How to keep your kids in the tub? YooKidoo!

Recently my boys started to try climbing out of the bath tub.  They are not yet big enough to accomplish it , but it was starting to stress me out.  My sister in law gave the boys the coolest bath tub toy for their birthday.  Not only does it keep them obsessed with staying in the tub, but I no longer have to run a trickle of water for their entertainment.  This is also a good thing because it keeps their attention away from the hot tap.  The toy is by Yookidoo and is called the Yookidoo Flow 'N' Fill Spout.  It uses a battery to recirculate water and comes with three different cups to play with.  I can not say enough about how great this toy with.  When bathing twins, anything that makes life easier is great!

Oh yeah, and my mother bought them the cutest robes recently.  I had received bath robes earlier as a gift, but found them useless to use on a baby that can't walk.  But, these robes have also made bath time easier for me now that they are walking.  This is because my husband and I used to have to both be present at the end of bath time to pull two babies out of the tub and into their towels safely.  Now, with these robes, only one of us needs to be there to pull one out at a time, and send them out the door knowing they are warm and dry.  Did I mention they are super cute too?

The Advantages of Twins

I recently made a list of advantages of having twins for a friend when she was pregnant.  (I wish I still had it because it would make this post a lot quicker to write!)  She had been a little down after all she heard were horror stories from other twin moms.   Why people do this do each other, I will never know.  There are numerous benefits to having twins.  This list probably isn't long enough!

1. Grandparents can't get jealous of each other because there is one baby for each to hold.
2. Double the snuggles.
3. When one baby isn't sure it wants to eat something, they often do when they see their twin eating it.
4. You become very efficient at everything.
5. You get to dress them alike.
6. They play with each other from a very early age.
7. They are more content to be left alone by you because they always have a companion.
8. They sleep better also because they do not feel alone.
9. It is easier to feed them solid food because you're not left with as many leftovers as when you try to feed just one baby.
10. The dad is a very involved parent.
11.  Did I mention double the snuggles?

My new addiction - finding a new brand of cloth diapers...

OK, so my new addiction is trying to find a new brand of cloth diapers to use.  Alas, the mountain of BumGenius diapers I bought have not worked out for me. (see earlier post)  Turns out microfiber and a super HE machine equals one stinky batch of diapers.  So, I am on a mission to find the perfect diaper.  Turns out, I need all natural fibers to prevent the stink. So far I have tried GroBaby, Soft Bums, and Bottom Bumpers.  I must admit the Bamboo Soft Bums are fantastic.  A bit pricey though... so I am still searching.  It turns out there are so many to choose from.

 As Thoroughly Modern Milly would say,
"Searching.  Searching.  Always Searching."

(image is from http://buckingthewave.wordpress.com/)

Pretend your twins are older then they really are.

Huh?  Who doesn't want to slow down time, stop their babies from aging, or prevent their infants from becoming toddlers? Ummmm.... me. 

Over the last two weeks my boys have started walking.  I have to admit that my joy is for mostly selfish reason.  I no longer have to make two trips to get the babies in the car.  I no longer have to make two trips to get the boys outside to play.  I no longer have to make two trips... oh, you get the picture.  I take each one by the hand and away we go.  Now, it may take us 5-10 minutes to actually make it across the yard to get to the van, but once we are there - we are gone! 

So, Carter was the only one who could actually walk when we made our first attempt at this.   Gerrit was held up by his hand as he stumbled along trying to keep up.  But, he made it to the van and was soooo proud of himself.  Now they are both walking.  Today they took my hands and tried to steer me towards the door to go outside.  They were most upset when I forced a detour to the living room.

To get outside you have to go out the back door and onto our concrete porch.  There are no railings and there are three large (well worn smooth) stone steps to climb down.  After one week of trying to keep them off the porch and carrying them down, I gave up.  Yesterday I opened the door and let them crawl across the porch and down the stairs all by themselves. They did this sort-of scraping ,slide down the steps, slither.  But, I figured if it hurt, they would complain.  Again, I got huge smiles of accomplishment when they got to the bottom, and my life was made a lot easier.

I sometimes wonder am I too lenient?  Is my mother reading this and having an internal heart attack?  Probably so.  But, I think that as a mother of twins you have to let your children grow up faster and be more independent then you ever imagined you would have allowed.  Maybe it also stems from the fact that I was not the first born child, and so was left to my own devices more.  Who knows?

My "Living" Room

I literally “live” in my living room. It is like the one room command center. With two babies in tow, it just makes life easier.  I can’t imagine functioning any other way.

When I was pregnant, I folded all their little outfits into the chest of drawers upstairs. I set up a changing station in their room. I put all their extra things into a multi-shelf unit in their closet. All was a blissful dream of using their nursery and creating this little dream world. As I have mentioned before, their nursery now stands unused. It has become a storage room for all the things they have outgrown. The chest of drawers that I forced my husband to empty of all his clothes now stands empty.

I imagine a world with one child is much different. But, with two, it just never seemed possible to leave one unattended while I schlepped it upstairs to do what needed to be done. After the boys came home, the diaper changing station for the pack-and-play was quickly set up. Baskets were brought downstairs to house their clothes and blankets. The basinet of the pack-and-play became their daytime crib.

Those baskets of clothes still sit in my living room. They now house PJs, tops, and pants. The nicer changing table was moved downstairs. I transitioned the babies from the pack-and-play, to the “drop zone” (see previous post) to a dog bed. Don’t laugh! A large rectangular dog bed makes the perfect baby nap spot. When they wake up, they just crawl off and go back to playing! (They were so used to napping in the same room as me they do not wake up from sounds.)  They only started to nap upstairs in their crib at 8 months.

My living room is total chaos. Total and complete chaos. In this room we get dressed and nurse in our rocking recliner. In this room we fall asleep and then get carried upstairs. In this room we play and throw all our toys and books everywhere. In this room we eat at the table and throw our unwanted food on the floor. In this room we snuggle and play. And, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

How to Go Out and Actually Accomplish Something!

When I was pregnant I dreamed of the time when I would go out with my twins in their double stroller.  People would smile as I cruised along accomplishing my errands.  That twin stroller, which I made sure turned on a dime and fit through doorways, was my ticket to freedom.

So, my very first trip out I was not prepared for the sheer number of people who would stop me.  Literally get in front of my stroller and force me to stop and talk to them.  I won't go into details, but it took me an entire hour to buy 3 things.  An entire hour.  And when you are tied to breastfeeding, those moments between feedings are precious!

I attempted this task a few more times before I realized that the problem was not that I had the most adorable twins on the planet that everyone wanted to see (which is true by the way).  The problem was that I was strolling around with blinking lights, catchy music, and a sign that said, "Twins!  Come take a look!"

If I was going to get anything done this had to change.  Enter the baby carrier.  I soon realized that one baby in a sling and one in the shopping cart attracted a lot less attention.  Instead of 100 inquiries, I would get about 4.  And I had this handy cart in which to put everything!  I would carry one boy in a New Natives Sling until about 4 months, and I have used an Ergo since then.  The other baby went into the car seat carrier propped in the cart.  As they grew, the car seat disappeared and one baby rode in the built in shopping cart seat.  I still do this, but I have also regressed.  They love to ride in the carts, so I now often put them in the cart seat side by side, or just let them ride in the main compartment.  I get a lot more comments again, but it is still better than using the stroller.  Even if I am just picking up a few items, I hardly ever use the stroller.

My double stroller still gets plenty of use, and it is always tucked away in the back of my van.  But, sometimes the best part of having twins is looking back and realizing how nothing turned out as planned.  Instead you get to give yourself kudos for figuring it all out and realizing what a rockin'ly smart mama you turned out to be.

One Year and Counting

The boys had their first birthday on Wednesday.  Wow.  The first six months were probably the longest six months of my life.  Every day was new and different.  Then suddenly time went into hyper drive, and here I sit the mother of two toddlers wondering how this day came about so fast.  I had been getting a little freaked out lately because I was losing my babies.  Being a mother of IVF infants, knowing it will never happen again is a hard pill to swallow. 

But, a month ago I was shopping for sun hats at Old Navy and not seeing anything I liked in the baby section.  I am not lying when I say that up until this day I had never noticed the toddler boy section.  It was on the other side of the store - far away from my baby focused eyes.  I only discovered it because I saw a clearance sign and what I knew was a baby outfit.  I decided to see what else was on that rack.  (Cue the dramatic music...) My eye caught sight of a little t-shirt on a table with Yoda on it.  12-18 months.  What???  I checked out another t-shirt.  Same size.  (Cue some more music...) Wait!  All these clothes would fit my kids and they are soooooo cute!  Not baby cute, but cool cute!  When I got home, I told my husband all about it in a rush of words and excitement.  I am sure he thought I was nuts.

Since then, it has been like a whole new world is opening up.  We planted flowers in the planters outside together. We figured out how to climb onto the stroller and climb all the way up onto the handle bars (oh yes).   The twins now own fun, big boy toys like swings, ride-on-giraffes, musical instruments, and push toys .  (P.S. Apparently twin toddlers need two of everything.  Sharing is hard when you can't say, "mine!")  And, if that wasn't enough, last week Carter took his first steps.  Just wait until they are both walking...  who knows what we will be doing then.

Watch out world, here we come!