Oil on the road!

Just as I pressed “Publish” on the previous post about turning the corner the vomiting began.  It was inevitable!  That will teach me to be ever so slightly smug and self congratulatory.

The bug hit the twins at speed.  ”I” started first followed a couple of days later by E.  As we contemplated a busy weekend with 3 pit stops, a party and a night away from home the projectile puke launched itself from her mouth all over the floor.  By the next morning the little bug had hidden itself away out of view for just long enough for us to think all is well again so we set off.  Theses bugs are clever little gits!

As we set off from the party with an hours drive ahead I started to fade.  As we pulled away from the traffic lights the interior of the car received an nice new covering.  A car brochure would have to call it “phlegmy beige”.  Stood in her nappy by the side of a busy A road “I” was stoic as we wiped her down with wet wipes and tipped the contents of the car seat onto the grass.

We literally exploded into the house of the poor people who were kindly putting us up for the night and within 5 minutes had filled up their dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier (Oh and introduced a new aroma into their house).  Never a dull moment when we come to stay!

The next day the little git of a bug had hidden itself away again and we had an afternoon in the garden and prepared the BBQ.  Just as the sausages landed on the table the bug lept to life again.  No descriptions I promise!

Like all racing drivers who come off at a tricky corner and redecorates the armco barriers:

“iI all happened so fast…I lost the front end and then span off at the corner.”

Indeed!

Turning a Corner?

 

It started a few days ago for me, a little earlier for Mrs B.  For the n’th day in a row the morning and breakfast shift passed with out incident.   All happily eating their Shreddies in their own bowls while consuming their daily fix of Ben & Holly / Peppa Pig.   All happy to say bye bye when we headed out the door to go to work with no histrionics or floods of tears.  Added to this a team trip to B&Q to buy some plants (nowhere better on a cold Sunday morning) was undertaken with out prams or fuss.

We have turned a corner or at the very least reached the apex in the bend of this part of the adventure!  The fact that the sun has returned and winter is fading out is also helping improve the mood of all.

For the last few days the team have been outside in the garden pottering about.  Granted there has been a gargantuan power struggle over who exactly has control of the pink car but in the main all are as happy as can be.  (I have no idea what is wrong with the identical red one but it is steadfastly ignored by all and sits in a quiet corner like a discarded character from Toy Story peering out of the shadows with its big melancholy eyes.)

I hate to even write down this for the fear of a vicious reprisal from those two best buddies “Sods Law” and “Too good to be true” but here goes. . . . . It is getting a little easier.

Of course there is every chance we will look back at this time, probably not too long from now, as the quiet before the real storm actually hit but for now we will enjoy the warmer weather and days outside.

Meltdown Time!

Our Leader is now two and a half and we are now into full nuclear melt down territory.  An outburst fitting for any self respecting megalomaniac can strike at any moment and pass through the house with the same speed as the shock wave from a 10 mega tonne bomb.  Luckily for us (and the fabric of the house) these attacks appear to be relatively short lived and sunshine and clear skies return as quickly as the mushroom cloud went up.

Things that have resulted in full blown meltdown recently are:

• Reading a Peppa Pig book at bed time.
• Not reading a Peppa Pig book at bed time.
• Putting milk on her shreddies.
• Not putting milk on her shreddies.
• Going out in the wrong car.
• Putting her Welly Boots on.
• Not putting her Welly Boots on.
• Cutting the sausage in half.
• Not cutting the sausage in half.
• Washing her hair (always).
• Watching the wrong Ben & Holly episode.
• Watching the right Ben & Holly episode.
• The twins taking her toys.
• The twins not playing with her / doing what she tells them.
• Going out side.
• Not going out side.

I could of course go on . . . and on . . . . and on.  Life is obviously very confusing for our little one and this rush of emotions must be hard to deal with.  I am not sure I am any better at it now myself (Mrs B nodding vigorously) to be honest!  The only tactic seems to be carry on as normal and attempt to distract away from the thermo nuclear attack!

Looking forward to the I & E stereo attacks!!

 

“Change is never good”

As they say on Soccer AM’s Yorkshire News “Remember. . .change is never good”  Our Leader would seem to agree.  In the last 2 months we have tried potty training and tried and sleeping on a bed.  One lasted almost 2 days and the other almost two weeks.

Excited at the prospect of disposing of her disposable nappies once and for all and stepping into her new pink peppa pig nappies Lily made the decision to start using the potty “all by herself”.  We even had one successful attempt.  After the first evening we embarked on the first day with “realistic” expectations but lucky for us high tailed it out the door and fled to the safety of work leaving C to handle the transition.  By the time we came home Our Leader was comfortably back in her nappy and very happy with the fact thank you very much.  Change is never good.

The second attempt at a breakthrough was a little more successful.  The sides came off the cot with help from Our Leader and her trusty screwdriver and all seemed well.  New books were unveiled at bed time and she even read them to herself. . .sort of.   After that all our skills of negotiation were called into action as Our Leader stood at the gate across the door issuing various demands in the manner of Arthur Scargill at a miners rally in 1985.  Our responses issued with the certainty of Mrs Thatcher responding to Arthur’s demands.  We had some times of peace but Our Leader is well versed in the dark arts of rhetoric and the inevitable conflict ensued.  Obviously stressed the “Christmas Cot” was brought out and all was quiet once more.  Her demands met a happy girl once again sleep followed with no complaints.  Change is never good.

We think our little girl still wants to be just that.  Our little girl.  After all her little sisters still get this privilege with no complaint.

Multiple Personalities

The girls are now absolutely all very strong personalities.  Our Leader is the self professed bossy cow (she calls herself this), I is now the confident little cheeky monkey and E is the huggy affectionate people person.

What is a little odd is that the twins seem to swap personalities now an again.  A few weeks ago I was very quiet and a little withdrawn watching the world go by from the safety of a quiet quarter while E was in the game mixing it up with L.  Now I is taring up the place with L and E is happier watching from the comfort of a nice warm knee!

I am sure they are just developing at different rates but it is amazing just how different they are given they are 99% genetically identical.  Nurture over nature.

Hello Again

Its been a while since I last posted anything.  E & I are now walking and shouting, Our Leader is a bossy as ever and we are still tired.  Its been hard but great fun . . . most of the time.

 

Twin Superstars

 

An odd thing happened on holiday in France.  As we slogged our way up the narrow and steep cobbled streets of St Emilion with a twin buggy and a toddler refusing to walk we ran into some Korean tourists.  Or I should say they spotted us, ran over to us and blocked our path.

For a few bizarre minutes all of our new best friends had their photographs taken with the girls, taken with each other and the girls or just of the girls.  We didn’t have any say in the matter!  The locals as you can imagine just looked on in bemusement!

I have no real idea why the sudden bombardment.  Maybe its due to the fact twins in East Asia are much rarer than in Europe.  In the UK the twin rate is one in every 70 pregnancies while in Korea, China and Japan its one in 250 pregnancies.

Or maybe they were just bored.  Who knows.  It was an odd 5 minutes!

Teddy gets the Treatment!!

At a party with Lily and she spots a nice looking packet of crisps.  Open them up and she takes one out.

“Teddy Bear!” Pointing at the crisp in her hand.

“Thats right Lily.  Well done”.

Teddy bear is then put in to her hungry mouth and its head snapped off!

“Oh no Daddy” she says pointing at the decapitated potato based food.

Next the left leg gets the treatment …”Oh no Daddy!”

The right leg then the torso swiftly follow with an “Oh no” after each.

The next unlucky Teddy is plucked from the bag to meet its fate.  The head is first to go again!

“Oh no Daddy . . . . . . .”

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well after a couple of weeks of sleepless nights, a few more grey hairs and breaking out in cold sweats at random intervals the day we had all been dreading had arrived.  Easyjet Flight EZ852 from Liverpool to Bordeaux.

The logistics team for this international troop deployment was of course the two of us plus K’s parents J & F.  After considering all scheduling options, and I mean ALL scheduling options, we arrived at the airport a good three and a half hours early.  Even by my standards (I like to be on the safe side) this is leaving plenty of time.

Checking in our bagage with lots apologetic of “we must be your worst nightmare” and “only one more car seat to go” to the personality devoid girl behind the desk was not actually too bad thanks to the expensive Speedy Boarding passes I bought in panic at the sight of the 2 mile long queue!

We are used to attracting attention when out on manoeuvres but people were looking at is with genuine alarm.  You could see it in their eyes “Oh god please let them be on someone else’s flight”.

Boarding was frenetic as you would expect!  Once on the plane sitting with the kids on our knees was more like a game of pass the parcel with children being passed around between the four of us until the go for take off.  Lily would be passed just a little bit more quickly than the twins just incased the musac stopped!

Once in position all went OK to be honest.  Feeding the girls their bottles on the way up certainly helped and the team worked hard to keep Our Leader entertained.  The flight just went on a little too long and everyone devoid of their lunch time nap became a little agitated.  The kids were fine though!

Just as we landed the twins went to sleep and Lily decided to exercise her lungs!  All in all not too bad.  A little bit fractious but it takes a bit of getting used to and on the return I would be a lot better!

 

 

The Fear….

K is selling a few of the twins things on eBay at the moment and it is time for the first twin pram to go (We are on our third I think!).  A very nice lady got in touch and asked how much to take it off your hands this weekend.

Mrs L turned up on Saturday afternoon to inspect the goods prior to shelling out the cash.  It was plain to see she was in a state of shock!  She told us with trembling hands and a slightly manic stare that her husband and 21 month old son were waiting in the car outside. She told us “I only found out recently”.

Standing there offering trite words of reassurance I felt like an army captain offering his troops words of encouragement before sending them over the top at Gallipoli in WW1. “You can do it” and “Don’t worry you will be fine” then as now seems a bit hollow.

And the finest words of wisdom we could impart . . . . . . “Its just like having one except there are two of them”.  The book deal can surely be only a matter of time!

She left us with a nice twin pram and just a little tear in her eye.