Hi Everyone,
I wanted to include some of my favorite tips for raising twins. If you have some great ideas of your own, please take a moment and email them. With your permission, I'll include your tip, your name, the type of multiples you have and their ages (fraternal boys etc.) and your hometown.
Tips
1 -- Grocery Runs Made Easier. I was so excited when I came up with this idea. As I know you know, I was having a tough time grocery shopping with my eighteen month old boys. One day I had the idea of taking a standard booster seat for toddlers (the ones they eat at the table with), strapped it into grocery cart basket, I put one boy in the front seat of the cart and the other boy sat in the booster seat -- with it's tray firmly attached. Does that make sense? I still use this trick when my kids are totally unruly.
2 -- Get Them to Shut...I Mean, Be Quiet in the Car. I sat down with my boys one day with several of their favorite books and a tape recorder (remember those?). As I read to the boys and as they made comments, the tape recorder got it all. It took me several sessions to complete both sides of the tape, but now I play it in my van when we're visiting grandparents, going to the park or just heading to the grocery store. They hear my voice reading their favorite books and their own cute little voices making comments here and there on the tape. I also sing songs passed down from my grandma. About every other month or so, I make a new tape to keep them interested. Quiets them in the car every time.
3 -- Wear Red. You may already use this one, but I'll include it anyway. We have a leafy, friendly park close to our house. But it can be crowded so I finally realized that if I dressed my boys in red, I would always catch sight of them. Too many boys are dressed in blue so that didn't work, they just blended in. And white was really a failure. I still buy a lot of red shirts just for this reason.
4 -- Tennis Courts. I never used this great idea I learned from another twin mom, but I love it and want to pass it onto you. Since so few parks are fenced and before your kids are under voice control, yet are old enough to want to run around, consider driving them to the nearest empty tennis court. It's fully fenced and should be clean. Take ride-on toys, tricycles, a wagon and let them go!
5 -- Keep several diapers in the same location where you pack your diaper bag daily. I keep the majority of diapers in their room at the changing table, but I also keep a small supply in the kitchen where I pack my bag each day. Then you're not as likely to forget to bring diapers all together. Do the same with wipes.
6 -- The Clamp. Sounds kind of scary, but it worked super well. The boys thought it was a blast to pull up the removable trays from their highchairs and dump food overboard. Just one trip to the hardware store and trays and food stayed in place. The clamp clamps the tray to the highchair. Fast to put on and fast to remove. You can find these at any hardware store. I used the 4" IRWIN one pictured below.
External link to IRWIN website
That's it for my tips! Please consider sending in your own ideas and I'll add them to this page. Not all tips can be included because of space, but I'll try to get every helpful idea on here.Take care,
Beth
