Monthly Archives: April 2011

Weaning… at 27 months

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Spending the Easter long weekend helping my mom move meant that I missed my usual Friday posting, but it in the end it also provided the topic for this delayed posting.

In another example of parenting by accident, I forgot to bring the girls’ soothers with us to mom’s house. I realized this just as we arrived.  I briefly considered going out and buying some new ones, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to wean them from their soothers.  Being in a different context and being exhausted from playing outside with their cousins might be the perfect time to take on the soother challenge.

This was a completely new challenge for us.  Big Brother had used a soother, but when his teeth came in around six months, he stopped using it. We didn’t have to do anything to limit or terminate his soother use.  It wasn’t until I was shopping for soothers for the girls that I discovered that soothers come in different sizes.  They actually come in lots of sizes for mouths much bigger than newborn size.

So far, our approach to the soother situation had been to limit soothers to in bed and in the car where they would hopefully sleep.  A couple of months ago, I brought the soothers from the car inside to clean, and they didn’t get taken out again.  So, once again the parenting by accident approach, produced results. I’d been thinking about weaning at naptime as a next step, but with a new babysitter and naps getting less frequent I hadn’t made any definite plans.

I’m sure you’re anxious to hear how this project turned out.  Friday at naptime we explained that Nana didn’t have any soothers at her house.  There was some fussing and crying but they both eventually settled for a short nap.  By bedtime Friday, they were tired out from playing outside.  They took quite a while to settle to sleep.  We had to give another round of cuddles before they would settle to sleep.  Saturday they napped at their other grandparents.  Saturday night, there was a short discussion about soothers before bed but they went to sleep quickly.  Last night we repeated the same story about no soothers at Nana’s.  The test, of course, will be today when we are back at home. I’ll have to sneak in and remove all the soothers before the girls get inside and find them.  Hopefully, the long weekend of packing boxes will be worth it, and we’ll be soother free.  And as you can see, they don’t seem to traumatized by the experience.

Two soother-free little girls

Two soother-free little girls

Did You Need A Renovation Rescue?

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Yesterday, I got a link to an upcoming episode of a TV show (George to the Rescue) where a family expecting triplets gets a “renovation rescue” when their family of three is about to become a family of six.

It made me think about the extra space we needed bringing home two babies. For such little people, they required a lot of space. Our 3 bedroom townhouse was soon filled with baby gear.  We parked the double stroller in what our realtor would eventually describe as “the breakfast nook.”  There was a playpen, then a crib in the dining room for when the girls were downstairs. At different times there were two bouncy seats, a swing, or two exersaucers, plus toys and books for their 2-year-old brother.

We had always planned to move out of our starter house at some point, probably when our oldest started school. But adding two to our family, made us start thinking about moving sooner. I think it was about the time they started sleeping in their own room, which used to be my office, that I started thinking about it more seriously. I knew that at some point I’d need to get back to my work, and I would need space to do it. Once we started talking about moving, the idea quickly developed its own momentum.

My husband was working full-time and taking night classes, so the weekends we traded off the childcare responsibilities so we could paint the upstairs bathroom and landing, clean out the garage, put stuff in storage and get the house ready to list. While the house was being shown, it had to look immaculate. To make it easier, we stopped using two bathrooms, put away all the toys that wouldn’t fit in one laundry basket, leant the exersaucers to a friend with twins, and developed a routine for cleaning up and getting out whenever there was a showing. Surprisingly, our realtor got feedback saying that our house looked like a show home or as if no one was living there.

Selling our house was only half the process. The other half was finding a new house for our growing family.  We had a wish list with details about size, location, and features. It was more complicated than we expected to find and purchase our new house, but after living in it for a year and half, I know we made the right decision. We finally have the time and money to start some renovations, to paint, to landscape and to make it our own. There is room enough for all three kids, their toys and room to grow. Thinking back to our townhouse, I can’t imagine how where we would have found room for their play kitchen or the table and chairs where they do crafts or space for a sandbox.

Once again, having twins change our plans, but once again that change turned out to be a good thing.

Was your house ready for your multiples? Did you have to renovate or relocate to make room for your family?

i take my school-related concerns to the next level

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Internet, today I sent my boys back to school after spring break. And I hated it.

If you’ve met me [online] or my children [in real life] you know how odd it is for me to want them in the house more. They yell. They chase. They maraud. They fight. They plunder. I reupholstered my dining room chairs in December, and the new vinyl is already shredded. Yesterday my son yanked the pull chain out of a floor lamp because he was angry. Someone stabbed a hole in my (p)leather ottoman just to see what would happen. Life with my kids at home is non-stop destruction.

My boys got haircuts over the weekend, and they wanted the same thing. Afterward, they fooled their sisters. A bit later, they confused their dad. The next morning, in my early-morning sleep haze, I had a brief conversation with P but thought he was G for most of it. Sending them to school looking identical didn’t mesh with my primary objective for the day, which was to contact their principal about my concerns.

To review:

  1. I suspect the boys might have been switched during placement testing.
  2. My boys told me their teacher mixes them up all the time.
  3. The school asks parents to provide a photo of their child along with any medication, to ensure it’s given to the right child. As if that would help.
  4. The combination of these three things irritated me quite a bit.

So this morning I called the principal. Because I’m one of the most awkward people not officially diagnosed with Asperger’s, I stuttered and stammered through the call and I’m not sure she knew what I wanted. So later I wrote her an email to make sure I communicated effectively. I totally sucked up at the end of it because I’m really worried this will turn into their teacher not liking them as well and therefore not being as nice to them.

Tonight at bedtime I asked G if anyone had said anything about he and his brother looking more alike today. He said no, they just said, “Griff-Peter.” [For this example, pretend my boys' names are Griffin and Peter.] I quizzed him, and according to him everyone called them a hybrid name all day long. I’m not sure that’s true, but it’s what he said.

Jen is a work-from-home mom of 6-year-old twin boys, and two girls ages 4 and 8. She also blogs at Minivan MacGyver, where she alternates between waxing nostalgic over her children’s toddler years, and despairing over the amount of work still required for their upkeep.