Formerly - A look at the ups and downs of life with a double pushchair!

Thursday 1 January 2015

The fun that is 5

I have been so busy over the past few months that I have neglected my blog post, but it would be remiss of me if I didn't use the occasion of A and E's 5th Birthday to write an update.

Life is always hectic and it's hard to take a step back and look at what is happening right now in our lives.  I'm not sure where the past five years have flown. As a family we have certainly made some major changes to our lives and it's pretty true to say that we are all in a very good place right now.

Eldest daughter is on the brink of turning 12 and celebrating her Bat-Mitzvah. Boy in the middle has found his place in his class and is integrating well into the Israeli society around him. And then we look at A and E.

They are a bundle of fun, a team, a continuous challenge and an honour to parent.

They have their best friend with them all the time. Bath-time is just so much fun when you have your twin to make a bridge so you can slide underneath.  Buying treats is brilliant as you each choose something different and then you can share two things.  And we can never just watch one episode of Charlie and Lola or read one bedtime story, they each have to choose one.

And every day they bring their best friend home from nursery and role play together for hours, play with all the toys and entirely destroy the playroom. The games are always extremely complex but they both know exactly which role they are playing and when I start telling them that it is actually time to have a bath and go to bed they tend to answer me with "No we haven't got to that bit yet, we are just going to nursery" or "don't worry Mummy it will end with bath-time and bed-time".

So now we move further away from the toddler years and with that Peppa Pig is making much less of an appearance in our lives. We tackled the final challenge of being dry during the night which we had put off for far too long. When you have one child it's not such an issue to double layer the bed and carry one sleeping child to the bathroom in the night before going to bed. But the thought of the possibility of two wet beds and the huge piles of washing of duvets had put me off for a while.
Anyway, so far so good and my washing hasn't increased that dramatically.

Their personalities are shining through more and more each day.  Recently they both received a present of some spending money in an envelope. They both opened the envelope at the same time and took out the contents. A took one look, threw the note on the floor and screamed "that's not a present" but E reassured her and said "No it is a present, we take this to the shop and buy things with it!"

And now I'm off to bed exhausted, worrying and feeling guilty about the fact that I have only made one Hello Kitty cake for tomorrow. Should I have made two?