Your toddler twins will put on a show that can only be described as “twinadoes.”

Imagine the Tazmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes cartoons. He spins like crazy, leaving a wake of destruction in his path. Then, he takes a quick break, looks around and starts spinning again. Here is a video of the Tazmanian Devil to remind you:

Now imagine your twins’ smiling faces in that whirlwind of destruction and enjoying every minute of it. There is something magical about toddler twins that you won’t see with a singleton toddler.

Your twins will run, jump, climb, topple, wrestle, destroy, demolish, slam, bite, hit, kick, cry, scream, and bounce off the walls like nothing you’ve ever seen.

The twins will feed off the actions and energy of the other to create super twinadoes that you’ll be hard pressed to contain.

Your clean family room will be struck by the twinadoes and you’ll have to carefully tread through the aftermath.

Yes, the twinadoes will even splatter food, spill drinks, leave crumbs, and dirty up your clean kitchen.

So don’t get too hung up on keeping your house spotless and tidy. As long as you have twinadoes roaming your halls, you’ll have messes to clean up.

The trick is to use the time when the eye of the storm is present to teach the whirling dervishes how to clean up their own messes!

There have been some aspects of raising twins that are par for the course and pretty similar to our experience in raising our singletons. However, there have been some surprising things about twins, as well.

I have been surprised:

1. By how many diapers we’d go through. It seems that they get used up as fast as we can buy them.
2. That I’d ever be able to tell my identical twin girls apart at a glance
3. That my other kids were able to tell the twin girls apart before I could
4. That sleep deprivation was worse than with a singleton
5. By how many people gawk at our family when we are all out in public
6. That the girls do so many things the same and yet are so different
7. By just how much we’d need that twin double stroller to control the chaos in public
8. By how big and uncomfortable my wife would get during pregnancy
9. By how little time or energy I’ve had to do anything but clean up the house after the kids are all in bed
10. By the mountains of clean laundry that stack up on laundry day
11. By the sheer amount of toys two toddlers can unleash in less than five minutes if given a chance
12. That I haven’t been able to figure out a way to have both twins help me cook in the kitchen (i.e., make cookies) at the same time
13. By how much time it takes to get shoes on, jackets on, diaper bag packed, and everyone loaded into their car seats before we’re ready to go somewhere
14. At the amount of patience having two sick twins at the same time requires
15. By how happy I am to be greeted by two happy faces who run to me for hugs and kisses when I get home from work
16. By how truly satisfying being a parent is

If you’ve already had your twins, what is something that surprised you?

One of the big expenses with raising twins is diapers. From the day they are born until they master potty training and keeping their pants dry overnight, you’ll need to buy diapers.

Twin Diaper Usage

Newborns average about 10 diapers a day per baby. So your newborn twins will need about 10 diapers X 30 days X 2 babies = at least 600 diapers for the first month.

After about a month diaper consumption goes down to about 8 diapers per day. You’ll need 8 diapers X 30 days X 2 babies = at least 480 diapers per month for a few more months.

After three to six months, your babies should fall into a regular pattern with more predictable diaper usage. The blow outs and leaks of the newborn days are gone and you’ll see a pattern emerging. From 3 months to 1 year you should wean down to about 4-6 diapers per day per child.

So based on averages (your twins’ usage will vary) you are looking at using about 2,000 diapers by the time your twins turn 6 months.

After the year mark, diaper use is usually down to about 4 a day: one change when they wake up, one before naps, one before bed, and one for the random poop that happens every day at unpredictable times. So your toddler twins will need 4 diapers X 30 days X 2 toddlers = 240 diapers per month.

This means your twins could use close to 3,000 diapers in the year between ages one and two. (Makes you want to potty train early, doesn’t it?)

Diaper Transition

Once your twins potty train, you’ll be free from the traditional diapers. However, in some cases, you might need Pull-ups for nap times and overnight sleeping until they master the overnight dryness too.

Unfortunately, Pull-ups (and especially the overnight extra absorbent kind) tend to be more expensive than regular diapers. Fortunately, the volume of diapers during this transition period is cut in half.

Diaper Budget

You may want to establish a generous diaper budget for yourself as you stock up on diapers during pregnancy and maintain regular diaper use through the first two years or so.

What should you do with that money after you don’t need diapers?

You’ll see food consumption rise as your twins get older. That increased expense will likely offset any savings you see in no longer buying diapers.

Alternatively, you could start saving the money you did spend on diapers in your twin’s college savings funds. That way when it is time for college, you can remind them that they don’t have enough money because they refused to potty train until they were four.

You’ll probably hear incredulous comments from non-twin parents like, “How do you do it?”

Well, as with anything in life, I find a way. That way contains the secret to doing anything with twins.

The secret?

One at a time.

Need to change a poopy diaper on both twins? Change one at a time.

Are both babies crying and you’re home alone? Soothe one at a time.

Spoon feeding both twins dinner? Take turns: one at a time.

Very rarely will you need to do whatever you are doing simultaneously with both twins. One exception would be if your house is on fire. Grab both twins and get out.

Need to load the twins into the car? One at a time.

Need to teach them how to walk? Walking one at a time will make your life a lot easier.

Time to potty train? One at a time.

Remember, twins may come two at a time but that doesn’t mean they need to do everything at the same time.

Just think, they weren’t even born at the same time. How did they arrive? One at a time.

The new year is upon us and as is tradition, it is time to set some goals.

Your goals this year could include being a better dad to your twins.

If you need some ideas of how to do this, I did the hard work and brainstormed for all of us. This is what I came up with:

• Spend one-on-one time with each twin and not always together
• Stop mixing up their names and start calling them by the right name
• Look for and love unique personality traits in each twin
• Master getting both twins changed and dressed in the morning without help
• Learn to identify the different cries from each twin
• Find out what foods one twin likes that the other doesn’t
• Come up with some witty responses to people’s public comments about your twins
• Go on a date with your wife–and without the twins–often.
• Bathe both twins at the same time without help
• Pack the diaper bag correctly without your wife’s help
• Help out when the twins go to the doctor’s office
• Start reading to your twins
• Take more pictures and video of your little ones

What Daddy New Year’s resolutions would you add to the list?

May the New Year be a good one for you, your family, and your twins!

It may come as no surprise that twins will typically cost you twice as much as a singleton baby.

Even though I know this (boy, do I know this!), I always feel a pinch of pain when I have to take both girls to the doctor and pay two insurance copays.

You’ll feel this financial pinch, too.

This may be because I’m used to paying a single copay when I go to the doctor or when I take one of my other children to the pediatrician.

But even with twins, a trip to the doctor appears on the surface to be the same as when you take a singleton. You make one appointment for two babies, particularly for well baby checkups. You have a single drive to the office. Everyone waits in the same room.

All these events psychologically set your expectations that this is a single visit to the doctor.

All, of course, until you have to pay twice.

I have asked (it seems like every time) if I get a two-for-one deal on the copay but the office staff never seems to find that funny.

So if double copays are the reality, you just need to be ready.

Well baby checkups follow a set pattern (every three months, then every six months, for example), so you can lay these out on the calendar and budget your money accordingly.

Build in a buffer of savings for the inevitable sicknesses that will come.

We’ve also used a Flex Spending account that my employer offers to help standardize our health expenses and get a tax break in the process.

Remember those double copays. Don’t be surprised or caught off guard, be ready by budgeting and saving for them.

And if you find a pediatrician who will give you a two-for-one on copays, I want their phone number.

Your twins will trade food and drinks during meals and snack times.

So how do you know how much each child has eaten or had to drink?

We’ve sat our twins in booster chairs next to each other since they started eating solid foods.

Due to their proximity to each other, they tend to swap food, sippy cups, spoons, and anything else on their trays.

Your twins may very well do the same.

One option to make sure each kid gets what she needs and nothing else is to sit them on opposite sides of the room.

Unfortunately, this makes it a little more inconvenient to single-handedly meet the needs of both kids at the same time.

Our girls have shown that they will eat what they want and leave the rest. If they want more food, we’ve taught them to use baby signs to indicate as much. (If, by the way, you want some sanity in communications with your little ones read Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk.)

So even if there is food swapping going on, your kids will eventually be able to self-regulate their intake.

However, we found our girls were still swapping sippy cups. This created a problem because we wanted to make sure that they got the amount of milk they needed or the vitamins we snuck into their juice.

Our solution to managing the swapping: different color cups.

It seems simple because it is. Remember, just because your babies are twins doesn’t mean they have to have everything be identical.

Use color differences to your advantage at meal times and you will be able to easily see the status of each of your kiddos.

Your twins won’t always get sick at the same time, but sometimes they do.

This will put extra strain on your family and household.

Our girls were both recently sick at the same time.

In summary, it felt like we had reverted to newborn twins again. They needed constant care and were up multiple times during the night.

After your twins are old enough and start sleeping through the night, you get spoiled. When an interruption comes along, it will be especially difficult to handle middle-of-the-night awakenings.

During the initial newborn phase, you’ll get used to the pattern of round-the-clock care and hopefully have worked out a system with your wife to care for the twins during the night.

Remember those lessons and put them to use when your twins are sick later.

When your twins are sick, before you go to bed at night, have a huddle with your wife and make a plan of what will happen during the overnight hours.

Who is on duty?

Perhaps you will split the shift with your wife. “Honey, if the girls wake up between now and 2 a.m., I’ll take care of them. You go from 2 a.m. until the morning.”

This sets expectations with your wife and puts a little reminder in your subconscious that will alert you to get out of bed when you hear cries instead of just ignoring them.

Preparations Within Reach

Lay out the supplies you’ll need for late night baby care before you go to sleep. Put the thermometer, Tylenol, tissues, water bottle, etc. all where you’ll be able to easily locate them.

Remember, you’ll wake up groggy and won’t be able to think straight. Make it easy for yourself.

Keep a Log

Just like you need to keep a log with your newborn twins, you need to do the same when they are sick. This is particularly true if they are running a fever. You’ll need those temperatures to let the doctor know in the morning if things are getting better or worse.

Put the log and a pen next to your other supplies so that both you and your spouse know what happened while the other was doing the caretaking.

Be the Backup

No matter your plan, the time will come when both your little ones wake up crying and sick in the middle of the night. It will be impossible for one parent to care for both. So go get your spouse or let her wake you up. Regardless of whose “shift” it is during the night, there may be a time when all hands are needed on deck.

This Too Shall Pass

Don’t worry, your twins won’t have that cold or virus forever. A couple of sleepless nights and things should be back to normal.

Set up your plan, communicate it clearly with your spouse, make your preparations and you’ll be able to weather double sick twins like a pro.

With twins, you feel like you are always busy, always have your hands full, and never seem to get a break.

If you have other children in addition to twins, you’ll be busy from the time the kids wake up until they go to bed.

I discovered recently the secret formula that indicates how many kids are easy to manage at once. This equation is based on the number of kids you have:

Easy = number of kids – 1

In our case, we have four kids. When one is asleep or at grandma’s house, life is easy.

If you have just the twins, and get a time when only one is in the house or awake, life seems like a piece of cake.

This formula also explains why you can magically handle all the kids you have in your family while the guy next door can’t handle the only child they have.

Since you have twins, “easy” is having just one kid.

So remember the secret and enjoy those moments when you are down just one kid. Take a break and relax. You’ll find the silence is odd and you’ll miss the one that is giving you a break.

But don’t worry, before you get too relaxed, you’ll be back to a full house and have your hands full once more.

Your twins will go through diapers at a rate that will surprise you.

“Didn’t we just buy a box of diapers?” you’ll ask, surprised, when you see your stock running low. (The answer is always “yes,” by the way.)

One of the challenges of diapers is knowing when to move up to the next size. Each size diaper corresponds to a weight range to help you know what size to buy for your babies. What you may not realize is that there is about a two pound overlap between sizes. So you don’t necessarily need to max out the weight range on one size before moving up to the next size.

So how do you know when the time is right? The solution is simple:

When your twins start having blowouts and leaks on a frequent basis, it is time to move up to the next diaper size.

This may seem obvious, but in practice, it is not.

Your twins will have a poop that overflows the diaper and you’ll be so busy cleaning it up that you won’t see the pattern that is emerging.

If you hear yourself saying any of these things, it may be time to change diaper sizes:

• “Again! She had a blowout yesterday…”
• “What? Another blowout?”
• “Why does she keep overflowing her diaper?”
• “I really hate cleaning out these poopy clothes!”

Once you start to see multiple blowouts and on a recurring basis, go ahead and buy the next size diapers.

What if you still have a stack of the current size?

Two solutions: use them on the other twin or give them away.

One of our girls seemed to be having the blowout problem more than her sister. So we moved up a size on one girl and not the other.

If both your twins are ready for the upgrade but you still have left over diapers, don’t worry: diapers make great gifts for other parents-to-be. Yes, even opened packages! You just don’t have to wrap those ones up. You only have to buy one package of diapers to appreciate even an opened package.

What if we move up a size and the diapers are too big?

Don’t let the “too big” possibility stop you from proceeding. Even if they don’t fit today, your twins will keep growing and they can start wearing them in the near future.

I will say, that with our four kids, we’ve never had the problem of poop leaving a “too big” diaper.

Why do diapers cost so much?

Short of changing professions or buying stock in Pampers or Huggies, you may just have to accept the fact that someone’s getting rich at your expense. Diapers are one of the financial curses of twins. Go get yourself a Costco membership and you can save on the diapers.