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.

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.