With These Babes, Fun Never Ends

The Boston Herald

They are our comic relief, our guilty pleasure, our diamonds in the rough. Two babes, we call them. We watch them instead of reality TV. For they are our reality. They fill us with wonder and they make us smile.

The girl is 20 months, the boy 10 months, and they are cousins. They chase each around our houses, crawling and slipping, climbing and falling. They play in their playpen. They sit side by side in their highchairs, carriage and car.

They laugh all the time. The littlest things give them pleasure. A song, “If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands.'' A story, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?'' Their mothers doing ``Itsy Bitsy Spider.'' A fistful of Cheerios. And everyone they know.

A few months ago, they were different, less involved with each other. In a few months, they will be different again. They change every day. He sits with his chubby feet crossed inspecting a toy. She chases a ball across the floor. He is as solid as wood. She is as dainty as lace.

That's how they are for now.

A few weeks ago he wasn't afraid of anything. He was in her playroom and he looked Eyore straight in the eyes and kept right on playing. Eyore is a stuffed donkey that talks. You squeeze his paw and his head bobs up and down and his ears move and he says things like,  “Ask me a question,'' and,  “What do you want to play?''

But last week when Eyore talked, he was afraid. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the creature. And then his little bottom lip quivered and he shuddered and sighed and croaked, ``Do! Do!'' which I bet is baby talk for. ``Help! Help!'' Because then he took a deep breath and wailed.

And we laughed, two mothers and a Mimi who should know better.

We didn't laugh for long. His mother comforted him while we set about finding a blanket to cover Eyore. “See? He's gone,'' we said. But what this baby boy saw was that Eyore was UNDER the blanket and it was ``Do! Do!'' Wail! Wail!  until we banished Eyore from the room.

Care Bear was next to go. He's blue and talks, too. And in the kitchen we had to get rid of the paper towel holder that looks and moos like a cow (Don't ask).

Dr. Spock says that fear is a  “normal element of the developmental process,'' which  “occurs when a child's understanding of an object is too poorly developed to explain why this object has suddenly come into his life.’' 

Or come to life. That's the common denominator. All these things speak. And the boy doesn't like this, at least for now.

Two babes. That's what we watch every night. They are our favorite show, funnier than ``Super Nanny'' and more entertaining than “American Idol.’'

And the best thing? There are no repeats, no summer reruns, no “turn in next week for a new episode.” Every moment of every day is different and new.