Perpetual Motion

For centuries now, men and woman of science and engineering have toiled in the pursuit of perpetual motion. A machine, which once started, could run under it's own power indefinetly. No such machine has yet to be created, however, I believe we've proven the principal in theory. We have our own perpetual motion machine in our house as we speak. It's called "twins" and it works like this: babies decide to wake up at the same time, around 3 am, and scream bloody murder. Mom and dad rush to the rescue, scoop up said screamers and rock back to sleep. After sleep has been achieved mom and dad attempt to replace componants in their compartments only for the screaming to instantly restart. After several laps around the house (which at 900 square feet doesn't take long) it becomes obvious that the girls are really only looking to be coddled. We're all for love and affection in our home. Hugs are great, snuggling even better. ... but not at 3 am. 3 am is for one thing and one thing only. ... sleeping. I mean, even the college kids are passed out by 3 am on a Thursday night. Granted they had help from Jose, Jack and Jim, but no excuses. So we deliberated (which means that I got frustrated and Gina yelled at me for being frustrated and then I yelled back at her that I wasn't frustrated - doing my best to conceal the frustration in my voice) and decided that maybe this was the time to attempt the "cry it out" method. It made sense at the time, the pieces were all there - they were crying, we were tired, whalla - sleep. But here's where the theory of perpetual motion kicks in. When Baby A screams it angers Baby B and she to begins to scream. When Baby A runs out of steam, Baby B continues screaming alone. This quickly frustrates Baby A who joins back in just as Baby B begins to quiet. Baby B becomes angry from Baby A's screaming and once again starts up her war cry. And this cylce continues. It does not end. Once set in play it is the perfect example perpetual motion in action. The only thing that ends it is when parents cave because they feel they are 1) emotionally damaging their children, 2) not getting any sleep anyway, 3) feeling pity on the neighbors. Fortunatly, once the crying is stopped again by the parents loving (/tired) arms and tummies are refilled with milk, exhaustion from this experience takes over and sleep is restored. ... for 30 minutes, until dad's alarm goes off reminding him that it's Friday and he has to go to work. Gina was right. ... should have tried this on a weekend.