The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

Yesterday Ari rolled from his back to his front to his back, and then to his front again. Then he acted stuck. It may have been a fluke, although now both boys have rolled from front to back at least once. They also scoot themselves backwards when placed on their bellies, and right after his amazing feat yesterday I put Ari back on his back next to Toby and he proceeded to scoot himself around in a semi-circle so he was facing the opposite direction :) It won't be too much longer before I have to get really serious about baby-proofing!

Oh yeah and they are both "talking" a lot lately. Actually in pretty different ways: Ari says "gggehhhh, gooooh, aggghh" in a gurgly sort of way and Toby says, "ohhhh! ehhhh ohhhh ehh!!" in a loud yelling sort of way.

Also, they finally fit into the Ergo! Yay! I love wearing the wrap, but the Ergo is easier in and out and on and off. I can pop one into the Ergo really super quickly, and I can also nurse in the Ergo, which I personally can't do in the wrap. Although I tried to nurse Ari in the store today and for some reason it pissed him off. Maybe he just has to get used to it.

And another good thing: my brother is coming to Charleston for the weekend, which I'm really looking forward to :)Benjamin is in law school at Duke in North Carolina.

The Bad:

For some reason both Ari and Toby were up partying all night. They were just awake and laughing and wanting to play all night long. *yawn* Baruch was wonderfully helpful, though. Today they are sleeping more than usual to make up for it. This better not become a habit, because I won't survive it!

The Ugly:

We are sort of the neighborhood freak show. I can't go anywhere without inviting comments from every single person who sees me. I'm pretty sick of it, but I just try to ignore it for the most part. I do often accept offers of help when it would be useful, like in getting groceries to the car, or picking up something heavy off of a shelf, etc. Today I kept track of comments when we went grocery shopping:

While entering the store and getting kids situated (Ari in Ergo, Toby in car seat in cart, Ezra in built-in seat on cart):

them: Do you need help?
me: No thanks, I've got it.
them: You sure do! You're doing great! You don't look haggard at all!

um....thanks? My hair is unwashed, I'm wearing my glasses rather than my contacts, all my decent clothes are dirty so I'm wearing whatever I could throw together...it's good to know that at least I seem calm lol

Other comments in the store:

"You poor thing."

Um, what?!? Did you really just say that? I just walked away, but if I were meaner I would have given her a dirty look.

"You have your hands full." repeat x 100

"Wow, look a her!" said to friend. No, of course I can't hear you talk about me...

"My [sister/cousin/daughter/neighbor] has twins, and blah blah blah..."

It's amazing how many people want to tell me about the people they know with twins. Or people who have twins themselves. And sometimes I run into twins, which is sort of cute when they're looking at the babies.

I'm not knocking most of these things. Some are rude, some are just things to say, most are well-intentioned. It's just annoying to be the center of attention everywhere.

Not a Pointless Doctor's Visit

I took the babies to the pediatrician today just to make sure they don't have ear infections. They just haven't been sleeping, and had taken to screaming more often than not, which is very much not their personality. (I only ever took Ezra for sick visits the two times in his life he's been sick. I think I'm much more cautious with the little guys because they were preemies.) So of course the doctor looks them over and pronounces them perfectly healthy (and also mentions that they really seem like 4-month-olds to her, and you'd never know they were born over 9 weeks early <3). BUT, and this is the funny thing: after this visit, the babies spontaneously took a 3-hour nap and got back to their regular selves and played happily and napped well the rest of the day! So they must have heard that they were healthy, too :)

Also, a quick PSA: it is not a good idea to give a toddler just one small piece of chocolate for the ride home. We went to my parents' house for dinner tonight since Baruch will be at the hospital pretty much all night doing work. My mother gave me some chocolates to take home, but Ezra saw them, so I figured I'd give him one. Well, the van was obviously dark, so I was a bit surprised when we got home and I turned around and found this (you should really click on the photo for the full effect):



And for some reason Toby was still wide awake, and Ari woke up when I brought him in. So then I had to deal with both awake babies (I rocked Ari while I nursed Toby, and thankfully Ari went back to sleep until just after I got Ezra to bed). I put Toby to bed and threw a very tired Ezra in the tub, and then finally got Ezra to sleep at about 10:30. Nursed Ari, got him to bed. Then straightend up a bit, wrote this post, and now I'm finally off to bed, where I suspect I will get about 5 minutes of sleep before Toby wakes up for the first time :p

Exhausted

The babies are getting teeth or something ridiculous like that. They, especially Ari, took about 10 minute naps all day today, and got progressively more tired until by evening they were screaming bloody murder and nothing would stop them.

And this is when Bad Mama took over and left them in their crib to cry. I thought maybe they'd fall asleep. To be more accurate, I left Ari in the crib to cry. I put Toby down and he started dozing, but couldn't fall asleep because Ari was crying. That's the way it goes: Toby stares at Ari with this look like, "Dude what are you doing? Let's just go to sleep." As soon as Ari gets quiet Toby drifts right off. I didn't leave them there long. I couldn't. I went up and nursed Ari yet AGAIN and he finally fell asleep. Oh yeah this was all after dosing them with Motrin, which I don't think you're even supposed to use until they are 6 months old but they must weigh about 15 pounds which is well within the weight range so what the hell.

I never felt a strong urge to let Ezra "cry it out." Sure I wanted to a few times, but I never tried and it was never something I really considered for very long. I think I'm a lot different now than I was then, in that I have a bit more perspective and I really don't think it will scar a kid for life to cry to sleep a few times (even though I still think it's not a nice thing to do). But I think the main difference is in the babies themselves. The twins put themselves to sleep regularly and have since forever. As long as I time it right, they fall asleep when I put them down. So I know they can. Ezra NEVER did that. In fact I think he still to this day has never done that. I never saw it as within the realm of possibility. Ezra was always walked, rocked, or nursed to sleep. Toby and Ari have been better sleepers, although not the great sleepers you sometimes hear about (and which I'm sure exist, though they can't be too common). Certainly they fall asleep on their own fairly readily as long as the circumstances are right. Toby is better at this than Ari.

But the flipside to this luxury is that it causes increased frustration when they *won't* fall asleep. Because I know they can, and because I suppose I worry that they will lose this ability and with it I'll lose my sanity.

I'm starving again. With all this extra nursing the past few days (from what I am desperately hoping is teething, because that ends at some point, at least for a little while) I've been eating even more than usual. Which is a lot.

Perspective: eventually they will all grow up and I'll actually MISS these days. Well not these days like today, but at least these ages.

Random Facts

Toby won't nurse if he has a poopy diaper. (weirdo lol)

Ezra thinks that chocolate soy milk is called "special treat."

The heat index right now is 110 degrees.

Ari knows how to say "goo gah" just like a proper baby :p



And for a change of track, this article scares me (and I think it scared the authors when they were writing it lol)
Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes
And yes I believe every word of it. I'm glad the Times isn't even trying to be unbiased with regards to Sarah Palin. Since I personally think John McCain is dementing and won't be fit for office in another 2 years, I shudder to think that Palin could end up as president.