What do normal adults talk about?

It's official; I have forgotten how to have a normal conversation with normal adults! I've lost my Mojo!

Today was the clarification of this fact but I know I have fallen foul of it before.

The family and I were at a very nice little party this afternoon hosted by friends and there were lots of nice people there - many of whom were parents with their respective children.

I started talking to a nice couple who had a couple of older boys themselves. Within minutes, I had managed to bore them with stories of potty-training and non-napping children. Minutes! And they were parents! I simply couldn't remember how to start a conversation with a stranger that didn't revolve around my children.

I used to be quite good at striking up a conversation with a stranger, make small-talk and have a laugh with random people but now my entire attention is on Emilia or Tal and I literally cannot think of anything else to say to people.

I tried to talk to other "grown-ups" today but even when I am having a "normal" conversation with Emilia present (for it is always Emilia that needs the most of my attention), I find that I have to shout at her / call her / comfort her or generally listen to her narration, mid-thought so I am finding it really hard to have a clear chain of thought. I must also seem really rude!

As I said, this is not the first time that I have forgotten the etiquette of conversation:

A little while ago I was part of a group conversation with some mums and I jumped in to tell an anecdote that would have been tenuous 3 topics ago. Not only did I jump in, I apologised that I had done it - but carried on anyway - and what made it worse is that the story I told fell absolutely flat and I had to slink away.

Where did HE come from?

I never thought that 2 of my children could be so different!

5 months into my Paternity Leave with Emilia,  I wrote an entry asking how it happened that a little pooing, sleeping and crying thing became a little person. Well we've reached that stage already this time round.

Tal is much more of a do-er. Emilia was a watcher (still is). She would watch what everyone else was doing and only when she felt confident enough, would she copy. Tal just goes straight for it!

He wriggles and squirms and lunges for things that he wants. He is desperate to move and do things too. He will not sit still and if he's in my arms, and I'm not walking around, he wriggles, strains and pulls until I eventually put him down. (At which point he complains that he can't go anywhere!)

Emilia, at this age (I remember), was much happier to sit in your lap at group, or in the house and have toys passed to her. She was never particularly interested in crawling (in fact I wrote a blog entry in October 2013 saying that she had just done her first bit of crawling) whereas Tal is already up on all-fours and rocking, ready to start going! Emma and I are taking bets on how long it will be before I have to baby-proof the living room again

Tal making a tentative bid for freedom having destroyed the living room

They do have their shared characteristics too though: They are both smiley, cuddly and loving; they are both obsessed with electronics. (We bought Emilia a toy remote control to stop her playing with our real one and Tal has found that 2 years later. He is also desperate to press all the buttons and smack the laptop - even if it's closed and off he tries to pick it up and eat it!).

Oh, and they are both gorgeous!

I love them both but if I thought Emilia had her hard moments... I'm worried about what the next few months and then years have in store!