If today hadn’t been the sort of day that made the unemployment office seem like a more productive use of my time, then tonight would have been a bit of a riot.  When I got home, Nicholas was actually building a tower out of blocks.  Usually he’ll put a piece or two on top of another, then pull it all apart.  If I help him, he’ll stack them one on top of another, until Dexter notices and comes over and yanks it down.  Tonight, Nic was actually building a tower, all on his own.

And then Dexter was going wild playing fetch.  I suppose I should say it was “catch”, but it wasn’t – it was fetch.  He found a bouncy ball, and brought it over to me, and I tossed it and it bounced across the kitchen and into the dining room.  Dexter squealed with delight and ran after it, and then “threw” it back to me, and this went on for some time.  He was enraptured.

After a tumultuous feed, Nic ran into the bathroom, and spent the next 10 minutes laughing uproariously every time Dexter or I would push open the door.  He’d squeal, then shut the door, and then run to the back of the bathroom.  When I started pounding on the door instead of just opening it, he laughed so hard that he stumbled out of the bathroom and just fell over onto me, and lay there giggling.

Later, we went upstairs for shower time, and Dexter made up a new game of running into our closet, turning around, and falling backwards against my shirts (hanging on the bottom level of the closet).  In the shower, he started splashing and laughing himself silly, and then trying to help me wash Nicholas’ hair.

Finally, we made it downstairs to eat a long-delayed dinner.  To keep the boys entertained, we gave them the new fruit-flavored Cheerios (otherwise known as shrunken Fruit Loops, but don’t tell anyone, it’ll ruin the branding).  At one point I told Dexter that since I was a good Dad and loved him so much, if it was too much for his little belly to handle I’d eat all the purple ones for him.  I glanced back 30 seconds later and all the purple ones were gone.

Nic was then refusing to eat his, and holding it out to me, so I decided to mess with him by leaning forward and biting the cheerio out of his hand.  Then all they wanted to do was feed me.  I ate 3-4 that way, but then told them we were done.  Dexter would have none of it.  He started his little hyper-ventilating frustrated noise, holding two out to me.  I said, “fine, but this is the last time.”  I leaned forward, and just as I got close Dexter’s hand darted to his mouth and he ate them.  Seriously, he’s like 4 days old and he’s already messing with me.

Nicholas started acting up after that, and he categorically refused to eat his purple ones.  Katie set the 7 or 8 purple ones on Dexter’s tray (that’s our new threat, and the only one that appears to work – “eat your food, or I’ll give it to your brother”).  Dexter reached out and grabbed one, put it in his mouth and grunted.  And then another, and another, and another, until they were all crammed in his mouth.  Each Cheerio was accompanied by a grunt.  Katie finally grabbed the last Cheerio from Nic’s plate, and put it on Dexter’s.  She tried to fool him, though – this was one Nic had goobered.  Dexter poked at it, inspected it, considered it, for nearly 45 seconds.  Laura, Katie and I were taking bets on whether or not he’d eat it.  And suddenly a grunt, and the cheerio was gone.

And after all this, with the boys still in their high chairs, I got the nail clippers and clipped their finger nails.  They sat enthralled.  Nic kept watching my fingers, then looking up at Katie with a smile, then up at me, then back to my fingers.  When I finished both of them and went to the kitchen to throw away the clippings, they both broke down and started sobbing uncontrolably.  They appeared to be loving the nail-clipping-in-the-highchair experience.

Kind of an odd night.  Just figured I’d share.

-Joel