Twin Life - it Gets Harder As It Gets Easier

A few months ago I was listening to Girl Next Door podcast and the host said "it got harder as it got easier" about a rather stressful medical situation and that phrase stuck with me about twins.  Now, I'm not trying to compare twins to a stressful medical situation, and I acknowledge and appreciate how lucky I am to have two healthy toddlers (2.5 years old now!) and a generally uncomplicated pregnancy and involved husband and good home life etc.  

But also, twins are hard.

Andy recently noted that the optics of twins is great - it is adorable! two little people! they talk to each other and sometimes play together.

We look insanely cute when we are being cute doing stuff as a family. 

If you want an instagram life, you can definitely craft one with twins (as in, you can definitely make it look good for instagram with a #MajorFilter)

When the twins were babies people helped us because we were helpless.  A neighbour walked the big kids to school because I couldn't manage to leave the house.  Friends came and watched the 5 year old at times.  People dropped off food.  None of it was enough to make having newborn twins not basically awful, but it did make having newborn twins basically survivable.

And then things get easier.  Twins sleep at night.  They actually slept better than my daughter did at almost any age.  

When the twins could climb into their own Tripp Trapp chairs it was so much easier than when they were babies.  No lifting.  They can eat at the table with us.  It got easier! But also, because there are two of them, sometimes they finish at the same time and climb down and I can only wipe down one at a time and I just hope I pick the stickiest one before the other covers my house with grime.  It's harder.

We switched carseats from rear facing bucket seats to the sitting 5 point harness seats.  I didn't have to lift 30lbs of toddler into the seat and they could see out the window and we could actually fit things into the car finally without giant seats taking up all the space.  But also, they can both climb in and out and sometimes refuse to get in and sometimes mess with seatbelts (not their own, the one seatbelt that isn't attached to a carseat).  Getting two toddlers in the car is more than twice as hard as getting one in the car because one is always roaming or doing something chaotic while I'm helping the other.  It got harder as it got easier.

Yesterday Clara discovered the joys of climbing out of her crib.  Over and over she ran out of her bedroom laughing at naptime.  She also wanted to practice climbing in, and for the first time ever I was worried one of my kids would break their leg on the crib.  My other kids never climbed out with this much joy, or with this much physical awkwardness.  We "decided" (ie, it felt inevitable) to embark on the next challenge... beds:

Aubrey is very excited for her bed

They generally slept 7pm-6:30am.  Last night bedtime went on until 8pm.  They were up at 5:30am (although they are still in their room, 20 minutes later).  I am not sure how naps are going to go today, or if they will happen at all.   With one kid, we never had trouble keeping naps while in beds.  With two, they mess with each other.  Aubrey would be so good at this change.  Clara is a troll (or, more kindly, Clara is a future disrupter and innovator!)

Things that got easier with one get harder with two.

I annoy myself with the following thought: If the twins stay up to 8 and wake up at 5:30 and don't nap then how can I fit every household responsibility and grown-up joy into that 9.5 hours?  And also put my other two kids to bed? And clean up dinner? And read? 

Yesterday, after twins failed to nap, and therefore I failed to workout, I noted that I just needed to figure out how to fit my 45 minute peloton workout into 15 minutes.  

That basically feels like my life.  Expansive time with two year old toddlers, ever diminishing time to be a human adult.

But I know it will get easier. And harder.