The truth about dogs and cows

I write this post because it is the first time that one of my twin daughters, makes ​​a joke. Without knowing it, without realizing it. But every time I think about it, I smile. She took my hand when she dropped the legendary sentence. And that’s why I write it down. Because for two and a half years and we have experienced many of their "first things".

We are in a small village called Santes Creus. Park the car. In front of us, a young couple crossing the street with a beautiful Dalmatian dog. Estel looks at me and says: "Look mama, a small cow."
I can not help smiling. I think it’s the best gag in the world. It's funny how five words of my little one can make draw a smile so big inside and make me happy just to remember the situation. This must be one of the many great rewards of being a mother.

Really happy!

This blog was created with the idea of ​​being a kind of notebook to remember this great adventure of being a mother of twins. But being a blogger can be addictive!. I am very happy to tell you that iMama.tv (an English page and community) has chosen me as one of its favourite bloggers. Therefore, with the invaluable help and complicity of the Maria Rosa Garrido with the translations, THE TWIN INVASION begins a new path.  Check the link! 

http://www.imama.tv/contributors-view-3-blogger-166-the-twin-invasion.html

The twin business (2)

When you await a baby you discover supermarket aisles that you have never noticed before. I’m sure you’ve also been through this. I haven’t got a pet, so I never stop by the pet food aisle. I remember the first time that I entered the baby aisle. I was five or six months pregnant and I started to look at the prices and available range of nappies, milk and baby food, because I felt that I should already know all these things by then. This is what a Master’s degree is badly needed on. I remember leaving the supermarket with a throbbing headache and wondering not only what on earth all those products were used for, but also why nobody had ever told me what they were used for and how to use them.

When you await a baby (and when it’s twins this grows exponentially)... it’s all Master’s Degrees. A Master’s on baby trolleys, a Master’s on cots, a Master’s on bottle warmers, a Master’s on breast pumps (a terrible device that should be banned and which we called Chucky the evil breast pump at home, and which we hardly used)... But here we could break away from the rules of the twin invasion which, as I told you, is based on the twin business. It’s a matter of putting a mother of twins in your life. Someone who already knows what you’re going through.

“My” mom of twins (whose position we might call twin-counsellor) has been the person who’s given us the most honest and practical advice during the pregnancy and ever since the girls were born. Meeting up with her was like looking into a crystal ball to see our future and know what we would experience in a few months’ time, in a year. Thanks to her advice and the many things that she passed on to us (material, clothes, small appliances... and especially helping us keep our feet on the ground and realise how we were targeted to sell us absolutely anything), the twins who want to rule the world did not obtain the expected income from us. Luckily, the idea of buying a nappy compactor, as well as many other  gadgets out in the market and on display in shop windows, never crossed our minds for a second. 
That’s why from that moment on, I have thought that it’d be a great idea if when you head for the GP practice, when you meet up with your midwife, there was a twin parent network to be able to share fears, everyday practices and everything which comes to your mind when you’re a first-time parent... and you’re expecting two babies at once. It would be a good idea if midwives took care of this. Let me refer here to the NeverEnding Story to say that mine- I mean, my assigned midwife- was a completely different story. We’ll have to come back to this on another occasion. 

The twin business (1)

 

In April 2008 we found ourselves at a kind of dead end. We wanted to move, but to relocate to Strasbourg. Or perhaps we would buy a camper and travel for two years. Or we would make up our minds to have a baby.

The truth is that we were not clear about all this. Even when we were joking (I don’t know why I say this, because it was not a joke), our friends’ daughter played the innocent hand to help us put all these ideas in order. We did it twice, and on both occasions, having kids ranked last on the list. And guess what… it was the first one to become true.

Faced with all these uncertainties, we used them as an excuse to tell our family that we were awaiting twins. We told them that we had been tied down, and in what a way! They all bought into it. The next step was to ask them if they wanted to see the documents for our mortgage and then show them the scan instead. “Can you see the little spot?”. And some replied “… but there are two of them!”. Yes, yes… two little spots. It’s twins. Our family went crazy with delight (I suppose that half of them took for granted- we took for granted, including myself- that kids were not for us). We could hardly imagine that our “joke” about the mortgage would be ab-so-lut-ely right in the future.

We soon found out that the twin invasion is based on the twin business. Double baby trolleys, cots, beds, car seats, hammocks and so on. Besides this, every single one of these operations also requires its corresponding Master’s Degree.

It is fascinating to find out how many useless objects are sold to expecting parents. I would like to think that having twins has been a reality check for us in many things and has made us realize that we have to play down many others.