Monday, October 22, 2012

Twins are awesome and so is my singleton

Almost every day I think to myself or say to Mike, 'I am so glad we have twins'

It is great, it really is.

Everytime they are up in their room laughing at one another, taking turns with their toys, walking somewhere together, helping each other get something done, playing together, talking to each other, copying each other, or hugging each other I know that all the craziness involved in having two two year olds is worth it.



Almost every day I think to myself or say to Mike, 'Cosette is so sweet, I love her so much'

She is great, she really is.

She is so easy going, loves to laugh at her sisters, fireman crawls all over the place, pulls herself up on things and says mum mum mum when she wants me.

I love all my girls to bits.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Potty Training Twins - The Three Day Method

This is the post I was looking for before I potty trained. Maybe it will help you! It is about everything I wanted to know before I started training my twins.

I was not excited about potty training but I WAS excited about not having three kids in diapers, so I surged forward. We had started with having them sit on their potties every once in awhile and it was going nowhere. I read up on the three day method but was too cheap to buy the book that you can get that explains everything you need to know. What I could figure out without paying was that essentially you switch to no diapers cold turkey, spending three days focused on getting anything you can in the potty, watching the kid like a hawk and sitting them on the potty whenever necessary.

I was still left with questions.

One or two potties? Two. for when they both need to sit at the same time

Where to buy underwear? I bought some at Children's Place which are super cute and look the most comfortable, they are really expensive though so I just bought one pack. I then looked at Superstore but they only had size 3+ and my girls are little so that would not work. I then went to Walmart, which I generally avoid, and found some size 2-3 Fruit of the Loom ones that look almost as comfortable as the Children's Place ones and are much cheaper. I went back later for more and they were out of stock so I bought George brand. Mistake. They fit very poorly, I am going to just throw them out and go get more Fruit of the Loom ones.

Can I do this by myself? Most things I could find online said that even when training one child an extra set of hands is a good idea, so with twins having two is basically essential and three would be good. Well, I thought I would call someone in or start on a weekend but that wasn't really working out so I started during the week when I was the only adult at home.

Here is what worked for me.

Prep:
Take out the rug from the living room and the girls room, this left me with hardwood/tile everywhere.
Buy Lysol wipes
Buy underwear
Buy two potties
Put bag of rags where they are handy
Take out any toys that can't be washed and I don't want to be wrecked
Make a diaper box into a 'box table' that I don't care if it gets wrecked
Buy plastic covers for mattresses (also from Walmart)

Day One:
Hype up wearing underwear, talk about not getting it wet
Explain they get treats for peeing in the potty, treats included fruit bars, fruit penguins, penguin crackers, raisins, granola bars. etc.
They get two treats for pooping
Sit on the potties essentially as much as possible, they sat in the living room with their box table in front of them and we read books, did puzzles, played with a memory game, coloured, did anything that involved sitting
Drink juice/water/milk. More drink, more chances to practice peeing
Right after they pee they could get up and play for 15 minutes or so then I would get them to sit down again
For meals we had potty picnics on the box table
Every success was a party, HOORAY! YOU PEED IN THE POTTY! GOOD JOB!
Every accident was not a huge deal, We don't pee on the floor, that is yucky, pee in the potty.
Rags + Lysol wipes + hardwood floors make for easy cleanup of accidents
There was some success, but they spent the whole day sitting, so part of me regretted starting by the evening because I didn't know when it would end
When they went into nap time I was going to put them in diapers but they said they wanted to stay in underwear and I wasn't going to push diapers on them if they wanted to wear underwear so I put their potties in their room and left them

Day Two:
Basically the same as day one, with longer breaks from sitting on the potty
Less accidents, but still quite a few
Treats were downsized, one penguin cracker (they are just like goldfish but penguin shaped) or one fruit penguin for peeing, fruit bar for pooping

By day four they wore skirts (not pants that they had to take off), the potties were still in the living room and they each had at least one accident per day

After about a week I let them wear pants, I would put diapers on them when we went out but they almost always came home dry

By two weeks I would leave them in underwear if we went out for under 2 hours, I took their potties out of the living room and put them upstairs in the bathroom or their bedroom. I was still watching the clock and reminding them to go most of the time. During quiet time I leave their potties in their room and they rarely have accidents. No more treats for peeing, just pooping.

It has now been about a month, maybe a little more and they are doing great! They rarely have accidents, I usually don't have to remind them to go, they just head upstairs on their own. They can usually still last a couple hours when we go out, I just tell them to go before we leave. They still get a fruit bar for pooping, I will drop that eventually but I am still just so happy every time I have to clean out a potty instead of a diaper. They are too big for that. They still sleep in diapers and wake up dry about half the time, they are generally sitting on their potties or have already sat on them when I go in to their room in the morning.

The three day method apparently works best for kids aged 15-27 months. I will definitely be training Cosette younger than the twins, it was a crazy couple days but so worth it when you don't have to change diapers.

Does that answer all your burning questions? Do you have more? Potty Training is all about the result, no matter how you do it it is not that fun but the end justifies the days of cleaning up pee off the floor. So go buy some Lysol wipes and train your toddler(s)! You will be glad you did.





Sunday, October 14, 2012

Dropping Naps

Because I know you were all wondering...here is a napping update. 

My twins have never been great nappers, they sleep great at night and that is more important so I don't really mind. They dropped to one nap earlier than alot of their friends and about a month ago they dropped to no naps.

While the thought of two year olds not napping may sound terrifying it is actually great. Before we dropped the nap they were having troubles falling asleep at night (like 'stay awake for 2 hours in bed' troubles) so one day I gave them some books and told them they didn't have to sleep during nap time. They caught on quick, most days they play in their room and read books, once or twice a week they will end up lying down and sleeping for a bit. Sometimes I have to go in and solve some argument about someone stealing a book or some equally devastating circumstance, but usually they work things out.

I thought the transition might be hard for them but they love it. As my sister would say, 'Sometimes change can make you change, and that is a good thing'

When they dropped their morning nap around 10 or 11 months (I can't quite remember right now) I thought that was so early, it wasn't. When Cosette naps twice my day is full of the dreaded tag-team napping so I quickly have switched her to one nap, she stays awake all morning, eats lunch and promptly goes to sleep for a couple hours.