Toby is in one of the most EXASPERATING phases ever. It's just ridiculous. It used to be when the babies got tired, I would either lay them down or put them in their car seats or the stroller (depending on where we were and what our plans were), give them a pacifier, and they'd go to sleep. With the car seats and stroller I usually rock them a bit, and when I lay them down I swaddle them and that's their sign that they should sleep. Well, Ari is still fairly good about this, although he's always had a bit more trouble falling asleep. Toby is still fine when I lay him down swaddled, but the problem is when he's not swaddled, like in the car or stroller. It seems like he's not sure whether he wants the pacifier or his fingers, so he pulls out the pacifier. And then he screams bloody murder because he doesn't have his pacifier. In the car if I can't get to him he'll start to suck his fingers and be fine for a bit, but then he'll go back to screaming. He also rubs his face when he's tired and knocks out the pacifier. He tries desperately to put it back but doesn't quite have the fine motor control yet. In fact yesterday I saw him holding the pacifier up to his mouth trying desperately to suck on it...but it was backwards, pointing away from his mouth.

So. I have to tuck a blanket around him and pin his arms down so he'll keep the pacifier in and stop freaking out and sleep. It seems a bit mean, but otherwise he just gets incredibly agitated and won't sleep. I think if these guys didn't have pacifiers they would be finger (Toby) and thumb (Ari) suckers, but since they do have the pacifiers they prefer those.

So that's just my frustration of the evening. I was driving home just now and I had to stop the car to tuck a blanket around Toby's arms because otherwise he just screamed.

We've had a nice few days of Sukkos. The weather has been really warm. Ezra didn't get to sleep until 11:30 Monday night because we were eating dinner with friends, and the babies were up late as well. Then yesterday we had lunch with friends and on the walk home at around 3:45 all three kids fell asleep and proceeded to sleep and sleep and sleep. It was strangely quiet here for a number of hours! Ezra slept until 7:45 PM and then woke up, ate some, was up until 10:30, and then went back to sleep (with me in bed) until 7:30 this morning. Toby slept until about 8 (well he woke up and nursed once but went right back to sleep) and then was up for about an hour and then down again for the night (which means nursing a ton but just sleeping, not awake playing). Ari apparently thought 3:45 was a good bedtime and was asleep (with plenty of nursing) until 6 this morning. Strange.

Some records of Ezra's language to add (I've decided to just write about it as often as possible; I know someday I'll be glad to have written down all of these things he says when he's 2):

"Wait a dunkent" is what it sounds like when he says "wait a second." Second always sounds like "dunkent", whatever the context.

This afternoon at my parents' house I asked if he wanted some water and he said, "No, I need wine!" and pointed at the wine bottle on the counter.

Now these are...disconcerting. Somewhat disturbing, really. I don't know, I mean he doesn't really understand what he's saying, but it bothers me. I already mentioned that he knows the words to Old Man River, including "tired of living and scared of dying." The other day one of his balls went flat and he said "the ball died." I guess he gets that from when I say my phone died or similar. But here is the incredibly disturbing example that I simply can't explain: when he gets frustrated, once in a while he'll say "not good my life." It totally freaks me out to hear him say that. I have never spoken like that in front of him, so I just don't get where he's getting this from. I'm pretty sure that's what he's saying, too. I don't know if anybody is even reading this blog, but if you are and you have any idea where this might come from, please do tell.

Hmmm, have I mentioned "rounding and rounding"? He's been saying that for ages, and still does. Today he was running around the tree in my parents' back yard and yelling "rounding and rounding!" Although it really sounds more like "bounding and bounding." That's the thing, *I* understand just about everything Ezra says, but most other people don't understand a lot of it.

One last thing: today he was bringing me things out of a box and I had a vivid memory of a time early in my pregnancy with the twins when I was so exhausted and sick that I was laying on the sofa trying to take a bit of a nap while Ezra played. Ezra would have been 15 or maybe 16 months old. He kept going over to the kitchen and taking potatoes out of a bin and then bringing them over and very carefully piling them on top of me, until all of the potatoes were balanced all over me while I half-slept. Then when I suggested he take them back, he did, one by one. So cute. Another time I was half sleeping on the sofa and he pulled a full box of Cheerios off of the table and brought it over to me and dumped it on the floor and started playing with them. And I definitely knew he was doing it but I figured I'd rather rest then and clean up later, because it was keeping him busy! I'd forgotten how tired I was my first trimester.

That's enough blabbing. I ought to sleep while I can (Ari is the only kid up, but Baruch has him at the moment and he just nursed). I was listening to the debate on the radio but I didn't turn on the TV when I came in from the car because it just wasn't worth it. The last I heard was McCain's absolutely incomprehensible response about the honorable people at his rallies. I really don't understand what the heck he was saying. Maybe if I were a Republican I would have understood.