Mad About Multiples!

Giveaway time at Mad About Multiples - Busy Body Book

  For anyone looking to get organized, the New and Expectant Parent meeting giveaway this month will be a 2009 BusyBodyBook calendar.  Track feeding, diaper, and sleep schedules all in one place (and fashionably to boot)!  See below for details on how to enter the giveaway.

To help put your new organizer to optimum use, join us for the New and Expectant Parents meeting on Thursday April 2 at 6:15 pm to hear sleep consultant Vivan Sonnenberg discuss all things sleep.

From their website:
BusyBodyBook's Weekly GRID format is the easy and efficient solution to every Mom's scheduling chaos! Each family member, with their own personal column, can plan and track their activities while they organize and coordinate with one another "side by side."
See more on the BusyBodyBook site. 

To enter:

We will have one winner in this giveaway and they will be chosen at random.  To enter to win, please leave us a comment below telling us:

What is or has been your biggest sleep challenge and if you overcame it, how?

The giveaway (via comments on this site) will end Thursday, April 2nd at 5:00 p.m. PST. 

For another chance to win:

Come to the meeting on Thursday, April 2nd, at 6:15 p.m. to hear Vivian Sonneberg speak about All Things Sleep for another chance to win!

Some babies are just great sleepers....and then there is the sleep consultant for the rest of us!

Amy M, one of Gemini Crickets' New & Expectant Parent Liaisons, relates her ups and downs on the twin sleep front for Mad About Multiples today. Join us this Thursday, April 2nd at 7:30pm at our New & Expectant Parent meeting for a highly sought-after talk with sleep consultant, Vivian Sonnenberg and get all of your sleep questions answered!

Some babies are just great sleepers.  I was not so lucky....or so I thought until a friend of mine recently told me that she didn't get more than 4 hours of continuous sleep for the first THREE years of her kids' lives.  Ouch. 

The sleep issues my husband and I have had to deal with come and go.  First, it was not being able to get them on a nap schedule.  I remember one particular afternoon when I felt totally defeated and they just would not nap....I had lost the battle, but I knew I HAD to win the war (or else I'd go insane).  I mostly had to resort to drives, walks through the neighborhood, rocking and even pushing them in the snap 'n go back and forth across our back patio. 

We bit the bullet and started sleep training at 5 months and 1 week (4 months developmentally, to be exact).  They cried for about 20 minutes the first night (or was it 40 min?  I forget!), 5 minutes the second night, and 2 minutes the first night.  WOW!  We felt proud of ourselves and we were SO happy to not be pacing the darkened hall, trying to get them to sleep. 

Dream feeds helped them sleep until morning and we were finally (mostly) getting a full night's sleep.  Life was good.

And then...

A Twins Convention…At Disneyland?

Five years ago, when we first started telling people we were going to have twins, one father of twins half jokingly told us that there would be no economy of scale with twins. As if we didn’t know already but hey, his twins were grown and he had certainly shelled out his share of double the living expenses over a couple decades or so. On the other hand, at times, we get to experience double the savings, not just the standard sibling discount of 10% off for preschool tuition, clothing and the like. When we save, we get to save big! Sounds kinda like that old glass is half empty, half full saying, eh.

So last year, when Disneyland announced that everyone would have free admission on their birthday in 2009, you can bet that every family with multiples considered a visit quite seriously…like us. I mean, saving over $100 at Disneyland is nothing to sneeze at…especially if you’re planning to go anyway. This year was our girls' 5th birthday, a milestone of sorts, at least in my opinion. A trip to Disneyland was certainly in keeping with a special number like 5. It would be their second trip to the land of a million dreams.

I knew several families in Gemini Crickets that were also considering a trip south, motivated by the free birthday admission offer. I didn’t think about it much more than that until after passing through the main gates into the park, I really looked around. Twins. Were. Everywhere. Wow! The way my head was constantly swiveling around, you would never have thought that I was a mother of twins, accustomed to seeing look-alikes on a daily basis. Hahaha

Willy the Worm...and Creating Your Own Environmentally Friendly Family

Katja W., one of Gemini Crickets' Co-Vice Presidents, joins us today to tell us about her worms and how they relate to our upcoming meeting on "Creating your Own Environmentally Friendly Family" next Thursday, April 2nd at 7:30pm - click here for the meeting details.

Please meet Willy and his gang. They are our family pets and my children love them dearly.

We have some allergies in the families. So, dogs, cats, hamsters and all the other furry friends are off limit for us. But, we have composting worms and they keep us entertained. They are Red Wiggler Worms, the thoroughbreds of the worm world. They live in a bin in our garage, since they shouldn't be kept outside, where it can be too hot or too cold for them. There are people who even keep them under the kitchen sink. I am not there yet. But, if they are treated well, the bin doesn't smell at all even though you put food scraps in there.

Separate Or Together – For Our Twin Girls, The Answer Is Together

Seems to be that time of the year again...the great debate looms large for many of us parents of multiples. Should we or shouldn't we separate our twins (or more!) in school? For many of us with kids in preschool, it has never really been an issue as many of the schools only had one classroom anyway. But now, they're about to enter Kindergarten and the questions come up from every direction it seems - from other parents, from current schoolteachers, from the school administration.

I swear that a few years ago, fellow moms with twins around the same age as mine had all sworn that we would keep our twins together in the same class come that crucial year – Kindergarten! We were armed with research and statistics that indeed, keeping twins in the same classroom in Kindergarten would certainly help, not hurt them…as many misinformed, misled school officials would have you believe. In fact, there is no research that proves that separating twins at Kindergarten would improve their sense of self, individuality. This idea was put forth by a psychologist based solely on his personal opinion, with no research or experience to back it up.

Many school officials somehow took this as gospel and instituted, albeit unwritten, policies that all twins must be separated at Kindergarten. Well, this has irked many a parent of multiples. And at parents of multiples clubs like Gemini Crickets, members have made sure that other members with younger twins know that this “policy” is bogus and certainly something you, as the parent that knows your multiples better than anyone else, should know and challenge, if necessary.

So, there I was, standing with fellow moms of twins (figuratively speaking, of course), ready to take on the battle. Armed with the knowledge and links to related research, I was biding my time until my girls reached that age. But now, as I look to each side of me, I find I am alone. Many of my fellow twins parents have all but abandoned the fight. What happened?

Twin Baby Chicks Born

Just in time for Easter, twin baby chicks were born at my kids' preschool. It is only fitting, as there are 8 sets of twins at our school this year! Both are black with yellow dots on their heads and are eating and sipping water in their new home with a 'mother light'.

We will be welcoming them in the science room, once Teacher Konne brings them into school tomorrow. They will be able to be handled in about a week...gently.

School-age Multiples Go Bowling

Our multiples are growing up! It's been a couple years since we put together an official GC event specifically for our school-age multiples - not from lack of funds or enthusiasm but from lack of well, enough school-age kids. Like many other multiples clubs, our membership changes from year-to-year and is usually mostly comprised of families with infants up to 3 years old - which is of course, wonderful. We all need those connections and relationships with other families in the same boat, especially with infants and kids in their earlier years.

This year, though, there are a number of us that joined around the same time a few years ago. And while many of us are struggling with the decision of where to put our kids for Kindergarten or 1st grade or whether to keep them together or if they're even ready to enter the K-12 system, we decided it was high time to have a little fun. Bowling was always a popular outing in previous years and this year was no different.

Join Us for our New & Expectant Parents Meeting on Traveling with Multiples on Wednesday, March 11th

Michelle O., one of Gemini Crickets' New & Expectant Parent Liaisons, tells us a little bit about traveling with her twins in preparation for our upcoming meeting next Wednesday, March 11th at 6:15pm on Traveling With Multiples.

When I sat down to think about what to write about traveling with multiples, two funny stories came to mind.  By funny, I mean the kind of situations twin parents have learned to laugh about, because if we didn’t laugh we’d drown in the pool of our tears or scream like maniacs.  But I digress…

Someone sent me a You Tube video of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their family walking into an airport in Japan.  A whole slew of people come darting out first. I saw two guys carrying a car seat each, someone with a stroller, and someone pushing a cart of luggage.  Then Brad and Angie come strolling out, each with a child in a baby bjorn, their other kids in tow.  I thought to myself, “how nice to travel with an entourage…lucky %#@^#$!”

Giveaway time at Mad About Multiples - Four passes to Children's Discovery Museum

With the rainy weather in full force we thought it would be nice to give away four passes to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose.  Read about how to enter below. The Children's Discovery Museum is always a great place to let out some energy and learn all kinds of things from the cool exhibits. And speaking of the rain...well, of other depressing things, anyway...on to the economy!

For our general meeting coming up next week on Wednesday, March 11th, at 7:30 p.m. will have two senior level psychologists,  Joyce Hoffspiegel Ph.D and Francine Toder Ph.D., come speak about how to remain up while the economy is down.  This talk will be both instructive and interactive, as participants gain personal support and insight about the impact of a depressed economy on their own lives as parents and in their relationships with spouses, children, colleagues and others. Special emphasis will be placed on helping participants learn better psychological coping mechanisms; face the responsibilities of parenting; relating to a spouse; working outside the home and maintaining an inner balance during this period of extreme psychological stress.

To enter:

We will have one winner in this giveaway and they will be chosen at random.  To enter to win, please leave us a comment below telling us:

How has the economy impacted your family and what are some of the things you are doing to save money and/or spend less?

The giveaway (via comments on this site) will end Wednesday, March 11th at 5:00 p.m. PST. 

For another chance to win:

Come to the meeting on Wednesday, March 11th, at 7:30 p.m. to hear Joyce Hoffspiegel Ph.D and Francine Toder Ph.D. speak about How to Remain Up While the Economy is Down for another chance to win!