shopping. At one point while we were shopping, she got a cart’s length behind me and freaked out. She then asked me to call her name each time I wasready to leave the aisle. Even though she was right behind me, she was fearful I would turn the corner without her noticing, and she would once again become separated from me. Then after I loaded the groceries in the car, I returned the cart, and when I came back to the van, she was out of her seat huddled down on the ground. I was shocked that in ten seconds, she was that scared! I knew she had developed a fear that someone was going to take her or that I would lose her, but I didn’t know how bad it was. I talked with her, telling her I would never put her in danger because she is my “prized possession. ” I told her that I loved her and would always take good care of her. I also told her that though being wary is good, she was going a little over the top. I made sure to pay extra attention to her over the next few weeks, and she seemed fine from then on.
The huge struggle with multiples or kids the same age is the classic, “It’s not fair!” If I’m making a salad and give the one who’s in the kitchen a crouton, they run to tell the others about it, which gets them all running in to claim their own. It’s not feasible to do eight times the same thing you do for one on a whim. This reporting back to the others happened so many times that I had to tell them if they got something special in the kitchen, like a lick of icing, they weren’t allowed to tell the others about it. Seems so sad, but it was necessary.
Whenever I made a cake, I dipped two additional beaters to hand out four. But because I didn’t make cakes too often, it might have been another three months before I could get to the other four—and by then I wouldn’t remember who hadn’t yet gotten a beater. The whole situation would became a huge production, so I had to loosen the rigid rotation schedule and simply give them out to whoever was wandering through the kitchen at that time.
My motto is now “life’s not fair” so hopefully they’ll quit expecting me to treat them all exactly the same. Wish me luck on that!
Hannah with her dinosaur egg.
I’m often asked if we gave the little kids all the same present at holidays and birthdays. We didn’t. It was never economical to buy six of the same toy. They learned how to share, and they rarely all at once wanted to play with the same item.
One holiday, though, I bought each child a dinosaur egg that hatched if you put it in water for three to four days. It felt more manageable and made the kids feel special to hatch one egg at a time. When it was Hannah’s turn, we were going to the beach so we had to take the stinkin’ thing with us while it hatched. And we had to “guard” it wherever we were going. It was her dinosaur!
As a parent, it is fascinating to watch your child develop before your very eyes and bloom into a unique individual. This fact does not change when raising multiples; however, the struggles to be able to single them out and celebrate their differences does increase. During this time I started to identify what made each child tick and consciously tried to encourage each one’s unique qualities. In fact, this is why I don’t refer to our children as twins and sextuplets—they’re individuals and this is how I view them. They each have their own needs, desires, and capabilities. Throughout life they are lumped into one group often enough by the outside world, so at home especially, they need to be encouraged to be confident in who they are as unique individuals.
Letter to Aaden
Dear Aaden,
As I sit here in the Big Blue Bus waiting for you and your brothers and sisters at the bus stop, I find myself thinking about you. You are quite an amazing little man and always have been. At a tiny 2 pounds 7.5 ounces at birth, you were the smallest of my babies. Your head was smaller than a baseball, and you had a miniscule
The huge struggle with multiples or kids the same age is the classic, “It’s not fair!” If I’m making a salad and give the one who’s in the kitchen a crouton, they run to tell the others about it, which gets them all running in to claim their own. It’s not feasible to do eight times the same thing you do for one on a whim. This reporting back to the others happened so many times that I had to tell them if they got something special in the kitchen, like a lick of icing, they weren’t allowed to tell the others about it. Seems so sad, but it was necessary.
Whenever I made a cake, I dipped two additional beaters to hand out four. But because I didn’t make cakes too often, it might have been another three months before I could get to the other four—and by then I wouldn’t remember who hadn’t yet gotten a beater. The whole situation would became a huge production, so I had to loosen the rigid rotation schedule and simply give them out to whoever was wandering through the kitchen at that time.
My motto is now “life’s not fair” so hopefully they’ll quit expecting me to treat them all exactly the same. Wish me luck on that!
Hannah with her dinosaur egg.
I’m often asked if we gave the little kids all the same present at holidays and birthdays. We didn’t. It was never economical to buy six of the same toy. They learned how to share, and they rarely all at once wanted to play with the same item.
One holiday, though, I bought each child a dinosaur egg that hatched if you put it in water for three to four days. It felt more manageable and made the kids feel special to hatch one egg at a time. When it was Hannah’s turn, we were going to the beach so we had to take the stinkin’ thing with us while it hatched. And we had to “guard” it wherever we were going. It was her dinosaur!
As a parent, it is fascinating to watch your child develop before your very eyes and bloom into a unique individual. This fact does not change when raising multiples; however, the struggles to be able to single them out and celebrate their differences does increase. During this time I started to identify what made each child tick and consciously tried to encourage each one’s unique qualities. In fact, this is why I don’t refer to our children as twins and sextuplets—they’re individuals and this is how I view them. They each have their own needs, desires, and capabilities. Throughout life they are lumped into one group often enough by the outside world, so at home especially, they need to be encouraged to be confident in who they are as unique individuals.
Letter to Aaden
Dear Aaden,
As I sit here in the Big Blue Bus waiting for you and your brothers and sisters at the bus stop, I find myself thinking about you. You are quite an amazing little man and always have been. At a tiny 2 pounds 7.5 ounces at birth, you were the smallest of my babies. Your head was smaller than a baseball, and you had a miniscule
Similar Books
