Molly Piper

Abraham captured a cute moment the other night:

Why don’t they ever do that stuff when I have a camera close by?

There’s lots of cute moments around here at 18 months. They can kind of say “I love you” to each other, and it’s a real heart-melter. Capturing that on camera is next on my list! Or maybe I should just have Abraham do it. Apparently they do their cute tricks for him.

The twins are 17 months old now, and they’re doing new things every day! I can’t believe how many new words come out every day! And I can’t believe they can show me their tummies, ears, eyes, noses, mouths, and hair!

Here’s some pictorial evidence of how grown up they are.

You can’t tell from this picture, but he thinks he’s so awesome when he does this:

And Miss Cadence is having a big day too! Here she is from the front (juice spots and all):

And the big excitement for the day! Her first PIGTAILS!

I like to call this look “a trifecta of ponytails.”

I apologize for the poor quality of this video (taken with my phone), but I just had to show you why I don’t blog anymore.

I had walked out of the room for a minute and then found all three of them up on the bed when I came back. I have no idea how they did that! And then they were all rockin’ out and dancing together. It was awesome.

This is why I rarely have bloggable thoughts. Imagine this kind of energy, all day, every day–awesome and exhausting.

Having two bouncy seats with twins is an absolute necessity, in my opinion. Of course they’re helpful for when they’re little, just because you can’t possibly carry or wear two babies all day long (especially if you have older children and/or you want to get anything done in your home).

Many people use bouncy seats when the babies are little, but I found that with twins I used them until 11 months!

Here’s the evolution of the bouncy seat for multiples:

• Infant (0-6 months): I used them for a place to set the babies down during wake times. I also used them for feeding. I would sit between the bouncy seats and administer the bottles. It was a crazy time, but not as crazy as nursing both (which I only did for about 2 months). So if you’re bottling (formula or breast milk), just kinda wedge yourself between them and hold the bottles for them! Whit especially needed the incline of the bouncy seat because he spit up so much.
• Roller stage (4-12? months): When giving two babies a bottle at the same time, it’s impossible to keep them from rolling over. Once they start holding their own bottles (mine did about 6.5 months) it gets easier–kinda. If I tried to hold both of them in this roly-poly stage, I’d be covered in formula and literally involved in a 20-minute wrestling match. Not too great for bonding.

When my babies were 10 months, they knew when bottle time was coming! They would see me getting out the bouncy seats and start doing that excited baby giggle-cry. Then I would strap them in, and they’d start kicking their feet like mad (still doing the giggle-cry), and then I’d pop the bottles in their mouths! They were so happy that way, and able to get the calories they need by focusing on bottling.

So if you want to survive feedings as twins get older, I think dual bouncy seats are very important. Beg, borrow, steal… (okay I’m not really promoting theft, it’s just an expression) but have two bouncy seats.

Other twin tips

• Use Earplugs as Necessary
• Cook Meat in Advance
• Snacks for Mom
• Easier Bathing
• Boon Squirty Spoons
• Dry Shampoo
• Hair Tourniquets
• LOTS of Burp Cloths
• Surviving Spitty Sheets

So I got an email the other day asking me what double stroller I use for my twins. I was going to write that person back, but figured I might as well make it into a post!

Here’s what I used/use for twin strollers!

Infant Phase

When your babies are using the bucket car seats, it’s so nice to have a double Snap & Go stroller. Actually I’ll just go ahead and say it’s a necessity.

Because it’s really impractical to have to carry two infant car seats into the doctor, into the grocery store, anywhere really….

After you graduate from the infant seats, you move on:

Toddler Phase

I know there are so many options out there for a double twin stroller. This is only what I use. I chose to go with the Combi Twin Sport.

(except mine's red)

Here’s why I chose it:

1. It’s a lot lighter than most double strollers.
2. I like the side-by-sides (especially for twins, who I think will want to see each other, since they’re together all the time).
3. It collapses pretty small (compared to other doubles) so you have more room in your trunk.
4. It’s affordable.

I imagine some people object to the Combi because:

1. The baskets underneath are small. (I remedy that with The Mommy Hook.)
2. It doesn’t “handle” as well as some of the other high-end side-by-sides. I didn’t really care about that as much. If I lived in New York City and used my stroller daily, then perhaps it’d be worth the extra cash for better handling. Wasn’t worth it to me.

So there ya go! MollyPiper.com is (un)officially endorsing these products! ;)

As some of you recall, the twins turned one last week!

They heartily enjoyed their smash cakes from Wegman’s (my favorite grocery store EVER!!)!

Cadence was hesitant to dig in at first, but thoroughly enjoyed the taste once she got it in her mouth. But when she was done, she was done–just started crying, and waving her hands out at her sides (like she does).

Whit was so into it that he literally got into it–stuck his face right down in there! We were laughing so hard at this point because he looked like he had shaving cream on his face! And when Cadence was done with her cake, he finished it off for her. Brothers are always good for the human vacuum thing, right?

I had all these grand delusions that I was going to write handwritten notes to all the people who’ve helped me survive this first year with twins. Guess what? When you have 4 children ages 6 & under, you don’t have lots of time for such things…

So I’ll say it here for any who want to read…

If you’ve helped me in any way this past year, you’ve made this possible. You’ve helped these babies go from the tiny little helpless babies up there to the bouncing, vibrant, living babies they are. You’ve helped me keep them alive. This is no small thing. I’m grateful for life.

I’m grateful for the partnership of countless others to fold laundry, iron clothes, wash dishes, babysit, bring us food, buy me groceries, make us peanut butter, change diapers, hold babies, care for them in the nursery, mix bottles, pick up car pool, make us laugh, feed babies… this list is endless, it seems.

The past few years have been needy years for us. First we buried a child. The couple years following that were a nightmare in so many ways. We needed so much support to get through. And then we go and have two babies at the same time. More needs.

It’s deeply humbling to be so needy, knowing you are so dependent on other people for so many things. It’s not always easy to ask for that help. Thankfully so many of you haven’t even made me ask, you just jumped in with both feet and slogged through it with us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I don’t think they get it yet, but Whitsun & Cadence thank you too. I think they like life so far.

I snapped this one on the bus in downtown Denver. It’s so funny because I have about a billion pictures of Cadence with Whitsun. I have very few of one twin with one older sibling. Splitting up the set was pretty cute and Morrow loved riding with Cadence for a little while!

[photos by Katie]

My lifesaver babysitter has been up to her old tricks again! Yesterday she got these pictures of our 10-month-old twins!

A little about Whit:

• He’s our needy baby. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if he were a singleton, but attention’s kind of at a premium with twins (and two other small kids). His neediest time is from supper time until bedtime, so I think if I just keep him on my hip in the Ergo then he’ll be fine. That’s my theory for now.
• Although he’s needy, he’s also very amiable when he’s happy. I think it’s just that he’s social and loves to be with people. When he’s happy and has people to entertain him, he’s probably my giggliest baby. Go figure.
• Whit is standing and cruising along furniture.
• He’s a super-fast crawler.
• He prefers pureed foods. Anything solid he’s not as big a fan, even if it’s something delicious. Silly kid.
• If you say “ET phone home” and stick out your finger, he’ll stick out his (see the bottom right picture).
• Seems to understand some simple words (play, no, jump, yay, his name, Cadence’s name, brothers’ names).
• Says “ma-ma-ma” a lot. I’m not sure if it’s 100% meaningful, but I’ll take it!

A little bit about Cadence:

• Such a happy girl! Very content to play with toys in the crib, in the play gate area (more about that later).
• She started crawling a couple weeks ago and is getting faster & faster by the day. She pulls up onto her knees but doesn’t really attempt standing (yet).
• Loves every food she’s ever been given. If I don’t spread the Cheerios out on her tray she’ll have a huge handful before I know it!
• Responds to “Pat-a-Cake” with big smiles and claps.
• When you sing a song, she starts singing “Aaaaahhhh” really softly. It’s soooo cute!
• Sometimes she’ll wave and say a word that sounds pretty darn close to “Hi!”
• Also seems to understand simple words (same as Whitsun).
• Mostly says “da-da-da.” Again, not sure about the meaning of it, but Dad’s happy to claim it as his own!

I’m really hoping to get back to sharing some more Twin Survival Tips soon, just to let you in on what life is like now that they’re a little older. I’m so busy actually surviving that I find little time to blog about the survival.

Also I’ve been having trouble with my blog feed. I’m working on getting it fixed. Some people are having trouble viewing my more recent posts and receiving my blog updates through Google Reader. I’ve found that Safari is not working right (not sure why yet). But at least for me, Firefox is working and you can see my more recent posts. I’m trying to get it all resolved so we can be a blog family again!

This video will probably be of interest mostly to my parents, who were just here for a visit, but left before Cadence started to crawl. My mom worked and worked with her to get her up on hands and knees and cheer her on, but she just didn’t want to do it then!

So, here you go mom & dad! Cadence is a crawler! She’s really funny, because when she really gets going for a longer stretch, her arms and legs look like they’re moving fast (kind of like a shuffling motion), but then she’s just as slow as ever!

Whit’s been crawling for a month and a half now, so he’s Mister Cruiser. That’s why I (jokingly) told him he was “old news.” He’s going to walk anytime now, I think. SCARY!

(DISCLAIMER: When I made this video I wasn’t thinking I’d put it on my blog, so I talk and talk all the way through it, and I hate hearing my voice on video. Just try to ignore me. :) Thank you.)

Some days I feel so overwhelmed with twins. You know those people who wistfully say, “I’ve always wanted twins…”? Sometimes (most times) I want to just ask them: “Are you drunk?” But yesterday I was feeling so giddy and excited about these two babies. I felt like I was able to just enjoy all the craziness they bring to life. And they played really well on their own yesterday, too–major praise!

Last week Cadence had bad diaper rash (something none of my other kids have ever had), and that just made for such a hectic week. I tell people: “If my life operates at baseline (nothing really happening out of the ordinary), then I’m okay. But throw any kind of wrench into that and I’m sunk (fever, diaper rash, trying to potty train Morrow, making phone calls to doctors/insurance).” The doctor told us, “Just let her go without a diaper as much as possible.” While I understood her rationale, I just felt like screaming, “DON’T YOU KNOW THERE’S TWO OF THEM?!?!?”

Alright, my day must begin. I feel like those people on the Pyramid game show hoping for “No whammies, no whammies, no whammies!!!”