I think we have a live-wire on our hands!

Last night as I was finishing my preparations for dinner, Seth was playing with the kids in the living room. Talia, after enduring her nightly training in crawling and standing, was grouchy--and fussing loudly to prove it. A few minutes later I realized Seth and Benjamin had gone off to the kids' room to engage in some manly activity (wrestling, by the sound of it) and Talia was playing quietly in the living room. Very quietly. I decided she had probably just been bothered by all the noise the boys were making and, as it they had removed themselves from the immediate vicinity, she was content.

I should insert here that early in Benjamin's life I learned that extraordinary quiet was nothing to worry about. In almost every case it meant that he was reading a book or engaged elsewhere in harmless play. In only one case, to my recollection, has "too quiet" ended in disaster. And so I have gotten used to this interpretation, I suppose. I may have to re-train myself.

In a few minutes Seth returned to the living room. I heard him come down the hall and then I heard him stop. "Oh my goodness, Baby Girl!" I turned from the stove to look into the living room. This is what I saw: