Wish Lists

December already? So much knitting to finish, so little time!
And the babies are not helping with the time issue.
Given that the frenzy of gifts is almost upon us, I thought I'd answer that frequent/common question again. What do "we" want?
Robin and I don't really "need" anything. We each maintain a list on Amazon for ideas. I think I have one at amazon.ca and another at amazon.com - but they may be melded. I can't recall if Robin's at .com or .ca
Abi has a list there too for books and music.

Okay, gift ides for Abi:
She enjoys books and is starting to read on her own.  To be exact, she's reading letters and sounding out some words and writing words and learning to write new words. Early reader books would be good.

Abi does a lot of crafts. Thus we can never have too much paper (she's not usually interested in construction paper and it doesn't hold up well with paint or markers). Sparkle glue (not loose sparkles), small plastic gemstones to glue on, sequins, pompoms, etc would all be loved. And more washable paints. But no more markers or crayons, please. I think there's a good 5 dozen crayola markers in every size shape and colour and boxes of crayons.

Abi has more than enough Calico Critters for the time being (as I'm also taking into account ones I know she's already getting this Yule).
Likewise, she has more Littlest Pet Shop animals than I had - and that's saying a lot; I'm not counting my collection that she inherited.  The same applies to Ponies.

She enjoys playing with her little Polly Pocket dolls and their clothes. Same with her LPS Blythe doll. They're not my favourite choice, but more clothes would be fun and they do have the benefit of fitting into all her existing doll house accessories and playing with the Calico Critters and the pet shop animals.

She has asked for more wooden train set pieces.  I believe most wooden sets state that they are compatible with other wooden sets.  Ours do at least.  A train 'station' type of thing would be good. Our tracks are in storage, but there is a whole other set of wooden tracks here at Nana's that she could use with new trains and larger structures for now.  We do have quite a lot of track.

She'd like a new stuffed toy, but I will say that she can be very picky about stuffed animals so it would be ideal to let her choose her own.

All the girls have plenty of clothes, but for reference I'll say Abi's moving into a 5T (definitely not 5X). Claire at 6m is already wearing 12m sizes (18lbs+) while Lucy is still in 6m sizing (14lbs+)

The babies have quite a few toys.  They enjoy the small O-Ball that they share, so a second larger one might be good. Yes, I've become less rigid about plastic toys, but only because now many are BPA-free.  They already have plenty of rattles and chew toys.  They would enjoy some more interactive toys that are age appropriate.  Yes, I'm also more willing to endure the noisy, light-up toys - as long as they don't talk or sing and they're easy to shut up. Toys with buttons to press, 'walls' that stand up to play with, that sort of thing.  Clearly I'm not good at describing them.
It's interesting for me to watch the babies play because they're interests are so much different than Abi's were. Plus, I'm more desperate for toys that will distract them...

Frozen Bananas

You can never have too many recipe ideas for frozen bananas. Because, inevitably, you find yourself with very ripe bananas that are tossed into the freezer for "later" use.
The easiest (and arguably the tastiest) use for these bananas is as an ice cream substitute. Just mash 'em up. Sugar-free (besides naturally occurring fruit sugars), dairy-free, gluten-free and delicious.  That was Abi's first "ice creams". 
Frozen chunks are also good for teething babies starting around nine months. Especially if you have one of those new mesh bag feeders.
The next easiest use for frozen bananas, IMHO, is fruit smoothies.  Toss in whatever else you like - milk, yogurt, orange juice, berries...

Then there's the classic Banana Bread. Everyone has their go-to banana bread recipe. (Right?)

Yesterday I needed to bake for two potlucks (alas, I didn't make it out to the first due to icy roads). I knew we had bananas to use up. I planned to bake a couple banana breads.  Sadly, I faced two obstacles: 1) one of the containers with frozen bananas turned out to contain very freezer-burnt 'naners. I have no idea how long my mom's had them in there.  I was thus two bananas short. 2) I couldn't find the recipe box with our recipe nor could I find it in the recipe book it came from here at my parents'.
I did, however, find another recipe that - once upon a time - I had left a note beside: "Excellent!"  Clearly I had made it before and thought it was darn tasty.
I made a double batch and damn, I was right! It's tasty.  So here it is from a Kinette Cook Book of some early year.
(Cover has been burnt off by my dad. Several pages are also scorched. Why yes, my dad does leave things/put things down on hot burners on the stove.)
I'm slightly revising this a la Mandy

Banana Coffee Cake 

Preheat oven to 350

Beat together in a large bowl
1/2 c. soft butter / margarine
1 c (or a little less as I prefer) sugar
3 eggs

Sift together
2 c. sifted AP flour (or unsifted if you're lazy like me)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

 Mash
1 c. bananas (about 2 bananas)
Alternate blending the dry and banana into the mixture. 

Spoon batter into a 13x9", greased pan.

Combine a topping of (I didn't have any butter left to use and didn't want to worry about coconut allergies, so I simply sprinkled on brown sugar)
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp flour

Cut in
2 tbsp butter.
Mix in
1 c. flaked coconut
Sprinkle mixture over cake.

 Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy.

Claire and George

Claire and George are BFFs.
Which often makes me wonder what happened to the George we had in KW who would not have tolerated a baby and who was known to scratch Abi for walking too close - even though she'll still swear he is HER favourite cat. (Does this mean she'll be attracted to "bad boys"?)

semi-solids

Lucy and Claire have started their foray into (semi) solid foods.  They started with sweet potato puree a couple of weeks ago and have moved on to squash.  Both are enjoying it, although most days Lucy is more inclined to simply "taste" the food while Claire has progressed to scarfing down a cube (from the ice tray) or more.

Aside - you can see that Claire had her first bangs trimming. Lucy just had her bangs trimmed 15 minutes ago.

Eating solids, rolling around... 6 months is fun.  I am not encouraging crawling! But I will be happy when they can sit without assistance (for longer than a minute).

Elimination Communication

I have been searching my blog this morning for an old post on ECing, but apparently I never wrote one.  I could have sworn I did. In fact, there's even another old post saying as much and thinking I'd posted a pic of Abi on the potty or toilet.  Clearly I was/am mistaken.

I did find this in a post from Sept 2007 (preggo with Abi).  I think it's pretty funny now.  And the KW Knit Mob who frequently teased me about my quick growth when I was first preggo this time around (and denying it could be twins) should find it funny too - oh, my denial.

And here is my big fear... twins. I can't wait for my ultrasound in 6 or 7 weeks to tell me I don't have twins! And that it's a girl :P (Robin says boy, but I write the blogs!) Twins run in my maternal line and skipped the birth of my generation. I used to think twins would be great. Then I had a reality check!

  (Also note that when I wrote that I was not aware that my cousin had a womb-twin who did not survive.)

Anyhow, the topic for today is Elimination Communication or Diaper Free or "Nappy" Free babies.  Now that the babies are older (almost 6m!) and more stable sitting up, we practice this more often.  We started when they were newborns, but it is rather more awkward to hold a floppy baby on a potty (even a specially designed little potty) - especially when there's another floppy baby nearby in need.

There are plenty of web discussion (suppoort) groups and basic FAQ/myths/how-to web pages on the topic.  Just google "elimination communication" or "diaper free".  I don't recall what resources I used when we started with Abi - web ones for sure as I have never read any of the books on the topic. (They exist too.)  We also did not encounter any difficulties with the practice, so I never needed to follow up further beyond the basics, although I am aware that there are good discussion/resources concerning kids who revert (usually due to other things in their lives), transitioning to full toilet use (when it's no longer about cues but about 'holding it' as we expect of bigger kids), etc.  Consequently I cannot recommend any particular sites or resources. To be honest, once I learned about the basics (from another mom I encountered) it was all pretty intuitive.

For me, it all began before Abi was born when I met Kim at a festival. She was practicing EC with her youngest and I overheard her describing it to another mom with a baby.  Kim and I have since become friends (sadly for me, she lives far from me - thank goodness for the Internet).  From there I did a little research on the Net and by the time Abi was born, EC was part of my child-rearing plans (alongside cloth diapering).

Technically speaking, we practiced "part-time" EC because we also used (cloth) diapers.  Some folks go entirely diaper free.  I didn't feel confident enough to recognize every "cue" (sign from baby's behaviour that she's going to have a bowel movement) to practice full time. I also enjoyed being out of the house a lot with Abi (oh happy days when I had only one smiley baby to wear around) and did not want to have to worry about practicing EC in public or at a friend's.  (Needless to say, we are practicing part-time with the twins too - not exclusively diaper-free.)

Abi - July 2008

Abi would have been 4 months or so old in the picture above - sitting on her little baby bjorn potty.  Before I bought that I used an old plastic bowl. Any basin will do (including a sink). Preferably one you know will not tip over easily.  You simply (at least, it's fairly simple with girls) hold the baby over the basin and wait a half minute - it doesn't take long.  I would rest her back against my belly/chest and hold her by the knees so that her bum was lower than her knees.  This is a handy skill also as the girls get older and need to pee in the bush without peeing all over their pants.  When baby is over the basin or on the potty (a basin one can sit on), the parent typically makes a cue sound of their own such as "pssssss".  We make the same sound when we catch them peeing on the change pad so that the associate the sound with the sensation of peeing.

That's the basic physical aspect of the practice.  As for 'when', we provide them with opportunities to use a potty (or basin)

• when we are changing a diaper
• when we pick up on a 'cue' such as a really wiggly baby
• when baby wakes (and we are about to change a diaper anyhow)

Often, if you offer an opportunity to a baby as soon as she wakes, she will still have a dry diaper and will happily use the potty.  Et voila, you've saved yourself from another dirty diaper.

I have discovered lately that Claire is especially eager to use the potty and much more likely to give me signs (not actual ASL signs or anything) to indicate this.  I'm slowly catching on.

Update:
I neglected to speak of the "where" of ECing.  The shortest response is "everywhere".  The practical realities of it for us were that I would keep a potty nearby.  That little red potty above (we have a second green one now for the twins) was always close at hand with Abi.  She and I typically would hang out in the living room, have diaper-free time rolling around on a large change pad (same as the type used in hospitals, only with a cuter pattern - available from Dri-Line).  Abi was rolling, not me. (We were, technically, both diaper-free.)  As she grew older she wasn't simply rolling around on a soaker pad.  By then I think I'd added a wooden potty chair to the living room furniture.  The red potty was typically found in other rooms where we were.  Even when she had technically outgrown the red potty, she could still squat on it and it made a very handy portable potty for camping and so forth.  By the time she'd outgrown the red, she was big enough to sit on the fold up, portable toilet seat with support and then by herself.  Sometimes (before the seat or if it wasn't nearby) I'd sit on the toilet behind her and let her sit between my legs. And as I said before, if you're in the bushes (or at a park in TO...) there's the option of holding baby with knees up.

The reality is, Elimination Communication is adult training - we need to be trained to recognize the cues, to pay attention, and offer an alternative to dirtying a diaper.
Simultaneously the child learns to associate the sensation of having to pee/poop with actually doing it and they teach themselves to wiggle etc to get your attention so that you can help them.  As they get older they can travel to the potty by themselves when they feel that sensation.
Additionally, they learn about not being in a dirty diaper and not relying on a diaper.  And thus, it is so much easier to transition them to full-time potty use (if you're still part-time diapering as we do) when they are ready.  I never had to "potty train" Abi.  Once she could walk, she'd just walk herself over to the potty.  When she was bigger we had a portable (folding) toilet seat that prevented her from falling into the toilet (much easier than expecting kids to hold themselves up).  For her, this was normal behaviour (that she'd had the opportunities to do since she was a wee babe), not something we had to teach her.
And once the kid has physically developed enough to "hold it", they're ready to be completely diaper free (if you are part time ECing).  Abi still needed a nap and bedtime diaper after she was completely diaper free in the waking day because she was not yet ready to wake up and take herself to the toilet in the middle of sleep.  But one day she did it all on her own and we knew by the pee in the potty in her room that was not there when she went to sleep.  After that she'd regularly pee after a sleep.  (Keeping in mind this girl slept for over 14 hours at night - she'd wake around 11am - and we were not about to force her to get up to use the potty. No thank you - I'd much rather she sleep and sleep and sleep...)

That's why we practice EC with the twins.  Fewer diapers is excellent.  Earlier start to full-time potty use - priceless.  Some folks will talk about other benefits such as bonding (tied to paying attention and learning baby's cues), but for me it's all about the diapers and the lack of potty-training!

Shits and Giggles

The not so exciting back story starts with Claire waking up and getting her diaper changed. Lucy was not happy lying down waiting, so I fetched the Bumbo. (Yes, I know, Bumbo is not on the floor... it is in middle of supervised bed.) Handed Lucy her Taggies blanket and laughed as Claire was trying to "share" it, resulting in her taking it away from Lucy. Grabbed the camera, but playing was over. Next was Lucy's turn for a fresh diaper (it's a continuous process, along with nursing), so Claire was popped into Bumbo.  Then I heard the DREADED sound... a Bumbo poop.  Quickly got Claire out before disaster could strike. (Bumbos force the poop up the back or out the leg. Always messy.)  Fewf, I was safe.  Lucy went back in the Bumbo (fingers crossed).  Since Claire was unlikely to be finished her poop (I was on the ball!) out came the little potty.  And then the giggles started. And other sounds. Out came the camera...

And there you have it, fun times. Clearly the girls thought it was hilarious and I love how they're playing off each other.
(Meanwhile, Robin was out running errands, which included picking me up a pumpkin spice latte. Good man that Robin.)

Coming soon - Halloween. Preview picture:

From GE on Thursday. We went to Boo at the Zoo that evening. Claire was in the back of the stroller. Yes, the leopard was chasing the Zebra and we didn't plan it that way.

5 months - photos

Just a quick note to say that the babes are 5 months old today.
At last weigh in (Thursday last) they were 15lbs 15oz and 12lbs 11oz (you can guess who weighed what).
Not much to report that I can think of. They do much the same as always - eat, sleep and dirty diapers. They also laugh and chatter often, stick their tongue out at Nana, love to sit up with help, love to stand with support (uh oh), try to roll around (largely hindered by bulky cloth diapers - woohoo), chew on stuff...  Oh yeah, have I mentioned the teething?

They look like this today (as seen by Abi with Lucy sitting on her belly):

If you're not a FB subscriber, you missed these recent photos.

Lucy

Claire

Breastfeeding Week

In honour of breastfeeding week I thought I should post a little something about my experience breastfeeding.
Just as soon as I can put this BFing/wiggly baby down and type with two hands.

[next day]

It all began with Abi.  She latched on straight away at home.  Even when we were in the NICU (she had fluid in her lungs) and she had tubes in her nose, she nursed.  And nursed.

We'd nurse on the go in the sling. We'd nurse at the cafe. We'd nurse in bed (co-sleeping).  We'd nurse upside down - the little monkey.  Here she was, above, being a goof at a year and some months old.  We did a lot of diaper free time that summer as she was very good at walking herself over to the potty and we'd been practicing Elimination Communication since she was three months old.  (Doing it with the twins too.)

Abi nursed for three and half years. She told me she'd be done at three, and then all of a sudden she didn't want to be three anymore... I love nursing and we were mostly cuddle-nursing once a day by that point. However, when the babies (or, as I thought at the time, baby - singular) were conceived, I jumped on the opportunity/excuse.  One morning I told Abi she couldn't nurse anymore because mommy needed that energy to grow a baby.  She accepted that reason and that was the end of that. I think she asked twice more if she might nurse but didn't fight it.  She did have the idea that she could nurse again after the baby was born - when the baby nurses.  I figured we'd cross that bridge when we got to it because I was quite certain that after nine months she wouldn't be asking again so there wasn't much point in arguing with her. Having twins made that argument mute. Two babies and two breasts = no room for Abi.

Simulation of TAAT nursing - while knitting. They were nursing until they fell asleep.

And then there were twins.  They latched on right away as well.  I did, however, have cracked and bleeding nipples at first - but we persevered.  In retrospect I realized I had not been giving enough attention to their latch, which was further complicated by the babies being tongue-tied.  I'd forgotten what it was like to nurse a newborn after three years of nursing a kiddo. I took it for granted that babies can get a good latch and wasn't watching positioning very well. Mea culpa.  (It certainly would have been more useful if the hospital's lactation consultant visited moms on the first day rather than minutes before they leave the hospital - we even had to wait on her. If I'd been able to have a midwife again, it would not have been an issue.  But I digress.)  We also had to do some bottle feeding of Lucy (with formula, so she'd gain weight/ get her blood sugar up so we could leave the hospital) and a little with Claire as my milk was coming in and the piglet was hungry and in need of a top up after nursing.

After the frenectomy things went much more smoothly, latch was corrected, nipples healed. We're still going strong with nursing. Sometimes two at a time. More often each in turn.  They don't like bottles any more; Abi never took a bottle, neither.

Yes I spend a lot of time nursing, but it's not more time consuming than bottle-feeding (which would involve extra steps of bottle preparation). Breastfeeding is so much more portable too.

It needs to be said, in addition, that Robin makes this much easier.  He feeds me. He changes a diaper while I'm nursing. He brings babies over. He burps a baby.  He keeps Abi occupied.  He feeds us. (Did I mention that already? Well it's vitally important.)  My parents are a great help right now too!

I'm so immersed in breastfeeding again that I can't imagine an end. Oh, I know it will come and that when it does that will be it. No more future babies [knock on wood] to nurse. It will be sad.

As a final note, I've known friends who breastfed large babies and I wondered how the babies got so huge. Abi was always so petite.  Then I had Claire!  She's up in the 80th percentile while her identical twin is down in the 10th percentile - all on the same breastmilk.

Babies are fun

Despite the teething and the colds, babies are still fun.  Abi agrees.

(and now for some kiddo pics to tide folks over)

Lucy posing with knitting and showing off some of her usual crazy hair.

Claire posing with start of a crochet hat.

Crazy Claire face. Blue eyed cutee.

Lucy noming on Taggies blanket.

Abi rides a dear while geocaching on a bike ride with Robin.

Abi and Lucy pose during a round of Bumbo-car driving. (see video below)

Claire hangs out on the Island while Lucy is off cruising with Abi.

And now for some recent videos. Nothing too terribly exciting, but better than no videos - right?

Still to come - photos from the wedding. Or see what we've been tagged in on FB.

Geocaching

Do you know what Geocaching is? If you're a friend of Robin's I assume you know about it by now. It's his favourite past-time. (Don't tell his XBox friends that...) No matter where we go, there is always a geocache nearby. Always.
(Note, geocaches are also located near yarn stores.  But I think we may have exhausted the local ones. Could some one please hide some more around Wolseley Wools and Ram Wools CoOp. K, thx.)
(PS If you actually want to know what geocaching is, I've linked to the main site. Don't ask me to explain the treasure hunt. Talk to Robin.)

This is a familiar sight for me.
Almost as familiar as these:

 (Just a little kiddo goodness for your day. I know I'm overdue for sharing pictures.)

 This guy is rather familiar too and looking might comfy. (Had to share.)

But as I was saying, we do a lot of geocaching. And by "we" I mean Robin. Often Abi is with him. Sometimes the babies and I tag along.  Sometimes we "tag along" by waiting in the car. I knit. There are a lot of roadside geocaches.

Last weekend we attended our first geocachers event hosted by long time family friends, who also happen to be avid geocachers (or, at least the male half of the couple is avid; I suspect the other half tags along as I do).
There were a lot of geocachers - young and old, families and couples and so forth. Plenty of kids for Abi to run around with.  There was also a live band, who played a couple of kickass sets in the evening.
And there was the Jenga fire.
Robin took a picture with Abi as a reference.

Then the tower grew...

And then it was a tower of fire.  Everyone waited in anticipation for the tower to crumble. It was quite exciting. There are a couple dozen videos of it I'm sure, since everyone had cameras out. We have videos.

Abi and Pa-pere

A great event all around.   Abi even met a girl her own own age (whose parents are 'cachers) who actually happens to live a few blocks away.

Lastly, we're ready for the big wedding tomorrow. Abi demonstrated her readiness at the rehearsal last night. Sunday I hope to get up the real pictures. Stay tuned.

Happy Giggles

There's not much that's better than laughing, smiling, playful babies in the day and sleeping babies at night.  Makes it easy to 'forget' all the crying in between (and the endless diaper changes).
I've been terribly lax about sharing photos, but that's primarily because I've not really taken many decent ones lately.  Babies are at that stage where they stop the cute thing they were doing and just stare at the strange metallic device.  It's no good for photos. Or videos.  I did manage to get this cute video the other day. (Already shared on FB).

As for what we've been up to this summer... aside from 2 weeks of Folklorama... there has been a lot of geocaching. A bit of knitting on my part (especially during long drives - thank goodness for long drives!).  Plenty of fun with family (Abi went to Thunder Rapids twice in one week with her papere).  Weekly library trips.  Geocaching - wait, I think I mentioned that already.  You know, stuff, "the days are just packed" kind of things.
And while everyone else is heading back to school (many of Abi's friends, my dad to teach, etc), summer continues for us.  I've been trying to find fun daytime programs for Abi. Alas, the Winnipeg leisure guide and community centres nearby don't seem to have much in the day for kids - not like in KW.  I was hoping for a daytime dance class like she had before at Victoria Hills CC.  I don't understand why all the preschool-age dance classes are offered at or after dinner.
So far we're going to put her in a Saturday dance group at the Scandinavian Center because Abi thought it looked like fun during Folklorama and the hostess at the pavilion sold us all on the program.  (Can't beat the price, non-competitive, fun, could be in Folklorama next year, etc.).  We're also going to do story time at the library during weekdays.  We're hesitant to commit her to other (expensive) programs when we're not sure where we'll be living half-way through the term.  (Note for my Ontario friends, there is no JK here. Not that it would matter at the moment because contrary to her previous insistence that she has to go to a real school, she now insists that she's going to stay home and mommy's going to be her teacher.  So we're back to the homeschooling plan.)

Folklorama

I don't think I've ever attended as many Folklorama pavilions in one week as I have this year. And that's only been week 1 of the world tour event.  So far we've attended Africa-Caribbean, Brazilian, Russian, Poland-Warsaw, and Ireland. Next week: Scotland, Argentina-Tango... and more for certain.

Abi has loved the dancing and music.  She's learned to ask if we're attending Folklorama on any given evening. 

Viva Brazil

not so enthusiastic about soccer/football

Irish face painting

Caribbean ice cream treat

taking a break from pavilions at the English Gardens

Family photo opportunity thanks to a passerby

Claire and Lucy enjoying the Russian performance

One of Each?

Often people inquire if I have "one of each" when they see the twins.  It seems an odd assumption, but upon reflection I realized it's the safe question.  It saves the curious person from guessing the sex of the babies. You know, if they don't see the pink hand-me-down outfits with frills.  That's my assumption at least.

The other assumption I encounter often, that lacks any logic, is that Claire must have been born first (i.e., is the "eldest") because she is larger.  If one stops to consider twin births, there's no reason to assume this.  Whichever baby is closest to the birth canal will emerge first, regardless of size.  Or, in the case of a caesarian, whichever baby is grabbed first by order of convenience or necessity (in case of fetal distress) is first born regardless of size.  I'm pretty sure those extra 17 minutes (in the twins' birth) would not make a difference in size even had Claire been first to emerge.

I'd heard about the funny assumptions parents of twins encounter before.  It really is quite entertaining to encounter them.  I do wonder why so many folks make so many silly assumptions - the same silly assumptions.  I wonder if any psychologists or sociologists have studied this... what is it about twins that evokes these responses?

The other difficulty I face with our twins is trying to explain that the twins are identical - when they currently look so dissimilar in size.  It inevitably requires that I explain how "identical" and "fraternal" (technically, monozygotic and dizygotic) twins develop.

8 years ago

8 years ago today

Not So Brave; Not a Choice

As a mom to (newborn) twins I have frequently encountered a common sentiment that sounds something like this: "You're brave! I don't think I could do it." (That's a direct quote from the other day.) Or simply "whoa, twins... how do you do it?"
My response is that I'm not so brave and we do what we must.
It wasn't a choice we made to have twins.
It's not so difficult.  Or at least, I don't think it's overly taxing.  Sure, it can be cumbersome to care for two babies in need. Plus the 4yo's needs.  But it's not really any more taxing than parents who choose to have multiple young children.  Personally, I think I'd rather have two newborns than babies 11 months apart.  Maybe that's because I'm a babywearing, long-term breastfeeding, co-sleeping kinda mom.  Not sure I'd want to be chasing down an 11 month baby (such as my niece) while also needing to nurse a newborn, for example.  I'd rather nurse two newborns at the same time than a newborn and wiggly 11 month old baby (but yes, I'd be tandem nursing).  And of course I'm fortunate that much of the time the twins nurse at the same time, thus halving the amount of time I spend nursing.  Granted, there are other days when I think all I do is nurse. (I hand them over to Robin for diaper changes.)
As parents we figure it out though. I'm sure I'd figure out how to care for multiple babies not of the same age.
I'm really not so brave.
And as I've said, it wasn't as if we made a choice in this.  I'm more inclined to think those parents who have babies 11 to18 months apart are the "brave" (or, crazy) ones.  They made a choice* that resulted in two young babies several months apart.  Aside from a pregnancy termination, we didn't have a choice in the matter.  I suppose there are situations where parents of twins made a choice that resulted in twins - parents undergoing fertility treatments in which the odds of multiples are knowingly increased.  That wasn't us.

When folks make comments that imply our situation is "special", they evidently haven't considered that we didn't choose to have multiples.  We're not brave; we're just caring for two babies.

That being said, newborns are pretty easy to care for.  Ask me in 8 months how we do it - chasing two little ones who have just learned to walk. In opposite directions.  Actually, I can already tell you how we'll do it (at which point Robin will be back at work):  I have an Abi! She already chooses to calm the babies. She tries to change diapers.  And she loves to bottle-feed if given the chance.  Mostly, however, she likes to play with her sisters.


*I'm excluding situations where a woman has a pregnancy forced upon her, which I would consider to be a very different situation.

Knitting with babies

For folks who've wondered how I manage to knit with twins, here's my response:

Note, I am not actually nursing here.

 A proper twins nursing pillow is essential to effective knitting. I've knit an entire large project this way... which I will share later. Thanks to Kat for the pillow!

Pete's Sweater

 Abi asked me to use this yarn to make Pete a sweater. So I did.  No, it was not fun to knit with.
Then Abi turns around and days later has a new favourite toy: Horsey.
Horsey is NOT getting a sweater.

Spinning

I've even managed to do some spinning in the past couple of days.  I've also made progress on the finger holes for Robin's riding gloves.  Only the thumbs remain to be finished.

Last month (June) I finished a few other projects:

Balls were a fun quick knit. One was a gift; 2 for twins.

Tweet gift

Poor photo of shawl (pre-blocking)

Shawl blocking photo to show the lace and shape. There are beads in the middle section.

My favourite is the Butterfly Forest shawl knit with some delightful Briar Rose yarn and some bead embellishments (plus nupps!).  I haven't had a chance to get a better photo yet.

Camping Adventure

We took our first camping trip this past weekend.  Yes, with newborn twins (6 weeks old).  No, we're not crazy.  We were going with a large group of friends and other kids (to keep Abi busy).  Plus, babies sleep (well, newborns are pretty sleepy much of the time).

Tentin' it

Sleepy Claire with cute pouty/smooshed mouth

Fishing/boating

Staying hydrated in the heat

Marshmallow goodness

More marshmallow goodness

Geocaching / hike

New BFF

This was actually the first time we've camped as a family. In all our years in Ontario, the only adult who had time to camp was me.  Robin always used up his vacation time for trips to Winnipeg.  Abi and I would attend witch camp and Spirits of the Earth Festival (which we are missing this upcoming weekend.  We're also missing Folk Fest).