Play Pen Positivity

Back in February I wrote a review of Meghan Regan-Loomis’ book ‘Juggling Twins’. I bought it too late for me to make the most of the advice she provides for the early days with twins and I wanted to highlight it for other twin parents. It really is a great book!

Anyway, I am now using the second half of the book as a guide as my own twinfants head toward toddlerdom. William is already on the move and Esther is not far behind.

If you had asked me before having the twins what I thought of play pens I would have been set against them, against the idea of not giving my children the freedom of the house but with two crawlers in an old house with stone and wooden floors safety has had to become our first concern and in actuality providing Esther and William with a play pen has allowed them some freedom, and just as importantly gives me peace of mind that I can go to the loo or make a cup of tea without either of them coming to any harm.

Actually Esther and William seem to really enjoy their play pen, in short bursts alternating between independent play and supervised play with me or Daddy. We followed Meghan’s advice and as soon as the babies were four months old (corrected) we started putting them together in a cot with some toys to share. This got them used to sharing a space . Esther and William are now 10 months old (7 months corrected) and have a large play pen in their play room where they have room to crawl.

As noted by Meghan they are starting to happily hang out together, play beside one another and they are even starting to share their toys. Though they are not great at sharing it has to be said, there is a lot of grab and dash from William! In the last few days Esther has become much more tolerant of William. He used to scare her a bit as he is bigger and more boisterous but now she is happy to have him near her and even tries to cuddle him from time to time! Bless x

The key piece of advice we have taken from Meghan is to anticipate fussiness rather than react to it after the fact. She suggests (and so we follow!) keeping ten or twelve toys in the area and removing a couple and replacing them with something new every ten or fifteen minutes. This seems to work really well alongside the alternation of independent and guided play. Always the teacher!

I think as Esther and William get bigger and become more confident and faster crawlers we may need to extend their space some more. I am toying with the idea (unbeknown to David) of putting our bedroom in their current playroom and moving their playroom upstairs next to their nursery as it is bigger and is carpeted which would make life so much easier. It would also remove the need for the play pen as the room would be bare apart from baby things. A safe baby haven!

The aim, as explained in the book, is to lessen the sense of confinement and also make the space inviting for older family members and friends to hop in and play.

Esther and William love it when David and I join them in their play pen and even more so when their cousin, Rohan, comes round to play.

A very important piece of advice from Meghan is to ensure that the play spaces are not used are not overused and to rotate new toys and activities regularly. Meghan also points out that having fewer toys will help the babies to ficus and keep tjeir area uncluttered so that they can walk on their srawling, cruising and eventually walking!

Meghan uses her own children to illusrtaet the points that she makes in the book and this anecdote ois one of my favourties. I am sure that she would not mind me sharing it with you.

By the time our guys were nine months, they had inititiated games of ‘chase’, giggling as they pursued each other around an eight-by-eight foot play area in a hilarious uber-crawl that got them going so fast at times that their legs would come out from under them. By ten months, they worked on stacking cups together and passed toys back and forth between themselves. The incidents of gouged eyes, full-out tackles, and hurt feelings were remarkably few (but don’t forget to keep nails short) and our ‘pigpen’ became indispensable to us not simply as a safe baby depository but as a fun place for them to explore and learn.

We have not looked back since setting up Esther and William ply pen and are now always looking for ways to take it and them forward.

Here are some photos of Esther and William at play.