Baby Squared

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• Becoming "Mom"

  Clio has been calling me "Mom" on occasion these days. I'm not sure exactly how she picked it up -- maybe from hearing A. and I address our mothers as "mom" on various occasions -- but she does it in an almost mischievous manner, like she's checking it out to see if it works / she can get away with it. I can't say I like it. She sounds way too grown up when she says it, and I feel way too un-grown-up to be called it.   There's a difference between being a "mommy" and a "mom." A "Mommy" is someone young and vibrant, possibly even hip. She plays and laughs with her adoring young children, kisses their boo-boos when they fall down, tucks them into bed at night. But a "Mom"? Entirely different. A mom is a frumpy someone you argue with and roll your eyes at. She wears bad jeans and has an outdated haircut and drives a mini-van with a "My child was student of the month..." bumper sticker on the back. She's worrywort. She's a nag. You wish she'd just leave you alone. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 09:10 PM by Roper with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: twins, twin language acquisition, twin toddlers, Eden Lake, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, being called mommy, being called mom, mom jeans

• Activity of the Week: Refinancing Your Mortgage

  I can't help giggling inwardly every time I mention to someone that we're in the process of refinancing our mortgage. It just sounds so damned grown-up. The fact that we have a mortgage at all is still baffling to me at times, but now -- going and refinancing it? As if we're on top of our finances and financial planning? Ha! Ha. But I guess we are, because at some point a few months back, we noticed that rates seemed to be dropping, and asked our mortgage broker (hee hee!) if maybe we should consider refinancing, and here we are, with all the papers signed and much lower rate, and somehow Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the government are involved, and the upshot is, we're going to save a few hundred bucks a month. This is good, right?   OK, but here's what's not good: taking your two-year-old children to the closing.     Read More... Posted Mar 22 2009, 06:55 PM by Roper with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: twins, recession, twin toddlers, entertaining toddlers, terrible twos, Eden Lake, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, mortgages, lawyers, Boston, refinancing, mortgage refinancing

• The Disappearing Nap

  Yes, I know; I have no right to complain. My girls have generally been great sleepers, and we can't realistically expect them to go on sleeping 14 hours a day forever (12 at night, two at their nap). But still, it is with considerable sorrow that I must announce that the afternoon nap, generally taken between 12:30 and 2:30 every day, appears to be on its way out. For the last couple of weeks, the girls have gone many a day without ever actually falling asleep at naptime. Or if they have fallen asleep, it's only been for about half an hour. Our precious, precious hours of midday respite -- dwindling! (Maybe this is just a phase? Please, let it be just a phase!)   Itmay be in part because the girls are so enthusiastic about talking to each other lately. They really do like to chatter back and forth. I wonder if it might be worth trying to separate them during naptime, as one reader mentioned she did with her kids. The other problem is that they seem to both enjoy taking massive dumps right as their naps are starting, which is definitely not conducive to sleep, and requires an interruptive diaper change. (Sorry, TMI?)   (Pics after the jump. Not of them needing a diaper change.)   Read More... Posted Mar 18 2009, 04:26 PM by Roper with | with 22 comment(s) Filed under: twins, poop, Dropping a nap, toddlers, twin toddlers, toddler conversations, naps, clean up, Blatant self-promotion, Eden Lake, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award