Milk Monsters
I imagine that one of the great advantages of growing up as a twin is always having a playmate nearby. Whenever you want another human to play a board game against, or a video game against, or send text messages to, or whatever kids do these days, there’s always someone around to pester until dad sends them both to their room for some quiet and they have no choice but to play together.*
Notice how I said that I “imagine” that’s an advantage. I haven’t seen much playing together yet. Most of their interactions seem to be of the malicious, thieving variety. Sure, they occasionally entertain each other. They like to make each other laugh while waiting for me to rescue them from their cribs, and are willing to wake the other one if necessary for an audience. They can also have innocuous interactions, like when I see them both walking toward something and wonder what could be so fascinating it would grab both of their attentions. That thought is usually followed with a panicked “how can I possibly prevent both of them from grabbing whatever forbidden object they’re tracking?”
Mostly they just take stuff from each other, though. By “stuff,” I usually refer to the most cherished of toddler objects: Milk. One of the boys will finish his milk, decide he’s still hungry, and go after a vulnerable sippy cup with remaining milk that just happens to be resting defenseless in someone else’s hands. Tory is especially bad about this as his larger volume allows him to create a greater vacuum, thereby helping him drain his sippy cup about the time Ian take the spout from his mouth to come up for air. Tory will take it, Ian will scream, thus alerting me that Tory took his milk, and I’ll take it back to return it to Ian. The typical result is two screaming children as Tory is out of milk and Ian is still mourning his original hold on the sippy cup.
Ian’s thievery is more limited to unattended sippy cups. He’s the runt of children, and needs to be sneakier if he can’t overpower anyone. Sometimes Tory will lose interest in his milk before finishing it, but it’s usually Abbie leaving her sippy cup unattended. She’ll take a couple sips, notice her duck pond, and lose all interest, giving Ian his opening. Tory will take advantage of her abandoned sippy cups too. I treat both of them the same, taking the cup back before they can drain another couple of ounces from the gallon of skim milk that should be going a lot farther than it is. This makes them scream. Sometimes Abbie decided she wants her cup back, takes it back, and pushes the offender over for good measure, also making him scream. She’s learning by watching.
It’s good to see they’ve developed a sense of ownership, specifically the sense that they own everything. I might have missed the beginning of this stage with Abbie. With a singleton like Abbie, I still take objects from her clutches, like a toy before bedtime or dog food after leaving the kennel door open. The difference is I shower the child with attention after taking the beloved object as I whisk her away to do father-child activities, and she quickly forgets the object.
With the boys, I usually take the sippy cup, return it to its rightful owner, or possibly place it in the refrigerator, and leave the offender to scream while I handle whatever emergency sprouted up during the cup exchange.** Eventually they’ll learn not to thieve, or at least they’ll learn to console the other one. That’ll put them on the golden path of learning to do chores together.
* The advantage for me having twin sons is I’ll get the garage cleaned out twice as fast when I assign the chore to both.
** You wouldn’t believe how far and fast Abbie can climb when motivated.
Notice how I said that I “imagine” that’s an advantage. I haven’t seen much playing together yet. Most of their interactions seem to be of the malicious, thieving variety. Sure, they occasionally entertain each other. They like to make each other laugh while waiting for me to rescue them from their cribs, and are willing to wake the other one if necessary for an audience. They can also have innocuous interactions, like when I see them both walking toward something and wonder what could be so fascinating it would grab both of their attentions. That thought is usually followed with a panicked “how can I possibly prevent both of them from grabbing whatever forbidden object they’re tracking?”
Mostly they just take stuff from each other, though. By “stuff,” I usually refer to the most cherished of toddler objects: Milk. One of the boys will finish his milk, decide he’s still hungry, and go after a vulnerable sippy cup with remaining milk that just happens to be resting defenseless in someone else’s hands. Tory is especially bad about this as his larger volume allows him to create a greater vacuum, thereby helping him drain his sippy cup about the time Ian take the spout from his mouth to come up for air. Tory will take it, Ian will scream, thus alerting me that Tory took his milk, and I’ll take it back to return it to Ian. The typical result is two screaming children as Tory is out of milk and Ian is still mourning his original hold on the sippy cup.
Ian’s thievery is more limited to unattended sippy cups. He’s the runt of children, and needs to be sneakier if he can’t overpower anyone. Sometimes Tory will lose interest in his milk before finishing it, but it’s usually Abbie leaving her sippy cup unattended. She’ll take a couple sips, notice her duck pond, and lose all interest, giving Ian his opening. Tory will take advantage of her abandoned sippy cups too. I treat both of them the same, taking the cup back before they can drain another couple of ounces from the gallon of skim milk that should be going a lot farther than it is. This makes them scream. Sometimes Abbie decided she wants her cup back, takes it back, and pushes the offender over for good measure, also making him scream. She’s learning by watching.
It’s good to see they’ve developed a sense of ownership, specifically the sense that they own everything. I might have missed the beginning of this stage with Abbie. With a singleton like Abbie, I still take objects from her clutches, like a toy before bedtime or dog food after leaving the kennel door open. The difference is I shower the child with attention after taking the beloved object as I whisk her away to do father-child activities, and she quickly forgets the object.
With the boys, I usually take the sippy cup, return it to its rightful owner, or possibly place it in the refrigerator, and leave the offender to scream while I handle whatever emergency sprouted up during the cup exchange.** Eventually they’ll learn not to thieve, or at least they’ll learn to console the other one. That’ll put them on the golden path of learning to do chores together.
* The advantage for me having twin sons is I’ll get the garage cleaned out twice as fast when I assign the chore to both.
** You wouldn’t believe how far and fast Abbie can climb when motivated.
posted by Matt at
11:33 PM
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