My itty bitty, teeny tiny little babies aren’t babies anymore. Something happened recently that made me realize, we are truly out of the baby phase. Watch the video below to find out what that was!
The thing with twins is, all of the good stuff, the good memories, are doubled up and fly by. Here’s a look back to Mia and Everly from when they were first born, right up to now, almost two years old.
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I walked around my home trying to pull together outfits for all four of my kids, so that my husband, Mike could take them out, to give me a much needed break. The screams from bored toddlers and cries from my 5-year-old, who was already in a funk, but her big brother decided to go poke the bear, echoed through our house.
I was done. I could feel my chest tighten and hot tears started streaming down my cheeks.
As I tried to compose myself while quickly wiping away my tears, I couldn’t hide my sniffles as I walked down the stairs. Mike overhead this telltale sound and said, “what’s wrong?” “Everything.” I replied as the sobs started to exit my body. “I feel like I am failing. If I am being really honest, I am not enjoying motherhood lately.” Instinctively, he thought he was supposed to ramp up the discipline. He stormed around the house trying to create order, but really, he was only adding an extra level of tension.
Our kids started to mirror our tension and fights broke out in front of us.
I turned to Mike and said, “the balance is off right now. I know it’s me. I know that my lack of joy and level of impatience is creating a toxic environment that everyone is feeding off of. We need to problem solve this in a real way.” I could see understanding wash across his face.
Before he walked out the door, he looked back at me, as a fresh tears started to appear on my face. “I am failing as a mom,” I sobbed. “No you aren’t. In fact it’s the opposite. You care so much. We will fix this, like we always do.”
While Mike and the kids were out, it dawned on me. I was waiting for spontaneous moments of joy with my kids to come to me. Why was I not initiating activities and outings that I would also find enjoyable and fun?
Once they arrived home, I packed up our 5-year-old, Beau, and the two of us went out to get her hair cut, have a little one-on-one time, and chat about each of us listening to each other better.
Then later that day, we all sat down, as a family and enjoyed colouring together. I love being creative, so this was bliss for me.
By the time we packed up the art supplies, not only were the kids’ emotional buckets filled, but so was mine. Something that in the past, I wasn’t doing enough of.
Of course, the craziness resumed, and fights still break out, but just having those moments of joy with my kids, makes all of motherhood a lot more enjoyable.
Watch our day as it unfolded, starting with my mini meltdown…
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The waves have stopped crashing onto us. We are not trying to keep our heads above water anymore and we can finally breathe again.
For the past few weeks we have endured a flat tire, two back injuries, all six of us having the stomach flu and our 18-month-old twins having a horrible case of hand, foot and mouth disease. We were hit hard.
You can read more about our experience with hand, foot and mouth disease on Yummy Mummy Club: Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease: The Illness from Hell
But a week has passed and although we have been left with some scars, it seems like the clouds are parting. 
My husband, Mike, and I have been realizing lately, that we haven’t really seemed to be able to move out of survival mode. Not just coming home from our long vacation, or dealing with tons of illness, but long term survival mode. In fact, if we are being really honest, we never shifted out of the phase we entered during my pregnancy with our twins.
Recently, Mike and I have been having a lot of discussions about where we are struggling, both as a unit and as individual people. As far as our relationship and marriage goes, we have a handle on that, thanks to date night and LOTS of communication.
But we have really started to discuss our future, our health, our finances and our happiness, and have had some eye-opening revelations.
Knowing we are finished having children and moving out of the baby phase is really exciting, but also scary. For years we bounced from planning, to pregnancy, to new baby phase and then back to planning for our next. All which gave us the constant excuse to live in survival mode: slack with tidying up, allow clutter to build up, be relaxed with our spending, stay cooped up and let our weight and health slide.
But, we are on the other side now. We are trying to learn how to be responsible, well rounded adults again. We dug ourselves into a survival hole and now we are figuring out how to climb out.
It’s going to take time, but we are on the same page.
What do you call not being in survival mode? Living? Thriving? Routine? All of those sound great to me!
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Recently, we had an opportunity to partner with Mom Select and Bright Starts to host a play date and try out some of Bright Starts newest and hottest toys.
We excitedly sent out invitations to a few friends ranging in age from 6-36 months, (which is the recommended age for these toys).
We also decorated our house for the occasion.
The party couldn’t come fast enough. All day the kids kept peeking at all of those exciting new toys. Even the older kids were fascinated by them!
As soon as Mia and Everly’s friends arrived, we opened up the toys and began our play date.
The Learn and Giggle Activity Station (pictured below) was a blast! There are so many things to do, including a musical book, a fun little cat and gold fish bowl, an interactive window pane and little switches and surprises around every corner.
Our friend Cooper just loved the Roll and Glow Monkey. This light up toy makes music and rolls when you press the button.
Even I had fun chasing the Roll and Glow Monkey around.
The Spin and Giggle Puppy was a popular toy at our play date too, especially with our youngest guests. Shaped like a bowl, it can hold many of Bright Starts’ Bunch of Balls. When you press the center button, it spins, sending the balls flying. It also lights up and makes music too!
After all of that fun it was time to eat! Bright Starts provided us with some delicious and easy playdate recipes for both kids and moms, which I have included below.
But why eat at a table, when you can have a picnic on the floor!
At the end of our play date, each of our friends got to bring home a special cookie.
Everyone had a blast at our Bright Starts play date! What did we think of the toys? They were, and still are, a hit. Any of these would make a great gift for a child between the ages of 6-36 months.
Watch some highlights of our play date in this video…
Bright Starts Play date Recipes
Bright Start Bars – Naturally sweet and easy to eat, these make excellent finger foods for little ones!
Ingredients: 1 banana, 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats, 1 tablespoon of applesauce, 2-3 tablespoons of raisins or dried cranberries, a pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. 2. In a medium bowl, mash the banana to a smooth consistency, using a fork. 3. Add the oats and applesauce to the banana and stir until combined. 4. Stir in the raisins/cranberries and cinnamon, if using. 5. Using your hands, form the mixture into bar shapes on prepared baking sheet. 6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until firm. 7. Allow to cool before serving.
Play Date Parfaits – Creamy and sweet, these parfaits were a hit with both moms and kids!
Ingredients: 4 cups of vanilla yogurt (or a flavour of your choice), 1 pint of blackberries, blueberries or strawberries (or a combination), 2 cups granola
Directions: 1. In a large glass, layer 1/2 cups yogurt, 1/4 cup granola and a handful of berries. 2. Repeat laters. 3. Serve immediately.
Nesting Story received free products in order to host the Bright Starts sponsored Play Date. The opinions expressed here are my own.
