night owls and early birds

Marta and Anna are different kinds of people. This is already evident at the ages of 4 years and 9 months, respectively.

Marta is a night owl. She can go straight through midnight and beyond if she feels like it. At night she is also her most introspective. Like the snapshot to the left. She can become engrossed in drawing or writing letters.

I remember when we lived in New York, one night Epp, Marta, and I stayed up until something like 3 am watching of all things Federico Fellini's La Strada.

La Strada is in black and white and was filmed in 1954, but Marta paid attention through the whole film, asking at times what Anthony Quinn's character was doing and what Giulietta Masina's character was saying.

Anna, though, seems like she is more of a morning person. She wakes up and I can tell she is excited, even though most of her days are the same. I mean, what exactly is she so excited about? More food, more crawling, more chances to slap us in the face?

Anna really likes to experiment with my face. She is particularly intrigued by my lips and does not hesitate to pull on them, sometimes to the point that it hurts. She also stares in wonder at how many teeth I have. She likes to pry the lips apart, then touch my teeth. This is one of the regular morning activities we share.

These days though, I wish the mornings and the nights were longer. We do get sleep, but there rarely seems to be enough of it. Ditto for time to work.