Signing Off

It has been quite a while since I last posted. The twins are now 18 months old and keeping us very busy! Between home life and work, I've had little time to keep this blog going, so for the time being I will be signing off. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my prior posts.

Update on the Twins

It has been a while since my last post. Time has flown by this year. Where did the summer go? It's hard to believe the twins are already 9-1/2 months old! At this stage in my new parenting life, I would say I have settled in much more to the busy pace since the twins were born, and it seems more normal now. I can no longer seem to imagine all the free time my wife and I had prior to the twins.

The twins now each have their 2 bottom front teeth coming in. They are also moving around much more all the time. They are both crawling everywhere and pulling themselves up to a standing position. It probably won't be long until they start walking.

Upset Children in Public

I was recently on a few airline flights. On a couple of those flights, there were young children (toddler or younger) who got upset at some point during the trip. On past flight experiences, I have found myself become frustrated with the noise, especially if it continued for a long period. Since having my own children, that has changed. During my recent flights, I found myself feeling sympathetic instead for the child and their parent / caregiver who was trying to calm them. I assume this to be similar for many parents. This is just one aspect of myself that has changed since becoming a father.

Growing Up Quickly

The twins are now just over 7 months old. They have been growing and developing so much. John is fairly easy-going, unless he is hungry or tired, and likes to be the one to 'sit-back' and watch everything around him. Ava on the other hand, is constantly moving around and is in the early stages of crawling now. She wants to constantly be entertained. She doesn't even nap as long as John does. We think Ava will be the trouble-maker in the future. We already need to keep a close eye on her when she is playing.

The Strength and Love of my Wife

It was a long and difficult road from when we first decided to have children until the twins arrived. Over the course of around 5 years, we had periods where we couldn't conceive, and we had a total of 3 miscarriages. For me, these were some of the toughest times in my life. There were very hard times, but we pulled through with the hope that we would someday have children. Sarah never gave up and had the strength to keep moving forward.

We were then given the blessing of twins, however it has been a major life change and hasn't been without challenges. Sarah cares for them throughout the day while I am at work. If they are unhappy, she soothes them. If they are hungry, she feeds them, and caters to all their other needs. They have lots of developmental play-time throughout the day while she interacts with them or watches over. She finds time to get housework done, and barely has time for a rest. She soothes them during the night if they wake up unhappy, and each morning she wakes up to do it all again. I help out when I am home, but I can never keep up with the amount she provides to our babies. The amount of strength and love she provides to the twins is more than enough for them to develop and live joyful and fulfilling lives. Our children are blessed with having Sarah as their mother.

When a Growth Stage Ends, Another Begins

When raising children, the stages of their growth are always changing. Just when you think you have a good routine in place and the babies are doing well on this schedule, something changes. This becomes difficult with twins (or more), as just when you have a good routine and schedule in place, they reach a point in their growth where something changes and you need to adjust the routine. For example, our twins where being fed formula in bottles up until a few weeks ago where they started on some food. Another example is moving their bedtime earlier if they aren't napping well during the day (but they may only be going through a stage and the bedtime will need adjustment again in the near future). Changes to their daily schedules will also impact your own. I feel it's important to keep routines in place from day to day, especially with raising twins, even if the routine needs continuous adjustment.

The Twin Dad Survival Guide by Sean Patrick Thompson

Some key points in this article written by Sean Patrick Thompson:
http://www.twiniversity.com/2013/12/the-twin-dad-survival-guide/