It's all change in our house

The six month honeymoon period of emigrating to a new country and spending our mornings in intensive Hebrew classes along with getting to know the country and making new friends has most definitely ended. It's not a bad thing. Change is often for the better.

Eldest daughter and Boy in the middle finished their Hebrew classes and found themselves in mainstream regular school suddenly having to learn all their subjects in Hebrew and chat to their friends in Hebrew.

A and E are now by far the most fluent in Hebrew. They are in daycare until 4pm so I decided that the time had come after 3 years of being a full time stay at home Mum to find employment. The downside of employment in Israel is that most jobs are full time. The part-time working Mum culture hasn't really made it's way here yet.

Hesitant at what I may find having been out of full time work for so long I searched for jobs in the Conference sector and unbelievably found work just 20 minutes away in a large conference company.

Full time hours are 08.30-17.00 which is a massive change for me but even greater for DH who now works a full time job from home and is in charge of all the school runs! A and E are very accepting that Daddy is in charge of making them supper every day and the agreement so far is that when I get home I am in charge of the kids and DH can go back to work in his basement office!

It's a major change for all of us but one that so far seems to be working. I say so far but I am now just starting my second week and the big two have just broken up for a 2.5 week vacation. A and E have just had a huge infection of headlice and A is recovering from a 30 hour vomiting bug which E seems to just be starting!

As I said it's all change. I'm off to work in the morning and Daddy daycare will very much be in charge.

Sync or swim!

I'm going to sound really old now but it's quite startling how our kids are completely au fait with technology.

Eldest daughter just turned 10 and we got her a very cheap monthly sim which she has in the Nokia handset that used to belong to my Mum. Before her birthday I set up the phone for her by clearing the handset and putting on a nice opening greeting for her. Concerned that she may have been hoping for some sort of smartphone, we were thrilled to see that she was over the moon to have got her own form of communication. Within minutes she had navigated through the handset, changed her ringtone, played the one available game of snake and nodded profusely when I explained she only has 60 texts a month and 60 minutes of talk time.

So far so good with the phone except she does tend to call Grandpa for a chat most days during break time and if I am 5 seconds late in arriving to collect her from a party, school or ballet she has called me!

Boy in the middle is probably going to turn out to be a computer whizz. He is happiest when he has an electronic gadget to play on or fiddle with. His favourite item is the DS but if that gets confiscated (fairly often) he can navigate the IPad, PC, Wii and recently I have found him reading a book with DH's iPod plugged into his ears so he can listen to Gangnam style!

Even A and E get to join in and it is clearly a sign of the times when during their imaginative play I hear them say, "I just need to send this email then I'll do it" or "I can't download that game as the memory is full" or the best is "We can do it later but first we have to Skype Grandma".

I can now leave them with my iPad (in it's protective case) and they can navigate Channel 5 and watch Peppa Pig together for hours! When my Dad comes round he brings his iPad with him and when I asked him to look after A and E for a few minutes last week while I went to collect the older two, I came home to find the girls sitting on one sofa face-timing my Dad across the room!

A and E are also keen to take my smart phone if they get the opportunity. Just last week E was playing a toddler memory game on my phone one morning. Suddenly I saw she wasn't playing the game but was in my text section. I grabbed the phone and discovered that she had managed to send a text to one of my Mum's friends inviting her to download "what's app" so they could keep in touch. It's important to add at this point that I am using the old sim card that used to belong to my Mum and I haven't deleted all of her contacts yet.

Not wanting to cause unnecessary harm and potential heart failure to my Mum's friend who may have got the fright of her life wondering how my Mum was managing to communicate from "the other side", I quickly sent a follow up message with an apology!

I guess I have realised that it won't be long before our kids use of technology overtakes ours and they will be showing us how to sync or swim!

Two become three!

I suppose it's only normal to take stock and observe one's surroundings on a birthday or anniversary and so I really couldn't let the 3rd Birthday pass without a blog posting.

They may be 3 years old now but even this evening DH declared "can you believe we have two of them"? I think it will be something we will wonder for the rest of our lives but we are also extremely thankful and proud to be part of the very special club of "twin parents".

So the burning question I get asked on an almost daily basis is "Isn't it easier now they are 3?"
Easier? I always wonder what people mean when they say this.

It's true that certain things have become easier. They are toilet trained and the nappy changing days are almost long forgotten. They are in nursery every day so I don't have to be creative for the entire 13 hours of the day that they are awake. They sit on normal chairs and eat normal food and play normal toddler role play games and dressing up. They chat continuously and are often very entertaining company.

(Now here's the but that you could sense was coming)

However, I still have to consider where to park the car in order to get them both out safely, I still have to consider whether I have the mental energy to take two 3 year olds shopping, and the tidying up of toys in the house has reached entirely new levels. They still wear a nappy/diaper at night, still drink milk from a sippy cup at night, still suck a pacifier/dummy whenever I am not looking, and love nothing more than working as a team to do something fun.

In the past few weeks they have drawn on the walls, kitchen table, bedside tables, pyjamas, jeans and our brand new bright orange beanbag, often in impossible to remove permanent pen. They have come up with some sort of wierd twin dance arrangement which they suddenly felt the need to perform at a friends house the other day. They play mummy and baby at any given opportunity and they always know who's turn it is to play which role. They may have some special twin words that they use but it's hard to tell if it's a mixture of Hebrew and English given their current daily environment in an all Hebrew speaking nursery and all English speaking home.

The main thing that I will say has got a lot easier though is the wonderful way in which they play together. For them it seems that life is one long permanent play date and unlike with eldest daughter and boy in the middle where I always had to play the part of the patient, shopkeeper, waiter, baby, mummy etc, I can now leave them to get on with their role play as a perfectly matched pair!

So as I wonder what the coming year holds in store for my beautiful girls I know there are some milestones we have to get through. They have to lose the dummies, they have to get dry at night and most importantly they have to carry on being best friends.

For me, I am in the enviable position of having two cute inquisitive 3 year olds to love and nurture and teach about the joys of life that surround us.

Happy Birthday A and E!

Mum of the Year award?

You know it's nearly the end of the year when everywhere you turn there are countdowns on TV, in the papers and magazines reflecting the past year. Recently I have read various postings from Mum׳s of twins who feel parents of singletons really don't get what it's like to parent twins and it got me thinking who would be up for awards for Mum of the Year?

Would it be Mum's of only children, Mum's of twins or multiples, Mum's of sick children, Mum's of many children? What makes a good Mum and who would get an award?

Until I became a parent I had no idea what being a Mummy entailed other than knowing that I wanted to emulate the amazing upbringing and foundation in life that my dear Mum (z"l) gave me. I must have made countless "Best Mum of the year" cards, certificates, bracelets, mugs for her over the years and every one was true. I knew that I wanted to have lots of kids to teach, love, hug and bring into this fun but crazy world. Having one baby was tough. I spent a lot of my time in pyjamas and never really worked out why it took 2 hours to leave the house. By the time my twins came along I could get 4 children out of the house in record time.

For me this time of year is always very special as the 2nd January is my gorgeous girlies birthday and unbelievably they are about to be 3 years old. I still remember as if it was only yesterday being told in the Harley Street clinic that I was going to bring identical twins into the world. DH and I still sometimes say to each other "Can you believe we have twins?"

I look back fondly at the baby stage of their lives when they were able to gurgle cutely on a play-mat and if I left them for a moment they wouldn't move and certainly couldn't take a red felt tip pen and draw all over the playroom walls like they did today.

A and E come home from nursery every day like a whirlwind, a force to be reckoned with but they are also great company. There is rarely a dull moment when they are around. On Sunday we got home from a trip to the Dead Sea. It had been a great day and the girls had slept in the car all the way home. When I got them home I woke them up, carried them individually up the 26 steps to the front door of our house and tried to convince them it was dinner time.

Well 2 years olds are known for their ability to have tantrums and clearly my gift after taking them out for the day was to have a tantrum in stereo. They both screamed, lay on the floor, kicked and demanded that I hold them. Neither of them wanted DH it had to be me. So in the end I did my best to sit on the sofa with them both. Neither of them were impressed as they wanted both my knees and both my arms around them. Somehow we got through it. It took approximately 45 minutes (which gave DH time to make dinner) and eventually peace resumed in the house.

So does any of this constitute me being awarded Mum of the Year award? Sometimes I feel more like a police constable (telling them off), shepherdess (rounding them up), judge (deciding who really is to blame and doling out the appropriate punishment) as well as chief cook and bottle washer and laundry maid.

But really I think that all Mum's do an amazing job and I know if we were to ask our kids who they would vote for in a Mum of the Year contest we would all be chuffed at their response which reminds me I really should treasure (and keep ) all the cards and awards I get from my amazing kids.

Divide and conquer

I feel like I have been holding my breath all week but looking back now I can honestly say that they have survived and I can take a huge sigh of relief. I might add that they haven't just survived but they have positively blossomed.

After a tentative discussion last week that they would be moving onto separate tables, Sunday morning came, and DH and I both took A and E in to nursery. It is fair to say that we were both far more nervous than they were.

They were greeted as usual by extremely cheerful staff. We each took a child and deposited them with the correct teacher, gave them a hug and retreated towards the door. Nothing unusual about our departure, their heads were titled downwards, they were clutching their bunnies and dummies and we left.

Day one didn't quite go according to plan as Toddler A had an accident in the toilet and they called me to come and get her during sleep time. By the time I arrived toddler E was awake and so we all left!

By the second day E confidently showed me her new drawer and where she now kept her water bottle. By the third day I was enjoying pick up time more as I now had two very excited teachers competing to tell me details about their charge!

It feels great to actually be able to discuss them as the individuals that they are. The new teacher who has toddler E is always very animated to tell me that E is very very very happy. By Wednesday morning toddler A arrived in nursery to be greeted with a huge hug from a little boy.

E in turn seemed to have befriended a little girl who wears pink a lot who perhaps reminds her of her sister!

When I arrive to collect them each day it feels like the room lights up as A and E come running from different sides of the room to greet me.

They may sit at different tables but they still do lots of activities together and I think it's fair to say that they have coped and the change hasn't affected them too dramatically after all. Every day at home I do notice they like to hug each other and jump on each other seemingly more than they used to. Occasionally they claim they are going to have a sleepover together by which they mean in the same bed as the metre apart they sleep maybe a little bit too far. If these are the main changes then I say well done all round.

We wanna be together!

To separate or not? This is the major question of the week in our family. Should we or shouldn't we split the girls up at nursery?

Ever since we discovered we were expecting twins we always said we would do our best to ensure they develop as individuals and not as a pair. Over the past couple of years we have heard all sorts of extreme stories of families who emblazoned their doorframe with signs such as "there is no one called twins in this house!" to watching a programme on the worlds most identical twins to see one pair of identical twin girls married to the same one man!

DH and I really want to allow A and E to grow and blossom as individuals but they are twins, they are the same age and obviously they do things together. So much so that I do refer to my kids as the big two and the little two.

So tomorrow is a major day in their lives. After two months of settling into an all Hebrew speaking nursery, being in the same group and sitting for meals on the same table, we have taken the enormous decision to split them up. The notion came from the nursery staff as they were concerned that they only play together and don't talk to any other children. Since they don't actually speak the same language as the other children we felt this was completely normal. After a few discussions together and with the nursery staff we have come to realise that although it may be tough for a few days it will be the right decision.

So following a meeting yesterday we have decided to split them up as from tomorrow. I feel a little trepidation for them both. I broached the subject with them this afternoon. Toddler A is going to be staying on the table with the teacher that she is used to and didn't seem to mind the fact that sister E would be moving. Toddler E thought it would be fine to move to the other table as long as sister A could come with her! We didn't dwell on the subject for too long and we will see how they feel this time tomorrow.

It's a girl thing

Perhaps it's because there are two of them or perhaps it's just because they are girls, but I've been wondering how at the tender age of 2 and 3/4, A and E seem to already have such a large shoe collection!

They have sandals, crocs, more sandals, slippers, sensible shoes from England suitable for colder days and more sandals.

Before we left England for sunnier climes, I picked up two pairs of identical sandals on sale, as living in a hot country I presumed we could never have too many pairs. They are the same size and I never felt the need to identify them for a specific child. We also acquired two pairs of crocs in their size from two different families and so we now own 4 identical small purple crocs.

When we arrived in our new house there was no obvious place to keep shoes near the front door so I found a drawer in the playroom in which to keep A and E's footwear collection. On an average day I ask them to go and get their shoes and put them on ready for nursery. They don't see it as a major challenge and only once have they chosen to go to nursery wearing slippers and twice have I taken them out for the whole day to find A wearing two matching shoes, only what she didn't realise was that she was wearing two identical left shoes!

In my wisdom as a twin Mummy I decided that they would always have their own shoes which would be named inside and generally they do. They both have their own pair of fitted sandals - pink for A and purple for E. However E will only wear hers with socks since they once got covered in mud (although they are now as clean as new). A tends to chose a different option according to her mood of the day or to match the colour of her T-shirt or sometimes she favours the 2nd hand pair that used to belong to oldest daughter.

If you were to come past my house any morning at around 7.30 you are likely to hear me calling out to Dh, oldest daughter, or to boy in the middle to help me find any two shoes that will result in a pair. Just as lone socks frequently go missing, finding two matching shoes seems to be my daily challenge. There usually tends to be one hiding under the sofa, one in the bathroom and occasionally some are discovered in the shoe drawer.

The other day we were heading out to the park and as we were on our way I noticed E was wearing two right crocs and so I ran back to get a spare left one. I think people were counting my toddlers in the park and looking for a three legged child as i sat on the bench as they played in the sand with 5 shoes next to me. It was even stranger when A's sandals got covered in mud and she ended up coming home barefoot and I was carrying 3 spare shoes.

And so it was this morning that I took A and E to nursery. They had proudly dressed themselves entirely. I took a look at them as we were walking into the nursery building - one of them had her T-shirt on back to front, one had her shorts on inside out and they both had their sandals on the wrong feet!

Negligent mother? Or the independence of my gorgeous individual toddler girls?!