2 YEARS & 10 MONTHS - 24 May 2013

What an amazing day! The weather is perfect, I had a lovely afternoon with Liva and Laia, and we had a great evening all 4 of us together.
I picked up the girls at daycare at 14:00 already, since we had an appointment at the ear doctor. Liva and Laia for reason love this doctor, and were thrilled to go. He is really good with the girls, and having their ears checked becomes a highlight in itself. When we were done there, we went grocery shopping, I told the girls that if they behaved and didn't ask for things all the time, we could go for ice-cream when we were done. I had 2 little angles who helped me find the groceries and were super behaved the whole time. So we went for ice-cream :). We sat at the square in Elsinore in the sun and watched the other people while Liva & Laia had delicious ice-cream and I had iced coffee, yum! On our way home, I saw the market next to our house this weekend had opened, so we went there. There were rides, horses and booths that sold all kinds of junk.... I bought a candleholder for us for outside, and a silly little cash-register toy for Liva & Laia.
When we got home, we played in the garden for a while, then went upstairs and started getting dinner ready. Albert came home a few minutes later, we had a lovely dinner all together. Liva & Laia were so happy and really well behaved, even though they were tired we had a lovely dinner. After dinner we played a bit, then got the girls ready for bed. Upstairs we played hide and seek with them, the girls were laughing so hard they could hardly stand at the end. At 19:45 we put them to bed, sang to them and after a few minutes they were both asleep. I hope the rest of the weekend will be just as lovely!

Ice-cream
Laia riding
Liva riding 
Merry-go-round

2 YEARS & 10 MONTHS - 22 May 2013

I sometimes wonder if "having kids" is really everything it's said to be?! Now, before you start panicking and calling the children's social authorities or whoever and accusing me of not loving my children, let me set one thing straight: I adore Liva and Laia, I would do anything for them, and I cannot (and don't want to!) imagine life without them! I have loved them from the first second they came into my life, and my love for them has grown by the hour. I have never, not for a single tenth of a second, regretted having children. But I sometimes still wonder why "having kids"is so important to most women, especially young women. And this includes myself!
As far back as I can remember, I have wanted kids. As a little girl I had a baby doll and everything that goes with it - clothes, stroller, changing table, bath, potty, diapers, etc. etc. etc! I have loved being with babies and little children all my life, I started babysitting at the age og 15, I have been a nanny for a family in Germany for 3 months, and a live-in Au-Pair in the US for 13 months. Since I was in my early twenties I envied pregnant women and went gaga when I saw little babies. When my friends starting having babies my biological clock tripled, and I just couldn't wait for it to be my turn.
After a few years with Albert I started talking quite seriously about it, and promised him life wouldn't change. I have been around children all my life, I just knew it. We could still go out to dinner, we would just bring the baby in the stroller and s/he would sleep through dinner. We would still have sex, we would still travel and go out, nothing would change. Little did I know EVERYTHING would change! And little did I know there would be 2 babies. I had hoped, but I had never dared imagine it.
As mentioned before, Liva and Laia are the best thing that have ever happened to me, but I miss going out to dinner with Albert. Strangely enough, we can't just put Liva and Laia in a stroller and have them sleep through dinner... I miss strolling hand in hand with my husband and chatting about everything and nothing. I miss sleeping at night, I miss sleeping in in the mornings, I miss not being tired. I miss spontaneous weekend trips to Hamburg, Rome or other fun places, I miss going on vacation. I miss being able to afford these things.
This does NOT mean I don't love going for brunch as a family, love feeling Liva and Laia's hands in mine when we go for a walk, love the cuddles I get from both of them when they come into our bed in the morning, love seeing their faces when we experience new things together as a family or love discovering that there are still many fun things you can do without it costing a lot of money.
Last week, one of my 17-year old students told me she can't wait to be a mom, and hopes to have her first child in about 3-4 years when she has her education behind her - at least she realizes she should get her education first! I told her that having kids is the most amazing thing in the world, but a few seconds later I tried to take back what I had said, and told her to enjoy her youth, enjoy life and not be in such a hurry to have children. I had Liva and Laia at 35, I always thought it was late for having children, but I am soooo happy to have experienced what I did before having them. Liva and Laia are now so big that we can experience new things together as a family, go places without worrying about bottles, diapers, strollers, etc. As much as I love being a mom, I don't think we send girls/young women the right signals: being a mom is not everything, you should enjoy your life for as long as you can before you give life because even though you don't think it will apply to you, life does change after having children. In every way. I am not saying life without children was better, but life with children isn't always everything it's said to be. No matter how much you love your children!

2 YEARS & 10 MONTHS - 20 May 2013

If I wasn't already 100% sure I don't want more kids, I am now! We've just had my brother-in-law from Barcelona visiting with his 3 kids of 6, 4 and 2 years old. They are sweet, quiet, well-behaved kids, and it was nice having them here. The 2-year old is a girl, the other 2 are boys, especially the girls had a lot of fun together. My brother-in-law ran the Copenhagen marathon yesterday, Albert took the 2 boys to Copenhagen early in the morning while I stayed with the 3 girls. They were sweet and well-behaved, but somehow I got NOTHING done all morning except shower and dress myself, dress the 3 girls and pack a bag. My mom had to come at 10:00 so she could take the train into Copenhagen with me, Albert had used the car and I couldn't bring 2 strollers on my own. My poor mom came all the way to Copenhagen on 2 different trains and a metro, then went straight home coz it was rainy and cold. How do people with more than 2 kids manage? How do they ever get anything not kid-related done?
On the way home the train stopped at the station just before Elsinore, we had to catch a bus the rest of the way (some teenagers had climbed onto a train at Elsinore station and had gotten burnt by the electric wires, poor kids! All trains to Elsinore were stopped for hours). On the bus we, strangely enough, met a Catalan guy who had also run the marathon, he has 4 children. I was speechless when he told us! I love my 2, and I don't want to have more. And now I seriously respect people who have 3 or more children, and still manage to have a life - well done!

2 YEARS & 10 MONTHS - 13 May 2013

It's been way too long since I've written, but every time I thought about writing, it was because I was in a bad mood and wanted to get rid of my frustration by writing. But then I felt sorry for making this blog, which is supposed to be about the happiest event in my life, become so negative and demotivating, and I decided to not write. Whenever something good happened, I didn't feel the urge to write, and so there has been a long break.
I remember about 10 months ago, my mom told me she had been speaking with the neighbor. The neighbor has 3 sets of twins herself, and 1 set of twin grandchildren, I have mentioned this woman before because I am amazed that she is still sane, and it gives me hope for my own sanity! She had asked my mom how old Liva and Laia were, and when my mom had answered that they had just recently turned 2, the neighbor had warned her that this would be the worst and hardest year of them all. I hope she was right!
We're getting very close to Liva and Laia's 3rd birthday, and we can feel the difference every day! It is getting so much easier again!
Liva and Laia are much more independent. For example, when I go shower in the morning I just leave their clothes in the living room. They take off their pajama and get dressed all by themselves. They can even put on their socks correctly, and Laia can button her clothes (proud mom!!). Normally, they go upstairs and play after getting dressed. They are generally much better at playing on their own, with Albert working south of Copenhagen and spending approx. 2 hours commuting each way, the girls have to entertain themselves while I shower in the morning, and prepare dinner (if I'm not in the mood for them to "help" me) and clean the kitchen at night. Lately they actually play more than they fight! :) They can spend hours with their baby dolls and with Lego-Duplo. Especially Liva loves creating things, and has an amazing imagination. She also loves drawing and takes it very seriously when she sits down to draw. Laia loves dressing up, and anything that just resembles gymnastics, jumping and dancing.
Taking them places is also much easier, and much more fun now. For example, yesterday we took the car for about 35 minutes to a big flea market, Liva and Laia behaved the entire time, listened to us, and (hardly!) touched all the things there. Ice-cream and little toys bought at the flea market of course helped a lot... After spending a couple of hours there we drove to a restaurant I had read about, and had lunch there. We were all hungry, and Liva and Laia were tired, a situation that usually ends in disaster. Luckily there was paper and coloring pencils at the restaurant, and waiting time was passed drawing and sharpening pencils. The food was great, lunch was fun and completely disaster free. On the way home in the car Liva and Laia slept. All in all a perfect day, just the kind of day we had been hoping we'd experience at some point as a family.
We also laugh loads, the girls are starting to develop a great sense of humor, and here they are also completely different, so there is plenty to laugh about. Laia talks really well, and says the funniest things, sometimes without even trying to be funny but very often she knows exactly what she is doing. Liva also talks loads, but she is more a little clown, making funny faces and acting roles; pretending to be angry is her favorite at the moment.
I could go on and on, but I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll stop here and hopefully write again soon. I hope my next many posts will be positive and will be all about how lovely and easy life with twins is - again!