Sing and Dance Your 6-month Hearts Out! (or fall on your head repeatedly…whatever!)
As the mother of 6-month old B/G twins, life was getting pretty boring. I had already failed miserably at breastfeeding, dropped at least one of them, and was pretty sick of reading the same appropriate books over and over to the Crazies. What else was there to do? We needed to get out.
We needed an activity. Yeah, that’s the ticket…an activity.
We needed to sing and dance. After all, for the past 6 months, I had been their only source of entertainment. It’s time that someone else took over. I was TIRED!
Plus, I wasn’t that good of a singer…or dancer for that matter! Wait…who am I kidding? I’m the next Britney Spears for God’s sake!
So, we signed up for a music class. Before I go any further, I must admit that even though I joke, this was one of the best classes for the Crazies. They really got a lot out of it, but it made me work like a dog (and it’s all about me)!
The class was in the basement of a town building. I had to take a very scary manually operated lift to get to the basement because I felt the need to use my stroller…guess I was still weak from trying to survive the pregnancy and the first year. By the time I finally made it down there, I was sweating like Whitney Houston on crack…peeling layers off my myself and the Crazies. After all, if I was hot, they had to be sweltering, right?
The class always started with us singing hello to each other. It was lovely. This was me…
• Start singing…let’s sing hello, hello…
• What’s that kid’s name again?
• Pick M up off the floor…he can’t quite sit by himself yet…hehe…he keeps tipping over.
• Sing.
• Wow…that’s a boy???
• Lay H on her tummy…I forgot, she can’t sit up at all.
• Sing.
• Oh, haha…it’s our turn.
• Grin, stop crying, sit up, look happy to be here!
• Pick up a wailing H…she hates to be on her tummy.
• Pick up M.
• Stop looking at me…yes, he may have hit his head, but it’s so hard…see? I knock on it and he doesn’t even flinch!
• Where’s H? She tipped over again…ugh.
• Oh, right…sing!
It was downright nerve wracking!!!
I finally got the Crazies settled on the floor and we got up to “get some exercise.” Umm…hadn’t I already done that by getting them in and out of the car, squeezing us into the lift, vehemently praying that we’d make it out of the lift alive, disrobing at lightning speed, and keeping two infants upright for 2 whole songs?
Fine…I can’t get up unless someone holds M and keeps his head from bouncing on the rubber floor or takes a wailing H from my arms. Someone? Anyone?
I was on my own (joking…our instructor was awesome and always took the Heavy One).
After four classes, we switched to Saturdays where Husband could help me out. It was like my weight had been cut in half (ah…there’s a dreamy though, huh?). We participated in these classes for the next 9 months and the Crazies really got a lot out of it.
I’m so glad that I did it, but I’m sure that other mothers were thinking, “you did WHAT with twins???”
OMG this is hilarious! So totally how it really is. Everything's peachy keen until you're in public. I swear having 2 really makes you feel like you have 10.
This is where other twin mommies are a God-send. *Most* singleton moms (and yes, I am generalizing and stereotyping, so don't be offended if you are an amazing mom of a single baby and don't qualify here!), don't understand what its like having to care for 2 newborns/infants/toddlers/preschoolers. They think we are amazing to be able to do it all with the illusion of sanity, but they also are afraid of us! They feel they are struggling or floundering with the one they have and it doesn't strike them to think maybe you could use a hand. But another mom of twins will not even waste a second thinking about things and will simply grab one of your kids so you can stand up or tend to a screamer or whatever. After all… if ya got 2 or 3, what's one more?
When I took my twincesses to mommy and me classes back in the day, i did need a hand every now and then (washing their hands for snack was usually my breaking point). Plus when the girls were 14-16 months old, I was 2-4 months pregnant with set #2, super nausous, and awkward as all hell. It was the moms with twins themselves, or the moms with a few older kids in school who swooped in and saved the day for me when one twin bolted across the playground the second my back was turned on more than one occasion!
So, were the other moms in your class staring at you as your babies were slip sliding all over the floor, teetering over and bonking their heads on the floor? Yeah, they were….!!!
But at that moment, there wasn't another mom in that room who didn't think you were her hero right then. Twin mommies can do it all. 😉
Hahah yes I wrote something similar the other day. Just to get out of the house I took my 10month old twins to the Beach. By-my-self. Haha I had the surf lifesaving patrol kindly request me to remove my babies from the sand in case a big wave washed them away. I was so embarrassed. Everyone was watching.
I love this! Thanks for the laugh. I brought my girls to our first play group when they were about 2.5 months. What a disaster. I kept going, but it was a constant workout juggling the two and trying to keep them happy. Tandem nursing in public just wasn't an option.
Yesterday we went to our first story time at the library. My kids are now both incredibly independent 15 month olds. All the other kids were sitting on their moms lap. Not my two. Mine wanted to take the books and puppets from the librarian. They wanted to get up and dance around the room while every other child was sitting on her moms lap gently bouncing up and down. I just gave up toward the end and stopped trying to bring them back to me.
I also made the mistake yesterday of bringing them to another library without a stroller and without their back pack leashes. Never again!
I went to lots of classes with my singleton – Infant Massage, Mother Goose (singing rhymes), Babies on the Move (singing and activities)… it was great! With the twins, I thought it`d never be an option… BUUUT, here in Ontario, there is a provincially funded set of centres called the Early Years Centres, or MPCRC, and they have been awesome! Any Canadian moms, see if you have a gov`t funded drop-in centre in your area.
When I arrived in the parking lot, I would call on my handsfree and someone would help me unload. There was always an ECE (Early Childhood Educator) on hand to take my 2nd baby so we could do programs… Once, they even supervised the twins in the free-play area so I could do crafts with my 3 year old who was home from daycare temporarily! They are amazing.
TWIN MOMS: Never hesitate to ask! Most will not offer help for the same reason they don`t want to offer advice – in case its not wanted! I know, haha, right?? So ASK!
Ask if the instructor will take one baby as the "massage demo baby", or will hold one on her lap during the singing rhymes. ASK if one can play on a mat somewhere else so you don't have to keep an eye on both. Trust me, its worth it to ASK!
Kym @ Twinsideout: When Twins Make 3 Under 3
I made my mother-in-law and a neighbor come to our class. It was fun, but not something I could have handled on my own!
I've been bringing my girls to Gymboree music for a few months now. We started when they were 15 months (18 now). Before that I took them seperatly to a gym class and that was dreamy. But I lost my babysitter and had to do classes with both at once. It was easier to keep track of them in the small music room than in the big room with the many apparatus for them to fall off of. Aside from getting them out of the car and into the building it's been pretty smooth. Of course it's a world of difference now that they can walk themselves to the door!
You've gotta do what you've gotta do! I did that almost every week taking them to ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) classes. This fall, I enrolled in the multiples' class and let me tell ya, it's a world of difference! No more "glad it's you and not me" looks and LOTS more help. Oh, and we took them to Hawaii at 5 months. We're nuts. http://www.auldsworld.blogspot.com
Loved this and I never knew about something so fun!! Now I want to try it. I must say that I wanted to do a swimming class with the twins and they told me no way…..so I am ready for something fun with twins that we can do together.
Different again over here – I did all the same stuff with my two that I had done with the first: music classes, swimming (my mum had to come and help with that one as they needed one adult per child, which sort of seems fair enough!) you name it. The only exception – Gymboree, where, even when they couldn't crawl, they told me they couldn't allow two children with just one adult. What did they think they were going to do?!
Hehehehe, thank you so much for that read! I love that you were able to go and do that. I have yet been able to get out and do a mother baby class with my 6 month twins. But I do experience the picking up and putting down, and toppling over and over of the little gremlins! It's simply a juggling act, no doubt about it.