 10:33 AM

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OMG! I laughed so hard I was crying. Mine climb on top of the coffee table, and look as if they are practising for a new career! Love the pics! The first one was awesome!

Posted by Blogger Brandi @ Sunday, April 06, 2008 6:51:00 PM #
 

Oh! They are all beautiful, but I LOVE the first shot!

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ Tuesday, April 08, 2008 8:01:00 PM #
 

Great info on the experience of parenting twins! I thought you and your readers may be interested to meet a set of twins who are both competing to quliafy for the Beijing Olympics. There is a great video on NBCOlympics.com giving a little peak into their life:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ Monday, April 14, 2008 7:17:00 AM #
 

I'm not exactly sure how I found your blog but I did and I'll be back. You take the most beautiful photographs and your twins are just too adorable.

We moved our gates too to give the bugs more room and yes the dining table it's a fort, it's used for chasy and if we forget to move the chairs then it's used for table top dancing too :)

Posted by Blogger Tonya Staab @ Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:12:00 AM #
 
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