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  • Our Shy Bear

    To see Clio the way she is in the privacy of home, with no one else around, you'd think she would be the life of the party in company. She's silly and playful, she likes to be picked up, tickled, spun around. And she's a total chatterbox. Lately, the girl can't stop singing. At any given moment she's likely to burst into the ABC song -- especially the "Now I know my..." part at the end, which has become sort of her signature song. The Clio jingle, if you will. "Twinkle Twinkle" is also popular, as is "Happy (birthday) to you."

     

    But when Clio is in an unfamiliar situation, around unfamiliar people -- and even some familiar ones -- she becomes a totally different person. She is quiet and reserved. She hangs back close to me or Alastair. She rarely talks to or even makes eye contact with other people at first. Usually she warms up after a while. But she's never quite the quirky, engaging little nut-job she is when it's just the three or four of us. And it makes me a little bit sad.

     

     

    (video after the jump)

     

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  • When do twins understand the concept of twins?

    Not that it's that important, really. But I've often been curious about when twin children are old enough to understand the fact that they're twins, and what that means (in broad strokes, anyway). Just as Alastair and I don't know any other way of parenting except the two-at-a-time sort, our girls don't know any kind of existence but the there-is-another-person-who's-always-around sort. They are peretually aware of each other, looking out for each other, competing with each other.

     

    Meanwhile, most of their "friends" (i.e. the children of our friends) are singletons. But if they find this state of being strange (Where's the person you fight over stuff with all the time? Who's the other person in your room? You mean you get your parents all to yourself?) then they certainly don't give any indication. Now that the girls are more verbal, we've started talking about the fact that they're twins sometimes, usually in reference to other twins they sometimes play with: Ethan and Emmett are twins just like you! Milo and Amelia are twins, just like you! Etc. I wonder if, when they hang out with their singleton pals, they wonder where the "other one" is?

     

    (Pic after the jump)

     

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  • Absurdity Spoken Here

    Since the day Elsa and Clio were born, I looked forward to when they'd be able to talk. I couldn't wait to be able to communicate with them verbally, and find out what was going through their little minds. It is, indeed, a lot of fun to see them adding new words and phrases to their vocabulary daily, and stringing little sentences together with increasing alacrity. I love that they can express their needs and wants more easily now. The only problem: what they need and want is frequently INSANE AND ILLOGICAL AND RIDICULOUS.

     

    At the moment, it's Clio in particular whose "needs" are often exasperating. If, for example, I bring out two completely identical bowls of applesauce -- same color, same size, same amount, etc. -- and put one down in front of Clio and one in front of Elsa, Clio will point to the bowl I give her and say (scream), "No, dat's Elsa's!"  So I will switch the bowls (thank God Elsa is a little more chill about this kind of thing), thinking it's a quick and easy fix to the problem. Ha ha ha. No. Because althought it was Elsa's bowl (clearly) it had Clio's spoon in it. So now Clio is screaming "No, dat's Clio 'poon! Dat Clio pooooooon!!" so I switch the spoons. Fine. Whatever. BUT -- silly me, I didn't wipe the spoon off before transferring it, so it still contains some of Elsa's applesauce (are you following all this?) which is completely unacceptable to Clio. She holds the spoon out toward her sister, now screaming quite frantically "No! Dat Elsa's appasauce! Dat Elsa's! Elsa have Clio applesauce! Dat Clio's!"

     

    And on and on it goes.

     

    (Pics after the jump!)

     

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  • The Reign of Clio

    I am in need of some serious Babble reader advice, sympathy and/or commiseration here. We have the world's bossiest toddler living under our roof, and she's driving us bonkers. True, we have been basically trapped inside by snow for the past two-and-a-half days, so we're all feeling a little cabin-feverish. But this has been going on for some time: Clio has become incredibly high maintenance.

     

    She wants to play with Play Doh now. She wants more milk now. She wants to watch the Baby Animal Songs DVD ("Baby ee-o") for the 4th time that day. She wants me to read Chickaboom to her for the 5th. But mostly, she orders us to hold her. We try to oblige when we can, but it's just not always possible. Making breakfast, going to the bathroom, playing with your other child, etc. are all fairly tricky when you've got a 26-lb. person in your arms. Unfortunately, Clio is also very specific about how and where she wants to be held: standing up vs. sitting down, with mommy vs. daddy, in the kitchen or in the living room. And she most definitely doesn't like to share a lap with Elsa. (I wonder if, in fact, this is all directly related to being a twin -- a sense of competition or jealousy, a need to have her individual desires met...)

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  • Elsa the Elder

    I sometimes wonder if Elsa realizes that she is nine minutes older, one inch taller and two pounds heavier than Clio and acts accordingly, or if her big-sisterly tendencies are just a function of her personality. 

     

    She has always been physically dominant, frequently subjecting Clio to not-necessarily-consensual wrestling matches, bear hugs and other manhandling. Usually her intent is playful, but there are times when she's agressive: muscling Clio out of her little armchair so she can sit in it instead. Shoving her in disputes over toys. Your typical bullying, big sister behavior. (Not that Clio is necessarily entirely innocent in every instance...)

     

    But she is increasingly taking on a more nurturing and protective role with Clio, which I find very sweet.

     

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  • Sessa and Kee-o

    One of the loveliest parts about having twins is watching the relationship between them develop. When I was pregnant, lots of parents of twins mentioned this by way of encouragement / consolation: yes, it's really hard, but it's so amazing when they start really interacting. And it's a great, great thing when they can start keeping each other entertained, so you don't have to all the time.

     

    True, true, true. But it takes a while. For the first several months of their lives, Elsa and Clio were pretty much oblivious to each other. This is understandable, I guess; If I'd spent nine months crammed in with another person in a space the size of a small watermelon, I'd want a little space, too.

     

    Once they could sit up and crawl, they started to do things like take toys, bottles and pacifiers away from each other -- generally without incident. (Hm. I had a block, now I don't. Whaddya know about that?) When they became bipedal, they began having the occasional playful wrestling match, which would start with giggling and inevitably end with tears. (Usually from Clio, who Elsa has a habit of "loving" a bit roughly at times.) Hitting, pushing and hair pulling, both innocent and with intent to harm, followed. As I wrote in a recent post, refereeing between the two of them has become an increasingly large part of my role as a parent.

     

    (Pics & video after the jump!)

     

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About the Blogger

Jane Roper

Jane Roper in Boston

One baby? Piece of cake. Try two. This working mother gives you the inside scoop on the ultimate in extreme parenting: twins.

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