Fraternal Twins... Yes, Definitely Fraternal Twins

My twin sons are so fraternal.

Every single thing about them is night and day.

They most definitely look like siblings, but they are very different from one another.

Exciting News!
By the way!!! General Potty is essentially potty trained! He is the one that would hold it through sleeping and even for long period of awake time, but when it came right down to it, would go on the kitchen chair, in the front room, or wherever he was, instead of going in to the toilet/potty.

Potty Trained
A couple of days ago, he woke up came in and smiled at me (oh it was so very sweet) gave me a kiss and ran into the bathroom pulling his pants down on the way. grabbed the stool that we stack under the other stool that is for them to wash their hands (we desperately need to remodel our bathroom) and put it in front of the toilet, sat down and went potty on the toilet.

Sleep Is The Trick
It was so very exciting! Since then he has only had two, yes 2, accidents and both times he was incredibly tired. I tell you that sleep has everything to do with every one in the world functioning properly. Why do we not all have Siesta and why on earth are they trying to change that where they do have it?

Poop On The Potty
He has told me every time he needs to go potty and will poop on the potty. He will grab the potty chair if the toilet is unavailable for any given reason. He is a 100% potty trained toddler, who is allowed an accident or two for now. :)

Elephant Poop
While he is pooping on the toilet he is saying "Big Poop!" "Big Elephant Poop!" And Sargent Potty is on the sideline saying the same thing. Oh it is hilarious!

Elephant At The Zoo
We went to the zoo again the other day and the Elephant pooped right when we walked up, rather close to the fence. The boys thought that was a big huge pile of poop that was bigger than they are, put together almost, and they couldn't get over the stench.

BIG Stinky Elephant Poop
So now anything related to poop is a "Big Stinky Elephant Poop!" (with a scrunched up face and hands stretched to either side yelling the word "BIG".)

Pull Ups Training Pants
Sargent potty will go sit on the toilet after he has already gone in his pants. We did invest in Pull Ups... I know I didn't want to buy another diaper of any kind, but he just is too easily distracted and whenever he doesn't have something on to sleep he comes running in to me when he wakes up wet and doesn't get a good nap, or nights sleep.

"Me do it."
Basically in the "Not quite ready" category. He gets it, just is too independent to want to worry about it right now. It wasn't his idea yet. He insists on dressing himself and does it quite well. General is just fine with mom helping him. Sargent's favorite phrase of late is "Me do it." and if he doesn't get to do it... I wonder what the neighbors think I do to him...?

Twins Are Different
I have to go into the other differences. Apparently Sargent Potty is underweight... he is in the 10Th percentile on height and 25Th on weight. General is in the 98Th percentile on height and 50Th on weight. I don't know how to pump Sargent up without General also gaining... they eat the same things... just different amounts.

General is dark blond, Sargent is very blond. You could say he has white hair on some days. :)

Twin Teeth.. Nope!
General got all his teeth almost all at once. Sargent's teeth would start to come in and make him very sick... throw up sick for a week and then decide to go away... about 5 times each tooth. UGH!! Did I not call him Sargent High maintenance or something at some point in time? Everything about his is high maintenance. he has to be held, he has to have a cracker...

Do Twins Wake Each Other...?
Now I am not a mother who generally gives in to every whim of my children, but i noticed that I kind of do with him. From the get go General has been really low key and all I had to worry about was not waking him up. Sargent... well he is the one who I tried to keep from waking up General.

Noisy, Wiggly Boy
So I would always scoop him up when he grunted for more than five minutes when he was tiny. he was noisy and wiggly. He hasn't changed much, but I don't worry about him waking his brother anymore. They say that you never have to worry about that actually.

Stubborn Boy
He is the kind of child that will not relent. He will ask me for a cracker for an entire hour (yes, I tested this a few times). Even though he knows that it is almost snack time, he will ask for it, yell for it, whine for it... he wants his cracker NOW.

Twins are Amazing
I am grateful they are so different. I know that even identical twins are different, but these two boys are too cute. I know you think I am just a bragging mom, but they are beautiful boys. and they are both beautiful. Unique and beautiful. Inside and out.

What Sibling Doesn't?
They are so tender and loving and kind. they share and they take turns. They play and laugh and fight and get frustrated and irritable, but they are fantastic! I couldn't love them more than I do... I don't even understand the depth of the love I have for them. They are amazing and fantastic to me.

Enjoy right now.
Cara :)

More That Every Mom Should Know

Taken from Parents Magazine, with my comments below.

#12 Know this: That stain won't come out. And it's okay. (The sooner you accept this, the better.)

I got my sons some white shirts... I know what was I thinking?

I think it must have been the second time they ever wore them, Mr Baby B pooped all over his white shirt. The stain is still there... but I let them wear them when we are home playing.

Honestly. I know it is nice to have clean clothes, and it is nice to look like you have perfect children that never have accidents... but do you know a single child that has never had any kind of an accident and stained an article of clothing?

I talked about the poop in the underwear a bit ago... Thank you Bronwen for the advice to save them and when they are all potty trained to then throw them out and get nice new ones. I will do just that.

It is OK to put your small children that are always getting into everything and getting dirty. as long as you wash them and get them clean... and don't wear them to dressy events, I think life will go on and you can still enjoy yourselves together.

I honestly think the same thing goes for mom's clothes. I had to stop worrying about certain articles of clothing that I would wear regularly... Guess what! I have twins! I get stuff on me all the time! I think the majority of my clothing is stained by one thing or another and I will wear my twin mommy mantle with pride and satisfaction.

Satisfaction because I kept it from being bigger or worse than it is! :) That is a very impressive accomplishment.

Enjoy Right Now!

Potty Training

(This is older, I forgot to post it.)

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of cleaning up poop. I promise that I will eventually stop talking to you about poop. This is where I am in my life. The funny thing is that you as a parent are going through poop right now too. When it comes to children we have potty issues.

Hooray for Elmo!

I got Potty chairs for the boys when they were about 18 months old, and they went on them a couple of times and thought they were such big boys, but neither would commit. So we borrowed “Elmo’s Potty” from a friend and suddenly there was more interest than before.

Ditch the Diapers.

The other day, about a year after the original potty chair purchases, I finally decided that I am not going to buy anymore diapers. I am not spending another penny on them. I went and stocked up on boys underpants. You know 10 pairs of boy’s underpants for $50, where you can get 25 pair of girl’s underpants for $5.

Now is potty time.

Well, being a mother of two very, very different boys, this is a very interesting experience. I have one who is generally really easy going and another who is generally really high maintenance. They are rarely both “ easy” at the same time. Thankfully they usually alternate and it is only one being difficult at a time.

Don’t get me wrong they have their moments.

Ha! Ha! Ha! You would think that going potty on a potty chair would be a simple easy experience. Well General Easy Going decides to be Jealous of Lt. High Maintenance. He already holds his pee-pee and he has fewer accidents than Lt. Maintenance and thinks it is funny to dump over Lt. High Maintenance's potty chair when he does make it.

Come on guys!

I thought leaving the underpants around their ankles would be easier for them to get undressed and dressed by themselves. But I guess I was so very wrong. General doesn’t like to have his on at all to go potty, so he finally kicks out of them and they are across the floor… in the potty that just got splashed all over the floor because he forgot to aim while he was trying to fling his underpants off. Meanwhile Lt. pooped in his pants before he even got them part way down.

My washing machine broke!

My ten pair of underpants that two boys are sharing are not lasting very long and I am trying to keep them clean so they have them to wear… and the washing machine is broken. This potty training is turning out to be really expensive.

All this to save some time and money on changing diapers…

So while they are going potty on the potty chair it is really on the floor and they are not having accidents in their pants, but they are still getting wet… I just have to laugh! I think it is really pretty funny. I even think it is funny that the Beach scent that I recently put in, will forever remind me of the potty training days and how fun drama can be.

Thank Heavens there is a drain at the end of the tunnel

Eventually their little heads will click around the concept of going potty all the time in the potty and even better eventually by themselves.

I think it is important to remember that no matter how much stink there is in our lives, we can always laugh and enjoy the experiences. We can enjoy the journey to the light and get there faster or we can begrudge it and it will be a long sad road.

And that my friend is the wax of life.

Enjoy right now

Cara Harker

Poop! Poop! Poop!

Potty training is getting a tiny bit annoying to me. I decided that I never seem to find details that help me, so I am going to spill it all and just be blunt about everything. :) In hopes of helping someone like myself.

I am really trying hard to be super patient. Mothers of singletons have it hard. I cannot imagine how Jon and Kate did it with their SIX! Well we saw most of it on TV, but still.

I am trying really hard to hunker down and do this. The bad thing is that I started bribing the boys early on with potty treats... the only way Sargent Potty would have anything to do with it at all.

I really regret this now.

I am going to call my sons General Potty and Sargent Potty for a while.
General Potty is the type of personality who if Sargent Potty is doing something he gets kind of jealous (usually the observer who wants to do things perfectly before he tries them) and doesn't want Sargent Potty to show him up. I don't know if this is just in regards to potty right now or if he is tired of Sargent doing everything first...

Sargent Potty is a go getter with a personality that is out of this world. From birth he was a grunter and always making noise, and did everything months in advance and before General. Sargent is small... I hope he doesn't have little man syndrome! But like I said before he didn't want to have anything to do with the potty for a long time.

General is sleeping without peeing, but Sargent is not. Sargent will start to pee and stop it until he is on the potty. General does not... although today he started pooping in his pants and hurried to the toilet to finish. And on Sunday as tired as they both were and all the accidents they had General was holding it and jumping up and down to get to the potty while he was in the tub and then again a short time later. They are becoming aware. It is fantastic.

The last time we went to the zoo we got a book called "ZOO-POO". The boys LOVE this book and want to read it over and over and over again. Since they have really been more excited to go on the potty. When they are tired, they have WAY more accidents.

Today I decided that I would bribe them with something fun. We have a membership to the Hogle Zoo, so we go a lot. Since trying to sleep train we haven't been, but we generally do. They also have some new babies that arrived and will shortly arrive. The boys are very excited about this. I decided to tell them every day for a week that if they use the potty every time they can go to the zoo for as long as they want and do everything they want, which includes the train and carousel as many times as they want.

They got really excited and ran in to the potty. This might just work. I think it is why General decided to hold his poo in instead of finish in his pants as is his usual custom.

I think that I might be overloading them with change right now though... Sleep and Potty training at the same time. and they are already 2 and everything is already pretty rough on them to begin with as they learn and grow. Poor poopers. I sure do love them. I hope we all make it over the poop pile soon.

TTFN!
Cara :)

Nap Time

Nap time is getting much nicer here in our house and the boys are getting better at recognizing that it is nap time.

I love it that they are finally talking... and talking alot. The way they pronounce things is so stinking cute to me. "nap time" "sleep time" "Elmo potty" So Cute!! I wish you could hear it!

I have had a dilemma since we conceived the boys, it seems that pertinent information that I really need to find specifically for twins is never available or accessible.

I started using Dana Obleman's Sleep Sense (http://www.sleepsense.net/blog/) I really am happy with it... other than there is nothing available for twins who share the same room. It is working, just not as effectively as I am sure it works with a singleton.even older or younger siblings sharing a room isn't applicable.

When one of them is not listening and I leave the other starts screaming and is "punished" for what the other one did... not a very fair thing to have to do.

Nap times seems to be the easier time to get them to rest than bedtime. They store up and poop at 9:00 at night... did I mention that I am potty training too? sleep and potty train at the same time. and you never know when they really need to use the potty or if they are just trying to get out of sleeping... they are good at that. especially when you are being tag teamed. :)

So I am going to do my best to share my positive experiences in regards to twins and find the information that we need.

Cara