Simply Sweet Days

Simple discoveries that make every day count.

Life With Twins

Crayons Are For Paper!

We were so excited when the twins showed an interest in coloring. We started by giving them the backs of old papers to color on. Then we found a bunch of $1 coloring books at Wal Mart. Score! At that point, their love of coloring really grew.

They soon found out that the crayons work on other stuff, not just paper.

I was hoping to paint the walls in our apartment this summer. We’ve been living here for almost 6 years and the walls are beyond clean-able. Plus, that’s not how I want to spend my vacation. But in light of the new coloring craze, it might be best if we wait to paint the walls until the girls stop coloring on them! Tollder Wall Art Collage

It’s not just the walls that are getting a new look. They’ve drawn on the front of the oven, the dishwasher, cupboards, the table, the bathtub… Emily loves to read books, but she’s also been quietly defacing the pages of her board books with crayon when I think she is looking at the pictures!  AND they discovered our drawer of office products. They’re now tall enough to reach the top drawers and counters in the kitchen. They don’t care much for any of the drawers except the one with all the pens and pencils. Which they used to mark up every available wall in the house at about 1 ½ feet high. They even got to the walls on the stairs!

We recently moved the pens and pencils to a new, out-of-reach spot. We now have only washable crayons. I’ve already had to do some purple-crayon-removal from the front of the oven, dishwasher, and cupboards. We keep a close eye on the girls when they have a crayon in their chubby little hand. As soon as one of them picks up a crayon, we remind her, “Paper! Get some paper!”, and she will toddle over to the shelf for a coloring book.

I mentioned in my post about twins talking how Emily really loves coloring. One sure-fire way to calm her when she is upset is to bring our some crayons and paper. Madeline will color, but only if you or Emily color with her. Thankfully, they have finally learned that crayons are for paper-and pens are a no-no! IMG_2714

I’m still debating on painting our place. It’s just over 1,000 sq. feet, so it wouldn’t take much time or money to paint it. Of course, we could just move… Either way, I think we have a couple of artists on our hands.;-)

Twins Talk to Each Other!

… And sometimes it ain’t in English. These two will chat away with one another in some secret baby babble that only they understand.

One morning they sat in front of the toy shelf, pointing at something and chatting away. Then one of them reached up and took a stuffed bunny off the shelf. They both laughed and took turns giving it kisses. Like that was the plan all along. Sometimes they are just so cute, I almost can’t stand it.

Twins Talking

Madeline

Twins Talking

Emily

Maddie and Emmy are just over 1 ½. Their doctor says they should be talking more than they do, but that their delayed speech is ok because they’re twins. I’m not sure how that makes sense, but if he’s not worried then neither am I. They say ball, bubble, Dada, hi, bye-bye, ni-nite, shoes, go, and of course the ever popular “NO”. They each have a few words of their own, too.

Maddie says mommy, Emmy, book and more.

Emmy says sock, car, Mama, and for some reason poo-poo. I really get a kick out of poo poo (because I have the maturity level of a 13-year-old boy :razz:).

Maddie understands that “Emmy” is the name of her sister, and she’s recognized that Emily’s stuff looks different than hers. She often chases after Emily to offer her the yellow sippy cup, stuffed puppy, or purple ball that belong to Emily. When we put Emily to bed before her, Madeline thwarts our plans by standing on the stairs and happily hollering for her sister.  Twins Talking

Emily is turning out to be the more introverted of the two. She loves to cuddle with Mommy and sit quietly, reading a story or coloring.  Twins Talking

They understand so much of what we say. We can tell them, “Go get your shoes” and they will come back with 2 shoes (although getting them to bring back two matching shoes takes some work). We say, “jump!” and they do little hops with their short baby legs. We ask, “Where’s your nose? Feet? Tummy?” and they will point to the appropriate parts. I’m not sure what is more fun-watching the twins talk to one another or talking with them and seeing how they react.

As an educator, watching them pick up on language is fascinating. It’s been almost 10 years since my big kid was at this stage, so everything is new again to me as a parent. Do you have any stories of your kids’ (or grandkids’) first words?

The Fun Stuff About Having Twin Toddlers

 But don’t discourage- having twin toddlers can be so much fun! twins in pigtails

My two little ones are learning how to “help” put things away. twin helping

They mimic behaviors they see in Mommy and Daddy. twins at work

They like to be dressed in new things. twin dressed up

They like to play together finally! Ever since I had twins, people have been saying, “It must be so easy. They can just entertain each other! Um, not so much. As infants they just rolled around on the floor or crawled around in the same room, and they rarely noticed the other twin even existed (except for this fun moment which I was lucky enough to record). But now that they are over 1 ½ years old, they follow each other around and find it fun to do the same activity together. One of their recent favorite activities is to sit in the small space between our entertainment center and the couch and read books in their own little nook. While it’s not what I would call “easy” yet, things are definitely getting more fun now that we have twin toddlers. twins in nook reading

I love stories of cute things twins do together. If you have a cute twin story you’d like to share, I’d love to read it! Please share in the comments section.

Going from Twin Babies to Twin Toddlers

The last couple of weeks the twins have been behaving less like babies and more like toddlers. What’s the difference, you ask? Well, for starters they are getting into absolutely everything. If I thought they were busy when I wrote about them crawling getting into the bathroom, things are oh-so-much busier now! Just to give you an idea, this text from my husband last Friday morning kind of explains what we’re going through. toddlers

I probably should have responded with something more supportive than the extensive “lololololololol!” but I was cracking up with the mental image of a little blondie shoving a fistful of coffee grounds into her mouth with brown bits of yesterday’s coffee all over her cheeks.

They are so busy that they are leaving pacifiers everywhere in the excitement of whatever adventure they are in the middle of. I find them outside, in the kitchen cupboards, stuffed into the speaker box of the TV’s sound system, and even *shudder * in the potty.

They have molars! They each have 2 molars on the bottom, with a big gap between those and their front teeth. I can’t imagine how painful that must have been to have these big ol’ teeth exploding from their gums, but it’s making more sense now why they were having trouble sleeping not too long ago.

They actually play now. Their attention span is getting longer and longer, so now they will play with a toy (or even each other, like in this 9-second video of cuteness overload) and keep themselves entertained with less involvement by mom and dad. toddler twins

They are down to one nap a day. Bummer for mom and dad! There is less quiet time around here, but way the tradeoff is way more hugs and fun times with twins.

They can run! Emily pretty much runs everywhere she goes, but Madeline does her share of running as well. Madeline is notorious for taking off in the middle of a diaper change, happily streaking away with a ‘catch me if you can’ smile on her face.

Having twin toddlers is pretty cool, and I’m looking forward to their next milestone: Talking!

Great Ways to Pose and Photograph Twin Babies

I’m not the best photographer. But my girls are growing so fast, and pretty soon they won’t be cute babies anymore! The time to get those great shots is now. Since I’m not a very creative person, I hopped on Pinterest to see what the internet community can offer me for inspiration.

Here’s what I found:

 
Ok, so those two are mine. :razz: But seriously, some ideas for photographing your twins are

Nudie Kazoodie

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Contained in a Prop

 

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Wearing Silly Shirts

 

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I’ve also seen onesies that say “Thing 1/Thing 2” and “I was planned/I was a surprise”. Love them all!

Outrageous headgear

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Cute & Up Close

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Opposites

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Candid at Home

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On a Blanket

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Stop it. Just stop being so cute.

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There are some pretty creative twin photographers out there! If you haven’t found me on Pinterest yet, you can see these and more adorable twin pics and mommy-related stuff!

Love Seeing Our Twins Playing Together

You know how moms always want to get their babies together for a play date, however it ends up being two babies sitting in the same room and playing separately with different toys? That’s basically what it’s like every day when you have twin babies. They are absolutely adorable but have no clue that there is another person who is always there, and who is the perfect age to play with.

But now things are starting to get fun with these two. They are beginning to show interest in one another and to start noticing that they had a sister/friend all along. Last night after dinner they raced, one behind the other, back and forth across the living room and down the hall. It lasted less than 5 minutes, but it was one of the few times I’ve seen twins playing together.
twins playing together

This morning one of them  was sitting on the couch, and the other came running towards her, and when she got to the couch they had a little conversation. It sounded a lot like, “Itta-fippa-siss?”, and then, “Sass-goppita!” in response. I’m pretty sure that translates into, “Hey, how did you get on the couch?” and, “Your feet stick to the leather and you can climb up!”, because of course that is how a baby gets onto a leather couch. With this knowledge, the baby on the floor was able to join her twin sister. twins playing together

The best and most heart-warming twin moment was a few nights ago at bedtime. Some backstory: We’ve had the twins sleeping in the same crib for 15 months, and just recently moved them out of the one crib in our room and into separate cribs in their shared room. Almost every night since, Madeline has been impossible to get to sleep. It has been very frustrating. I feel like we’ve tried everything to help her go to sleep at night and nothing has worked. As a result, both babies have been up until close to 10:00 every night. That’s late for this lame-o, way-too-old-to-party Mommy! Well, last night we were realizing that it was going to be another night of nonstop blood-curding yells from Madeline in their room. Meanwhile Emily was downstairs with the rest of us, waiting for Madeline to stop hollering so she could go to bed. Her little baby body was so tired. She was crying big alligator tears and trying to curl up in her daddy’s arms to go to sleep. We had to put her to bed, even though Madeline’s scream was currently peeling the paint from the walls. And, would you believe, as soon as Emily was put in her crib and the door was shut, Madeline stopped screaming and they both went right to sleep? True story. I think Madeline was just lonely and wanted her sister. Every night since then we’ve put them to bed at the same time and Madeline’s nighttime crying has gone back to normal. Thank goodness!It is amazing to watch two girls grow more each day. Even more special is watching their relationship develop, transforming from a baby play date to a lifelong sister/friend.

How to Play “Rock-Thank-You”

While visiting with my parents on Christmas, the twins reminded the family of a game that I’m sure many moms have played before. We call it “____Thank-You”. The blank can be filled in with whatever item the baby is handing you. Recently I’ve had the pleasure of joining a rousing game of “Pacifier-Thank-You”, “Spoon-Thank-You”, and even “Cheerio-Thank-You”. As you can see, the front yard at my parents’ house has plenty of rocks adorning the walk. The twins were brought out front for some fresh air after opening presents and instantly “Rock-Thank-You” was born.

Rock Thank You 2
Here’s how the game works: You are handed a rock. You tell the baby “Thank you!”, and the baby takes the rock back. Then she gives it to you again. After you smile and say, “Thank you!”, the baby again takes possession of the rock. Repeat. And repeat, and repeat, and repeat…
Rock Thank You
The best thing about “Rock-Thank-You” is that there are no winners or losers. Anyone can play with the baby, as long as you have enough manners to say, “Thank you!”, otherwise you are given a confused look and will be passed over for a more polite participant.
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See Ya, Bottles, the Twins Are Weaned!

The general rule at daycare centers is that you wean your baby off of a bottle when they are 12 months old. Well, the girls hit the 12-month mark in September, so it’s about time to get them off of bottles. But I haven’t really been in a hurry to get rid of them yet. I kind of like that they are getting those extra calories from all that milk they’re drinking. My poor twins are so eensy-beensie. At their one-year birthday they were still fitting into their 9-month size clothes! I’m sure it is because they were small at birth (they were each 5 pounds and some change). Their doctor has never said that their weight was a problem, so I guess they’re just little girls. It would be nice if they could pack on a few more pounds so they could sit forward-facing in their carseats, though.

 Here’s how it all went down. We ran out of milk on Saturday. And we just decided not to give them a bottle before bed. Weaning became a reality.

 The girls were extremely fussy that day. We had been running around getting the Big Boy to the town Christmas parade, returning his pop warner equipment, picking out and setting up a Christmas tree, and had already made a trip to the store. We still have some formula left over that we’ve been saving for emergency situations. But the girls had missed their nap and were just flat-out tired, so we skipped the night time bottle.

In the morning we still didn’t have any milk, and we had to rush out the door for Sunday School. So we skipped the bottles again. It was starting to look like we might be able to do this. And just like that, the twins are weaned.

 The twins were pretty cool about weaning off of bottles. They’ve been using sippy cups for a while now, and we offer them a cup at meal times. Since quitting bottles, we just make sure that they have plenty of liquids throughout the day and get some calcium at each meal. Thankfully we were able to get them off of bottles before they became too dependent on them. I’ve heard that the night time bottle is the hardest for babies to give up, and I’m glad we don’t have to go through that struggle.

 I am really, really, really, really, really, really (not sure if that is enough reallys) happy to be done with bottles. Like, I’m almost ecstatic about it. I shall explain why:

We have less annoyingly awkward dishes to wash and store. Man alive, washing bottles for 2 babies was a pain.in.the.rear. It takes forever to scrub each one’s top and bottom. They were everywhere, too. On the counter, in the sink, in the dishwasher, in the cupboards, and often on the floor somewhere. I have just been given the gift of SPACE. *Insert enormous smiley face emoticon*

It was an extra expense. Formula was really expensive, and switching to milk was only slightly easier on the pocketbook.

The bouncers can finally be a thing of the past. These cumbersome things have been taking up a chunk of my living room for over a year now. I’ve posted before that if you have 2 babies taking bottles, you can only hold one of them at a time. Bouncers are a great way for the other baby to get her bottle while one is being held. And I’ll admit, I’m a mom on the go-sometimes I just prop both of them in their bouncer at bottle time so I can fix my makeup before work or make dinner. I can’t wait to get rid of those things. Again, the gift of SPACE. *BIG SMILEY FACE*

 Don’t be surprised if you get an invitation very soon to my “over the bottles” party. It will be kind of like an “over the hill” party only everyone will wear their big-girl panties and drink from red Solo cups. I think weaning your child is just a step below getting their driver’s license. I’m pretty sure that is the only thing that could be any cooler.