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Celebrating Birthdays Twins Style:
Party Tips for Multiples
As parents of twins, we all go the extra mile to give our multiples a sense of individuality. From spending time alone with each child to driving them to a different after-school activity, we’re conscientious about allowing them their own experiences and a chance to shine sans cotwin. Yet try as we might, there’s one thing that all twins and triplets have to share, and that’s their birthday. But they don’t have to share the limelight, do they?
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Multiple Multiples:
What’s It Like Parenting Two Sets of Twins?
When Helene Gaither’s girl-boy twins, Cole and Isabella, were 21-months old, the Stockton, California mom received some shocking news from her obstetrician. She was pregnant yet again with twins. Since Gaither and her husband had struggled initially with infertility, finally conceiving Cole and Isabella on their third IVF cycle, the idea that she was pregnant without any medical assistance, let alone being pregnant with twins, was a miracle. “We were definitely more surprised when we found out we were expecting another set of twins,” she says.
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Rules of the Game:
When Twins Play Together
My fraternal twins are great playmates, which can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they have this incredible imagination and the ability to turn virtually anything into a game. Take this afternoon, for instance.
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Toddler Twins:
Fighting the Fairness Trap
One night while standing in front of my sons’ closet trying to choose their clothes for the next day of school, I reached for a collared polo shirt for one boy and then almost instinctively found myself searching for a similar collared polo shirt for his co-twin.
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Toddler Twins:
Nurturing the Twin Bond
Like many multiples, my fraternal twin boys are close but it wasn’t until recently that I was reminded how strong their bond truly is. I was going through their school backpacks, leafing through graded class assignments when one in particular caught my eye. The heading read, “My Best Friend,” and there was a crayon rendering of both my twins holding hands with big smiles on their faces. Just the sight of it made my eyes well up with tears.
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Organizing Toddler Twins:
Getting Out of the House With Twins
With the dog days of summer quickly approaching, I’m desperately searching for ideas on what to do in August with my young brood. Every day I add another kid-friendly venue within a 100-mile radius to my growing list—parks, museums, the movies. (Would a trip to the Mojave Desert really be too hot now?)
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Organizing Toddler Twins:
Tips for Taming Twin Toys
If you’ve ever stepped barefoot on a Lego piece left laying in the hallway, accidentally set off an electronic robot in the middle of the night, or spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon searching for the missing piece to your twins’ Big Bird jigsaw puzzle, then it’s time to rethink how your kids organize their toys.
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Organizing Toddler Twins:
Cut the Chaos and Color-Code Your Twins
No doubt about it—newborn twins, triplets, and quads are adorable. (Especially when they sleep, right?) But they also demand an enormous amount of your attention and if you don’t have a plan in place you’ll quickly sink beneath the mounting piles of dirty burp clothes, half-drunk baby bottles, and laundry. So while you’re designing your nursery or buying your twin layette, you should also be thinking about organization.
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Organizing Toddler Twins:
Tips for Selling Your Twins’ Toys on Ebay
I’ve just held my tenth garage sale of the year—in cyberspace, that is. You see I’m hooked on eBay. It started innocently enough with a piece of vintage Fiesta, that highly collectible colorful dinnerware from the 1930s and 40s. I had collected the stuff for years and had one piece that I never used and frankly didn’t want any longer. I thought of selling it.
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Organizing Toddler Twins:
Taking Your Twins on Vacation
When I gave birth to my fraternal twins boys, I vowed they would never keep me at home. After all, I had been a woman on the go having romped my way around Europe and Australia by the time I was 25. So naturally I pictured my husband and me calming strolling the Champs Élysées while our babies peacefully napped in their double stroller. With my twins’ arrival, however, the bubble didn’t exactly burst but it certainly fizzled a bit.
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Taking the Twins:
The Phoenician Resort
When my sister suggested The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona as the next destination for our annual Memorial Day weekend getaway, I was hesitant. After all, with five kids ranging in age from four to thirteen, wouldn’t the AAA Five-Diamond resort part of the Luxury Collection be a bit too stuffy, too prim and proper for our rowdy band of marauders?
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Taking the Twins:
Washington D.C.
Did you know that Washington D.C. has more spies wandering its streets than any other city in the world? After my family and I learn that intriguing tidbit at the International Spy Museum, one of the city’s newest tourist attraction, we viewed everyone with skepticism—our hotel concierge, the camera-clad tourist at the Jefferson Memorial, heck, even the guy selling hot dogs in front of the Smithsonian. They were all possible secret agents in our eyes. Spies aside, Washington D.C. is a great family destination.
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Twins in Midlife:
Could It Be Perimenopause?
One day shortly after my fortieth birthday, I noticed that nearly everything that my three young sons said or did irritated me beyond reproach. Now some compassionate readers may say, “Hey, kids will do that to you,” and on any other day I would agree. But on this particular day, it was different. I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I couldn’t control the stern words spewing from my mouth; it felt as if someone else were speaking them.
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Twins in Midlife:
How a Women’s Support Group Can Help You
When Heidi Rome, 47, was pregnant two years ago with her first child, she did what most expectant moms do—she signed up for pregnancy preparation and parenting classes. “I had this fantasy that having a baby would open the door to all these new moms, new friends,” remembers the New York City marketing director. Yet when she got to class and looked around she quickly realized that she was much older than most of the other new moms.
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