Bath Water

me: Ezra, if you drink the bath water you'll get a stomach ache...it has soap and dirt in it

Ezra: Noooo...I love a stomach ache...Mama drink? Mmm, tasty good.

Bob Herbert on Sarah Palin

Bob Herbert's commentary on Palin's interview with Katie Couric is a good one, but in my opinion he focused on the wrong parts of the interview. First of all, while one would not expect a more seasoned politician to handle a momentary loss of words as poorly as Palin did, and I too found that a bit excruciating to watch, I don't think it's any indication of her intelligence or ability. We all make mistakes of that sort, just mostly not on national television. But the part of the interview that shocked me the most was Palin's reduction of armed conflict into "good guys" vs. "bad guys." Her insistence on calling Israel the "good guys" and Iran the "bad guys" was more than naive: it was childish and even offensive. Is the world really that black and white to her? I would suspect it is. She certainly acts as though it is. I'm terrified at the thought of having a president who is unable to even think about the intricacies of foreign policy. Who actually considers Israel to be flat-out "good guys."

And aside from the deep implications of all of this, how ridiculous was it to hear a supposed national leader go on and on about good guys and bad guys? For real? It would be funny if it weren't so frightening and embarrassing.

Strange Dream, and Politics

Last night I was woken up by a baby in the middle of a deep dreaming sleep. And you know how you tend to remember dreams better if you wake up in the middle? I don't remember all the details as well as I did in the middle of the night. In any case, this was a very odd dream:

I dreamed that Barack Obama (although I think in the dream I was Obama) was going to be executed, but he managed to escape out the back door when nobody was looking. Then he had to hide, and try to make sure that nobody knew who he was. I wish I remembered more, but I really don't.

The good news is that the polls are looking good for Obama. I think Palin is starting to backfire a bit on McCain, as people who were original impressed by her began to learn more and realized how truly terrifying a choice she is. Also, McCain didn't gain anything with the debate. It was a pretty boring debate overall, but I think people who watched it probably took from it that Obama definitely seemed on top of things and presidential. McCain was fine, but nothing special. Neither really was.

On Facebook there are a lot of people supporting the Bush Countdown Clock. Which is fine, unless we're counting down to McCain...

Conversations With Ezra II

Out walking yesterday:

Ezra, pointing up at a bird on a wire: "Babba, chicken up there."

Pointing again: "Mama, a squirrel climbing on a house."

(That struck me because it was such a complete sentence. His speech is really picking up!)

Just now, Baruch took Ezra upstairs to get Ari, who had just woken up. I heard over the monitor: "Hi Ari! Good nap?"

Ezra is really into the cleaning lady who comes every other week (my parents have been kind enough to have her come to them only every 2 weeks, so we get the alternate weeks). Now he will make a mess or see something that's a mess and say, "Biiiig mess. Miss Binky clean up." Very matter-of-fact. I have tried to explain that actually I have to clean it up because Miss Vicky only comes every 2 weeks, but to no avail.

Ezra was in the bath yesterday and he talked for about a minute straight in what seemed to be a complete paragraph. I didn't really catch it all though. Something about the water and his cups and pouring the water.

I think there were more that I wanted to record but I can't remember right now! I guess I'll add them if I remember later.

I remembered another: I put a sweater on Ezra to try it for fit for the winter, and he looked down and said, "oh, awesome!" That cracked me up.

Say It Ain't So, Ezra

How is it possible that my 2-year-old is outgrowing his nap???? He's much too young. Really he still needs the nap, he just won't take it a few days a week. I hope this is a slow process, and he continues to nap at least most days for a while longer.

The big topic of conversation in our house (well aside from politics) is To Cut or Not To Cut. We love Ezra's hair long, but he won't let us put it up, and even when he does, he won't keep it up. So it's always in his eyes. Plus now the babies grab it and pull it. So I'm advocating for cutting it, even though I love it and it's beautiful and I'll be very sad to see it go. We'll see if Baruch agrees.

For some reason I can go a few days without a blog post and then on a car ride I'll suddenly think of 5 posts. All of which deserve their own posts. I wonder if that's typical. I'm new to blogging, obviously. Not that anybody is reading this :p

Personality Differences

Toby and Ari might be identical twins, but they certainly don't act identical. Their personalities are similar, to be sure, but the differences are fairly noticeable. Ari is more gregarious, as much as you can say such a thing about a baby. He is all smiles and laughs for everybody. Toby gets overstimulated more easily and doesn't like to interact directly for as long; he is also smiley, but a bit more discriminating. Toby notices and smiles and coos at Ari and Ezra more than Ari pays attention to Toby; Toby will also just stop nursing and stare at me and grin (so sweet!). Ari stares at his hands and fingers more than any baby I've ever known. He also likes to sit in the swing with the toys on it, and Toby does not. Toby falls asleep in the crib much more readily than Ari; sometimes Ari will start crying and Toby will just stare at him as if he's wondering why he's carrying on like that. And the most noticeable to other people: Ari just plain loves to nurse, whereas Toby just wants to nurse to eat. My father says Ari nurses recreationally, and Toby just nurses nutritionally. My mother calls them fat (Toby) and fatter (Ari). I think Ari was about a pound more, but the difference might be a bit less now.

All of this is how they are today. They could easily change tomorrow!

Both babies are enjoying being big enough for the exersaucer. They like to spin the spinny toy. They've started to protest being put on the floor, I think because they want to sit up and move around. Neither is really rolling much because they don't want to spend much time laying down learning how! They are getting stronger and hopefully will be sitting in another month, which should make them happy.

They aren't really sleeping well at night. I'm fairly exhausted. What I'm looking forward to most is a regular nap schedule. I can't remember when Ezra did that; I tried reading his old blog, but it didn't really say. It looks like at an equivalent age to where Ari and Toby are now (3-4 months) he was still napping every 1.5 to 2 hours. The little guys are still only wanting to be awake for 1 to 1.5 hours, with maybe one 2-hour stretch per day. It means I spend a lot of the day making sure they get to sleep. I think one problem is that they won't take long enough naps, so they get tired quickly. And the other sleep issue that is exasperating is something that Ezra did too: tons of waking in the early morning, and then waking for the day too early. I wonder if bringing them into our bedroom made the problem worse.

Yes We Can