Author Archives: 2cuteblog

E is For Elmo.. A Toddler’s Friend

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Who would’ve thought a furry red monster would bring so much joy to little hearts? When I first brought home a plush Elmo chair from our local “Twice as Nice” twins sale, it was love at first sight for our twins who were 18 months old at the time. For once I decided to buy them something slightly different and it worked out. Amazingly, Little Mister and Little Missy did not fight over the red Elmo chair. The Elmo chair was understood to be Mister’s while Missy accepted the purple Tinkerbell one.

First they saw what Elmo looked like. Then they learned his name. Then they realized he was a live character living on Sesame Street full of other lovable characters like Bert & Ernie (or “Boat & Oynee” in Toddler-speak). Cookie Monster was Elmo. Grover was Elmo. Anything cute and furry became Elmo.

Next up we started showing them Elmo videos on YouTube. I will never forget one of the first times we watched Elmo videos with our twins. It was almost bedtime and when the video ended, Little Mister got teary-eyed when we told him Elmo had gone to bed. It was really touching to see how much Mister loved Elmo and missed him. This was before we bought them Elmo stuffed toys which are now their most prized possession. When M&M wake up in the morning, it’s Elmo! Elmo! Elmo! until he is found. Then it’s “Dere Elmo!” (There’s Elmo!) Then Elmo gets plopped into their little shopping carts and off they go, racing around the house. Or Elmo is stuffed into a train or truck and leads the way for other stuffed animals.

Having a character they love can be handy. When Missy refused to brush her teeth, we broke out Elmo’s teeth brushing rap video. Quite catchy, actually. Although Missy was mesmerized by the video, it was Mister who got motivated to brush his teeth like Elmo recommends in the song.

What is it about this loveable character that young children (and adults alike) love? There’s a documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey” which chronicles the pathway to fame for Kevin Clash, the voice behind Elmo. In the documentary it talks about how Elmo’s character came to be, and even how Clash got to learn from puppeteer masters such as Jim Henson himself.

Cute, cuddly Elmo is a child monster. Love and innocence are two of his qualities, which is why he resonates with young minds. Even down to the way Elmo talks in incomplete sentences and finds joy in the simplest things in life.

Granted, there is controversy surrounding Clash these days. But scandals aside, I am thankful for all the happy moments, smiles and hugs that Elmo has given my toddlers.

What are some characters your children love? Have you been able to use them as a tool for teaching or even discipline?

Ambereen’s B/G twin toddlers are helping her to reconnect with her childhood through Elmo and other Sesame Street characters.

Balancing Work, Home, and Mommy Guilt

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Working fulltime with two little ones at home is proving more difficult than expected. It’s been 8 months now since returning to work after extended leave, and I thought we had it all figured out. One thing we didn’t factor in was how busy and challenging my job had become in two years.

We’re doing everything right, or so it seems. Mr. Mama and I take turns cooking and we have someone coming in to clean the house twice a month. Mr. Mama does most of the daycare pickups and dropoffs while I help him get the kids out of the house. We tag team during mealtimes, bathtime and bedtime. We even have extra help from the Grandparents once a week and on the weekends.

Our morning routine is consistent. I usually wake up first to get ready for work and make breakfast. Then I get Little Mister and Little Missy, chang them and start on breakfast while Mr. Mama gets ready. In the evenings, I’m home 10 minutes before the twins which is enough time to warm up dinner. Then follows bathtime and an early bed.

Other things I do to save time and energy: pack my lunch 2 days ahead, write down daily priorities at work, write up weekly “To Do” list at home, set out the twins clothes for the week and set out my clothes for the week. Despite all that, we never see the neighbours, let alone our friends, and barely have time to catch up on the rest of the life.

As another twin mom put it, every day is organized chaos. I know this is for a short time only because the kids are so young. But that’s the sad part! Every day they seem to grow an inch and learn things at an exponential rate. And I’m too tired right now to enjoy it. That, my friends, is mommy-guilt. How do you manage yours?

Ambereen, mom to 2 year old B/G twins, is constantly striving to find some form of balance between all the aspects of their busy lives. Read more on her personal blog.

Nursery Song Sing-A-Long

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You know the saying only a mother can translate what her baby or child is saying? Well I’m embarrassed to say that many times even I don’t understand!

Little Mister and Little Missy are in their terrible twos and while some days are true to the name, most days are full of joy. Every day they say cute things and add new mini-words and sounds to their teeny vocabulary.

One day, Little Missy broke out into a nursery song while we were driving somewhere. The words she was repeating were “Da bah – wa wa wa. Da bah – wa wa wa”. Then both M&M placed a finger to their mouth and said “Shh Shh Shh.” My first thought was, cute! That must be a French nursery song they learned at daycare! (they are in a bilingual environment) Maybe it’s a quiet time song they do before naptime. I made a mental note to ask their daycare provider what that fun song was my kids loved so much.

A few days later, I heard a new variation of the song. This time, both M&M got into it… swaying back and forth singing: “Ma ma – wa wa wa. Mama – wa wa wa” to what sounded like the tune of Sesame Street. Again ending off with “Shh shh shh. Shh shh shh”.

When I finally remembered to ask at their daycare what the song was, imagine my surprise when they told me it was the classic The Wheels On the Bus! That’s a song we sing both at home and at daycare. At home I will do my own variation of it, half in English, half in Urdu. The song M&M were singing was in English… not French or Urdu.

So much for my theories. Next time they sing the song, I’ll join in instead of over-analyzing the words!

What are your childrens’ favourite songs? Do you find yourself humming them in the shower or better yet, while driving by yourself?

You’re Proud To Be A M.O.M. When…

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This is a Top Ten List I compiled last year for our local Multiple Birth Families Association’s (MBFA) Newsletter. Now that I have another year of twin-pertise under my belt, I’ve updated it. Enjoy!

You’re proud to be a M.O.M. (Mommy of Multiples) when…

10. Your multiples are mini-celebrities wherever they go.

9. When talking to a pregnant lady, you refer to her baby in the plural form.

8. You forget which child was changed/fed last so you change/feed them all.

7. You hear “You must have your hands full!” every time you go out with your kids.

6. You also get comments like “double the pleasure!”, “triple the fun!” or better yet, “double trouble!”

5. Your friends with singletons (or more) keep saying “I don’t know HOW you do it!”

4. Your multiples introduce themselves as twins / triplets and ask other children “where’s your twin?”

3. People ask you if you will have any more (!)

2. Your partner considers a vasectomy after hearing this question.

And the #1 reason you’re proud to be a M.O.M….

1. You wouldn’t have it any other way!

Ambereen is M.O.M. to 2 cute toddlers and is still learning what it means to be a mommy of twins!

Dealing with Twice the Mess

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From the point of view of a toddler, if you’re told no for everything, then how do you figure out what’s really off limits?

I thought I could avoid it. I thought if I used a word other than “No”, my twins wouldn’t say the word back at me. That theory worked until they started daycare and saw the power of the word. But for a long time, whenever something spilled in our home or somebody got pushed by mistake, my response was “Oh oh”. With the exception of biting because that called for more drastic measures. In our house, physically hurting someone was a no-no and everything else was oh-oh.

Pretty soon, “oh oh” became the standard if some crumbs fell onto the table, or if milk dripped onto the floor. Whenever we heard it from Little Mister and Little Missy, Mr. Mama and I knew to arm ourselves with a paper towel (or better yet, dustbuster!) before going to see what they were oh-oh-ing about. Instead of getting upset about the mess, we give them each cloths to help us wipe it up. This way, everybody wins and both of them get started on solving the problem.

Toddlers are very keen at observing when something is not right with their world – even if it’s a crumb on the floor. Granted, it can be hard to stay calm when messes occur, especially when you and the kids are overtired. However, remembering that they are not dropping things on purpose to annoy us (even if at times it feels like it!) helps to keep things in perspective.

Now our toddlers’ cleanup skills are coming in handy by shovelling the snow left by this weekend’s snowstorm!

Ambereen blogs at 2cute.intiaz.com and is constantly chasing after her twin toddlers, paper towel in hand.

Tips for Surviving the First Year With Twins

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With twins you’ll often hear strangers say to you “double trouble” or “you have your hands full!”. What they don’t realize is it’s also double the work and double the gear for the first year!

Our Little Mister and Little Missy are now officially into the terrible twos. They’re walking, talking little people, and little helpers to boot. I’m taking some time to reflect back on the early days when our twins were too small to move, too tired to keep their eyes open and two cute to care!

Here are some lifesavers and tips that helped us get through the first year of caring for twins as first-time parents.

Coming home

Heading home for the first time

Gear Up

Do you remember the first time you walked into BabiesRUs, registry in hand? I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff for babies. Where to begin?? And do you really need 2 of everything for twins? Well, kinda. By the time the twins were born, our house looked like a BabiesRUs.

We had a baby monitor, bottle warmer, double electric breast pump, 2 bouncy chairs, 1 exersaucer, 1 jolly jumper, 1 musical swing, lots of bottles, receiving blankets, washcloths, sleepers, a co-sleeper, etc. We bought stuff from our local twins consignment sale (www.MBFA.ca), Kijiji (a Canadian Craigslist), got hand-me-downs from friends and of course gifts!

This was my first pregnancy, so if I were expecting a singleton instead of twins, I wouldn’t have though about buying second hand items. Since it was twins, we needed double of (almost) everything so it made practical sense to purchase resale. Now I’m so glad we did!

Helping Hands

We have wonderful family, friends and neighbours. We had help during the day and night in the early days and even on weekend. Mr. Mama took over a month of parental leave (and couldn’t wait to get back to work!). I couldn’t have done it without him! To keep the peace in our house (and free up our precious time), we hired a housekeeper to keep things clean. We also enlisted our family to bring over food and groceries. I enjoy eating fresh fruits and vegetables, but it was a few months before I had the time and energy to chop up veggies and make myself a salad. Even now, every time I try to do something in the kitchen, I need to step away at least 3 times to check on the kids when I hear crying or – even worse – when they are too quiet! Line of sight is key!

Organize!

We recorded all their changes, feedings and baths everyday for 3 months. Especialy helpful since we had lots of different people popping in those first few months to help. Also very helpful for me to record the amount of milk I was producing, and how much their intake was of both breastmilk and formula.

For housework, we figured out what chores were important to us, and who could help us with them. When our families came over we had a list of tasks they could do like fold laundry, wash and sterilize bottles, etc.

As we became more independent and I was home with the babies by myself during the days, I started doing more meal planning. I would cook a few things to last us a couple of days and freeze part of the batch for later.

Schedules & Sleep Training

We started sleep training around 6 months and kept at it. Luckily Little Missy was born with an internal clock that told her to get her beauty sleep by 7pm while Little Mister was our night owl. Still we tried to get them to bed early every night even if it meant we couldn’t go out for dinner or stay out late unless we wanted to be up all night with overtired babies!

The key was, and still is, routine, routine, routine. Even if we didn’t do things at the same time everyday. Our twins became accustomed to the cycle of nap, eat, change, play. One of our neighbours who has experience working in a daycare, suggested using the E.A.S.Y. method. Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time!

What tips and tricks did you use to get your family through the first year with twins?

Allo Allo!

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This is my first blog post on HDYDI, so I thought it would be appropriate to greet everyone like my 2 year old twins, Little Mister and Little Missy.

Mini-bloggers

Mini-bloggers

Phone rings – it’s Grandma: “Allo Allo!”

Lil M&M get home from daycare: “Allo Allo!”

Running out of the bathroom after splash splash: “Allo Allo!”

Why ‘allo,?’ Our twins go to a daycare where the educators and other toddlers are predominately french speaking.

Hats off to all the multiple mommies reading this. Every M.O.M. (Mommy of Multiples) I’ve met so far in our journey since having twins has been dynamic, able to juggle many things at once, and seem energetic even though they are beyond exhausted. I have concluded that to be a M.O.M , you become or already are a Type ‘A’ personality, at least a big chunk of the time. I know I am!

A bit about us.

We are a family of four living in Ottawa Canada. Both my husband (Mr. Mama) and I grew up on opposite sides of our small city yet our paths never crossed until a few years ago. We’ve been married for 3.5 years now, and in that time a lot has happened, especially in 2010. In that one year, I started a new job, moved to a new house, and ended the year with our twins’ birth. Life has never been the same since. (And I thought life was busy before…?)

Fast forward to the present. We’ve survived the first two years with twins! In Canada we are very lucky to have one year for maternity leave (except for the self-employed). I was extra lucky to be able to take an additional 10 months of leave without losing my position. It was the best thing I ever did! Not only was I able to bond more with Little Mister and Little Missy, but we were able to put them directly into a group daycare setting once they turned 20 months, which is what we wanted.

Now that I’ve traded in my track pants for dress pants and returned to work, things are different. The transition back to work in the last 5 months has been hard, especially over the winter and changes to the workplace that happened during my absence. Not to mention the fact that I would rather be home with our lil munchkins!

As a regular contributer, I hope to share some of my experiences, survival tips and adventures with all of you and get to know other mommies through the comments and reading other blog entries. As Little Mister and Little Missy would say: “Bah byeeee” for now!

Ambereen is new to blogging, having only started her own blog at http://2cute.intiaz.com last summer as a way to share stories with family and friends. Between work, home and volunteering with her local Multiple Birth Families Association, Ambereen is always seeking that elusive work/life balance. Oh and she is brushing up on her french skills in order to keep up with her toddlers vocabulary.