And just like that, yep just like that another year flew
right by. My babies are turning 4 on 2.3.18. Hello Groundhog Day, again. I remember another twin mama
telling me the first 4 months are called the “eye of the storm” and once you
get through that phase, it will all become a little more manageable. Well here
we are turning 4 years old! I actually think every age and every new phase
brings on its own challenges and worries. I am an anxious person who worries
about every little thing and the older my girls are getting, the more I worry.
I really wish I could be one of those cool as ice, chill moms, but that’s just
not me. Maybe someday as I continue working on myself.
Their 3rd Birthday Party was awesome, everyone
had a good time and the girls really enjoyed it and their gifts. As I say every
year it is extremely hard summarizing a whole year into one post, but let’s
try. First things first, when the girls turned 3, we turned their car seats
forward and they were just blown away by the ability to see everything and see
our navigation system as well the street lights and the road, etc. Of course
the novelty wore off, but they certainly enjoy drives a lot more now. And I am
glad I stuck to my guns and kept them rear-facing until 3!
Over the Presidents’ Day weekend we tackled potty-training
using the 3 day method. We covered our floors in blue pee pads, took off their
diapers, put out the potties and just rolled with it. They were miserable the
first day. Cried, refused to sit on the potty, held in their pee for majority
of the day until they were doing the funny pee pee dance. Each one had an
accident or two, but once they realized what it’s like to pee in the potty,
they made sense of it and we never looked back. It was super hard at first
figuring out the whole public bathroom thing and being afraid of taking them
out, but we went cold turkey with diapers since they were old enough to hold it
and understand that’s why I always advise to NOT rush anything. Why make the
kid pee on the potty before they’re ready and then make them wear pull ups
outside for the next year? We love the 3 day method and it took us some time to
trust the girls, but now it feels like distant memories.
In May we took them to Monterey on their first overnight in
a hotel. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then introduced the girls to
hotels, which was obviously their favorite part. They slept on little cots and
actually did pretty well. In July, I turned 35 (I started this blog as I was
turning 30… times surely flies) and had a fun celebration at a Russian Restaurant
in San Francisco. My girls were the only kids at this adult party and stayed
until the very end. Granted, Paula threw up from exhaustion on her way home,
but hey what kind of a Russian party would it be without someone puking, right?
J Then we spent majority
of the week in Tahoe with our parents and kids. We had a cute house there and
the girls got to have their own room and have their first little vacation with
the family. It was totally stressful to have 3 generations in one house, but
overall it’s still memorable and worth it to do this. We spent the rest of the
summer and early fall visiting Calistoga a few times and staying overnight
after a full day of swimming in the pool. I’m happy we got to do this with our
parents and introduced our girls to so many new experiences.
On August 21st, the girls started their
Montessori preschool. We kept them home for 3.5 years and it was so bittersweet
to send them off. Overall it was a smooth transition as it’s a home based
daycare. So they had to learn how to nap on the floor in sleeping bags, even
though they’re still in cribs, like I said before, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it! They didn’t interact with others for a while, they have each other and that
twin bond really overpowers their need to make friends with others. My biggest
fear about daycares was always the germs and the constant getting sick thing.
Ever since they started daycare, my anxiety skyrocketed about that and
everything combined. It’s still such a weird feeling for me to get them ready and
send them off when I’m so used to them being in the little bubble of our home.
They’ve definitely brought home quite a few bugs, we’ve all even already had
Hand Foot Mouth! School is great for them, they’ve changed so much, they are
learning so much, they had a Christmas concert and they did great and the
social aspect is amazing. However, them getting better, going for a few days
and catching something else and getting us all sick is a nightmare. The
scariest part is that this winter just happens to be one of the scariest flu
seasons, and I’m just praying we all stay safe.
Overall, what can I say about the age of THREEnagers? It is
way harder than “terrible twos”, by far!
Opinions about everything, fights about their outfits and activities and
where we go and what they eat and what we watch and anything and everything you
can think of. There are two of them, the same age and gender and they also feed
off each other big time. So it’s been very dramatic, very loud, lots of tears
and yelling. I would say a few months after turning 3 is when it REALLY kicks
in. The real time outs started happening, punishment, losing temper, etc. I
could have definitely handle it all and them better than I did majority of the
time. My patience runs very thin when the tantrums are nonstop. And I wish I
would have done a lot of things differently because me overreacting to their
bad behavior, obviously just made their bad behavior worse and gave pretty bad
examples of how petty adults can be too. I’ve been doing my best to change it
around lately. I’m doing the nice approach and it works wonders. Kiss them and
hug them tightly even when they’re acting their worst, more times than not it
stops the tantrum and the child hugs you back. They still speak mainly in
Russian and fully understand English and are just now experimenting and
becoming more confident to say some phrases especially when speaking to me.
It’s really cute to observe.
I went through a phase with Alyssa, the older twin not
wanting to have anything to do with me, telling me she doesn’t love me and only
loves her dad and not letting me hug her or kiss her for the longest time. And
like they all say “this too shall pass, it’s a phase”. She probably had reasons
to feel like that since I scolded her all the time since she seems to act out
more than Paula a lot of the times, she would get in trouble more often. I have
changed my approach with her as well and by showing her more love and kindness,
she’s fully a mama’s girl now, which is cute and all until she doesn’t let the
other twin near me.
I am still not rushing this growing up process. I love them
little and I love hugging them and kissing them and I’m going to miss this time
when they let me pick them up and snuggle them. This Saturday is their birthday
and their birthday party and this year they picked the Cinderella theme, yep
they picked their own birthday theme. I hope the party goes smoothly and
everything will be ok. I also hope for a good year ahead for them and all of
us. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope I can squeeze in an
entry at least once or twice before the next year.
Four little
hands & four little feet
Four blue
eyes & four tiny ears
Two little
girls who are so sweet
We celebrate
these four years
As hard as
some days may be
We still cherish
all of your hugs
It feels
like you just turned three
You’re
growing so fast, love bugs
One day you
won’t cuddle with us anymore
While
watching your favorite Monsters or Trolls
And things
won’t be like they were before
You’ll grow
up and focus on chasing your goals
We don’t
want to take anything for granted
We’ll even
treasure your very frequent tantrums
You bring us
joy and make us feel enchanted
May you
always march to the beat of your drums
We love you so much we can't put into words
We wish you all the best our cute pink pearls
Always be happy and healthy our love birds
Happy 4th birthday to our tiny big girls