As BabyBoy and BabyGirl hurtle closer to their third birthday I’ve been wondering…it is time to stop the childproofing?
Our house is a mass of fences and gates. Gates to keep them out of certain rooms. Fences to keep breakables out of reach and to discourage indoor parkour. Continue reading
Today afterninemonths hosts a guest post from Multiple Mama with ‘A Day in the Life of a Expat Twin Mum in Hong Kong’.
It’s 6.30am and squeals of laughter are coming through the baby monitor that’s on the nightstand. Not that the monitor is totally necessary given the lack of sound insulation in Hong Kong apartments. Multiple Mama’s boy/girl twins are awake and playing peekaboo with each other through the bars of their cots. Another day in the life of a multiple mummy in Hong Kong begins. Continue reading
A teacup on a saucer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now, seriously, you’ve brought up a child. You’ve ‘been there, done that’ in terms of toddlerhood (supposedly). So why why why do you continue to do things which are, lets face it, downright dangerous when you’ve got little people in the house?
Week 45 – An Old English Post Box (Photo credit: letscommunicate)
A while ago I wrote about how sometimes the simplest toys are the best ones. One of BabyBoy and BabyGirl’s christmas presents makes this point again.
They received an ELC Wooden Post Box (I’ve attached a link to the ELC webpage as I couldn’t find an exact picture of it, but for those who don’t want to click away, it’s basically a toy version of the picture on the right). This is a very simple toy. A square box, with a slot to post five wooden letters into, and a hinged door at the front that can be opened to retrieve the letters. There is also a hole at the back through which letters can be retrieved too.
I love this toy because I had a similar one when I was a child, but I didn’t seriously think it would entertain BabyBoy and BabyGirl for very long. After all, it has no buttons to press, no flashing lights, no sing-a-long music.
But every day, without fail, they pull it out and play with it. Continue reading
A lovely person gave BabyBoy and BabyGirl a wind-up TV, the kind that you wind up and then a picture moves across the ‘screen’. They’ve have been around for years and years. I was thrilled when I saw it as I had one as a child and loved it.
BabyBoy and BabyGirl also love it. There is a problem however – they are not yet able to wind it up themselves, so they call for Multimummy to do it again and again and again and again… Each winding only lasts about a minute. This is not conducive to getting dinner on the table.
So as Christmas approaches a note to all toy-shoppers out there: I don’t recommend buying such a toy for any child who can’t wind it themselves. Mummy will not thank you.
Here’s an idea – put this high enough on your wall and no need to worry about a toddler or two attempting to pull a tree over…
Love Christmas trees but don’t have the space or time to take care of a real one? Deck your walls instead! Below are some unique and neat ideas. There’s still time…
Images roundup from my Pinterest board, Holiday.
Click on image for source.
As you can see, you can make it as generic or personal as you’d like. The possibilities are endless and are only limited to your imagination. Soo fun and very festive!
I may consider doing this next yr. Would you?
I’ve had many different nightdresses throughout my pregnancy and breastfeeding days. But the ones with the most longevity have to be Mothercare’s Blooming Marvellous Maternity Nightshirts.
These are not the most flattering, but they’re 100% cotton so they’re cool and easy to wash. They have front poppers to allow you to feed (no fiddly clips to try and maneuver with one hand while holding on to a newborn). They are airy so they won’t rub against a healing c-section scar. And they cover you up (unlike strappy ones) , so you can get out of bed and lounge around the house knowing that should the doorbell ring unexpectedly or your father-in-law happen to traipse past you don’t have to struggle into your dressing gown with a wriggly baby screaming the place down.
Continue reading
Clocks are an oft-overlooked baby essential. When you bring baby home you will find yourself checking the time more than ever before as you note how long baby has been feeding and sleeping. As they get older playtime will also be added into the mix, as will mealtimes, playdate times, ‘have I got time to run to the store before baby is likely to be grouchy’ times….
So put clocks on your pre-baby shopping list; at least one, if not two, in each room. Preferably you need to be able to see a clock without moving at any given point in your home. If you’re tandem-breastfeeding twins moving to check the time during a feed will certainly not be an option.
What about a watch? Well, I very rarely wear one at home nowadays. At the beginning I was too fearful of accidentally bumping a baby with it. Now the idea of a baby bringing up milk (or worse) on an item that cannot be submerged in soapy water and throughly scrubbed just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Loopy links (Photo credit: hddod)
Playgro and ELC call them ‘Loopy Links’. Bright Starts calls them ‘Lots of Links’. Whatever they’re called by different manufacturers (and there any many), these colourful, plastic, textured links which can be strung together are another extremely useful, inexpensive toy. We have about 40 distributed throughout the house, car and strollers.
Why? Because they are so versatile.
Bath seats. Useful for singleton babies. A veritable essential for twins.
When babies are very young, it is pretty much a given that you have to bathe them one at a time. For that, I highly recommend a baby bath on a stand. We did put the baby bath on the floor for a while (I was very scared of dropping a slippery baby) but that really hurts your back after a while.
Of course, a sink is also an option for very young babies.
But once baby(ies) gets a bit bigger, it’s time to graduate to the big bath. Holding one baby in a big bath (when they can’t sit in water on their own) is yet another way to absolutely strain your back. If you’re on your own with twins, not only will your back hurt twice as much, but you won’t be able to bathe them together. And twin babies are loads of fun when they’re bathed together.
The solution we have found is to utilize bath seats. I’d never heard of these before I had children but they are plastic seats with suction pads that stick to the floor of the bath. Stick seats down, fill bath with water (BabyBoy and BabyGirl are big enough for a pretty deep bath now), pop baby(ies) in and let the splashy fun begin!
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