Survival Gear

Dear LB and BG:

In your vast nearly 15-months of life, we have learned so much. You learned to roll, sit, crawl, stand and walk. Your elements of play have advanced each week. I have been lucky enough to witness most of that the last five months as a stay-at-home mama.

But, I do owe my survival and yours to a few things. After all, ask any parent of twins -- no matter how many children they had beforehand -- caring and raising twins is different than one baby. It just is. I will tell you our must-haves routinely over the next few months. I want to start with our Top 3 essentials, though.

1. Twinstuff -- A community of forums of parents from all over the globe who work daily to survive with and support parents of twins. It was here that I learned early on about Braxton Hicks and twinskin. In our first year together, I made a group of friends whose twins were all born around the same time as you. We even exchanged Christmas cards.

2. MOMY -- Mothers of Multiples. Our local chapter brought us meals for an entire week when you were just newly born. Since then, I've made some great friends who have helped me figure out how to figure out raising twins. They've helped with some of the little things like the best bibs to put on you to contain the mess as much as possible and which toys are best for development and sharing among two non-sharing babies.

3. These blankets -- Since you were about four months old, you have been snuggling with these blankets. They are still, by far, your favorite can't-sleep-without item. We take them in the car when we think you need a nap and we have replacements for laundry days.