The girls can now almost hold their head, and they have begun to take note of the mobiles above their beds. Gloria spends hours waving around with her arms and kicking into the air, hoping to hit something. Lara happily talks to the wooden bees and butterflies above her head. Interestingly enough, the babies hardly take note of each other. When we put them both in the playpen, they completely ignore their sibling. They pay more attention to about everything else than they pay to their sister.
Responsibility hits you in funny ways. The other day it occurred to me with some months delay I should probably wash the babies behind their ears. If I don't do it, who will? And then there was the day when I misplaced the baby. I went to see if they're all right and found one bed empty. Since it was unlikely the baby had learned to walk while I wasn't looking, I probably took her someplace and then forgot. I checked the big bed and the babyseat and the playpen before I remembered I put her on the couch, where she was still sleeping peacefully. (But don't tell my husband.)
Stefan and I, we have meanwhile organized our lives with the babies pretty well, though we are still short on sleep. It didn't help that Europe switched to summer time yesterday. Today, Lara and Gloria seem a little confused that breakfast is so early. And I have learned to type two-handed while balancing a baby on my forearms.
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ReplyDeleteOK, thanks to Facebook, I figured out that Lara is the dark-haired one. Forgot the baby?! Oh Stefffannnn !! I'm teasing, I don't know how we did it with one at a time and can't imagine how you guys do it with two. So um, are we gonna see a smiling pic soon. I saw one in your f.b. photo album so maybe next Interna you can shoot one up there. I'd also forgotten how long it took to develop neck muscles! So thanks. And they said time travel was impossible. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHi Bee,
ReplyDeleteso cute!
Best, Kay
Where they ZIP-compressed for storage? How did you do it! Nursery rhyme,
ReplyDelete"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Power equals I-squared R.
Impedance for the AC case.
Sum your phasors in a race.
All bow down to Kirchhoff's rules,
Circuits are not made by fools."
(Apologies to Mozart, Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"
Hi Bee,
ReplyDeleteFrom your description of their personalities, I guessed Lara is on the left and Gloria on the right. According to Steven, apparently I got it right. Too bad we can't ask exactly what they are thinking. It is striking that they are looking in different directions.
My nephew cried constantly as a baby and we never understood why. (My brother-in law wore soundproof earmuffs around the house.) Now he's full grown, I've asked, but of course he can't remember.
My wife and I had our two children 18 months apart, and I recall being constantly tired for about two or three years before we recovered. So you and Stefan have my sincere empathy. (Our children are 19 and 20 now, so those days are long gone for us.)
ReplyDeleteOne of the many wonderful things about children is the pace at which they learn about the world, and the pace at which they become more capable. It seems that after a certain point, every day it becomes possible to have a different quality of fun with them. As keen observers, you will both be undoubtedly finely attuned to this.
Best wishes to you, Stefan, and your adorable children for continued happy and healthy growth!
--- Santo D'Agostino
Wasn't Euler noted for writing mathematical papers with a baby on his knee?
ReplyDeleteHi Kris, Steven,
ReplyDeleteYes, Lara is the dark-haired one, in the photo left. You can't see it in the photo, but her eye color is changing. It's been turning from bright blue to a funny shade of grey-blue-ocher. We're wondering if it might turn brown.
Best,
B.
PS: We have more photos incl. baby smiles on Flickr
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ReplyDeleteHi Bee,
ReplyDeleteLooking at the relative sizes now between yourself and your two lovely daughters, you must be relieved that the gestation period isn’t 12 months instead of nine. Seriously though, it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown and how so distinguishingly different they’ve become. From my own experience with being the father of two daughters, who are now grown women, you will look back on these times to cherish them. For instance, what now has you bothered that they appear to be oblivious of one another, will seem to be a lost blessing later on; that is when it reverses to become sibling rivalry having them paying attention to each other too much.
Also I’ve noticed you like to dress them the same and yet wouldn’t it be nice for instance if the outfits their shown sporting had one with the solid and stripe pattern on the opposite side from one another. That is as although they wouldn’t appear as being exactly the same, yet rather reflect when together as a symmetry:-)
”It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details.”
-Henri Poincare
Best,
Phil
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteMost of the time they actually don't wear the same cloths. The biggest part of the cloths we have we got 2nd hand anyway, and we don't have them in pairs. It's just on the photos I like the girls to wear matching cloths because it looks cute :o) Best,
B.
Hi Bee,
ReplyDeleteSecond hand clothes, how eco friendly we are; not surprising though. “Because it looks cute”; now what kind of kind of description is this for a phenomenologicaly focused theoretical physicist to use? It would appear that becoming a mother is certainly having its effect ;-)
Best,
Phil
Hi Bee, thanks for those Flickr pics.
ReplyDeleteI call attention to the one of Proud Papa Stefan pushing them in the double stroller in the center. Oh my God did you guys get the INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH version ?! I could go into battle with that thing! Also, is that the fabled "Black Forest of Germany" in the background? Those trees sure look black.
Charming picture, cute babies, thanks Bee. As for typing with baby/s in arm: my calculus teacher told us that Gauss* would hold one or more of his children in his lap with one hand, and work out very advanced math with the other. Is that love two birds with one heart?
ReplyDelete(*IIRC, just maybe Euler but CFG makes sense and note e.g. a whole website http://www.gausschildren.org. It's a shame he lost his first wife and a child and had some rocky family relations.)
Euler was prolific, both in offspring and in intellectual output. He fathered thirteen children, albeit with two wives, and wrote more then eight hundred books and papers in all areas of mathematics. This is all the more astonishing-the part about the papers, that is, not the children-since for a large part of his life he was blind. His power of concentration must have been nothing less then astounding, keeping in mind that he did much of his work without eyesight while screaming kids were scampering around. Late in life he claimed that he had done some of the best work with a baby in his arms and other children playing at his
ReplyDeletefeet.Para 1, Page 54, Poincare's Prize by George G. Szpiro
This is in response to Kaleberg's question, as well as, pointing out the work that can be done if you can train your mind to work in all adverse loving conditions Bee and Stefan:)
It starts with the music/radio on the belly, and then, keeping it on while the little ones are sleeping-aids in developing the concentration?
You want to be able to look deeply into the very nature of things so then it requires that you are able to go past the noise? Yes?
Best,
Konigsberg bridges?
ReplyDeleteIt's to late of course for the parents, unless their mamma's and papa's did this for them? Have they the powers of concentration anyway?
The babies will have a better chance following the footsteps of their parents, as possible mathematicians of the future if they are prepared for this work later in life?:)
Best,
Remember: Bee's mother is a mathematician too!
ReplyDelete"Love two birds with one heart."
ReplyDelete... Neil Bates
Wow. That's one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. Is that original with you? Because you just knocked one out of the park if so. Good going, sir.
Sweet to keep up with the twins.
ReplyDeleteAs to their interest in each other, you would likely enjoy the U-tube video entitled: twin baby boys have a conversation - part 2 ORIGINAL VIDEO
Best wishes all round.
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ReplyDeleteI have a question, and please don't read too much into it. Let's just say for the sake of argument one were to purchase a US Savings Bond, or contribute to a charity such as one for children with cancer in Lara's or Gloria's name. What is their last name? If this were 1960 we'd all assume it was Scherer. But this is not 1960, women have been liberated since then (not 100% but almost), so anything goes.
ReplyDeleteThey carry Stefan's last name.
ReplyDeletePlato, thanks for clearing up that was reference to Euler, not Gauss (but maybe CFG did similar, who knows?) Steven: I thought of the saying on my own, but Google (REM to check that way) shows other mentions. However, at least on Internet I am first user of put-down "ideality-based community" of ideologues as riff on "reality-based community." The latter saying came around when certain players didn't seem to care about science, practical reality-testing, etc.
ReplyDeleteAwww ... cuties. Nice picture.
ReplyDeleteHas Stefan made a nice multi-colored E8 mobile to hang over their crib? ;)
Best wishes for all of you!
William