Booster Seat Break Through!

Finally! At our twins' yearly medical check up, we got the news we had been waiting for. Our daughter finally weighed the required forty plus pounds to move from a forward facing car seat to a booster seat. Our son had done so a year ago. We all, including my daughter, were getting sick of the nuisance and permanency of the car seat.


Since both of us are regularly involved in either dropping off or picking up at school and activities, we need car seats and/or boosters in both cars. My wife's car had a regular car seat in it, so we removed that and bought my daughter a new booster. We debated putting her in the basic seat with no backing, but opted for a Graco one with a removable back, for greater safety. Some kids eventually don't want the backing because they feel they have outgrown it. We actually ended up getting the same model as my son's except in pink and black. Our daughter loved it!

In my car I had a two- in - one which converted from a forward facing to a booster seat. However, it was clear my daughter didn't want this as it wasn't a real booster and feels like a regular car seat. At the same time, my son's converted booster from a three - in - one had just expired after six years of use. So the decision was made to purchase non backed boosters for my car.

The other great things about booster seats are that they aren't attached and don't have to be installed, and they take less time for our kids to get strapped in. Our two are already slow enough leaving the house as it is! We are going to try to sell our car seats to someone in our local multiples group as the seats aren't near expiring. Finally!

An Interesting Look at Birthday Gifts for Twins

So our twins just had their combined 7th birthday party. A few of the kids had invited one of them, a couple had invited both, and some had not invited either (at this point in the school year). Most of the invited were friends of one of our children but only a few were both. The invitations had both our kids name on it. So how did our guests' parents handle the gift giving?

We expected in fairness that some would bring a gift for only one child, the one they would have been invited by. Especially if only one of our kids attended their party and brought one gift. But it was more than a few that bought both kids a gift. And the quality of the gifts were no less thoughtful and impressive. It makes me feel good about making sure that if both our kids go to a party, they bring a total of two gifts, and each gift is the same as if the child was attending alone.
For more blogs on twins and birthdays and parenting go to http://atwinsdad.blogspot.ca

Time Alone is Important Too

On most Wednesday and Saturday evenings my wife and I have dinner by ourselves after the kids are in bed. We have been doing this since our twins were very young.

Last Wednesday,my daughter asked why we were not eating with them again. My wife quickly responded that "We love each other and just want to spend some time together. It is important that we do." Well stated. This echoes my sentiments exactly. 

It is extremely important for parents, especially with twins, to make time for each other as well as the kids. It could just be a few minutes each night or the occasional dinner. Once a month we try to get paid or unpaid for babysitting for a "date night". Nothing fancy. Just time spent alone together to eat, enjoy a glass of wine, and chat. On Wednesday nights,I usually make nachos and we sit in front of the TV. But this makes a world of difference to our relationship,and we don't love our kids any less!
For more blog posts about parenting twins to https://atwinsdad.blogspot.ca.

How to Purchase My Book, "Twice Blessed: A Parent's Guide to Twins"

Now that my website has been closed down (by choice), this blog and my Facebook page become the primary methods for promoting the book. This includes informing my fans of how and where they can get it. It is available through most major online retailers in both paperback and e-reader formats. 

There are editions for the Kobo, Kindle, and Nook ereaders and I am still working on getting it into the Itunes store. Hopefully that will happen this summer. You can go to Amazon.com (which has a Look Inside feature on the Kindle page), Indigo.ca. BarnesandNoble.com, or Kobobooks.com amongst others to purchase the book. The book retails for $12.95 (sometimes less) in paperback and usually $6.99 for the e-reader versions. Just go to a website and search "Twice Blessed."

An Update on my Book, "Twice Blessed" and my Website

This blog was originally started with no intention of writing a book. I wanted a place to post some of the articles I had been writing for such publications as Twins Magazine, The Bulletwin, and more recently, Multiple Moments, amongst others. Then came the book, published in June of last year. I certainly never intended to get rich or famous off of the book, and I wasn't writing a bestseller! I wanted to accomplish two things, write a good book and have it published, and hopefully help some fellow twin parents along the way. I know that it has since some of tbe books' readers have let me know that it did. The website, www.twiceblessedguidetotwins.com was launched prior to the book's publication as a way of promoting both the book and my blog. It has served its purpose and since I only linked to my blog, the blog page still exists as a separate entity. I also have a successful facebook page at www.facebook.com/twiceblessedguidetotwins and this has become my prime tool for promoting the book and my twins parenting blog. For this reason, I am shutting down the website and just continuing with my blog and Facebook page. I will continue to write about issues relating to parenting twins and will post links to online retailers of my book, Twice Blessed: A Parent's Guide to Twins. Some of these include Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Indigo.ca, and Kobobooks.com. Thank you for continuing to read the blog and feel free to post comments both on the blog and on my Facebook page.