Author: Isolde

This week I took the girls to a twins and multiples playgroup. And I also had some time alone with Lara, which is a rare event. This week was a week for reflecting on the shared experience of life as a twin (and the parent of twins) and experiencing what being a parent of one might be like. The twins playgroup was actually similar to any other playgroup: little children and babies of various ages playing in the sandpit, some driving child-sized plastic cars, others drawing on an outside blackboard with chalk. It wasn’t even like those documentaries you see…

Last weekend we took the girls on their second plane trip and went to a wedding. The girls aren’t too far behind me in the wedding stakes, relative to our ages: I’ve been to nine weddings now (including my own), and this was their second one. It wasn’t like any of the others I’ve been to though. For one thing, the festivities continued over three nights. For another, it was the first multi-racial, Muslim wedding I’ve attended, with the bride and groom being of Uzbek and Pakistani origin. The first night was the mehndi, a Pakistani pre wedding celebration involving…

Some days, like those days when the girls are sick and seem to cling to me all day, whinging and eating at my patience, a test of endurance for which I am even less well-prepared because I was up with them several times the previous night; days like this nothing seems to distract them for long, it’s a challenge to get some food in to them at mealtimes and I am stuck for inspiration just when I need it most. Today was such a day, and there have been a few of them recently with the girls having snotty colds…

Apart from babies, the main thing that the girls are obsessed with at the moment is the car (‘dar’ in two-year-old speak).  It’s an old grey Volvo station wagon, not flash but sturdy, safe and just as you’d expect from a Volvo, consistently reliable. Rhea and Lara love scrambling around inside the car from the boot to the front seat, pretending to drive it, rummaging around the glove box and storage area for cassettes (yes, it’s a pre CD model) and pressing all the buttons they can reach on the dashboard. When I say they love it, I mean they…

Two Girls –          How old are you? –          I’m doo! Yes it’s been two years already. And the girls had their birthday party on their birthday last weekend. It was an overcast, cold wintery day just like it was when they were born. We invited all of the girls’ special friends: Grandma and Grandpa; Heidi, their nanny; Godparents Di and Andy and a new friend for them since their last birthday – Helen, who goes with me and the girls to galleries on Tuesdays, who came with her partner Sam. Grandpa was overseas visiting cousin Oli, aunty Maggie and uncle…

–          When is Maggie coming back from overseas? I was having a chat with my sister’s friend from school at the Farmer’s Market stall where she and her husband sold hot, thin crêpes, patés and cheeses. We exchanged inquiries about our children and then, flipping a crêpe while glancing at her waiting customers, she moved on to ask about my wider family. –          And Marcus, does he have kids? No? Lives the bachelor life does he, good for him. No ties yet  ha ha. It’s sometimes difficult for people to have even the vaguest concept of what Marcus’s life is…

The acquisition of language is one of the great miracles of life. Building up to a working vocabulary of tens of thousands of words over a lifetime, the early stages are great fun to observe. Here are some of Lara and Rhea’s favourites – 10 words you can’t live without. 1. More     Like little sparrows, you know when they liked something – whether it’s food, breastmilk or a swing at the playground. 2. Me/mine      This one came pretty early and is used pretty often. So much for sharing and caring: it’s always about me. 3. Nuh       As in: –         …

Lara seems to call it ‘ice’ – I don’t know why – and Rhea doesn’t call it anything in particular. But they both understand ‘time for milk!’ and come running. Approaching the age of two, breastfeeding is a routine part of their lives. Breastfeeding has been a slow process of adjusting to the girls’ rhythms as they learnt how to do it then dropped from six feeds every 24 hours (plus one expressed feed administered by Steve)  to currently  two. I am contemplating dropping down to one feed a day. The prospect prompts me to reflect on how our feeds…

I’ve been back at work now for eight months already. I’m working three days a week, so now during the course of a week the girls are cared for by a variety of people. On Mondays and Tuesdays I look after them. No more dreading Monday mornings: we go to Playgroup. The interaction with other little kids is good for the girls (mostly – see Playground Blues) and there are heaps of toys there. The structured activity, contained play area and supportive environment also make it easier for me. Monday afternoons we play at home and I often take them…

Lara: We went on holiday. We drove for a long time to get there. Rhea: And when we arrived there were people everywhere. Lara: We caught lots of buses. Sometimes that wasn’t fun because I wanted to get out of the pram. I said ‘up’ but mum and dad didn’t get me up. Rhea: They didn’t get me up either. Lara: We went to the beach. We ran around and mum and dad chased us. We jumped up and down in the waves, wearing our swimmers and swimming nappies. That was fun. Rhea: But I didn’t like it when they…