Our almost 'Irish twins'

My girls are now about 27 months (we just say 2) and almost 13 months. I must get asked at least once a day (if we go out) if they are twins. I don't see how they could be mistaken for being the same age but I suppose I know them too well to be objective.

When I was pregnant with #2, I had trouble finding anything to read about having kids so close together. I haven't had much luck since then either.

Co-sleeping was the first big question. The big one (relatively, although now looking at my little one I can't believe big sister was physically this size and only a bit older - so little!) wasn't sleeping in our bed but on a futon mattress on the floor next to our bed. She wasn't nursing anymore but she did wake up a few time each night needing water, her binky, or a pat on the back; and she usually fussed if it wasn't me that provided any of these things. Luckily for us, little sister slept through the night, or close to it for the first few weeks (we are far from being that lucky now!). Also, big sister started sleeping through the night for the most part and she started letting daddy attend to her, sometimes. We definitely had those nights where I would nurse the little one (lying down, half asleep - so much easier with baby #2!) and then jump over my husband to respond to the big one and jump back to snag a few zzz's before I was needed again. But somehow the big one was satisfied to stay in her bed (so we didn't have to worry about her climbing into bed with us - until morning - and squishing the baby). And somehow the girls never woke eachother up even though the big one used to be super sensitive to noises (she now sleeps like a rock)! So it worked. A number of the other families I know that co-sleep with two have the bigger one sleep with dad in one room while baby sleeps with mom in another room. It sounds like that works too but I'm glad we made it work staying together.

Naps didn't work out quite as well. The first month was fine since a newborn pretty much falls asleep easily anytime if clean and fed. After that though I have memories (and photos) of me with one little one on my front and one on my back, sometimes both crying. But we survived that phase too. Now the problem is that the little one really wants one morning nap and an afternoon nap but also doesn't really want to sleep while her sister is playing. And big sister doesn't want to nap if her little sister is playing. On days we go out in the morning and they fall asleep in the car on the way home, naptime is usually easy because I can carry them into bed asleep. But on other days, getting them both down can be a long and frustrating ordeal. That too though is getting better as the older one gets bigger and willing to lie quietly, sometimes reading books to herself, while I try to get the little one down.

Other than sleep, behavior and play are challenges with two so close in age. It seems that every time the little one transitions to a new phase in mobility (sitting, crawling, walking), the bigger one takes to pushing her down. Constantly. Often unprovoked. Little sister gets back. We seem to be at the tail end of a biting phase but moving into hair pulling. Ouch! They are both still at the parallel play level if course so they play on their own but of course whatever the other one has looks SO much better. And even if there are two of them, one must have both. Apparently second children take notes on everything big sister or brother does, including tantrum-ing. So we have two drama queens now. (Little one is still practicing so she throws herself around on the floor in slow motion - it's pretty funny to watch actually.)

And then there are the sibling moments that have nothing to do with being close in age. For the duration of a 20 minute drive last week they kept up a back and forth:
Little sister: "Ella Ella Ella" [the name of our dog that she loves]
Big sister: "DON'T SAY 'ELLA ELLA ELLA'!"
Little sister: brief pause.. "Ella Ella Ella"
Big sister: "DON'T SAY "ELLA ELLA ELLA'!"
And so on. For 20 minutes. I tried singing, putting on music, shouting and whispering. Nothing could stop them.

All that said, we are getting glimpses of good times to come. A few mornings ago the girls woke up before mommy and daddy were really awake and they came on the bed with us and were singing and playing 'ring around the rosie' and 'row row row your boat.' And they love to laugh together, often for no reason.

Sisters. Fun.

Real life

This evening I stumbled upon a post by The Happiest Mom with a brief interview with the author of 'Instinctual Parenting,' a giveaway (me please!), and a question about parent moments where information or advice is contradictory to our gut feeling or just our reality. I wrote a really long comment in response because, once again, this is very pertinent to what's been on my brain lately (I love the mommy blog world!); so I figured it was worth sharing here -
Oh so many examples of 'Subway' moments! [That will only make sense if you go read the post I was commenting on, which I recommend but it's not necessary for the rest of my post to make sense.] I guess a current ongoing one relates to pottying and EC. I so very much wanted to do EC (Elimination Communication) and actually, even before I knew the term existed I was doing some of the suggested practices with my daughter - cloth diapers, sitting on the potty from early on, communicating what she as doing, etc. She seemed to be getting close to being out of diapers at 15 months when her sister was born and I didn't have the time, energy, brain cells to keep up our routine much. She's now 26 months and resists gong #1 in the potty. And her sister doesnt get much EC'ing. I've been to one EC meeting and saw 4-month olds telling their moms they needed to go potty and waiting until they were placed on the potty to go - and I felt hugely inferior! I still feel like I missed the boat when my daughter was ready.
My husband says I'm too hard on myself and he's right; but when I'm being nice to myself I tell myself that even having an infant or young toddler potty trained, it's still a lot of work because they are not very independent, unlike and older toddler. And I'd rather spend time enjoying them and with them, then spending a lot of time in the bathroom. So for now I'll just deal with a squirmy infant who doesn't like to lie still for diaper changes, and extra laundry, and in the summer we'll go diaperless when we can!

Little accomplishments!

I may have discovered both another use for my blog and a way to finish more craft projects! I always have a mental list of projects I'd like to be working on and there's usually a few little piles of things I've begun, usually knitting or sewing. And I also usually have a BUNCH of tabs open in my browser (my husband uses a different browser so he doesn't have to navigate my tabs!) with ideas, inspiration or tutorials. I've tried creating organized bookmark folders but I rarely go back to those so tabs it is until I find a better way.

Then earlier this week I decided to post a few links on my blog (near the upper-right corner) to a few of those pages. And doing that I finished the hobby horse I've been working on in 5-10 minute segments for weeks and I made sweet (and oh so simple) matching dresses for my girls. I love feeling like I've accomplished something!

I'll have to add more links soon!




(Picture of hobby horse to come - it still needs a harness!)

Let's keep it simple

I blog hopped my way to the Progressive Pioneer's blog this evening. (Love that phrase - Progressive Pioneer!) She talks about natural parenting and refers to Occam's Razor, which bascially says that the simplest answer is usually the right one. It is *great* to be reminded of this. Sometimes I/we make things more complicated than they need to be. I scour books for the solutions for co-sleeping with two little ones, and continue on my search for the perfect baby carrier, and try to find the answer for breastfeeding and good sleep habits. Sometimes I forget that even though I might not know where my instincts will bring us, it will make life so much more simple, and therefore happy, to do so.

There's not a whole lot of thought going into this post. I just had to post something as I process my thoughts about 'simple.'

Good night.

A Mother's Needs

I've never been big on taking care of myself. I mean, I don't go all out to pamper myself or to think about what *I* need. Being a mom now, I have even less time to myself than I ever had before and I never thought it would bother me because, as I said, I didn't think I needed to think about 'me' much. But things have been difficult lately and I've been out of sorts, and unable to really put into words what it is that I'm feeling or experiencing.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon The Happiest Mom's blog post on a 'Mother's Hierarchy of Needs.' I remember when I first heard about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Or at least, when I first heard about it in my professional life. I was working for an early literacy home visit program and we were having our weekly meeting with the director of the program. It was the beginning of a new year with new families and she was reminding us to be sensitive to the families lives and needs, and understand that if some of the parents seemed not to care about whether their children were able to read or do crafts, that they might perhaps be caught up worrying about elemental needs a bit lower on the pyramid - things like food, shelter, or even safety. I have carried that reminder with me ever since.

Seeing one person's version of a Mother's Hierarchy of Needs reminds me that there are those different levels of needs. I long for moments when I can curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and read a good book for a long time, maybe until I finish it; or a day when I can sew or knit or spin or felt to my heart's content; without having to respond to fussing or diapering or make sure everyone is fed. It's not that I don't love my family, not at all. Or even that I want to spend a day without them. It's just hard to respond to everyone's needs all the time. And worries about things like jobs and money and other such mundane things (or a fire destroying the inside of our townhouse), make it even more stressful, because they are closer to the base of that pyramid. I guess it doesn't give me any answers but at least it is a reminder that a) I'm not alone in this mommy-predicament and b) I'm not feeling out of sorts because I haven't been able to complete a knitting project in ages, but more likely because of those lower level elements (let's talk about sleep!).

I'd love to have this on a t-shirt, or maybe a diaper bag. Then instead of talking to people when they ask how things are, I can just point to whatever level I have an issue with at the time!

Note: I promise I'll post something more cheerful soon. On a happier note for the time being, we changed our sleeping arrangements once again and put all the mattresses on the floor. I think this will be a good short-term solution for us all.

Co-sleeping with two little ones

Wow. It's been over a month since I last posted. I really enjoyed blogging when I got into the habit of doing it every night (although I'm sure my husband was bummed that I would go straight from putting the girls to bed to "Just 10 minutes hon!" on the computer, which always took more than 10 minutes). But once out of the habit, it was hard getting back to it. The holidays didn't make it easier though. I really enjoyed reading other blogs about decorating and gift-making and cooking for the holidays and I wanted to take part but blogging was just that one-more-thing that was too much. Ah well, maybe next year (or rather, this year!).

So today I'm posting just to try and dabble my toes in it again in hopes of returning more full-on soon.

We are experimenting with the girls' sleeping arrangements again. With a toddler and an infant (although at almost 10 months, she's almost a toddler herself!), co-sleeping is tricky. Our 2 year old has been sleeping on a futon mattress about 6 inches lower than our bed for over a year now. She moves a lot and doesn't like covers so sleeping in our bed wasn't working out for anyone. But she likes to be close by and still needs us in the middle of the night sometimes so this is a good arrangement. Once our youngest started inching down to our feet during the night (around 6 months), we had to make other arrangements for her and so we put the crib that my husband made right up next to my side of the bed so it's almost like an extension of our bed, but she has her own space. This worked well until just recently when she started a) really fighting going to sleep, and b) crawling out onto our bed and trying to get off herself after naps. So we moved things around again and I put both girls on the floor, next to each other, next to our bed; their heads towards us.

Our older one seems to like seeing her sister sleeping near her (then she knows she's not off having fun without her). And it's nice because the little one can crawl off and on without us having to worry. But there are definitely some downfalls.

Firstly, I have to respond to both girls at night now. So last night that meant getting up for the older one three times because she had either rolled off her mattress or was upset because she couldn't find her dolly (roller onto the floor). And getting up three times for the little one, to nurse her or get her out of the small crack between the mattresses.

Then, at nap time, if the little one wakes up first, I hear her once she's crawling on top of her big sister to get out.

And now my train of thought is gone after the girls wake from nap and our evening was filled with its usual busy-ness. So I'll leave it at this.

I'm back with cozy slippers!

And back to our regularly scheduled programming...

So I made it through my first giveaway and multiblog event. It was fun to reach out and find interested sponsors; to collaborate with the bloggers; and I'm thrilled to have more readers (hopefully you'll visit now and then!).

I do feel slightly knocked off my groove now though so I'm going to have to make an effort to spend a little more time here again.

My class ended yesterday and I feel like I've been given the gift of some extra time. I cleaned and we can see parts of the living room we haven't seen in a while. And by now I've got a long list of gifts I want to make. I'm sure I won't get to them all but I'll have some fun.

I've shared that I've been playing with upcyling wool sweaters. I still love the idea of wool longies but I have yet to make a pair for my girls that really feel finished. But I did make a pair of slippers that I'm super happy with! I've tried them on just to make sure they work (and I will have to make a pair for myself) but they will be a gift.








Kinda funky! But fun. Easy and quick to make (important these days when my brain is still adjusting to being split in so many directions!). Comfy and warm.

I wasn't sure what to do with a really thick wool sweater I got. I was scared to felt it because I sure what would happen. That's kind of just me. Kind of a creativity buzz-kill to be like that though. So after making longies out of the sleeves, I felted the body. And it came out thick! Really thick! It sat on the back of a chair for a week before I realized it would be perfect for slipper soles! Then my husband threw the matching longies in with the rest of the wash so they felt too, but not quite as much. So they made perfect top and sides. Some matching yarn and edging from another sweater and voila! Slippers!

Just in case you want to see them again...



I haven't put them away yet because I like looking at my successful projects (a nice thing about being a SAHM, I get to look at my girls all the time! Ha ha.). Tonight I'm taking it lazy, I mean easy, for the first time in a while. But tomorrow, on to the next gift!