Are all of us so short on time that this forum is dead?

[twowhat?]

I know I am. The kids don't go to bed until 9pm and require my full attention until then. I don't get a chance at doing dishes/cooking/picking up until after they are in bed. It's almost 10:30pm here. I'm just sitting down to eat my dinner (yep, we are STILL not able to eat dinner when the girls eat their dinner). I am hoping to be in bed by 11pm so that if I am lucky I might get 7 hours of sleep. Which is nowhere near the amount of sleep I actually need. Only to do it again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that...

Ack I just wasted a couple minutes here...

[fivi2]

lol - I have noticed the lack of new posts! Sorry things are so stressful right now!

We are still mired in discipline issues, but I always feel like mine are older than most of you guys'. (4.5) For the most part our issues don't appear to be twin related. They have totally switched though - my formerly compliant twin is now the one who tantrums all the time!

Still debating whether or not to add to our family...

Hope everything is going well for you all!

[WatchingThemGrow]

I'm going to pop in here and say yes. Although I'm not a twin mom, I've been taking care of another baby the same age as my DS2 - so basically b/g twins who are 11mos, plus my PTing 2yo and my newly 4yo. I can't imagine how you guys do it, esp. those who have 2 other DC to look after. Holey Moley, this is hard. They are fun to watch crawling around and playing though. I feel like a hall monitor since I kinda hang out in the hallway and watch them all mill about in different rooms.

[BeachBum]

Mine are 16 mo now....So much fun! But hard too....
Sleep is still our biggest struggle. I havent' STTN since before they were born. It sucks!

I also struggle to know how to handle a more physically agressive kid. One of mine always takes the other's toys away. I just don't know how often or if I should interfere. If the victim gets upset I usually step in, but if he just moves on to something else I usually let it go. Thoughts?

[fivi2]

Mine are 16 mo now....So much fun! But hard too....
Sleep is still our biggest struggle. I havent' STTN since before they were born. It sucks!

I also struggle to know how to handle a more physically agressive kid. One of mine always takes the other's toys away. I just don't know how often or if I should interfere. If the victim gets upset I usually step in, but if he just moves on to something else I usually let it go. Thoughts?

Well, my girls always take turns being the more aggressive one, so I usually let them work it out themselves. But if one were developing the pattern of always being dominant, I might feel the need to step in. I don't want them to develop that sort of dynamic, iykwim.

[Momof3Labs]

We're army crawling here. DD1 is starting to pull up, DD2 prefers to eat the dog's food (YUCK!!). Both eat like teenage boys - I can't believe the quantity of food that they can pack away. And still not sleeping through the night, though nights that they have a good dinner including some protein are usually better - one will usually wake twice, and the other once or twice. We keep on getting the advice to let them CIO but they are both persistent and tend to wake each other up when crying - plus the risk of the boys waking up!

Other than that, I'm trying to support my mom as she navigates the early days of her breast cancer diagnosis. Went to a surgeon's appt with her last week and got a better sense for what lies ahead. At a minimum, she needs a lumpectomy on both sides but it might turn into a mastectomy on one side (depending on how the next biopsy goes) - in that case, they'd recommend a double mastectomy. It sounds like so much for VERY small spots (no bigger than 1cm) caught very early but it has to do with location as much as size.

Finally, I'm trying to plan our first vacation with all four kids. Disney in December. My mom was going to go along to help (and I'm still going to plan to take her, even if she can't help as much, but hopefully the treatment will all be behind her by then). Just got a discount code for our dates so I need to call to make ressies. Can't decide whether we should do two rooms at a Value or spring for two rooms at POFQ or POR...

[TwinFoxes]

I havent' STTN since before they were born. It sucks!

WOW! I can't even imagine.

I also struggle to know how to handle a more physically agressive kid. One of mine always takes the other's toys away. I just don't know how often or if I should interfere. If the victim gets upset I usually step in, but if he just moves on to something else I usually let it go. Thoughts?

Mine take turns being the aggressor as well. If it's a really aggressive take away, I'll step in even if the other DD doesn't seem to mind. I don't want them to get the idea they can just grab things from other kids. But sometimes one will just kind of take it more casually. It seems more like forced sharing, if that makes sense, like one will realize the other wants it more, and is cool with that.

Our biggest struggle is lack of talking. They know some words, and some signs, but there's a lot of "gah" and "eh eh" in differing tones to get their points across. I'm pretty good at figuring things out, but it sometimes leads to a lot of frustration on all of our parts. Oddly, they are really good at animal sounds. They will do the sound instead of saying the name of the animal. Their sound vocabulary is very extensive, your basic cow, dog, cat, duck...but we've also included goose, elephant, penguins, rabbits and whales.

[fivi2]

Lori - sending positive thoughts your way (and your mom's way).

[TwinMama2B]

We're army crawling here.

Us too, well one is... the other prefers to just roll around and swivel on her tummy to get around. Pretty good sitters, but I swear I have the biggest complex every time I see other kids around their age doing WAY more. I know each baby develops differently, but I so often worry that we're not doing something right with them, that they should be full on crawling and pulling up, maybe cruising by now.

Still sleeping through the night mostly, but my roly-poly girl has done this off and on somewhat-asleep screaming 5-min routine, over and over for about an hour and then back to sleep. We've figured out to just leave her alone, or she really wakes up and then it's sleeping in the glider/recliner on us for the rest of the night.

[gatorsmom]

yeah, I am swamped here. It's not even that I have so much running to do with the older boys. Its just that I do not get anything accomplished when I am alone with the twins. Greenbean is VERY insistent about gettng my attention and loses his temper quickly and dramatically. So even just making a few phone calls is so hard. And if I don't give him my full attention immediately, he starts hitting Sisi. They are both in the terrible 2s full blast right now. Even the older boys do their best to avoid the ttwins. Whenever one of the twins wants something they are playing with, Gator and cha cha just say, "take it" and walk away. They know they'll get clobbered if they don't. And I do give time outs but if I gave them each one every time they deserved it, I'd never get ANYTHING done because they still don't sit still in time out. I have to hold them on my lap.

I dont think too many of my issues with Greenbean and Sisi are a twins thing. I think Greenbean in particular just going through something right now that i can't figure out. I usually post in the multiples forum when I have a twin-related issue.

It's weird how peaceful the house is when the twins are napping every afternoon. The boys and I play board games and have a great time. Thank GOD for those cribtents!!!!

Lori, I'm saying prayers for your mom. I've been where you are now and it's stressful and scary. Lots of prayers going to you and your mom.