MyTwintopia

This shall forever be known as "Mommy Brain Weekend" or the one where I forget to diaper my child for 3 hours - all the way to church and back home.

I wonder what the ladies in the church nursery think of me!

Yes the twins watch TV! Let me get that out of the way. I started putting them in front of the TV after their first birthday and they showed no interest whatsoever. So, I strapped them in the highchair and stayed with them and we all watched Treehouse (the Canadian equivalent of PBS kids I think). I did this to have an  idea of what shows were available on TV that I actually approved of. It ended up being a very short list and so I went out to look for electronic versions of those shows.

Why eTV? My plan has always been to limit the girls' TV time to shows I absolutely trust and find wholesome and educational in every sense of the word. I would then buy online videos or DVDs of those shows and play them at designated TV times. This serves 3 purposes
The girls are not exposed to a motherlode of advertisement that will culminate in a long Christmas wishlist and a hefty donation to the pocketbooks of Messers Disney and co.I don't have to worry about "wierd" stuff coming o…

It seemed like it was time for the twins to get their first pillows, so after sampling some online mommy opinions, I went to Babies R Us and got 2 pillow pets. The pillow pets are currently residing in the basement after being on the receiving end of vicious kicks from babies who did not appreciate sharing their cribs. The babies did not like the $13 fur-coverd ladybird pillow pets. Back to the drawing board!

The perfect toddler pillow must be smaller and flatter than standard pillows and is hard to find. I found it in the most unlikely of places: IKEA. It's the LEN cot pillow. IKEA also had matching pillowcases and sheets but I wanted the girls to use satin pillowcases as that's much better for afro hair. So I went out and bought some pink satin fabric, whipped out the not-so-old sewing machine and decided I was going to make my princesses a few pillowcases (complete with silk thread embroidery) and display my work proudly on the blog and pinterest.
Unfortunately, my sewing ab…

I got a lesson in the effect of positive versus negative phrases on toddler behaviour last week. 


It was one of those times when we let the girls run around instead of riding in their stroller on the +15 (An enclosed walkway around Calgary's downtown area). The day before, Sugar fell and spent the rest of the evening cradling her arm and saying "owie". To prevent a recurrence, we decided to start encouraging the girls to walk instead of running while on the +15...and that's when I noticed the power of words. 




When we said "walk" the child being addressed would stop running and start walking.


When we said "don't run" the girls would ignore for a few seconds and you could see them mentally debating whether to comply or not. 


Another example is at bedtime or any changing time actually. The baby not being changed is either trying to dismantle the humidifier or do head stands on the rocking chair. When I say "stop that" or "leave that&qu…

So there I was, rolling down the street in my white minivan with my two kids feeling like supermom "Holla, I'm taking care of two kids y'all!", when I saw this woman who made me screech to a halt, lay my red cape at her feet with a whole load of respect and of course take a picture from the blog.


In case you can't tell from the photo, she's in exercise clothes with 2 kids in the jogging stroller, 1 baby in the backpack, 1 tween on the bicycle AND she's walking 2 dogs. WOW!

Beginning of the year, I shared my goals for the year and have been regularly keeping track of my progress or lack of. In the spirit of honest blogging and disclosure, here's whereI stand today.

Goal 1: Introduce the girls to at least one new vegetable every month and share the winning recipe. I'm still introducing the girls to new tastes thanks to my regular visits to the farmers' market. It's not always vegetables though, this last couple of months it's been spicy food (they love rosemary in their pasta) and fruits.

Goal 2: Continue with regular monthly development posts with less focus on the physical data. Yes and my project 52 (at least a picture for every week of their second year) is going quite well. I look forward to putting the photobook together at the end of the year. Just looking at pictures from December when they could barely crawl to today's pictures of them climbing cribs is a heart-warming.

Goal 3: Potty train the girls before their second birth…

As 20 month old toddlers, the twins play has evolved. They now seek much more interaction with their environment and enjoy toys that allow them to do that. Imaginative play is also something they are capable of and enjoy. Here's a list of our recreational arsenal at 20 months:


Play Kitchen and Accessories: We have a "previously loved" Little Tikes kitchen with a cupboard and microwave section. The girls love to stir stuff in their pots and give us a taste. Of late, they also put their sippy cups in the microwave, heat it up and remove for a drink. It's fun to watch them play "house". 
Quick note: I get a few of my toy ideas from the moms of other winter 2010 babies (see my sidebar for the list). I didn't think the girls were ready for this level of play until I saw Samantha's blog post on how her twin girls love their play kitchen.
Tip: for this age, keep accessories at a minimum as it'll be a few more months before they are ready for full fledged…

You can only imagine the panic that set in when I was doing some random  arithmetic and realised that 24 minus 4 is 20. That means in 4 months time, I will be the mother of 2 year old toddlers. Even just typing that gives me mild palpitations.
Weight: Spice is a little under 22lbs and Sugar is 21lbs. I've started adding formula into their milk again because I feel even though their weight is not a health concern, there's a need to keep them on high calorie foods so they don't fall off their growth curve
Wardrobe: is complicated. I have the girls in 24M dresses because the 18M dresses are too short for my liking. Our pants are size 18M but the waists are a little too big. For tops, the girls are in 18M but can still fit into their 12M tops.
Diet: Favorite foods for this season are plums, nectarines and pasta with shredded beef
Activities: This weekend, we gave the big kid slide a spin at the park and the girls loved it. They loved it much. I think I have little daredevils on my…

All kids develop at different rates and with twins, it's easy to see their developmental differences when they hit major milestones at separate times. My twins have always hit their milestones at different times and I've always highlighted those in my monthly growth posts. Now that the girls are full-fledged toddlers, their differences are a lot more obvious but still follow the same trend. I'm writing this post to document the developmental differences in my twins at 20 months and what I'm doing about it as a parent. As always, my hope is that this post will serve as a useful resource to some other twin parent.

Types of milestones
Social and Emotional - Getting skills that improve self awareness and self regulation. These milestones are subtle and parents have to stop and watch closely to see them. These come easier to twins because they've always had a playmate around. With my twins, I noticed that they graduated from parallel play to interactive play earlier than …