What We're Up To

Yesterday (Friday) morning we went to the local library's huge book sale, which was fun. I got a bunch of great books for Ezra: classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Robin Hood, Treasure Island, Paul Bunyan, and The Little Prince, as well as a few random other books. I got some fiction books for me (frivolous things, e.g. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which is a fun book) as well as How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk. I would have loved to stay longer, but Ezra needed a snack (I gave him an apple while he hung out on my back in the Ergo as I checked out, and he proceeded to eat the entire thing...including the core) and a nap, and it was difficult to really browse through the books while keeping track of Ezra playing with cars on the floor and trying to maneuver the double stroller around the tables. I was very pleasantly surprised, though, when after I finished nursing both babies in the lobby, a woman from the business office at the auditorium came out and made sure that nobody had said anything negative to me about nursing them in public. Apparently somebody in the office thought perhaps a passerby had made a comment, which had not happened. But I thought it was great that they were being proactive about protecting my rights! Very cool.

Anyway. Tonight Baruch is on call, so I'm home alone with the kids. It's raining quite a lot. It was raining all day, in fact, and we got stuck in shul because it was pouring. A nice family invited us for lunch, as they live closer to shul than we do. So that was nice. As is typical on Saturdays, Ezra did not nap. So I drove over to my parents' house to return a bunch of my mother's tupperware that I had, and Ezra fell asleep in the car at 6:40; getting him to sleep was, of course, my intention. When we got home I played with the babies for a while and then put them to bed and and them asleep by 7:45, and I thought I was home free for a few hours! I went to get started on straightening the playroom, which is more like a huge pile of jumbled toys than an actual room at the moment, and about 3 minutes later I heard Ezra on the monitor having a nightmare. It took forever and a glass of water to calm him down and get him back to sleep. All of this woke up Ari. So then Ari was up until almost 10. Of course I just got Ari to sleep and now I'm going to write this up and go to bed myself. So much for housekeeping. It would be nice to actually be able to walk in the playroom, and the dishes need doing, but whatever.

Here is a photo of my stitches without the covering bandage, but with a steri-strip over them (WARNING: this is not pretty, and also my skin and hair are gross so just ignore that):



Also, this is a very interesting article in this weekend's Sunday Magazine from The New York Times:
Kosher Wars

I find it particularly interesting because I didn't realize there was a whole movement of people who felt the same way I do about factory-farmed meat not being kosher due to the mistreatment of animals. I've been saying that for years. I know it's not technically true, but I feel like it ought to be. In any case we are vegetarians (leaning towards veganism, especially in what we buy for our home; I was a vegan for a while until I found out I was pregnant with twins, at which point I started eating eggs and dairy for extra fat and protein). But I would definitely consider eating humanely raised grass-fed beef and poultry. I would consider it, but I'm not sure. It's been a long time since I ate meat. Certainly I would prefer to eat eggs and dairy from sustainable, humane farms, if it were available. Not that we could afford to. Which is why we are ideally vegans. It takes more work to healthily feed a family as a vegan, and at the moment I often only have the energy to stick a piece of cheese on bread and toast it for Ezra.

With the financial crisis right now, I keep thinking about how money is really imaginary. It's a social construct. When Baruch hears that people are losing money with the stock market, he wonders where the money is going. I say nowhere, it's all make believe. What I really want is to own land. A nice chunk of land, with a house and enough area to plant a large garden with produce to feed our family. Land isn't imaginary. If you own it fair and square, it can't just disappear one day (barring catastrophes like war or natural disaster). That's me. I'm not one to invest in the stock market. I'm more likely to buy gold and hide it under my mattress. I just am very risk-averse. I want something tangible. I want stability.

Speaking of feeding our family, in another 6 months or so it's going to be a heck of a lot harder to do so. I so hope the babies are sleeping well by then so I will have the energy to actually cook for a family of 5.

In closing, a few random things Ezra has said lately:

-Pointing to a picture of a tractor in a book: "I ride that yesterday." Huh? News to me! He can spend a surprisingly long time pointing to vehicle after vehicle in a book repeating with each one, "Ezza drive that. Ezza drive that. Ezza drive that...."

-Ari started crying while I was nursing Toby. Ezra called out, "I coming Toby!" and goes over and smiles at him, and then turns to me and commands, "Nurse a him!"

-I was cutting grapes, and Ezra pointed to them one by one and said, "Cut him. Cut him." I asked, "Cut who?" just to see what he'd say. He thought for a second, and tried again: "Cut her. Cut her." I chuckled and explained that a grape is an it, and I said I would cut it, and cut it, and cut it.

Adding this later (after Ezra fell out of bed and woke up, and then right after he went to sleep Toby woke up...):

I forgot to write about a big thing! Today every time I put Toby down on his belly, he would hang out for a while looking around, and then very deliberately roll over to his back and give me a huge grin. I had seen both babies roll front to back at least once, but this was deliberate and he did it many, many times. Both guys are also now regularly going from their backs to their sides, although I've only seen Ari roll back to front, and that was only once. It won't be long for sure! Ari sat for about 5 minutes with the Boppy helping him balance, and Toby is starting to sit a bit as well. Go babies!

Ezra's Big Day, Photo Heavy

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday.

Before, in the stroller with Baruch pushing:





During:






I didn't get great photos afterwards. The first is before it was washed. The good ones from after his bath are all naked, so I just put in a cropped one of those.





It's still pretty rough. He stood still in the beginning, but then it was mostly my mother and me chasing him around the room with scissors. It looks awesome, though. He looks so grown up! I'm still getting used to how adorable he looks.

One final photo (as if there aren't enough already!) of Ezra being very sweet to Toby:

Call Me Crazy . . .

but then you'd have to call my mother crazy, too.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing more signing with the babies. They're young, but very alert. Ezra also likes to teach them signs (in fact he will even wake them up from naps to teach them a sign...). Mostly I show them the sign for milk, but we really do anything that occurs to us.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on my parents' back deck with my mother and Ari. It was a gorgeous day! I asked Ari if he heard the birds singing, and showed him the sign for bird. And I am NOT INSANE when I say that Ari tried to do the sign himself. He certainly did. Really. My mother saw it, too.

My mother then said that a bit earlier she had been playing Ladies Ride ("This is the way the ladies ride, bum-de-bum, bum-de-bum...") with Toby and she stopped and he signed more. I would not have believed her at all if I hadn't seen Ari with my own eyes. I'm still skeptical anyway; Toby likes to chew on both hands at once and often brings them together in front of himself. But I won't completely dismiss the possibility, either. He's certainly seen the "more" sign used (Ezra often uses it still, either while saying more or to ask for more while his mouth is still stuffed! lol)

Okay, so it's unlikely. But is it impossible? (Anne, what's your input?) I really don't think I was imagining things. My mother saw it at the same time I did. Sure, Ari was just trying to imitate me. But he was looking up at the tree as he did so.

(Now, I would actually prefer *not* to have super geniuses for kids. Smart is good, but too smart is difficult. I can't imagine life with one of those kids who beats people in chess at 11 months. My kids aren't like that at all, and it's a relief. What do you do with that child? How do you help him have a happy and fulfilling life?)

As long as I'm wondering in awe at the abilities of my children, I should write about Ezra. The other night we were sitting at my parents' table and he had brought a little backpack full of magnetic letters with him. He took them out one by one and named every single one of them. Correctly. So yes, he knows all his letters by site. All the capital letters, and I found out the next day that he knows many of them in lower case, too. And yesterday morning he was working on reading the word "bat"!

Of course I take no credit for this. Okay, only a very little (since we do read books all the time). You know how he knows all of his letters and is starting the beginning steps of reading? He watches Super Why every morning. How's that for good parenting?




Yes, Ari is learning to sit up! In another month they'll both be pros :)

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

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.

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.