No More Pacifiers

I think at times there is a misconception out there that twins, if not identical, still have similar looks and tastes.  The girls, however, are definitely very different from each other.  They really are just siblings who happened to share the womb at the same time.  Pacifiers versus thumb-sucking, for example.  As soon as Miss D was able to reliably get her thumb into her mouth and keep it there, there was no turning back and she has a callus on her right thumb to prove it.  D had her pacifiers and would request one every once in a while when she would see her sister sucking on one.  But in general, she would suck her thumb and hold the pacifier in her other hand instead.

Miss T, on the other hand, needed her pacifier for nap time and bedtime, otherwise she would scream herself silly.  If I had given it to her during the day she would have been happy to suck on it 24/7.  Luckily, I did make that a rule early on that each pacifier is relinquished upon leaving the crib and only returned when it is time to sleep.  That made this transition a little bit easier at least.

Last week the girls "threw" their pacifiers away in the "trash".  They had a great birthday present from their aunt that I hadn't opened for them yet because I needed a pump to blow them up.  They are inflatable horses to ride and bounce on.  I blew them up upstairs while my husband was busy playing with the girls downstairs.  I fixed a small trash can up with a regular shopping bag to catch the pacifiers so they wouldn't get yucky (the girls' doctor recommended throwing them away for real so I wouldn't be tempted to cave, but that seemed wasteful and I am made of sterner stuff than that [or at least I am when I feel I am doing it for their own good]).  Then I gave the girls their pacifier.  I let them suck on them for a minute or two.  I brought the horses downstairs and explained to them that to get the horses they need to throw away their pacifier and they would never get them back.  I'm sure they didn't actually understand the deal they were making with me.  They both eagerly tossed their pacifiers in the trash and played with their new toys.

That night D crashed out as usual with her thumb in her mouth and T cried for almost an hour.  It was not fun to sit there an listen to her beg for her pacifier but it was for the best so I did not cave.  I finally stood next to her crib holding her hand while she fell asleep.  She slept the whole night through without waking up.  The next day at nap time, we were out and busy and running them around all morning and got back a little late.  She passed out easily because she was so tired and only fussed a minute or two for her pacifier.  That night she fussed a little and requested her pacifier a couple times during our bedtime routine but fell asleep without problems. 

Since then she has only had the occasional problem getting to sleep and she only asks for the pacifier every once in awhile.  The process went so much better than I had expected.  A few nights before I took them away, T woke me up twice during the night because she couldn't find her pacifier.  I was really dreading taking them away because I thought she would be doing that a few times a night and taking forever to get back to bed.  But there hasn't been any of that, and she falls asleep just fine when she does wake up at night.  Hurray! 

Things I think that helped:
--Having a consistent bedtime routine
--Letting her be the one to throw it away so I could remind her that she did it, not me
--Reminding her that she has a horse she can ride instead
--I touched on that she was a big girl now and that pacifiers are for babies but I didn't want to stress it too much because I was afraid of meeting a lot of resistance or regression with all the big girl changes that will be going on in the next few months (potty training, toddler bed, more independence in general)

So there you have it.  Success and with relatively few tears!

Two for Two

The girls celebrated their second birthday party in California.  We flew back the day before their birthday so one could still sit in my lap and I only needed to get two plane tickets.  Their actual birthday we were just relaxing and recovering at home.  But their party in California was a nice celebration with family and one of my friends made it with his little boy.

I chose a rainbow theme this year because I figured it would be easy to pick up decorations for once I got California.   I saw a rainbow backdrop idea on Pinterest and really liked how it looked and how recyclable it is.  I bought 2 yards of tulle in every color (except Walmart didn't have orange tulle and I never made it to Joann's).  I put them together in order, tied the top with a rubber band and then taped it on the wall.  Then I spaced out the bottom how I wanted and taped it as well.  I put white balloons as clouds to cover up the tape (and a blue one because I only had two white ones in the pack).  It was easy, looks good and I can still use the tulle for future tutus.

For food we did brunch with hash browns, French toast casserole, frittata muffins, fresh fruit and baked oatmeal jam bars.  My sister helped me out so much with the food (along with having the party at her house), thank you! 

 

The fresh fruit tray turned out gorgeous following the theme with watermelon, raspberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes and blue berries (that we picked ourselves).  A big thank you to Nea for cutting so much fruit up to help us out.  I made rainbow layered jello, which looked really neat but was not well set.  I'm not sure if it was something I did wrong while making it or if we just left it out too long and it got a little too warm.  At least it still looked pretty, even though we couldn't really eat it.

For their birthday cake I decided to stick to cupcakes.  I used a store-bought white cake mix and divided it up into six portions that I dyed with food coloring.  Then I layered the colors as best as I could in the cupcake wrappers. They turned out nice and the kids thought they were delicious.

I kept decorations easy, mostly balloons and streamers.  But I did have the nifty idea to hang umbrellas upside down and tie rainbow colored balloons so they were streaming down out of them.  It turned out really cute and I must say I am rather proud of coming up with that one myself instead of getting the idea from Pinterest. 

I slapped together a bunting banner with the girls names on it at last minute and it turned out cute.  I had been planning it for a couple weeks but just did not have the interest in actually doing it until the night before/ morning of the party.  It still looked great though.  I cut the bunting from felt that Oma had on hand and printed out rainbow colored letters for the girls names.  Then I taped it all together on a rainbow colored ribbon.   Some pieces fell apart every so often but were easy to fix.  It worked out well since it wasn't roughly handled.  Oma will still be able to use the felt pieces for her projects so it was another decoration that will be easily recycled. 

 

I ordered adorable rainbow tie-dye dresses for the girls to wear from Zulily and their Leila got matching bows from a friend of hers that makes them.  The girls looked adorable.   

 

 

The dresses were such a pain though.  I ordered size 3T to be on the safe side since the girls are chunks and they were tiny.  I ended up having to cut all the elastic out of the back and change the straps to a halter for it fit them.  It was way too skinny and short for 3T.  Why can't the fashion industry come up with standardized sizes.  It makes it so hard shopping for little kids!  Anyway, the girls looked cute, so everything worked out fine.

 

The girls got to take some pictures with their baby cousin who wore one of their beautiful frilly dresses from when they were 5 months old (aww, the memories).  She was all smiles compared to my serious little girls and it wasn't even her birthday!

 

From their Leila and Pho Pho, the girls received tricycles.  They were so excited, especially Miss T.  They are a bit too bulky to bring back to Arkansas and the girls still need to grow into them anyway.  So the trikes are waiting at Leila and Pho Pho's house until next summer.  They got to play with them for one day though and T was all smiles and bouncing with delight.  

Blowing out the candles was a collaborative effort between the girls and their cousin, with Big H doing most of the work.  The girls haven't quite gotten that skill down yet.

 

 

After blowing out the candles, all of the toddlers got to be the center of attention as they ate their cupcakes and even got seconds.

 



 

I did goody bags this year even though the kids are still so young.  I customized brown paper bags just by running them through the printer.  Figuring out the right margins was annoying but it was fairly easy to do and I like how it turned out.  Plus it helped keep the toddlers busy on car rides and for flights, so a good plus there. 

 

The party was a great success.  Small enough to be manageable but still so nice to see everyone who came.  

 

Trip to California

We took a long vacation to California this summer.  By long, I mean a month for the girls and me.  That is a long time to be away from home with two about-to-be two year olds.  My husband flew with us there and was able to stay ten days.  We decided to experiment (since parenthood is a huge experiment to begin with) and see how the girls would do on a late flight.  We hoped they would sleep on the second flight.  They didn't . . . now we know never to take a late flight.  One of the many things you figure out as a parent.

We spent some time in Leila and Pho Pho's pool.  The girls liked "swimming" and splashing around.  It took them a few tries before they liked going all the way in with us keeping them afloat.  But then they really loved it.   

 

For me, it was very stressful and exhausting having both of them in the pool.  It makes me so nervous.  Definitely going to try to get them in the swim lessons that teach survival and floating in the water to little kids.  Next year they will be able to open doors and I don't want them running out there and falling/jumping in. 

 

A nice family picture of us relaxing by the pool.

After my husband returned home, the girls and I loaded up and headed out to the desert to my mom's house where I grew up. 

They enjoyed pushing each other on their cousin's tricycle and playing in the kiddie pool on the patio.  They also really liked to go for walks around the property and explore.  They got the chance to pick apricots and mulberries from Oma's trees.  Those apricots are so flavorful and fresh. 

The girls don't get many chances to play with sand or dirt here in Arkansas.  Our back yard is covered with grass and weeds.  The dirt here has a lot of clay in it so is really hard when dry and muddy when wet. The desert though was like one enormous sand box for them.   They loved finding sticks to draw in the sand. 

 

One of the days that my sister, her son and baby girl were visiting the desert too, we went to the Living Desert.  I hadn't been there since I was eight years old.  I don't remember much from back then, only cheetahs and a Gila monster.  Now they have giraffes.  We made it in time for the 10 am feeding but unfortunately the giraffes were not cooperating.  They were more interested in fighting (or play fighting), swinging their necks around at each other, instead of coming over for a bite to eat.  That was disappointing, especially since it was blazing hot already by that time.  But a walk through some shade and a ride on a warthog statue put the kids in a better mood (plus lunch in the shade helped).   There were some nice exhibits. 

 

 

While out in the desert we paid a visit to Joshua Tree National Park with Oma.  The girls had so much fun trying to get up on the rocks.  They are so uncoordinated though, even the small rocks were too much for them without our help.  They enjoyed it and we stayed in the shade at Trash Can Rock (or whatever it is called now) so the heat wasn't too bad. 

 



What visit to California is complete without a trip to the beach?  We drove down to San Diego to visit some of my college friends, see the beach and attend the 5th Annual Dandy Cup.  You know I've been living in Arkansas for awhile when I plan a trip through Orange County to San Diego and don't even consider traffic.  We were mostly lucky that we left as early as we did, but it was a Friday and we still hit some bad spots.  California traffic is one thing we will have to definitely readjust to when we move back. 

We went out to dinner with a friend and her family on our first evening at Wahoo's Fish Tacos and the shrimp burrito was delicious.  It is hard for my friends to accommodate the three of us so we ended up at a hotel on Hotel Circle, which was a first for me.  It went better than I expected as far as the unloading of everything we needed and the girls not going crazy in the hotel room.  But they had a rough time sleeping and spent some of the night in bed with me, which of course means I didn't get that much sleep. 

Early the next morning we headed to Mission Beach, which I vaguely remembered how to get to (and when in doubt I followed the car with a surf board strapped on the top).  The beach trip was partially a success.  I didn't know where to park exactly so we had to walk a bit, which takes so long with two toddlers.  The sand upset Miss D at first and the surf scared Miss T when we walked out a bit too far before a larger wave came in.  But by the end D was really enjoying herself, heading down to the water to fill up the buckets and then dumping it out by the towel (and on the towel and on herself).  T  was mostly content to play in the sand on our beach towel.   

We left the beach and headed to Balboa Park for the 5th Annual Dandy Cup.  It is a picnic some of my friends host that harkens back to a bygone era.  Some try to dress in period attire but most just stick to the dress code of white/off white/ tan colors only.  The girls got to try their hands at a little toddler bocce ball before we made the smart choice to switch to the soccer ball before anyone got hurt.  They ran around chasing the soccer ball with a nice older girl that befriended them.  Shortly after we left the picnic, they both crashed out in the car and, amazingly, slept most of the 2 1/2 hour car ride back out to Oma's house.  Our little jaunt to San Diego turned out so much better than I expected.  It's nice to know that I can do these sorts of things with them by myself. 

At the end of our trip we headed out to Temecula where my sister lives.  Wish I could have done some wine tasting since it is nice wine country there but that was not happening this trip.  Instead we went berry picking at a farm really close to my sister's place. 

 

 

The three toddlers got their buckets and I made the mistake of not grabbing one for myself.  I spent the whole time trying to pick berries faster than the girls could eat them so we could actually take some back with us.  The girls really didn't bother to pick their own since I was conveniently filling their buckets for them.  Next time we are berry picking, I'll get my own bucket and the girls can only eat what they pick themselves.   

 

D picking a blueberry from her bucket instead of from the bush. 

 

 

All the kids got a chance to sit on the tractor which was new for the girls.  They thought it was great.  We also stopped by the pig pen on the way out and saw a few cute and stinky piggies.  It was a good experience but I'll take the $2.50 a pint of our local farm here in Arkansas over the $5 a pint they were charging us any day. 

 

 

We celebrated the girls second birthday two days before leaving California but I will put all of that in a separate post.  

 

At the very end of our trip, we spent Father's Day with my husband's family.  We headed up to Azusa to the Burmese temple there and visited the monks.  It was neat comparing what the girls were able to do there in January compared to now.  It is amazing to see how much they have grown.  After the visit we went out to a nice big Italian style lunch.  When we got back the girls and I napped; we were so stuffed and worn out. 

 

Our flight back went smoothly, no worse than when someone flies with us to help me with the girls.  They both fussed for a little bit on the first flight but kept mostly entertained with books and snacks.  I would have liked for them to walk around more during our layover in Denver but between eating lunch and diaper changes we didn't have much time.  Luckily, they still slept for the majority of the second flight.  The guy sitting next to us conveniently was watching Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark on his Ipad, so I had something to watch (still enjoyable without the sound) while the girls slept on me.  



 

Over all it was a wonderful trip.   However, I think if I would plan it again, it would be three weeks max.  A month is a long time to be away from home with two little toddlers.