Brooklyn BabyFEST

Live in New York? Going to be travelling around here this weekend? Stop by Brooklyn BabyFEST this Saturday!

Taking place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this Saturday from 11am-4pm, vendors and speakers from all over will be converging upon Brooklyn BabyFEST. Filled with over 90 exhibitors, 20 panel discussions and demos (including one by our very own Natalie Diaz), and more food than you can shake a stick at, the event also includes free childcare and live music!

In addition to all of that and an IKEA- sponsored breastfeeding and diaper changing area, Brooklyn BabyFEST will also host the 1st ever Brooklyn Diaper Derby, to be MC’d by writer and Brooklyn dad Dave Hill. Town Square and Motherburg NYC have joined forces to create an event with great products, services and information for expectant parents and parents of children up to age three.

Tickets are available for presale now. Go and enjoy!

Safety: A must on your spring cleaning list.

Written by Becky Himba, a contributing writer for Multiplicity.

“The return of warm air and spring sunshine often inspires us to open the windows, dust some hidden corners, and clean out closets. However, as busy parents of multiples, often not much time or energy is available to spend on regular cleaning, let alone on spring cleaning. Perhaps adding an elementof safety to your spring cleaning checklist will give you just enough motivation to get a few important tasks done this season. The following are some important and relatively easy ways to focus on chores that will makeyour home safer and healthier for your family.

1. Check the smoke detectors. You should have a smoke detector on everyfloor of your house and in every bedroom. Make sure that the batteries are working, anddust each one. These detectors should bereplaced every 8-10 years.

2. Place all medicine and cleaners out of reach of your children and lock them up, if possible. Make sure all bottles are easily identifiable and get rid of any expired or recalled medicines. Check with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for a list of recalled medicines and how to dispose of them properly. It isn’t always as easy as throwing them out. Also, don’t place them in easy to reach trash cans, which can be a hazzard in and of itself. Flush them down the toilet, take them to your outside trash, or dispose of them as the FDA specifies.

3. Get rid of broken toys. Clean out playrooms and toy boxes looking for recalled or broken toys. Check with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for a list of toy recalls. When it comes to safetly, any toy that can fit through the inside of a toilet paper roll is considered a choking hazard and should be kept out of the reach of small children. Make sure all battery-operated toys have tight screws and well-hidden batteries. Be especially vigilant of toys with magnets, as they can be extremely dangerous if swallowed.

Confession of a Parent of Multiples

I always say that parenthood is 51% awesome and 49% hell. Describing why the 2% difference is so worth it is really hard. There’s a scene in “The Backup Plan” with Jennifer Lopez that I love. Not her best work, but you know anything with twins, I’m all over it. So a dad in the park is trying to explain to the soon-to-be dad of J.Lo’s twins that parenthood is a bunch of awful things with a few amazing things sprinkled in. “It’s awful, awful, awful and then something amazing happens. Then awful, awful, awful.” I have never heard a truer statement in my life! So while we are trying to convince our friends, sisters and brothers that kids are what make our lives worth living, these are the things we do NOT tell them. The things that we think, that keep our feet on the ground.

• I always compare them even though I know I shouldn’t
• If one doesn’t finish the bottle, we let the other have it. Tossing breast milk is a sin.
• If there’s a quiet moment, there is nothing more exciting than sleep.
• I carry mine up and down the stairs in a laundry basket so I don’t have to make two trips.
• Sometimes I let them play in their crib for an extra 5 minutes so I can sleep a little longer.
• We play the ‘whoever cries loudest gets picked up first’ game. The same kid always wins.
• I would rather spoon my kids than my partner.
• The thing that hurt the worst during my twin pregnancy was trading in our paid-off car for a minivan because there wasn’t enough room.
• I haven’t shaved in four weeks. I’m actually pissed that it’s almost summer and shaving is all but mandatory.
• I wish I didn’t have to drive a minivan.
• Most days I am 90% sure I ruined my five-year-old’s life.
• Only the strong survive.
• I have fed both on the changing table in the middle of the night next to poop diapers.
• I have told my babysitter that unless the diaper can be wrung out, do not change it. Diapers are expensive.
• Things I’d rather do than sex: sleep, eat chocolate, pedicure, play on my iPhone, do laundry, go grocery shopping, blink…
• What’s sex?
• I’d take ten minutes to myself with coffee spiked with Kahlua, I still don’t remember sex…
• I’d rather eat a bug than have sex (lol).
• Each night at bedtime we pick a kid, and that kid is yours for the whole night. If my kid was good, I would point and laugh and say, “Should’ve picked a better kid!”
• I secretly cherished the little one’s time in the NICU because it gave me amazing one-on-one with his sister in my room, and uninterrupted time with him in the NICU.
• You really wish the pediatrician would say it’s an ear infection because if this is how this kid acts when she ISN’T sick, holy hell!
• You never, ever feel present enough. Or happy enough. Or attentive enough. Or fair enough. Or clean enough.
• You analyze everything they do and relate it back to “The mom whose kids _________.”
• You never feel like you’re doing it right. But if they’re alive, you know you’re doing it right.

I like to describe having twins like a marathon. It’s hard. It’s hell at times. But the reward and the sense of accomplishment are indescribable. Being a parent of multiples allows you several things: to laugh (mostly to yourself) at parents with only one child, to be completely cynical about parenthood while secretly savoring the tender moments that may be few and far between, and most importantly, to not only have the biggest badge of honor in your heart for what you accomplish every day, but to have it kiss you goodnight. Our kids ROCK! Parents of multiples are selfless, patient and all around awesome! But let’s keep the negative comments to ourselves. We make this look easy, right?!

By Danielle R.

St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick’s Day is March 17th, which is fast approaching. What are some themed activities for your multiples?

For those who are into tactile sensory play, you could make Rainbow Rice (with nontoxic watercolor paints, of course), or for the little ones, colored cereal rainbows are a fun, edible way to get a similar experience. Let’s be real, even if you’re not so little, colored cereal is a great way to play and have a sweet snack at the same time.

Green bell peppers are another great way to snack healthily and have some craft time. If you cut them horizontally, they are pre-made edible three-leaf clovers, and they can double as clover stamps if you want to get a little messy. Sticking with the clover theme, Shamrock Straw Toppers are a cute way to add festivity to drinks (besides the green food coloring that is so prevalent during the holiday), and Clover Hair Pins are a kid-simple way to craft and dress up for whatever events you’re planning to attend, whether it be a parade or just a family dinner. And for dessert, you can break out that green food coloring and make easy-peasy clover cookies — just roll the dough into little balls and bake! Hardly any muss, and definitely no fuss when your kids are eating them.

Daylight Savings Time

Multiples, and children in general, already have a difficult enough time with the clock before you add in the extra surprise of Daylight Savings Time. Here are some tips and tricks to get them, and you, through this period of (literal) unrest.

1. Prepare yourselves!
Start early: reset one of your clocks on Friday night. This gives you and your children time to adjust without the hassle of school and work to deal with as well. It’ll give your little ones a chance to eat by the new schedule, and they’ll feel less sleep-deprived come Monday morning. Just be sure that you don’t go by that clock when you schedule playdates or meetings!

2. Exercise!
This should be something we do already, but too many of us neglect it. Take your kiddies out on a walk in the park, or go bike riding around the neighborhood. It will help tire them out so they get to sleep on the new schedule, and working out releases seratonin in the body, which will make you and your little ones that much happier. 🙂

3. Nap time!
For parents: Don’t nap too late in the day, otherwise your sleep patterns will be just as off as your children’s. For children:  If they have a set nap time, move it fifteen or thirty minutes so it feels correct to them when their bodies are fully transitioned.

4. Don’t eat a large dinner!
Large meals in your stomachs help neither you nor your children sleep well.  As you are getting settled into your new routine, have a lighter meal for dinner and let your children have a healthy snack if they feel peckish throughout the day. Give them plenty of time to digest before sending them off to sleep.

Other important things to consider…

• Check the batteries in your smoke and CO2 detectors! Daylight Saving’s Time is ideal for this. Make sure everything is in working order!
• Check the supplies in your emergency kits! Be on the lookout for items that need replenishing and for product expiration dates.
• Be on the lookout for sleepy drivers. You never know who’s going to be too tired because they didn’t prepare properly, or panicked on the road because they forgot to reset their clocks.

Babysitters Saved My Sex Life

Written By Anne – staff writer at Babeland

Don’t worry, this is not a post about dating babysitters. It’s about using babysitters so you can go on a date. My first piece of advice to all moms is this: use babysitters as often as you can, it will save your sanity first, and your sex life second. No excuses.

I was the first among my circle of friends to get pregnant (at the ripe old age of 32). Many of my friends and coworkers offered to babysit, and I tell you, if I had it to do over again, I would have taken each one of them up on their offer then and there. But I didn’t for reasons that will sound familiar to all moms: I thought it was a lot to ask, or that they didn’t really mean it, or that they didn’t think they could handle it, or I didn’t feel like arranging it.

However, every parent fantasizes about having a stable full of talented, reliable, available-at-a-moment’s-notice babysitters, so they can have some privacy and time off from the demands of child-rearing. That’s not a reality for most of us, so the next best thing is to plug into a local parent’s network and start getting recommendations for paid babysitters, and testing them out till you get two or three you like.

The biggest excuse I hear for not hiring babysitters is money. At ten bucks an hour, plus the price of your dinner and movie out, you can see why many parents talk themselves into staying home. But it is worth it, I promise, because you need a night off to relax, or a weekend off to reconnect.

So first exhaust all your free options: hit up friends and family members you’d trust with your kids. If you know other moms, offer to “swap” nights–you take her kid one night, she takes yours another. (As your kids get older, this is a golden babysitting arrangement because the kids entertain each other). Some parents even start baby-sitting co-ops. But eventually you’ll find yourself needing to hire a sitter on short notice, so accept that and start the “get a babysitter for date night” fund. You might even decide to hire a babysitter on “retainer” because then you’ll have both a regularly-scheduled date night and a reliable sitter. Because I’m a  mom who puts her money where her mouth is, I’m going to pass on some money-saving tips–so you can take whatever cash you free up with one of these tips and put it immediately into this fund!

• Find lower interest rates on credit cards and loans
• Get a roommate to share expenses or share a house with another parent
• Buy second hand clothes, appliances, furniture
• Bring bag lunches to work
• Skip the high end coffee drinks, put the money in a babysitting fund
• Sell your car and take public transportation
• Find recurring expenses that you can do without or cut down on: cell phone plans, cable TV, gym memberships, music downloads
• Comparison shop online for lowest prices, special offers, reduced rates, free shipping, etc.

For more Money savings tips from Twiniversity read this article- Cutting Corners for Multiple Savings

So make date, get a baby sitter, grandparent, sister, best friend…. whoever, and rediscover each other… emotionally and physically. To help you we are giving away a Honeymoon in a box kit from Babeland. The kit includes vibrators, flavored lube and oil, and a dirty dice to help keep things spontaneous. Just don’t blame us if you get one or two new additions to your family….lol

FOUR Twiniversity winners will be chosen for today’s prize. *All their supplies come discreetly packaged when delivered.* Just fill out the form below (one entry per person) and we will announce all winners Nov 5th. We will have giveaways every day this week so come back every day to see what we have for you.

CONTEST HAS ENDED

[gravityform id=”39″ name=”Babeland- Honeymoon in a box giveaway”]

Superfeed your baby with superfoods!

Written by: Morena Escardo

“When my mother had 2 babies in the 80’s in Lima, Peru, things were very different than they are nowadays. Our diapers where made of cloth and hand washed daily, (which made the planet smile, but my mother frown, I’m sure), children didn’t stare at computer screens, and were entertained themselves by making up their own games, instead. Our food was always homemade and packed with the most important ingredient of all; love. Big baby food brands hadn’t taken the supermarket aisles by storm yet and we were fed only the freshest food available, all made from scratch.

Times have changed and supermoms juggle work and home, which makes it hard to use the slow methods of yesteryear to manage their families. However, there is something extremely effective and easy that all Peruvian moms are still doing to ensure their babies’ nutrition; they feed them superfoods.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a millenary staple of the Andean diet that grows high in the mountains. The Incas considered it sacred and offered it to their gods because it provided them with energy and good health. For starters, it is a complete protein, as it contains all 8 essential amino acids, on top of iron, calcium, vitamin E and vitamin B. If you’re not a fan of over-feeding your babies with animal protein, quinoa is a fantastic alternative. Another great thing is its versatility, as it can be eaten both in savory or sweet dishes, and cooked in different ways. There is white, red, and black Quinoa. All are cooked the same way, and you can make them in soups and stews, in desserts, or like rice or risotto. 

Do they get it? Twin Teens

Written by Barbie Heit

“After 17 years of living with my identical twin girls, I have figured out the way to survive—capture the loving, happy times on film and STAY AWAY from the fighting unless blood is drawn!

As babies, they played and giggled endlessly. As they grew into toddlers, they shared each and every milestone within a week’s time. The early grades of school brought some healthy competitiveness and the middle-school/high school years turned their bond into a complete love-hate relationship. They couldn’t seem to go more than a few hours without fighting. An hour later, they’d be inseparable again. I gave up on getting involved—it never mattered. It was their bond, their struggle, and their incredible identical twin relationship. I’ve always wondered..,Do they get it? Do they realize how lucky they are? A built-in best friend for life….a person who knows and loves you and shares so much of who you are?

Now that it’s almost time to separate for college (their choice to attend separate schools), I finally have my answer. My daughter, Carlie, is a writer for her high school newspaper. She wrote this article below, and after reading it, I can finally see…..yes, they get it:

Identical twins Carlie Schwaeber ‘12 and Sami Schwaeber ‘12 have created all of their memories together, including getting ready for the County’s dance junior year. I don’t think I have ever spent more than a week away from my twin sister, Sami. We share clothes, have the same sense of humor, have primarily the same friends, and as nauseatingly cliché as this is to say, she is my best friend. Now, let’s not be ridiculous. Sami drives me up the wall sometimes, especially when she tells me to stop eating with my mouth open when she is eating just as disgustingly. Yet, no matter how many silly arguments we get in, we usually forget about them within an hour or so.

Transitioning to Single Parenting

Contributed by Donna Lyons. Single mother to 19 year old twin daughter a 15 year old son.

Most people—at least the ones I have met in the past 50 years of my life—don’t get married and have children with the assumption that they will one day be divorced or widowed from their spouse and a single parent to their children. Most of us expect the happily-ever-after we learned about in our childhood fairy tales and movies.  So, what happens when that “happily-ever-after” falls apart and you find yourself in a new situation—one that involves a divorce or a death, and leaves you a single parent? How do you cope? What do you tell the children? How do you move forward and start anew?

For me, the transition to single parenting happened almost 22-years into my marriage. My twin daughters were 17 and my singleton son was 13. While there had been marital differences and counseling off-and-on over the years, I never thought my marriage would end in divorce. I also never thought my ex-husband, who was an incredible father to our three children, would ever choose to leave his children. But that is exactly what happened.

~Coping~

Everyone has different coping mechanisms for dealing with sudden and dramatic changes in their lives. According to licensed counselor William DeFoore, Ph.D, there are seven stages of grief associated with a divorce: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, guilt, depression and acceptance. People will experience these stages differently and likewise, will work through them differently than others.

For me, the initial shock was intense. My ex-husband and I had had communication issues throughout our marriage, and were in counseling at the time of our separation. However, the “D” word had never been uttered. We were, after all, a Christian couple and I always assumed we’d work through our problems and come out happy on the other end. The initial shock of the separation and my ex-husband’s decision to file for divorce left me feeling numb and dazed.

Costly Kids…

Interesting statistics about raising kids.