Twin birthday party resource

I was reading my college's alumni publication this morning when I stumbled upon a profile of Susan Huber, co-founder of this adorable website called http://busybeelifestyle.com. A so-called "Martha Stewart for the rest of us," Huber dishes practical advice on everything from packing for a trip to organizing an outdoor cocktail party. I personally love her ideas on how to host a Camp Rock bday bash for your kids. Cathy and I, as you know, firmly believe in the power of moms connecting with other moms, so we are giving props to Susan and her on-line venture. She may not be a twins expert, but she is darned creative and she really does seem to care and try out as many ideas as humanly possible.

Funny twin thingie

What a day. We had a huge day in NYC where Cathy taped a spot to plug our book on Access Hollywood, so stay tuned Twin Set fans, it's either tonight or tomorrow. She is still unpacking boxes in her new house and juggling her four boys, but she can deliver the goods on TV, I tell ya.

I have a raging headache because my husband and kids were sick all last week and I have been a stress bomb with all of the juggling and hype leading up to the pub date of our book (July 22). So I really needed a laugh today.  A new friend, Beth, that Cathy and I have made on our publishing journey, sent us this link last week. It really is funny--if you appreciate twin humor. My twins are boy/girl (yeah, I know, I am practically Angelina Jolie), so I don't get them confused ever. But as an appreciator of all things twins, I adored this. Thanks, Beth. And enjoy, Twin Set Fans!

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/human-mirror/22439460?icid=200100125x1205305346x1200262463

Say Cheese!

We love Shutterfly. The good peeps there contacted me back in June when they read some blog about something I wrote about bribing your babies for babytalk (we love babytalk, too). Anyway, they saw that I was a mom of twins and co-author of Twin Set, a revolutionary parenting book to help moms and dads of multiples survive and thrive the first five years. Shutterfly was excited to tell me about how they've been reaching out to moms of twins and working with the National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs (NOMOTC) to pinpoint the challenges associated with chronicling memories and telling the story of raising multiples. They did an online survey (since we did a national survey of moms of multiples for our book, we were really psyched about this part) which revealed: Moms of twins rank photographing multiples as more difficult than other tasks including feeding the babies, naming the babies, decorating the nursery and dressing the babies. To help photograph the babies, a whopping 88% said they have had professionals take pictures instead. To motivate moms of twins to get snapping, Shutterfly has introduced a new line of Twin Themed baby stationery. Go to http://shutterfly.com/ssc/viewStyle.sfly?

Other Shutterfly survey highlights include: Nearly 2/3 of moms of twins surveyed said Julia Roberts was the celeb mom of twins they most admire. 35% said that if given a day off, the famous nanny they'd want to watch the kids is Jo Frost of Supernanny fame. 

To check out a fun way to capture your twin's milestones go to http://www.shutterfly.com/inspire/photobooks/abcs.jsp

Happy photosnapping! More on the upcoming Twin Conference in Boston next time...

Cutest baby twin shoes ever

My friend Diana owns a children's shoe store in Tampa and she says that on one day, she had five different sets of twins in there. So if you are a mom of multiples in the area, email and I'll give you the name and address of the store. She'd love to meet you! She just sent me an email with some ideas of the cute stuff she sells in her store. Check out heelarious.com for your baby girl(s) first pair of high heels. I have two daughters and would have totally bought these back when they were teensy, had they been around. I also would've bought those delightful baby socks and tights that have ballet shoes and Maryjane's printed on the feet. My twins, a boy and a girl, did have scrumptious little Robeez on their feet, which I adored. There are so many bright colors and designs to choose from, and they are virtually indestructible. Ours got washed many times after getting puked on and still looked great. 

Moms of twins are finding out about Twin Set

It's July 7th, in two weeks and one day you can get your hands on a copy of Twin Set: Moms of Multiples Share Survive and Thrive Secrets. You can order it earlier on line, but you can't actually walk into a book store and buy it to go until July 22. That said, if you are a member of the press, you get the perk of getting an advance copy on your desk. One Pittsburgh journalist decided to give our book a whirl. See what she has to say about it in the link below.

 It helps that she's a mom of 16 yr old boy/girl twins, so naturally she'd be interested in hearing what Cathy and I have to say. By the way, Cathy has recently (read: 4th of July wkend) moved from one house to another in our same town. With four boys under 7 to contend with, on top of her job, on top of this book, she has left the blogging to me for a while. Sorry if am not as jazzy as a writer as her, but we are a team after all. 

Anyway, Cathy is just peachy.

So make her happy and check out this awesome link to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/parentexchange/default.aspx

Bring on the press reviews!!!

Amazing product for moms of twins

Bottle-feeding twins is a physical challenge. In our book, Cathy and I explain the various methods and positions we used, and those recommended by the over 300 moms of multiples that took our survey. In our survey, many moms revealed that they used bottle props to address their logistical glitches from time to time. This is a classic example of how advice you get from other moms may not pass inspection when you run it by your pediatrician. If you use a product like a bottle prop to keep your hands free while your twins are drinking, of course, you should be watching them carefully. The same goes if you decide to check out this new product, which could have genius potential. Virginia and Kenneth Krolczyk of Michigan are the proud parents of 3 singletons under nine. Ken turned his frustration for not being able to multitask while feeding his oldest child into inspiration to invent the Multi-Purpose Bib. Check it out on gotbibs.com. So far, this dynamic duo has sold about 1,000 of these and hope to have their product mass distributed some day. Virginia tells me in a recent email, "You will find mothers and fathers of twins and triplets think our product is most useful." 

Twin watch on the French Coast

Privacy is the new luxury. Can you imagine dealing with the impending birth of your twins knowing that a herd of anxious papparazzi where parked outside your hopsital just waiting for the news and a photo op? Maybe Angelina is used to all this hoopla by now, but I just can't help but think that the twin thing really is going to throw her and Brad for a loop. Sure, they are veteran parents, with four other kids in tow, but still--as Cathy and I can testify, parenting singletons, even a few of them, is way different from the unique challenges that twins impose. Stay tuned...

Does being a mom of twins define you now?

Self help books serve a purpose, but last night I was reading my latest issue of Vogue and got an unexpected blast of mini-therapy. In his monthly column, Andre Leon Talley was talking about what all these fabulous women were wearing to some fancy schmancy event, and mentioned Jennifer Lopez and some designer frock in one sentence. He didn't characterize her as singer, actor, dancer and hardly mother of twins. Just JLo with Marc Anthony. Maybe he had a tight word count so he had to lose the descriptives. I can't even fathom the last time some one described me as, "You know her, she's the one married to him." So much has happened since I got hitched almost nine years ago.

But let's try this exercise for a sec: close your eyes and come up with the three words you think others would use to characterize what you are and do everyday. Surely, mom of twins would be at the top of the list, right? Having twins has redefined my life in many positive ways, and has definitely shown me that I am a tough broad. Yeah, that's me: mom of twins, tough broad, blogger (sort of).