• Home
  • SAVE TIME IN THE ACADEMY
  • BROWSE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LIBRARY
  • MEMBER LOGIN

The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

  • SHOP EDUCATOR RESOURCES
  • NEW? START HERE
  • FREE Planning Guide
  • My Story

What do you do with a Monkey?

by The Empowered Educator 6 Comments

I am beginning to notice a dilemma…i have one twin who loves to potter around inside, not get to messy, not eat much and is quite clingy..although she has a lovely sense of humour and seems to enjoy pretty dresses and ‘things'. She really likes her personal space when playing though.

My other twin absolutely loves outdoors, climbs everything, takes risks constantly, loves to eat, loves messy activities but enjoys helping mummy clean, pack up and sweep after mess has been made. She enjoys being the little helper but feels she needs to ‘put' her sister on this path too!

Fantastic i hear you say…..but did i mention she climbs??? Having previously studied child development i know that both girls are perfectly normal…especially with their differences, but it is making it increasingly hard to meet both their needs some days!

I guess this is the beauty…and hard part of twins! As a parent you get to share in the different personality quirks but also despair with just how different they are at times…and therefore how different their needs often are.

We often marvel at the fact that we could see many of these differences from when they were only a few weeks old and they have just developed as they have grown older! I wonder how many other parents of twins experience this or are our girls just too different?

Tara is my monkey and just to clever for her  (or my) own good! This is her latest ‘trick' . I have no idea how she dreamt this one up……

Up onto the rocker chair (just for the extra challenge)….onto her head…..
then begin kicking legs up into the air until she forms a headstand with legs resting on top of the chair…usually takes a few goes and there isn't a photo of step 3 as i dropped the camera when i realised what she was doing and got very, very, scared… as only a mother can! That is paint all over her by the way!
obviously the down stage…she apparently doesn't realise that she could end up flat on the floor…even though i had told her repeatedly (really, you think by 20 months she would be mature enough to grasp that fact ๐Ÿ™‚ )
This is the pose she adopted yesterday after being told off … encouraged yet again to stop doing her trick!
We already had a trip to the emergency room before she was even one due to her diving off  a chair onto the wooden skirting board and slicing into her nose, they couldn't stitch or glue there so they fashioned a bandage and we are now being referred to a plastic surgeon in Brisbane as it isn't healing well and is very raised….hmmm…
This was the next day…didn't slow her down at all…more climbing to be done!
And again……
She went to a lot of trouble building this up and i was of course suitably impressed…then she tried to climb it!
I fear we are going to be spending a lot of time visiting the hospital as she gets older and more daring. I know we can't wrap them in cottonwool and i certainly don't…but then i wonder if i should be doing more to keep her safe!
 It is just so hard to find that happy medium….have you had a climber who loves to take risks? I'd love to hear your experiences with a toddler!!!
What do you do with a monkey???

Filed Under: toddler twosome, twins

« Twin Seed Planting…
Magic Marble Playdough »

Comments

  1. Happy Whimsical Hearts says

    01/03/2012 at 5:00 am

    What amazing personalities your girls have. I love that they make them known so readily. Master D is a big climber, get in the mud, outdoorsy type. Luckily (I don’t know how) we haven’t had any great accidents yet. I do allow some jumping around monkey style (probably more than I should some would think). We intervene when we feel we need to, but otherwise have noticed ‘helping’ can actual disturb balance etc…

    Reply
  2. Twins Squared says

    01/03/2012 at 2:21 pm

    First of all that is quite a trick she did! As for twins being different, yes my older twins especially are like night and day. The little twins are much like the olders but maybe not quite as extreme. And I had one in each set that was a climber. One of my little twins would climb on everything and run full-speed everywhere she goes. I used to call her the fastest kid in the west. I mean, if you didn’t have her within arms reach she would take off and be gone! Plus she would climb on everything. She gets hurt a lot but we have been lucky that nothing has been serious. She got quite a split on her forehead one Easter. Almost took her to the emergency room as it was bleeding a ton but it actually didn’t look that deep. I will say though that she had a scar for about a year but I think it’s finally gone.

    I wanted to thank you for your sweet comment on my blog. Yes, I wish I could be content with doing my best. I just have one daughter in particular that I worry about because she is built just like my husband’s sister who was severely obese. And on top of that my daughter loves to eat and does not like to be very active. She does eat healthy foods (in addition to everything else) but she eats a lot but then doesn’t like anything where she has to exert herself. And in the last year and a half I can tell she is getting quite a bit bigger. You can’t really tell yet in clothes but I definitely see it. I just don’t want to see her go through all my SIL has gone through. My SIL hit puberty and just got bigger and bigger and by the time she was in her 20s was so big she couldn’t do (or didn’t believe she could do) very much. She lost so many years of her life simply because she was so big. She had gastric bypass surgery about 3 years ago and things have changed so much for her but she is now 40. I don’t want to see my daughter go through anything close to what she has gone through. And the struggles with self-esteem, etc. And I worry about what to say/not say to her about eating as I want her to have good habits and know that some things are bad for you but I also want her to have a good self body image no matter what she looks like. And I hate that I have to think about this NOW because I just want my kids to enjoy being kids. But I don’t want to build bad habits that may be hard to break either. So anyway, sorry to leave such a long message but I appreciated the comment you left.

    Your girls are too cute!

    Reply
  3. The Adventurer says

    02/03/2012 at 9:00 am

    I think your monkey is adorable and very creative:) but I am not the one being scared out of my wits:) My oldest is like this… we too had a trip to the emergency room at about one and ended up with 3 stitches above the eye. No good advice for you except try to keep the most dangerous things out of the way:) BTW my oldest is now ten and a lot more calmer so maybe they grow out of it:)

    Reply
  4. momto8 says

    03/03/2012 at 3:14 pm

    wow..you have your hands full!! way fun pictures!
    good luck!

    Reply
  5. Catherine says

    05/03/2012 at 1:20 pm

    You sure do have two different little personalities which can be hard to cope with when they are little and require so much supervision but you are really doing a wonderful job with both of them Jode. You always have such fun activities outdoors for your busy climber to go and play outside and for your quiet little girl too so she gets to play quieter activities outside. I hope your little ones nose is ok, ouch it looks sore. xx

    Reply
  6. Tania says

    07/05/2012 at 11:15 pm

    Good to see I’m not alone with this whole monkey thing! It’s funny because I always thought this was more of a boy thing. My son was always energetic but not a climber. Violet is only 17 months and I’m guessing this is only the beginning. I’m dreading any future hospital visits from her little adventures. It can be so hard to find a balance can’t it? I don’t like wrapping in cotton wool either, but you don’t want them getting hurt. Hard to find the balance!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Jodie
Hi, I'm Jode, Mum to twins and a teen, and an early childhood educator.
I love to share ideas & resources for play based learning
Find out more about me here...

pinterestfacebooktwitterinstagram

What Can I Help You With?

Family Day Care

Outdoor Play

Sensory Play

Simple Planning

The World Around Us
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Refund Policy
  • Privacy Policy

.

Copyright © 2023 ยท Market theme by Restored 316