Engaging In Battles In The War Between Twins
After reading the scenario below, you will be presented with a multiple choice selection to respond to said scenario. You will have three seconds, though usually less, to answer. Answer carefully: your selections are being studied and filed away for future reference by absorbant-minded toddlers. NO PRESSURE. THE SCENARIO: Barely 17 month old boy riding the giraffe, holding a water bottle, minding his own business. Barely 17 month old girl is apparently not satisfied with the countless other toys/books available and stalks boy. Boy is otherwise oblivious to said stalking. Girl tries to yank water bottle from boy’s hands while simultaneously le

How it happened that I spent an evening on the phone with Poison Control and Astroglide customer ser
When my twins were 13 months old, my daughter, Miss A, was 3. My husband and I were both working full time, and we’d worked out an arrangement where he kept the children at home until 1, then brought them to my office. We’d switch cars and he would head to work, and I’d go home with the kids. After a long and stressful day, full of crying and minor injuries and pants-wetting and whatnot, the kids and I finished dinner. Or rather, Miss A and I finished dinner, and the twins were removed from their high chairs so they could happily eat the veggie rotini they’d hurled to the floor during our meal. While I was doing the dishes I heard a crash, and discovered that the kids had

A minor difference of opinion
A month or two ago, I was just about ready to declare that I was all done having kids. After all, as my husband would gladly point out, we went about this thing in the most excellent, efficient way possible: first pregnancy, boy/girl twins.  Boom. Done.  We’ve got our two kids, we even lucked out with one of each gender.  What else do we need? And then… a switch flipped in my brain. We were at the playground. A mom I don’t know, but had seen here and there while she grew more enormously pregnant all summer long, was there with her newborn daughter snuggled in the Ergo while her older son played.  And even though an itty-bitty newborn is far from my favorite a

Everybody take a baby.
During my pregnancy, I was under the impression that once my girls were born, they would automatically need NICU time.  I did not expect to have any take home babies and after the devastating still birth of my first daughter, I wasn’t upset that I wouldn’t be taking any babies home with me.  My wish was for them to be born alive and healthy.  The statistics were recited to us:  32 weeks is the average gestation for triplets.  My goal (set by my doctor) was to make it to 34 weeks.  Well, 34 weeks came and went.  After flying by 35 weeks (I make it sound easy, don’t I?) and having a date and time scheduled for my c-section, we began to realize that we may b

Yours, Mine, and Ours
Every kid has to learn to share, but when you’re a multiple, the sharing begins long before you’re even born. My own experience was quite different. I grew up an only child, and while I was required to share toys and materials at daycare and school, when I went home and walked into my room, everything was mine. But that isn’t the case for my kids. At 20 months old, my kids have very few things that are their own personal belongings. We have tons of books and more than enough toys, and the expectation is that they will share them. However, in the last month or so, both my son (Buba) and my daughter (Tiny) have started to develop preferences for certain items. The