Friday Twinny Question
So here I am, as promised last week, to do another question about twins on Friday. What, it is Saturday? You’re kidding, right? How did that happen?
OK, so I thought yesterday was Thursday. Did you know that women’s tested IQs go down after they get pregnant? Or that a woman’s brain actually shrinks during pregnancy? Or so I read somewhere. My brain is flypaper for crap. Where was I? Oh, yes. Me dumb. Today not Friday. Today Saturday.
B. is at work today, so it doesn’t actually feel like a Saturday. And he was at home on Monday, so this is the 5th day of my workweek, and, thus, Friday. So, here is this Friday’s Twinny Question.
How good are J. and F. at self-entertainment? Do you ever get any moments to yourself? What do you do with those moments?
Self-entertainment can be summed up with the phrase a quiet baby is a baby in trouble. F. in particular can keep herself silently entertained for minutes on end as she tries to chew through an electrical cord, or eat the newspaper. She also likes to pull coffee cups off of the table onto herself and lick tubes of diaper rash crème. She would probably spend hours happily trying to kill herself with electricity, hot water or poisonous ointments if I let her. When left to approved toys (which currently include an empty coffee cup and an almost empty tube of Lansinoh
How happy either is to play without me is directly related to how well rested they are. In the morning they play quite happily for up to an hour. By the afternoon they are army crawling over to me and demanding a lot more attention. I’ve noticed that if I am sitting on the floor they are much more likely to stay happy than if I am up at a table or in a chair. I can be reading on the floor, but they do prefer me to be at their level.
They also play together. I realize that child development experts claim that children this age only parallel play, but that just isn’t true. They grab each other’s feet (a game that is particularly fun if the grabee is in the swing), swipe toys from each other, crawl on each other, and, most adorably, look at each other and giggle.
I can’t seem to get that last on video because as soon as I take out the camera they stop doing it.
During my free time I try to get laundry done, beds made, the house picked up, the blog written, other blogs read, the cat pet, the bills paid and so on. I’d say I need a hobby but I’ve noticed that I only get stressed when I try to accomplish something. As long as I keep my daily expectations low I stay much calmer.
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Have a question? Put it in the comments or email me at stacie at bastetweb dot com. I’ll answer it on a Friday. Or maybe a Saturday.
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February 24th, 2007 15:20
Heh. A quiet baby is a baby in trouble. This is so true. It can also apply to toddlers. And pre-schoolers.
Something I learned early on with my twins was “What one can’t do alone, two can achieve together.” I miss those days, though. Sometimes.
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February 24th, 2007 18:07
Thanks Stacie.
I believe you’re referring to this study about pregnancy and brain size:
http://www.ajnr.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/1/19
Given the 6 month thing I guess I have to come up with a new excuse for my lowered IQ in a couple of weeks (though sleep deprivation is a pretty good one).
February 25th, 2007 05:52
A quite baby is indeed a baby into mischief! Madison has shoes that squeak when she walks. Yes, that sounds annoying, however, it’s a great alarm for me to know that she is into something. Once the squeaking stops, odds are pretty good that she has discovered something that she shouldn’t be in to. That could also be a false alarm, and she maybe sitting playing with her toys and books…. but odds are usually for the mischief.
I know you are probably thinking squeaky shoes, how annoying… Honestly, at first, yes they are.
She’s had a pair since she started walking. After five months you aren’t even bothered by the noise, but you sure will notice when it has stopped.
They are actually adorable shoes, that although may be annoying, do also help the child to learn to walk properly. http://www.wesqueak.net/
February 26th, 2007 07:22
Eva - it kind of frightens me that you had the link to the study on shrinking brains right to hand.
Jen - Thanks for the shoe idea.