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The Twins They Are A-Changin’

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Whoever of us is looking after the twins during the week – usually me – takes them to an activity of some kind every day, & all of us try to go out as a family at least once on the weekend. We think it’s really important for their social development to be mixing with other children of all shapes, sizes & backgrounds & their parents & carers. They also learn & develop new abilities: for instance arts & crafts, signing, singing. It’s also just good to get out of the house sometimes, not just for them but probably also for us.

These pictures (taken in December) are from one such activity, called Tumble Tots. It focusses on teaching physical skills like climbing up & down ladders & ramps, rolling, jumping, throwing, stepping over & on obstacles. It also features action songs & dances, but they’ve figured out that if they don’t take part in that then they get the apparati to themselves, the little scamps…

Ellie peeping through her window

King Jake on his throne?

I think it’s their favourite activity, they’re always so enthusiastic. They run around excitedly, especially at the start, often making it difficult for me to keep up – although 1 of the staff usually helps out. They seem to like to push themselves, something they didn’t seem sure of 1 week they’ll be more confident with the next. And they like to claim & sit in their little perches, as you can see…

In preparing this post I remembered I’d posted about these classes before. Looking back at that post from 8 months earlier  it amazed me how much they’d changed & grown in the intervening time. Not just physically but emotionally. Here’s a picture from then, of Jake looking really scared about crawling up a ramp: 

I couldn’t help but contrast how physically & emotionally confident & at ease he seems now as compared to then. OK, 8 months is a fair old whack of their young lives, & probably translates as *ahem* quite a few years for someone like their old Daddy. But even so…

We see them day-to-day & share in their joys & sorrows, their triumphs & frustrations; it’s easy to lose track of how far they’ve come in such a short time. Sometimes you just have to take a step back & a look back to see how far they’ve really come.

Let’s Get Physical, Physical

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We came to a realisation in the last few days:

They don’t crawl anymore. At all!

They walk everywhere now. Inside, outside, on the lumpy grass, on the concrete paving. They can step over obstacles. They can climb up & down steps & over barriers. They can move & even carry large objects. They can even run. And they’re quick!

I blame 2 things:

1) The almost constant attention we’ve been able to give them, & the fact that – up until now anyway – they spend very little time in pens or cots during the day, so they have been able to roll / crawl / walk /run around when they need to.

2) This:

These are photos from 1 of the weekly classes we go to, GymBabes. It aims to teach babies physical skills & give them the confidence to take on the physical world around them.

They learn tunnelling (and learn that it can be fun!)

They get used to motion & heights on swings (and learn that it can be fun)

They learn to negotiate small, enclosed spaces (and learn that…you get the idea)

They learn to climb (And learn that… actually he looks a bit scared there, doesn’t he? We don’t make them do anything that might upset them, & there are always plenty of trained staff on hand).

Then all that lead to this:

Which lead to this:

Their old Moses basket full of toys had been fine, up until late February, in keeping them in the nursery & away from the steep flight of stairs – down stairs – just feet away from the door. Then these blimmin’ GymBabes people go & learn them to climb & stuff! So Daddy has to get busy buying & fitting security gates: thanks a bunch, guys!

It was at the end of a GymBabes session that Jake took his first step, & later that evening when Ellie followed suit then 2 days later walked for the first time, across the cot.

Without GymBabes I don’t think they would have done so so soon.

And guess what? We’ve learned that it can be fun!

Disclaimer: it may read like it, but this is not a sponsored post. We just think this has been a great experience for Jallie, & worth every penny. Also, I thought these photos were just too good not to put on my blog :)

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Current State of Play, March 2011

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Jallie had their first birthday on Saturday. I can hardly believe it; it seems like yesterday that they were just tiny, immobile, confused little things. And yet it seems like a lifetime ago.

So I thought it was about time for a joint report card, their current state of play. So here goes:

Teeth.  Jake 3 (& a bit), Ellie 4. Result: Ellie by a tooth (less a bit)

Jake 0, Ellie 1

Mobility. Jake: Can walk up to 20 steps at a time, but usually takes just a few before falling over. Can turn corners. Can stand up from the floor unaided. Very fast crawler.

Ellie: Walking for fun, can carry things around, can walk in circles & even run a few steps. Can only stand up by pulling herself up on something. Very good at squeezing into narrow spaces & crawling under things.

Result: Ellie might have to start further back but she’d win a race. Ellie by a head.

Jake 0, Ellie 2

Visuo-Spacial Skills. Jake: Very good at putting things into containers. Has learnt to      roll balls, & push as well as bash. Exceptional ball skills: can throw balls & other objects up, down & horizontally, even flip them.  Can even fool The Daddy with a ‘no-look’ pass. This is a great rugby skill that many adults never master. This makes Daddy very happy :D . Has developed a slight fixation with holes. Well, he is ‘Mini-Me‘, ahem…*

Ellie: Not really interested in any object or toy unless it can be chewed. Quite fond of chewing fingers that are attached to the The Mummy. Very good at sneaking, particularly at silently & slowly sliding pens out of my pocket while I’m lying on my back, while Jake distracts me by jumping onto my chest.

Result: A Grand Slam to Jake. A bonus point for style

Jake 2, Ellie 2

Music: Jake: Likes to DJ from the ‘Jive Bunny‘ & from ‘Thomas the Tank Engine‘ sound books for Ellie to dance to, then join in. Waves his arms in the air like he just don’t care.

Ellie: Has been a lovely little mover for months, tries to sing & loves being serenaded. My ‘Tiny Dancer’.

Result: Ellie hits the right notes. A bonus point for artistic impression.

Jake 2, Ellie 4

Sleeping. Jake was the first to sleep right through the night & is much more likely to do so. Snores very cutely.

Ellie: Has slept right through once, but usually wakes up at least once at night.

Result: A big cuddly Teddy Bear for Jake.

Jake 3, Ellie 4

Eating. Jake: Has a great appetite. Did I say something about ‘Mini-Me’? Has to be about to burst, asleep or offered Jelly before refusing food.  Favourite foods include: sweetcorn, peas, chick peas, banana, pears, & apple & cinnamon desert. Likes to be spoon-fed but also finger-feeds himself.

Ellie: She usually eats well but is already a fussy eater. A favourite food one day can be refused the next. Even if it gets in her mouth it will come straight back out if she doesn’t want it. Shares her brother’s annoying habit of eating corn kernels & peas 1 at a time. Likes to feed herself, but also eats from a spoon. Has recently started to feed herself with a spoon, although she holds it upside-down.

Result: A very big fat banana for Jake

Jake 4, Ellie 4

Well, this is exciting isn’t?! I hadn’t anticipated this post being so long, so let’s pause for these ‘messages from our sponsors’; the 2nd half will begin shortly…

*When I was little I was totally obsessed with “oles”. I’d crawl for miles to find them – a crack in a wall, a rubber band, anything – then excitedly stick my finger in them & repeatedly shout “ole!” to my parents. I’m sure they found it delightful. For the first hundred times. Feel free to interpret that however you like…


 


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A Positively Positive Post? Possibly

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This week for me has been largely about being positive. (And no, I haven’t suddenly turned into a Life Coach).

Things with Jallie are great at the moment; they seem to be competing with each other to walk / talk / run / sing / dance / somersault / write novels / cut the deficit / bring world peace. (Some of those may be slight exaggerations). Every day they seem to come up with something new.

Other things though: not so good. In fact, a bit crap. Things that could easily get me down, & have at times.

So I read Mari’s ’30 Posts of truth – Something you love about yourself‘ at her blog ‘Mari’s World’, part of a project initiated by Kirsten at ‘A Karma Project‘. In her post Mari mentions how 1 of those things is seeing the positive in people.

Then I read Tim Brownson’s ’50 Reasons Why I Suck’ at his ‘A Daring Adventure’ blog. (And yes, he is a Life Coach, but a really good one). The post was a particularly devious way of getting his readers to think of something that they’re great at. He’s great at that sort of thing…

From Kirsty at Imperfect Pages’ ‘Imagination and a Very Cute Baby’ I learnt about Clare Grant’s ‘3 Beautiful Things‘ concept of every day posting 3 things that have made you happy in that day. So I blatantly copied Kirsty’s idea of setting up a Posterous blog for exactly that.

As you may have guessed I’ve been catching up on blog reading a lot this week!

I generally think of myself as a positive person; I at least try to be about my own life. If I’m cynical about something it’s only because I’m being realistic…

I must admit, the main problem I’ve had with my 3BT blog is keeping the list down to just 3 per day. And yes, I realise that could be quite annoying ;)

So how about you? Are you ‘glass half full’ or ‘glass half empty’? Or are you like me & have trouble remembering which is which, & just pleased to have a nice drink?!

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To Sleep, Perchance…

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This post is for The Question of the Week at Multiples And More: “What keeps you up at night? What helps you get to sleep?”

I’ve slept ‘like a baby’ just about every night since the twins (now 10 months) were born – sorry! And, by the way, that doesn’t mean that I’ve snorted, tossed & turned, & woken up every 2 hours crying for milk!

No, I’ve slept soundly.

With twin babies, especially in the early months, we were constantly sleep-deprived, so “Will I be able to sleep?” wasn’t the issue; it was more “When can I sleep? Now? Please?! I’m really ti…ZZzzzz”"

It’s better now, but I’m still regularly awoken by a restless baby during the night & more often than not end up taking them in with me. And then I get woken up with them at around 5am.

Not that there hasn’t been plenty to worry about, of course.

In the early days: SIDS , health worries, the “What-Ifs” developmental worries about whether they might not be quite ‘right’ mentally or physically.

Now they’re experts at crawling, negotiating obstacles, pulling themselves up, cruising & standing unaided. Jake especially has a fantastic turn of speed.  It won;t be long before they’re walking. So now we worry about them hurting themselves, falling over, falling off  a bed, down steps, etc. Just this evening Jake amazed me with how fast he was able to zip across a mattress. I only let go for a second & he nearly made it to the edge! I plan to do a lot baby-proofing around the house this weekend!

We also worry about the kind of people they’ll become. We want them, primarily, to be happy. We’d also like them to be, at the risk of sounding soppy: nice. The sort of people who give to life & not just take from it. We’re hoping they’ll be both.

None of these keep me awake at night, though!

It may be to do with my gender. I prefer to think however that it’s because we are doing everything we can to give them the best lives we can. We’re lucky in that we’ve both been able to be at home with them all their lives so far, so they get all the attention & TLC that they need. We are always there for them, we play with them a lot, teach them what we can amidst the fun, comfort them, feed them & clothe them.  And I think it shows in their development so far: they are just delightful. Physically they’re developing really well, their heath seems to have stabilised, they laugh & play a lot, they’re feeding well.

They are greatly loved & I think they know it. They seem happy.

So, yes I worry; there’s always something.  But not enough to keep me awake at night.

Sorry… ;)

 

twins, twin babies, baby clapping, baby reading

"Yay, that was great!!" "Yes, I was rather good wasn't I?"

 

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Some Babies Are Bigger Than Others

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We went to our first Baby Sensory of the new term today: it was a slightly surreal experience.

Last term we weren’t able to go to the one closest to us, this term we are: walking distance, so we can take the buggy & lose all the hassle of driving & car-seats. Also, it was a taster session so there were lots of parents who’d never been to one before (including another Dad – yay!).

Probably as a result most of the babies there were very young: y’know, the really small ones who can only lie on their backs & look very cute, sometimes smiling sweetly. Before they cry / fall asleep / soil themselves /all 3.

The weird thing is: that’s how ours were when they did their taster session last term. It seems like yesterday! And yet it seems a world away now.

It was really strange seeing ours as some of the oldest & biggest there, amidst all those tiny little babies. They’re so mobile now that a lot of the exercises, obviously being mostly aimed at the little ones, where a bit beneath them. They were a little bored! They just wanted to jump & crawl about & explore & play.Which they get to do at halftime, by the way: there are loads of great toys there.

Seeing them so active, animated & yes, noisy (in a happy way, mostly), amongst all those tiny little immobile babies, just lying there on their backs trying to make sense of it all, of anything, was quite the reality check.

There was a row of three babies of around 7-9 weeks in front of Jake & me: all lying facing the same way, all with their heads turned towards us staring sweetly & intently at this strange big baby noisily bouncing up & down. It would have made a fantastic photo, but I was a bit loath to ask.

It was a bit like when you start High  / Secondary School at the bottom rung: “Turds” (for ‘third’ former) as they were affectionately known in my school days. Getting told to pull your socks up if they’re down, or down if they’re up etc.  Then you suddenly wake up to find yourself in the 6th or 7th form & realise you’re at the top of the pile. So of course you go around persecuting Turds, telling them to pull their socks – you get the idea.Not that I’m suggesting that our little angels do that, of course. They play Nice :)

Ellie especially has spent a lot of today standing up unsupported & unaided for increasing lengths of time, before she falls on her bottom. It won’t be long before they’re walking – and then the fun really starts! Or so I’m told…

They’re growing up – fast!

Daddy! We're holding up the wall!!

 

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The Great Escape

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This is a follow-up really to my last update Viva La Difference: I Get Around about how the twins have developed so differently & individually, in this case to do with their mobility.

Well Jake definitely seems to be the leader of this little gang: not only is he now crawling, standing & climbing as well as Ellie  – but he’s now become very good at opening doors.

We live in a house with ‘character’: which is Estate Agent-speak  for “old”. (I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Mañana Mama’s ‘Dear So & So’ to Estate Agents). This means, among many other things, that some of the doors don’t shut fully. Including in the lounge, which is now the twins’ downstairs playroom (trans.: where we can watch them while we get to watch some TV…).  It’s not healthy for them to be in the upstairs nursery all the time they’re inside anyway, even though their cots & changing table are there or in adjacent rooms.

A baby figuring out how to crawl can get them very excited, & ours are no different. Suddenly a whole new world has become available to them: & they want to see it all, & NOW! So when they see a door with “something unknown” just visible behind it, trying to get there seems to become an irresistible urge.

He’s honed his technique, but basically it involves grabbing the edge of the door until it moves. If he finds he’s in the way he has the nous to move himself & try again until – TADA! – he can crawl through.

I originally had in mind to have 1 of these photos for Mocha Beanie Mummy’s Silent Sunday, but then I realised it should be anything but silent. In fact I think it’s pretty much required to listen to this (Spotify), or on Grooveshark while watching.

So crank up the volume, feel free to whistle, refresh the screen to restart the show, & enjoy

‘Jallie’s Great Escape’.

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In case you’re wondering why the floorboards are in such a state, the story (in part) is here

Viva La Difference: I Get Around

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Back in November I did a ‘What’s Been Happening Over the Last 6 Months While I Haven’t Been Making Proper Posts’ post called “This Blog is Pointless“.  It was about how much the twins had changed in that time, with lots of pictures of course.

I said there “It just goes to show that babies, even twins, develop at very different rates & in different ways. In fact, that’s probably a subject for another post…”. And I always meant to do it, just haven’t had/made the opportunity.

Well, as I will probably have inscribed on my tombstone, “better late then never”. So this, dear reader, is that post.

For the first 3-4 months of their lives they couldn’t do much else but lie on their backs. In July, at about 4 months,  they started rolling onto their fronts. After that they gradually found themselves able to lie on their sides, then move around by rolling.

Then things changed. Around late October, at about 7 1/2 months, Ellie started sitting up by herself. Jake would stay sitting if plonked on his bum but couldn’t do it himself.

Then Ellie started crawling.

Then, on November 4th, she stood up. She managed to pull herself up in her cot to a standing position by leaning on the rail. I still remember how shocked I was.

Poor little Jake,  (I say ‘little’; he weighs a ton compared to Ellie),  was still lying on his belly, kicking his little legs, arms outstretched,  & rocking vigourously while hyperventilating. He then seemed to get a bit confused as to why he wasn’t moving! He seemed quite happy about it, & to be honest, it was really funny to watch – so none of us minded.

Well it works in the swimming pool doesn't it?!

Ellie then, quite frankly, just started showing off. She started trying to climb, bear-walking style:

If the Daddy won't move to Eleanor, Eleanor will move to the Daddy

Every time she spotted an open door she would zoom towards it with incredible acceleration, with a determination that would flatter an Olympic athlete:

Held back from the Abyss by the Hand of Mum

She could support herself with 1 hand while trying to take a step:

"Look, Ma - one hand!"

She even tried to climb into the TV (& it looks like rugby presenter Simon Lazenby has a new fan…):

"Don't go towards the light!"

This is how it was at the time: at a music / play group while Jake was rolling around noisily trying to nick other babies’ toys, Ellie was sitting quietly on a cushion, looking like ‘butter wouldn’t melt’. Then the leader turned off the music;  she straight away jumped up & crawled right across the room at top speed to yell at the tape player. I guess she was enjoying the music! Afterwards, by the way, just as the music stopped again Jake – right on cue – blew a huge raspberry. Not such a fan then, I guess.

Then, just before Christmas, Something Changed. Maybe Ellie went just that little bit too far with her Gangsta-stylee pants exposing taunt

"These young people! Why do they have to wear their trousers so low? How do they even walk?!"

Whatever it was Jake just suddenly seemed to get fed up with Ellie getting around so quickly & easily while he could only twist & roll. So he started to sit himself up:

See: The World's Youngest Strongman!

crawl:

"Oh no you don't - this toy's mine!"

And finally (“Anything you can do I can do better!”) pull himself up to a standing position:

Howdy neighbour!

It seems amazing to me that twin babies born only 2 minutes apart can develop at such different rates.

After being behind for so long Jake has now clearly pulled ahead. He’s now very good at opening doors that aren’t properly shut: which lead to The Great Escape. But that’s for another post & another time, I think :)

Title courtesy of The Beach Boys. And France

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