traveling with multiples!!

[skent10]

Well I'm a mom of twins, although I don't really feel like it. Maybe it's because I have two other singles, or because all my kids are so close in age, or because my twins are B/G, but I actually forget the two of them are twins sometimes. Our family is more divided down the B vs. G line. It's funny how the twins never fail to point it out to new people they meet that they are twins, however!

They are in the same preschool class, and will start kindergarten in the fall. Our school district (it's a one-school district) has a policy to split twins unless you really put up a fight over it, which I don't plan to do. DD has a very dominant personality and DS does much better without her around. Their preschool teacher was telling me last year how one day, when DS was sick, DD moped around the classroom and wouldn't play with the toys or other children. The next week DD was sick, and DS was just as happy and outgoing as the teacher had ever seen him! In some cases it's best to separate them and I think mine may be an example of that.

We haven't been to WDW with all four kids yet (I was 7 months pregnant with the twins on our last trip), but I don't expect a problem. Having kids the same age range makes it easier to do things everyone will enjoy. I couldn't imagine having a preschooler and teenager at the same time and making one wait for Dumbo and then the other wait for Tower of Terror. That seems like a far worse vacation!

 

[kritter]

when you do go to wdw with all four it will be a blast..

thanks for sharing about the school thing...It is neat to hear what others have done and what works for them...thanks....

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Great thread, kritter. Thanks for starting it.

skent, what a neat grouping of kids you have!! It must be really cool to have two boys and two girls so close in age. I can see how you'd sort of forget you had twins in there somehow, though. I'd love to see a picture if you can post one (and of all the other multiples here).

I was 7 months pregnant with the twins on our last trip

All I can say is I was not a pretty sight at 7 months, and there's no way I could have walked around WDW!! My hat is off to you!

 

[TerriBelle]

Our boys have been in separate classes since Kindergarten (now in 2nd). When they were in preschool/day care there was only one class and they were together. They did tend to play with other kids but many times they would be referred to as SeanDrew - spoken as one word! We felt that being in different classes was probably a good idea for them. With 6 2nd grade classes, many kids don't even know they are twins.

At conference time Drew's teacher told a cute story. The boys have one jacket that is the same (I usually try to get different colors but the price was too good and they only had 1 color). They were standing in line next to each other and a little boy asked Drew if that was his brother. Drew said yes and then the other boy said he could tell because they had the same jacket on. The teacher thought this was so funny because my boys do look a LOT alike. The only difference is that Drew wears glasses.

 

[disney1fan]

My girls are together in school. I had a looong chat with the staff at the beginning of the school year and they put my mind at ease that it would not be bad for them (very independent from one another) and that we could change things at the first sight of trouble. It's working fine so far and it's soo much easier to coordinate ther activities with both at the same class. Also, I think that the 'support system' was a great plus for them since they both transitioned to the new school without a glitch.
I'll try to post a pic of them but I've never done it before, so I'm not sure how it works...

 

[llp479]

Our district would not allow the girls to be in the same class. We are in a HUGE district, 8500 children, and don't have neighborhood schools, but rather campus like settings. One school is for kindergarden, another is 1 - 3, 4-5, and 6 - 8. Within each grade there are "houses" with four classes each. At first, they weren't even in the same house! After a year of going two nights to open house, music programs, etc, I told the school to put them in the same house!

It has worked out well, as they were able to see each other at lunch and recess. They are now in 6th grade and have two academic classes together. Only thing the teachers requested was they not dress alike, as they are identical and very hard to tell apart. (DH and I will confuse them sometimes if we're not paying close attention.)

As they have grown, I wish there were books etc. for dealing with "older" twins. Tons of info on when they are pre-school, but nothing for as they are growing. So far so good, so we must be doing OK just winging it

 

[kritter]

Great thread, kritter. Thanks for starting it.

skent, what a neat grouping of kids you have!! It must be really cool to have two boys and two girls so close in age. I can see how you'd sort of forget you had twins in there somehow, though. I'd love to see a picture if you can post one (and of all the other multiples here). All I can say is I was not a pretty sight at 7 months, and there's no way I could have walked around WDW!! My hat is off to you!

oh I am glad that I started so we can all chat etc.. it will be fun to get to know all of you....

 

[kritter]

Our boys have been in separate classes since Kindergarten (now in 2nd). When they were in preschool/day care there was only one class and they were together. They did tend to play with other kids but many times they would be referred to as SeanDrew - spoken as one word! We felt that being in different classes was probably a good idea for them. With 6 2nd grade classes, many kids don't even know they are twins.

At conference time Drew's teacher told a cute story. The boys have one jacket that is the same (I usually try to get different colors but the price was too good and they only had 1 color). They were standing in line next to each other and a little boy asked Drew if that was his brother. Drew said yes and then the other boy said he could tell because they had the same jacket on. The teacher thought this was so funny because my boys do look a LOT alike. The only difference is that Drew wears glasses.

that is such a cute story....

 

[kritter]

My girls are together in school. I had a looong chat with the staff at the beginning of the school year and they put my mind at ease that it would not be bad for them (very independent from one another) and that we could change things at the first sight of trouble. It's working fine so far and it's soo much easier to coordinate ther activities with both at the same class. Also, I think that the 'support system' was a great plus for them since they both transitioned to the new school without a glitch.
I'll try to post a pic of them but I've never done it before, so I'm not sure how it works...

Hi,
If you want to post a picture then you need to upload it to a free site...such as photobucket.com that is who I use and then where the url is cute and past that into the user cp edit signature on the dis boards...if you want to upload a picture then I can tell you how to get it on the boards....I would love to help you...

We should all post some pictures..it will be fun to see all of the multiples....

 

[kritter]

Our district would not allow the girls to be in the same class. We are in a HUGE district, 8500 children, and don't have neighborhood schools, but rather campus like settings. One school is for kindergarden, another is 1 - 3, 4-5, and 6 - 8. Within each grade there are "houses" with four classes each. At first, they weren't even in the same house! After a year of going two nights to open house, music programs, etc, I told the school to put them in the same house!

It has worked out well, as they were able to see each other at lunch and recess. They are now in 6th grade and have two academic classes together. Only thing the teachers requested was they not dress alike, as they are identical and very hard to tell apart. (DH and I will confuse them sometimes if we're not paying close attention.)

As they have grown, I wish there were books etc. for dealing with "older" twins. Tons of info on when they are pre-school, but nothing for as they are growing. So far so good, so we must be doing OK just winging it

Hey maybe you are onto to something here maybe you should write a book about raing mulitples in the teenage years....

 

[JoyG]

Mine are fraternal as well..they look nothing alike...Funny you should say that about Lynette since we saw Cheaper by the dozen Two tonight and they are in that movie...Mine are not like that but sometimes I feel like LYnette...
I too stopped belonging about a year ago as well...To the twins club that is...I would like to keep my tiwns together for a few years in school...But wonder if the system will give a hard time for making this request?????

What did jack have when he was sick?????

I know they asked me if I wanted them in the same class and I told them no. So my district gives you the option.

Jack was born with a hole in his heart between the upper two chambers called an ASD. It would have caused problems later in life if he didn't have it repaired. But he's fixed and fine now.

Joy

 

[JoyG]

how do I get the picture in my signature to post instead of just showing the url? Thanks
Joy

 

[skent10]

Our district would not allow the girls to be in the same class. We are in a HUGE district, 8500 children, and don't have neighborhood schools, but rather campus like settings. One school is for kindergarden, another is 1 - 3, 4-5, and 6 - 8. Within each grade there are "houses" with four classes each. At first, they weren't even in the same house! After a year of going two nights to open house, music programs, etc, I told the school to put them in the same house!

Small world llp479! We're in Libertyville (Oak Grove District) just down the street. When we moved here two years ago (from TN), we considered Gurnee but hated the way they divided schools up, so went for a smaller school district.

I agree with there being a lack of information about older twins. I subscribed to Twins Magazine for the first year, but didn't really learn anything I hadn't already figured out with my first two being so close in age (and having B/G twins made the individuality thing a breeze). But I do wonder about when they're older and starting to assert their independence, and how to deal with that. I don't recall the magazine doing much to address those issues.

Now I'm off to figure out how to post a picture of the tribe ...

 

[JoyG]

Nevermind, I figured it out.

Joy

 

[skent10]

Okay, here's my attempt to post a picture.

The two in the red and green shirts are the twins, although if people don't know us, as soon as they hear "twins" they assume it's the boys. Um, okay, if you ignore the 4 inch height difference?! I guess maybe it's so obvious to us, we're surprised when people get confused. We also have people wonder if the first two are twins. That I can sort of understand, since DS is now the same height as DD, but there's a 1yr, 2wk age difference (and trust me, I kept my legs crossed to make it to that 1yr mark! Then he decides to hang around inside me for another two weeks. Geez! Some kids! )

(And please ignore the messy hair--they all got haircuts later that day. Why didn't I take the picture later then?! )

 

[mjkaferle5]

We have all boys!! The oldest in 7 1/2, the twins just turned 5, and our newest just turned 4 months.

It is nice to see other parents who know what identical and fraternal mean.

Our boys are identical and we always get the "they're not identical, I can see a difference". Then we have to go into the whole identicals are from a split egg and fraternals are from seperate eggs.........

And then some people will still say "well they don't look identical to me!!"

 

[llp479]

Small world llp479! We're in Libertyville (Oak Grove District) just down the street. When we moved here two years ago (from TN), we considered Gurnee but hated the way they divided schools up, so went for a smaller school district.

I agree with there being a lack of information about older twins. I subscribed to Twins Magazine for the first year, but didn't really learn anything I hadn't already figured out with my first two being so close in age (and having B/G twins made the individuality thing a breeze). But I do wonder about when they're older and starting to assert their independence, and how to deal with that. I don't recall the magazine doing much to address those issues.

Now I'm off to figure out how to post a picture of the tribe ...

I grew up in Libertyville and my parents still live there. Even though the district is huge, I'm amazed at how well organized they are. Most of the time you never really notice how big the district is, due to the "houses." My girls have had the same roughly 100 kids with them for K - 6.

The whole older twin thing is tough. There are 3 sets of identical twins on our block, the other two sets are boys, 11 and 12. We've also got a set of 2nd grade fraternal boys, and their mom has called me a couple times for advice - how to handle one twin invited to a party, etc.

Now I'm dealing with two girls and raging hormones. It's not a lot of fun in our house right now, especially for DH. The girls are raging and mine are falling - LOL! Just wait till the youngest gets into the act too!

 

[kritter]

Joy,
Glad that your son is ok now....



LOVE all of the pictures keep them coming......


How long did everyone carry their multiples for?? I carried mine for 38 weeks and five days and I had lost my mucus plug on dec. 24th and did not have them till feb 7th and my indicution failed those babies did not want to be born.....I had a c-section the next morning....

 

[llp479]

My girls were born at 31 weeks, weighing 2lbs13oz, and 3lbs8oz. They were in the NICU for 3 1/2 weeks. Never would know it today as at almost age 12 they are 5'3" and haven't even hit their growth spurt yet. MD thinks they will be about 5'10"! They'll be looking down on dear old mom, as I'm just under 5'8".

After birth they told me they were fraternal because I had two of everything. At age 7 DH and I had a DNA test done, because they were identical all the way down to their shoe size. Sure enough, they're identical not fraternal. Guess they didn't know that the egg can split prior to day 4 and you get two of everythig.

Crazy as it may seem, we were somewhat depressed when we found out that dd number 3 was a singleton. We had so much fun with the girls, and they were so close, we wanted that again for the new baby.

How far along was everyone when you found out you were having twins? We were 24 weeks before we knew, even though DH and I both had dreams about having twins, and he even asked the MD first time we heard the heartbeat if he was sure he only heard one!

 

[kikakeko]

This will be our first trip to WDW as a family my oldest dd is 8 our twin dds will be 4 at the time of travel. we have been on other vacations though and our travel rather well too.
I am so excited I think that I am obsessing over all aspents of the trip. I haven't been to disney since the 90's when I preformed there for twirling and I can still remember the magic.
I think the biggest challange for me has been trying to include all of the kids in the planning - I some times feel as though there is always a odd man out- any one else?