Still 9 months

Nothing can prepare you for raising twins.

Not that I've raised a singleton, nor higher order multiples. I assume nothing can prepare a person for parenting in general, either. But there is something, there must be something, unique about twins, beyond the obvious.

It's not one baby, and it's not triplets etc. when there are so many babies crawling around you can lose track. It's just two. But it's twice the diapers, twice the giggles, twice the tears, twice the kisses...it seems to me, as hard as it is, that it is the perfect number. I have two arms for holding them, two hands for two simultanious tasks (because yes, it is possible to change one baby while preparing a bottle for the other), and enough going on that I am never, ever bored.

Today involved some reorganizing of the living room, aka play room, aka Twin Land. Eliana has learned how to open doors, drawers, and pull books off shelves, so our Judaica collection has exchanged places with the kids books. I have a picture of Eli playing with those I took on my phone that I'll post soon.

Shawn's Adam CalicoVision (does anyone want it? PLEASE!?) has finally be moved into storage in the girls' closet and our games have replaced it under the TV stand.

Now that the fish are both dead, and Eliana has already pulled Doug's old tank off the end table, cracking the tank and spilling the stones everywhwere, all olkd fish paraphenelia has been moved much, much higher till we can give the stuff away. So now the end table is lcean, clear, and kid-friendly.

The floor play mat and both bouncy seats have been washed and retired and now live wraped well in plastic bags above the girls' closet till next needed with future children. The swing will be joining them soon enough, though heaven knows where we'll find room for that. I can't WAIT for our building to finally build underground storage rooms, something we're hoping might happen in the next two or three years (probably just in time for us needed all the baby stuff again, but oh well).

Next up is something we've been holding off on but see we really need: a baby gate. The two giant duffle bags full of old clothes to doneate that we have been uisng to barracade off the living room have just about been conquered with their excellent climbing tecniques, so a real gate will be bought this week. They don't seem to have the old, basic wooden ones anymore, instead the basic cheapy ones have a door and everything, which is pretty cool.

Overall I'm glad it hasn't been all that difficult to make our home this kid-friendly. It's obvious there are children in this house, but it's a homey, comforting kind of obvious. The foam puzzle mat that occupies half the living room (BEST investment ever!!!! If you have kids, you really should have this. Not only is it fun, it cusions their falls and saves our asses, quite literally, when we spend the entire day sitting on the floor being crawled on by two very very very active babies) is faded and worn, covered in toys that I try to pack away each day though that doesn't always happen. The shelving unit has plastic bins overflowing with kids toys, unless I didn't, as often happens (see above) manage to get them put away for the day. The clean high chairs stacked by the porch door attest to our comfortable routine of regular feedings (well, it's scholing if any of the food manages to make it into their mouths, considering how much I sweep off the floor every day!). It's especially nice on shabbatm, when they just get whatevr we're having (last night we had minestrone soup and they rather enjoyed the carrots, some pita bread, potatoes, and Eli liked the olives Shawn was eating...and we got a kick out of the panicked face Bracha gave at tasting them. I guess she takes after her Ima in not liking olives). Today we have veggie chollent (yay two pot shabbat!) and they really liked the carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and tofu.

Anyhow, this really got long. Basically what I wanted to try and share was the incredible feeling of watching two babies experince the world at the same time. Two reactions to every new expirience and taste and best of all, the very very best thing about having twins, is thre built in best friends.

People ask me if they interract. I guess this is what I wanted to get to in the begining of this long, rmabling post. I'm suprised at how often I get this question.

At first I think they didn't realize they were two seperate people. They'd reach out, grab the other's hand, and put it in their own mouth. They'd swipe at each other's faces and crawl over each other in their crib.

But now, wow!!! They'll look for each other and laugh when they found their sister. They'll crawl towards each other, pull on each other's hair/ear/clothing, and babble and screetch at one another. Their favorite game is "steal the plug," where Bracha pulls it out of Eliana's mouth and sucks and chews on it, Eliana grabs it back, and repeat ('plug' is our name for a pacifier. Only Eli uses one).

Being a monther of twins is incredible. Exhausting, frustrating, and exasperating, but absolutely wonderful.

ps-sorry for the typos, spell check isn't working and I'm a terrible speller. But I'm deamn good at making babies!