When One Plus One Equals Three

So somebody said to the wife that it is actually harder to look after two young kids of different ages than to look after twins. Although I have no experience of the latter I can certainly say that looking after a two and a half year old and a 11 month old is no picnic. If you do want to use a picnic analogy then think of a picnic on the side of a sheer rock face, in a blizzard, being attacked by hornets and overhanging a boiling pit of molten lava.

Looking after E on his own used to be okay. It seemed hard at the time but in reality it wasn't that hard at all. Throw another one into the mix and hey presto! - two kids, three times the work.

They get along most of the time but if L has any of E's toys he immediately wants it back. Or else. We recently bought L some toys of her own to try to balance things out. Now if she is playing with one of these, E immediately wants it. Or else.

As L is now standing she will go over to E's toy chest and peer inside at the treasure of goodies. The other week she overbalanced peering over the edge and went headfirst into the (thankfully) empty toy chest and we were greeted with the comical appearance of two stumpy legs pointing straight up out of the toy chest! She was a little bit upset but completely fine, her brother however was quite distraught when she went in. So he does have a soft spot for her after all it would seem.

But I digress. As they have different foods and she needs more nap time and they require different levels of interaction it does present a problem particularly if you are looking after them alone. But there were reasons that we wanted them close together in age and are assured that later on we will reap the benefits of this.