Bugs-- Again.

The Beans are beginning to share. They're taking baby steps in this department but we'll count any little event slightly resembling sharing as a full-fledged step in the right direction. It's been, shall we say, an ordeal to have made it this far and there were moments when I doubted our arrival, but it happened, and it continues to improve. Sure there are still more moments when they hit each other, pull each other's hair and bite each other than there are moments of sublime sibling satisfaction but still, the little blissful moments I witness give me the hope that keeps me afloat on the black sea of daily discontent.

There have been three separate occasions over as many weeks when I've peeked in on quiet Beans (assuming that the absence of screaming means they're up to mischief) to find Parki reading to Pipsi. Something you have to know: Pipsi LOVES having someone read to her. She runs over to whomever is sitting or standing nearby, book and blankie clutched in her slobbery little paws, throwing herself at the person who has come to read to her. People are Kindles to Pipsi, living, breathing Kindles who will wrap her in a Blankie and read the same books over and over and over because she's too darn cute to turn down. Occasionally she's a little insistent and impatient. If you take too long to begin the book or take too long to turn the page, she will grab the book and whack you in the face / head / shoulder / chest with it. She doesn't mean to hurt-- she just wants to get on with the business at hand. And that business could take hours if we let it.

During the moments when I have to take care of other stuff around the house and the Beans are left to their own devices I've traditionally had about ten minutes to take care of something before the Beans entered Meltdown Mode. When that bit of time passes and I don't hear screaming, I feel something amiss. That's when I peek into their room or down the hall and there sit my little Beans together, Parki flipping the pages of a board book and reading, "Ngyahbluorsh, bah bah dodoshgyuryeeee" and pointing with her little finger at the pictures and words, and Pipsi following along, fully engaged in the story her sister is patiently reading to her.

It's the cutest thing ever. It's cuter than candy-covered ponies. It's cuter than the featured exhibit at the Museum of Cuteness. It's cuter than a basket of pink puppies.

And by the time I return with the camera the moment is over.

An experience we aren't through with yet, though, is the Beans' second cold. I know, I should be ashamed of myself for even thinking about complaining when the babies have only been sick one other time in their almost fifteen months here on Earth, but this is just not fun. On the upside, Mommy's had the chance to cuddle all night long with one Bean or the other. The downside of it is that I spend most of the night sitting up and covered in ropy green nasal discharge. But that's okay.

Even though it's a bummer to have all three kids sick at once I at least have the glimmer of hope that they're all capable of sharing. Even if at first it's only germs.