Our guest poster, Christina Spicuzza, shares her "morning routine" with us today. I know most families with multiples can relate.
A bit behind on laundry duty, I try to throw a load in the washer at 7:30 in the morning to get a jump on the day. My two year old Ethan is attempting to be helpful, but only getting in my way in the tiny closet of a laundry room. Just outside the door, his twin brother, Colin, halts his play and gives me a look I know too well.
"Did you poop?"
He points to a puddle on the floor and says "Pee".
"Ok, take off your undies" which is all he's wearing, and I am thinking that at least I can throw them in the laundry right away. As I continue to sort the dirty from the filthy into the washer, Ethan bounces all over the tiny laundry room chanting "Hungry! Hungry!" while pushing all the buttons and turning all the dials on the washer. I say to Colin, "give me your undies" and I look over to see his attempt to be helpful. He took his undies off and tried to clean up the mess using them as a towel. As sweet a gesture as it is, in reality he has created a 6 ft diameter smear of urine on the floor. I have but a moment to sigh before the sopping pair of undies are hurled at me and smack into my arm in all its warm wetness.
Back to the kitchen, it's time to make my oldest daughter's school lunch. Ethan is still bouncing at my knees yelling "Hungry! Hungry!", even though his microwavable Trader Joes pancakes sit in a cold stack on his breakfast plate.
"Do you want a sausage egg sandwich?"
"Yah"
"You have to eat the egg too, not just eat the sausage and leave the rest"
"Yah"
I take out a frozen breakfast sandwich and pop it into the microwave and quickly set it for 1 minute, knowing that I need to come back in 30 seconds to rearrange the sandwich or it won't cook right.
In the next room, I hear the dreaded "uh-oh" uttered from Colin. In my mind, I already know what it is. I rush over to see Ethan's chocolate nutritional drink, which Colin intensely covets, has been spilled on the carpet. Grab the vinegar, grab a towel, blot, blot, blot. Then clean up the urine smear drying on my floors on the way back to the kitchen.
Where's my coffee?
Turn on the Keurig, reads "not ready, add water". Crap, the bottled water is in the garage. The unattached garage. That requires me to go outside, in the front, to get to it. I am in my pajamas.
"Alexis! Can you run out to the garage and get me a jug of water while I make your lunch?" I ask of my 13 year old. There is at least some benefit to having kids old enough to do stupid little things like this for you.
Gotta make her lunch, she needs to leave in 10 minutes. Pull out the
peanut butter. Ethan begins the "Peanut butter! Peanut butter!" bounce
and chant. I pull out a small spoon and give him a taste. Pull out the bread. Ethan wants another spoonful. Spread the PB on Alexis'
sandwich and Ethan wants another spoonful. I quickly put it back
in the cabinet before another request. Add jelly to the sandwich,
and then Ethan is chanting "Jelly! Jelly!"
"You want a spoon of jelly?" This is a completely new request, so I question it.
"New
jelly!" as he points to the cupboard I had just opened to put away the
peanut butter, which contains a yet unopened jar of jelly.
"No, I am not opening new jelly" and I decide it's time to employ mommy ignore tactics, and go on with what needs to get done.
It's at that moment, I remember that I was supposed to turn his breakfast sandwich in the microwave after 30 seconds, 5 minutes ago. I rotate it and set it for 30 more seconds while I get back to trying to finish my daughter's lunch. Throw in a drink, the sandwich, some bagged snacks, and go to the fridge. Champagne grapes, those are a big hit for all the kids right now, and will go great in the lunch. Upon sight, this creates a frenzy for Colin. Frantic calls of "Gapes! Gapes!" as I wash off a bunch for the lunch. I manage to ignore the immediacy in Colin's request long enough to get the grapes in the lunch.
Where's that water for the coffee maker?
Alexis has taken her sweet
time to get completely ready, tie her shoes at a snails pace, and is
almost getting herself out the door. Ok, maybe I should have just mad
dashed out there, jammies and all.
Ethan's sandwich! I grab that out of the microwave, and sit it on the
ottoman in the living room in hopes to lure him out of my busy kitchen.
"Eat the egg, and not just the sausage!" I remind him.
Back to the kitchen, I rinse off grapes for the eagerly waiting Colin. I present him with a bowl of grapes, and he is happy. Knowing that as soon as Ethan sees the bowl of grapes, I will have another request for grapes, I quickly make up a second bowl for Ethan.
Water is here, finally! I fill up the Keurig, and now I just have to wait for it to heat up and make a cup.
As
I am getting Alexis ready to leave for school, my husband arrives from
the back room, freshly showered, neatly dressed for work. When he
arrives on the scene, Alexis is packed and out the door, and two little
boys are the picture of happy eating breakfast and grapes. Not the
slightest hint of the previous half hour of mad chaos.
I send him off to work too, and sit down to finally drink my coffee and
take 30 seconds of respite.
I push a clearing through the cluttered kitchen table, and find a swarm of ants have attacked my table overnight. My relationship with ants in not unlike Bill Murray and the gopher in Caddyshack. They are my sworn enemy that I wouldn't hesitate to use massive explosives in order to eliminate them. So, it's a mad dash to remove the weeks of excess clutter on the table, and kill the ants. But I am not done then, I must follow them to the source to kill them, or I will not rest. I search and find their entrance into my house and attack them at the source, a kitchen window. I spray inside the window sill, and go outside to spray, followed by a naked Colin who finds the open door an invite to play in the back yard.
After a good 20 minutes of killing ants and chasing naked children in the yard, I get that coffee, a little colder than I'd like, but still drinkable. And for breakfast, I get to eat a sausage egg breakfast sandwich, minus the sausage that Ethan has eaten and abandoned the rest. Cold. Yum. I actually got breakfast today.
E: I’m very excited to meet with the members (of Gemini Crickets), as I KNOW this going to be a fun evening where we can all learn and share techniques for effective parenting in a very supportive, non-judgmental environment.
Please join Etsuko Tsukagoshi for her very informative presentation on Redirecting Children's Behavior at our next Gemini Crickets meeting on Friday June 7 at the Camden Library Community Room.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Original post to Mad About Multiples. For additional information about this members only meeting, please see our website. For information about joining Gemini Crickets POM of Silicon Valley, see our membership page.
For more information about Etsuko's parenting class & coaching services, visit the My Peaceful Family website.
Just a few more days until school is officially done for the year, and although beach days and tie-die projects might top summer bucket list, you might find that your kids (and YOU) really need that week of camp to keep your sanity make your vacation complete. It's not too late and Camp Galileo has some fabulous programs you'll want to check out as we revist our post from last year.
With Spring Break over (or just beginning) for many of our school-aged families, parents of busy multiples *might* be wondering if it's too late to sign up for summer camp. While enrollment started last month for this summer, never fear, many camps still have room to spare for one (or two) more.
With that in mind, Mad About Multiples and Gemini Crickets is happy to announce that one of our members' favorites, Camp Galileo, is still accepting reservations for their many summer sessions. With a multitude of options for kids entering Kindergarten through eighth grade Camp Galileo has something for everyone.
About CAMP GALILEO
At Camp Galileo, pre-K – rising 5th graders engage in hands-on art, science and outdoor activities every day, plus have tons of fun with camp traditions like team color day, water ball and capture the rubber chicken. Visit our website to learn about our four brand-new themes for 2012.
Check out four brand-new themes at Camp Galileo in Summer 2012:
GALILEO SUMMER QUEST
At Galileo Summer Quest, rising 5th-8th graders try their hand at the things they love, diving into one exciting major during each weeklong session, with options like Go-Kart Makers, Fashion Design, Video Game Design and Chefology. Visit our website to learn about all 15 majors offered in 2012.
OTHER GALILEO CAMPS
The Tech Summer Camps (rising 4th-8th graders): Hands-on science and technology classes for aspiring scientists and engineers at the Tech Museum in San Jose.
Chabot Space & Science Camp (rising 3rd-7th graders): Fun engineering, technology, earth and space science classes at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.
To enroll or learn more, visit www.galileo-learning.com or call 1-800-854-3684.
Not only is Camp Galileo an awesome place for kids to spend some time this summer, but Camp Galileo is awesome for supporting Gemini Crickets as well. They will be donating vouchers for two week-long camp sessions to our annual auction fundraiser this year. Thank you Camp Galileo!
This is a sponsored post to Mad About Multiples. Camp Galileo provided pictures and information about their camps for this post. We ask all readers to preform their own due-diligence to make sure any summer camp is a fit for their family.
A couple weeks ago, we had a guest speaker come to our club’s General Meeting to talk about Kindergarten Readiness. It’s part of a two-part series we offer our members every year. The second part is on Preschool readiness. One of these sessions includes a professional speaker from Parents Place and the other is a panel of parents from the club sharing their own perspectives and knowledge. For the first time this year, we had a professional speaker for the Kindergarten session and a panel of parents for the Preschool topic (switched from last year).
The Kindergarten session was not only eye-opening, it was somewhat of a relief. The speaker focused on the fact that the greatest preparation we could give our kids for Kindergarten is to make sure they attain the self-regulation (e.g., pays attention, controls impulses, follows directions), social expression (e.g., curiosity for learning, tells stories, social play) and self-help/motor skills to be successful at the Kindergarten level. School programs focus on the academics, so a Kindergarten teacher is confident a child can and will learn the academics.
Attaining the necessary social skills is of particular concern for parents of multiples, especially those with boy/girl twins. Often, the girls are more settled down than the boys at 3 and 4 years old. Do you split them up? Do you keep them both back? What are the ramifications on later development?
The Preschool session with a panel of parents representing different kinds of schools (e.g., parent participation, structured/academic, traditional/developmental, Montessori, religious, Explorer) demonstrated that there are several ways to attain the social, self-control and motor skills necessary. My girls were in a traditional/developmental school for a year and are now in a structured/academic one. Our motivation for moving our twins to a more structured program was our girls. They were displaying such a curiosity and desire to learn many things. We wanted to channel that desire to learn by putting them in a preschool environment that exposes them to many different areas be it math, art, dance, science, imaginative play and the like. Just as importantly, they had settled down tremendously over the last year – sitting in circle time, following directions, paying attention to the teachers, focusing on a project to completion, expressing their likes and dislikes in an acceptable, non-violent (whew!) way. Their new school presents many things that I would never have thought they could understand or handle at 3 years old…but they do. And they are both blossoming.
One of the questions I had when considering the potential preschools was whether there were other twins or multiples in the classrooms. If so, this gave me a small sense of relief that the teachers would not assume that the girls were alike. Additionally, they knew to split them up at circle time to give one twin more of a chance to work on her own without her sister “helping.” One of my girls is more outspoken and assertive than the other but also more emotionally dependent on her twin. The other is rather laid back and cautious but will quickly stand up for her twin if she thinks she’s being threatened in any way.
With twins, it’s difficult not to compare their development and achievement of certain goals. One twin typically catches on to certain activities or concepts faster than the other. The other is usually only about 3-4 weeks behind. So, the differences are usually not great. But I worry anyway. It’s hard not to. But now, with the enlightenment from the Kindergarten readiness session, I am no longer concerned. In my mind, for preschool, Kindergarten is the end game. So what if one of my girls is not writing her name perfectly every time – at 3 years old. She’s going to “get it.” They’re both going to “get” many things and now I know, much earlier than they really have to. And I am reassured.
This is a repost of an original post to Mad About Multiples from 2008. Don't forget to join us tonight, Jan 10, 2013, at 7 PM in the Cambrian Library Community Room located at 1780 Hillsdale Ave, San Jose, CA 95124 for a panel discussion on kindergarten options.Happy New Year!
The Holidays are behind us and parents of multiples are getting ready to tackle the next big challenge: school.
With many preschools beginning to offer open houses for next years enrollment and elementary school districts enrolling for kindergarten, parents have some big decisions to make in the upcoming month. As parents of multiples, we have the added fun of deciding x2.
For preschoolers, you might be wondering what kind of program best fits your children and your family. Parent participation? Drop-off? Full day or not? And for those of us on the cusp of elementary school the questions can be even greater, to seperate or not? To send together or hold them back? Go as a young 4 or wait a year? And what about transitional kindergarten?
On January 10, Gemini Crickets will be holding a panel discussion covering all things Kindergarten. To do our part, Mad About Multiples will be reposting somme of our favorite school-themed posts from those parents who have wrestled with these decisions. From preschool to grade school we hope you'll gain some help making your own decision in the coming months.
This is a magical time of year for parents and kids alike. And a holiday highlight is getting to meet the big guy himself: Santa. Pictured are Kayla and Emily at three years meeting Santa for the first time. They look so sweet, they must know they're on the "Nice" list this year!
Thanks to mom Sandra R. for sharing the holiday cheer.
This is an original post to Mad About Multiples and is part of the Double Click Tuesdays photo series.
I love my stroller. And it's not that I love all strollers, or even strollers in general, I just love my stroller. I agonized over choosing a stroller when we found out we were having not one more baby (as planned) but two. All of a sudden, my thoughts of just slinging the baby and strolling the toddler went out the window and I knew I'd have to have seats for at least two precious little bottoms.
I read comparisons of side-by-side versus tandem seating, watched video clips on ease of fold up, measured the trunk and thought long and hard about grocery shopping and the room needed for a double stroller. My husband wanted real tires (I agreed) and I wanted something the babies could ride in before they could sit up (I wasn't interested in carting bucket seats around--I had a snap'n'go for that). We both wanted something rugged and durable. We chose a Bumbleride Indie Twin after months of poking around and seeing what was out there.
We brought the stroller home when the twins were three months old, and never looked back. That stroller has been a part of more adventures and family pictures than I can count. When our oldest was involved in home preschool I loved to call the littles our "stroller brigade" as we wheeled through museums, hiked trails, and spent time at the park. I'm almost embarrassed to say my girls were late walkers (15 and 17 months respectively) because the stroller was so darn easy to use for me and comfortable for them.
But. They did learn to walk and I started to let them. The beginning of the end for my lovely Bumbleride was the purchase of a "light-weight" (heh) double umbrella for "quick trips". And then forgetting to put the big stroller back in the car, and then, just, walking or using a shopping cart to contain the madness. Last year I tried to bring the stroller back and walk with two 3-year-olds in the stroller and my 5 year-old along side to school. A short lived plan as everyone kind of hated it.
And so now my lovely double stroller sits in the garage. My little girls are not that little anymore. We manage all day trips to Gilroy Gardens with nothing more than a backpack and 3 pairs of good walking shoes. We had a wonderful vacation over the summer where the trunk was not filled to the brink with the double wide bulk and no one missed it. I will always love the freedom it gave me in those first crazy years, but I think it's time to pass it on to another family, who are ready to stroll.
Speaking of passing your stuff on, don't forget that the annual Gemini Cricket Garage sale is coming up on September 15. Members, if you want to sell please check out Big Tent for contact details. Shoppers, we will be posting details closer to the date. And yeah, my double stroller might be making an appearance on the sales floor!