I think a great gift for new parents would be stock options in Band-Aid. Let’s face it: if you have a young kid, Band-Aids are practically an accessory. They come in different sizes and skin tones – though I still have to wonder who has a Sponge-Bob-patterned epidermis. In my early days of parenting, I […]
twins
Bizarre Baby Names
It all started off innocently enough. William had brought home a school library book entitled, A Porcupine Named Fluffy. This is a picture book that we used to own, but my twins have a Bachelors of Loving Things To Death and a Masters in Destroying Anything Else. Given their two advanced degrees, I had recycled […]
Fat in Thailand
There are stories that become part of a family’s lore. These are the stories that are pulled out at dinner parties like an old, time-tested joke. Even if people know the punchline, it’s a guaranteed laugh. The story of my husband taking our five-week-old twins for a stroll in our Bangkok neighbourhood may be one […]
Math, 100 Days, and the Drive to School
There are days when I feel that half a day has passed and it’s not even 8:15 a.m. Usually that thought hits me on the drive to school. Usually it’s in winter, after an endless search for a missing mitten. It’s a miracle if we all make it into the minivan without me threatening to […]
What Reality Shows Can Teach You about Parenting, Part 1
I wipe snot off the wall and proceed to scrape the remaining crusty boogers with my finger nail. This is what my evenings have become now that I have five-year-old twins. I have no time to do DNA analyses to determine which urchin is guilty. I still have to pack lunches, reply to half a […]
5 Funny Memories from the First 6 Months: Raising Twins in Bangkok
I’ve spent a couple days trolling through emails from 2004, the year our twins were born. We lived in Bangkok at the time, and email was the way we communicated with people from home. What is interesting is how little the base personalities of William and Vivian have changed in the five years that have […]
Dinner Tonight: Another Twenty Minutes with Twins
Musical chairs. Every night before the four of us sit down to eat, we play a game of musical chairs. Well, not really. There is no music nor is there a shortage of seats. Where we sit each meal, however, always changes. Vivian and William seem to delight in determining this nightly seating plan, declaring […]
Fair Is Fair: Funny Moments with William
Most twin parents are hypersensitive to the issue of fairness. The phrase “equal but different” has become a silent household philosophy. Since Vivian had her day in the sun last blog, I thought I’d share some William-isms from the past few weeks. He SAID what? “Mom, I just need some alone time.” Interpretation: I want […]
5 Resolutions Made by a 5-Year-Old
To the delight of parents everywhere – and to the consternation of teachers– this past week meant back to school. For Vivian, my daughter, the first day back in Kindergarten afforded her the opportunity to write resolutions using inventing spelling. She has five wishes for 2010, and her hopes make me both smile and cringe. […]
A “New” Year’s Tradition: Make Resolutions for the People You Love
It’s six days in. Six days since I started my Resolution of the Decade: drinking eight glasses of water each day. This was something I used to do on an hourly basis when I lived in Bangkok. It’s harder to drink water in the freezing Canadian winter, but I soldier on, imbibing H20 like it’s […]