Twins Week!

In honor of my twins' birthday last Friday, I'm going to have a week dedicated to all things "twins" on my blog!

Okay...I'm really just celebrating that we hit a huge milestone on our twins journey! Three years ago I was breastfeeding sixteen times a day, changing at least sixteen dirty diapers, sometimes waking up twelve times a night, rocking, singing, bouncing, shushing and cooing my babies so they would sleep.


When I look at this picture, all I can remember is how tired I was!

It's been a whirlwind experience. One I wouldn't change for anything in the world. But, I have to admit, I'm so happy we're past the infancy stage. It's a blast to finally see my boys' personalities developing. It's fun to talk to them, sometimes reason with them (sometimes), find out what they like - and definitely what they don't like.

I get a lot of questions from people about raising twins, so I thought I'd give you a little peek into something we're dealing with right now.

Potty training.

My older twin decided he was done with diapers three months ago.

The other twin, my little Monkey, has decided he's not done with diapers. But he keeps us laughing with his antics, so I'm not losing patience...yet.

I thought it would be fun to share some of his reasonings for not going on the potty chair. So, without further ado, here are the inside workings of a three year old's mind.

~ ~ ~ ~

Upon waking up I ask him: "Would you like to be a big boy today, and wear underwear? Or, would you like to be a baby," insert scrunched up nose, shaking my head, "and wear a diaper?"

He looks very contemplative and says: "I want to be a CAT today!"

~ ~ ~ ~

We thought we'd be smart and "throw away" his diapers, so he didn't have any other options. Really, I just hid them. We said: "No more diapers! It looks like you'll have to go on the potty chair today."

For the rest of the day he peed in every available corner of the house...everywhere BUT the toilet.

~ ~ ~ ~

When I told him: "You have to go potty - you'll be three!"

He looks at me very seriously and says: "No, I'll be zero."

~ ~ ~ ~

For every logical reason I have, he comes back with one of his own.

I've had many well-meaning people give me advice about potty training him, but when I tell you we've tried it all, we've tried it all!

• We've let him walk around the house in the same diaper all day long, hoping he'd get annoyed with a heavy diaper...nope. He didn't even bat an eye.
• We've offered stickers, stamps, candy, you name it...he doesn't seem to want any of them.
• We've reasoned, begged, threatened (to take away a privilege), to no avail.
• We've even had our other twin "show" him how to go potty. After the older twin went potty, my little Monkey clapped his hands and said: "Ya! Good job!"

My little Monkey is simply not interested in going on the potty chair - yet. I've come to a very serious conclusion about this...he's not going to go, until he determines he's going to go. And that's all there is to it.

My Early Childhood/Family Education teacher has told me there are a handful of things children have control over. What they eat, what they say and when they go to the bathroom. Those are the three areas a child will fight you for control. It's my job to guide him and instruct him, but he has to make up his own mind to do it.

Aren't we similar when it comes to doing what God asks? His Spirit guides, the Word instructs, but it's up to us to do what we should do. Often, God is prodding us to mature and take the next step. For a variety of reasons we balk Him. It might be laziness, it might be fear - but, most often, it's because we want to be in control. Look how much better life would be for my son (and me!) if he gave up control and started using the potty chair.

How much better could our lives be if we gave up our need to be in control - and took the next step God is asking us to take?

What about you? What milestones have you celebrated recently? Have you ever had a determined (a.k.a. stubborn) child? Were you stubborn? Is there an area of your life you're struggling to give up control?