there are baby toys all over my house. it hasn't been like this for....oh about 11 years or so, when brother 2 was a baby. my aunt is away for a week and her 20-month-old is staying at our house. of course she's getting totally spoiled. she's getting plenty of attention, and has got playmates on demand. i watched her last Wednesday. she's really really cute, but she drove me up the wall. i was sitting on my bed trying to finish a paper for school and she insisted that i sit on the floor and play with her. but then she accidentally touched my space heater which was plugged in. thank g-d it wasn't hot enough to actually give her a burn (although I'm still not telling her mother about it when she comes home, it's bad enough she's got a bump on her head from getting whacked with a Wii remote when she walked in front of the screen when brother 2 was swinging) but now she's kind of scared to come into my room. which is a good thing, because my mother tried to send her in on Friday morning at like eight thirty to wake me up, but she wouldn't come in. it's cute to see brother 2, who is the baby of the family, interact with a younger kid. and sister 1 and i are having loads of fun, teaching her how to spit at people, and getting her thoroughly confused. she knows her basic animal noises; cow, horse, dog...but we've taught her that a rabbit goes "quack!" and I'm working on teaching her that a fish says "meow!" she even started calling my mom "mommy"

over shabbos, we hosted my cousin with her two-and-a-half-year-old and almost-one-year-old. and today my uncle had an affair so he dropped off his two daughters, one of which is a baby. my dad loves it. he's totally ready to be a grandfather. he's really great with kids, and they all love him. of course, when you're under two, things are a lot simpler when you're under two, and people who sit you on their laps and talk to you, and give you candy are obviously good people.