Superstar Celebs Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon talk candidly about their life with twins with Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20 this Friday, October 21, 2011.  The babies have been pretty much kept from public view since their birth on April 30th — until now that is. Expect to see the girl/boy twins Monroe & Moroccan, and hear details of Mariah’s pregnancy, their marriage, and more.

Watch a video preview at the 20/20 website: http://abcn.ws/oNsEFw

Getting Back to Basics.

Life forever changed when we had twins.  And, especially in those early days, it was so helpful to be in community with other families with twins. From the start, TwinParenthood has strived to help parents of twins and multples connect. In fact, it’s part of our tagline: Connecting. Learning. Growing.

Our Facebook page community continues to grow in membership and participation in leaps and bounds. And while we tried out a community in our beloved BigTent, it just didn’t work out. So, we’re ready to try something new.

We’re very excited to announce our new TwinParenthood community on blogfrog. Unlike our previous community, anyone can “see” the posts in our community on blogfrog. Come check it out… post a comment… “join”. We’d love to help you in your TwinParenthood journey, Connecting. Learning. Growing.

Time to wake up!  Honk if you love ♥ twins!

Honk-Honk!

The words Twin-Tuition might make you think ahead to college — but that’s not the subject of tonight’s show  on ABC’s Nightline. 

ABC’s Nightline is starting a new 5 week series called, “Beyond Belief”, which begins airing Wednesday, June 22 at 10:00pm ET/PT and continues on the four subsequent Wednesdays.

The subject tonight is “‘Twin-tuition,’ the special connection between twins that allows some siblings to share a language, know what the other is thinking, or share physical sensations across distances.”

What do you think?  Can twins communicate through a mental connection — even across distances?

Most twin parents want names that will sound good together. Whether you choose names to honor family members, because they rhyme, or because they don’t — choosing names for twins can be tricky.  If you’re like me, you probably checked out (or are in the process of checking out) all sorts of resources before deciding on names for your twins.  To make is easy for you, we’ve compiled our own list of techniques: How to choose your twin baby names, gives you all the inside scoop for selecting twin baby names.

Plus, every year, the US Social Security Administration publishes lists of popular names, and fortunately for us, they also publish a list of most popular twins names.  The formatting is not fancy, but hey — I’m a working girl and it’s the quick and dirty version.  So, without further ado, here is their list of most popular twin names for 2010.

Girl Twins Names

1 Ella, Emma
2 Olivia, Sophia
3 Gabriella, Isabella
4 Faith, Hope
5 Ava, Emma
6 Isabella, Sophia
7 Madison, Morgan
8 Ava, Ella
9 Ava, Olivia
10 Mackenzie, Madison
11 Abigail, Isabella
12 Abigail, Emma
13 Hailey, Hannah
14 Makayla, Makenzie
15 Addison, Avery
16 Elizabeth, Emily
17 Ava, Mia
18 Heaven, Nevaeh
19 Abigail, Emily
20 Emma, Olivia
21 London, Paris
22 Chloe, Claire
23 Mia, Mya
24 Anna, Emma
25 Arianna, Brianna
26 Isabella, Olivia
27 Abigail, Lillian
28 Addison, Ava
29 Emma, Isabella
30 Samantha, Sophia
31 Ella, Olivia
32 Emma, Hannah
33 Emma, Mia
34 Faith, Grace
35 Madison, Makenzie
36 Madison, Olivia
37 Abigail, Olivia
38 Anabella, Isabella
39 Chloe, Zoe
40 Elizabeth, Isabella
41 Elizabeth, Victoria
42 Jada, Jade
43 Julia, Sophia
44 Kayla, Kylie
45 Madison, Megan
46 Mia, Sophia
47 Natalie, Olivia
48 Paige, Payton
49 Serenity, Trinity
50 Valentina, Valeria

Girl/Boy Twins Names

1 Madison, Mason
2 Emma, Ethan
3 Taylor, Tyler
4 Madison, Michael
5 Jayda, Jayden
6 Madison, Matthew
7 Samuel, Sophia
8 Addison, Aiden
9 Olivia, Owen
10 Zachary, Zoe
11 Addison, Jackson
12 Aiden, Ava
13 Emily, Ethan
14 Emma, Ryan
15 Isaac, Isabella
16 Natalie, Nathan
17 Abigail, Benjamin
18 Andrew, Emma
19 Isabella, Isaiah
20 Jada, Jaden
21 Brian, Brianna
22 Emma, Jack
23 Aiden, Emma
24 Eli, Ella
25 Jacob, Olivia
26 Lily, Logan
27 Michael, Michelle
28 Naomi, Noah
29 Abigail, Alexander
30 Abigail, Andrew
31 Brandon, Brianna
32 Chloe, Christian
33 Elizabeth, William
34 Emily, Matthew
35 Emma, Jacob
36 Emma, William
37 Jacob, Sarah
38 Lilly, Logan
39 Nicholas, Sophia
40 Noah, Sophia
41 Oliver, Olivia
42 Sophia, William
43 Abigail, Jacob
44 Addison, Austin
45 Alexander, Sophia
46 Ella, Jackson
47 Emma, Evan
48 Emma, James
49 Jayla, Jaylen
50 Zachary, Zoey

Boy Twins Names

1 Jacob, Joshua
2 Ethan, Evan
3 Jayden, Jordan
4 Daniel, David
5 Matthew, Michael
6 Landon, Logan
7 Elijah, Isaiah
8 Jacob, Joseph
9 Jayden, Jaylen
10 Isaac, Isaiah
11 Caleb, Joshua
12 Andrew, Matthew
13 James, John
14 Alexander, Nicholas
15 Jeremiah, Josiah
16 Joseph, Joshua
17 Nathan, Nicholas
18 Jonathan, Joshua
19 Logan, Lucas
20 Ethan, Nathan
21 Aiden, Ethan
22 Jeremiah, Joshua
23 Alexander, Andrew
24 Alexander, Benjamin
25 Logan, Luke
26 Jacob, Lucas
27 Jonathan, Joseph
28 Nathan, Noah
29 Andrew, Anthony
30 Brandon, Bryan
31 Daniel, Michael
32 Daniel, Samuel
33 Isaiah, Jeremiah
34 Jaden, Jordan
35 Jayden, Kayden
36 John, Joseph
37 Matthew, Ryan
38 Aiden, Austin
39 Benjamin, Samuel
40 Christopher, Nicholas
41 Taylor, Tyler
42 Benjamin, William
43 Hayden, Hunter
44 Santiago, Sebastian
45 Alexander, Anthony
46 Alexander, William
47 Brandon, Brian
48 Carter, Cooper
49 Evan, Owen
50 Evan, Ryan

My Mother Kept a Garden

My mother kept a garden,
A garden of the heart.
She planted all the good things
That gave my life its start.

She turned me to the sunshine
And encouraged me to dream,
Fostering and nurturing
The seeds of self-esteem…

And when the winds and rain came,
She protected me enough~
But not too much because she knew
I’d need to stand up strong and tough.

Her constant good example
Always taught me right from wrong~
Markers for my pathway
That will last a lifetime long.

I am my Mother’s garden.
I am her legacy~
And I hope today she feels the love
Reflected back from me

~Author Unknown

Where is the article spilling the details of our twin study trip you ask? It’s coming — don’t worry.

Meanwhile, I found an interesting take on twins studies and what they teach us as twins parents — written by a dad of twins. In this WSJ Blog article, “Twin Lessons: Have More Kids. Pay Less Attention to Them“, Bryan Caplan describes his big learn.  He says, “The obvious lesson to draw is that parents should lighten up.”  He even has a name for it: ”Serenity Parenting”.

You’ll have to read his article to see if you agree.  But, it makes sense to me. After all, that is a lesson I learned from our trip to Washington DC and our own involvement in an individual twins study. I didn’t need Mr. Caplan to tell me — but it didn’t hurt, either.

So I think I’ll relax a bit more and see if I can enjoy this adventure in twin parenting just a bit more as a result.  As for having more kids? I think we’re done.

Authors note:  Up to this point, TwinParenthood has pretty much exclusively featured articles about how to raise and parent twins. We are diverging from our normal format this week — to bring you more of a traditional mom blog to chronicle our trip to Washington DC for an NIH Twins Study. 

This week, we are on an adventure. We’ve travelled to Washington DC with both of our sets of twins so that our girls can participate in twins studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Just the beginning to a long day...

The twin study includes blood draws, cognitive testing, and MRI’s.  I guess they are doing something to correlate identical twins intelligence and their cognitive abilities with MRI images.  Interesting stuff.  I’ll write more about that if we learn more details today.

As I am writing this morning, one of my boys (T-man, age 10) is sleeping here at the hotel while Dave and the other 3 kids have already headed over to NIH to begin the twin studies.  T-man was sick last week, and traveling cross country was a long trip, with a time change.  He’s wiped out.  We’re hoping to join the others in a couple of hours.

We were really pleasantly surprised to walk out of the airport to mid 80 degree weather yesterday.  But, by this morning I guess they figured out we were here from Seattle and someone turned on the rain.  Now we feel right at home.

So, the most challenging thing so far has to be the end of the night last night and the tired kids this morning. Last night they were in party mode.  Jumping and bouncing off the walls of the hotel room.  It was after midnight before we finally settled in — with much scolding from mom and dad.  This morning, none of them wanted to get up, but we had our twins studies appointments we had to keep.  Next time, we’ll plan to come at least one day ahead of the planned appointments to make things a little bit easier.

I’m looking forward to learning more about the twins study and letting you know how it went for the girls.  I also hope to find out today if they are still looking for more participants — so I can share that with all of you.

Stay Tuned!

Do you know the zygosity of your twins?

Take our quick Facebook poll — are your twins identical or fraternal? Maybe they were in separate sacs but look a lot alike… or maybe you are newly expecting twins and don’t know yet. Or, is it complicated? If so, leave a comment to tell us why.

While you’re there — don’t forget to click the link to take you to our Facebook Page and give us a “like”. We have a fun Question of the Day and feature 5 new fan photos in the filmstrip daily. Come check us out!

Having twins is life changing. Every day brings new joys and challenges. Recently going back to work has made me reflect fondly on the things I most love about having twins. I miss my sweeties!

10 things to love about having twins

1. MoM to MoM Connections
   As soon as you’re pregnant with twins (or triplets, or more), you’ve got an instant connection, and instant bond with other MoMs (Mothers of multiples). No one “gets it” like  another mother of multiples — except maybe a dad of multiples.
2. Built in Playmate
   Parents of singletons spend a good chunk of time entertaining thier kids. Its not that parents of multiples don’t, but after a couple years of intense parenting, we deserve a little bit of a break.
3. The Twin Bond
   Twins form a fantastic bond that is a joy to see. They are each others greatest comfort in life, and become bff’s. There are exceptions to prove the rule, but mostly twins have a connection that non-twins will never fully understand.
4. Rock Star MoM/Dad
   You have a built in ice breaker with strangers — even when you don’t have your twins with you. And, you can’t go out with twins and not be stopped and asked a ton of questions. Most of the time, this is really great. But not always. That’s why this one makes both our best and worst list.
5. Consolidated Effort
   Raising kids is tough. The first couple of years with twins is really tough. But as they get older, you can consolidate your child rearing effort. Combined birthday parties, combined potty training, and two kids on the same sport teams, for example, can begin to ease your parenting burdon.
6. Sharing Clothing
   Having extra clothing of the same size has saved us on more than one occassion. And it makes for putting clothing away in the dresser and closet much easier, too.
7. Singles Now a Breeze
   On those rare occasions that you are caring for just one baby, it is amazing how easy it seems. One of our favorite mantras is “It’s all relative”. That is, having one baby is tough and makes for sleepless nights. And yet, when you’ve had two, caring for one seems like a breeze.
8. Twin Discounts
   Many stores offer discounts when buying for twins. Often, these discounts are not advertised, so don’t be afraid to ask.  And when you’re shopping, if you can’t decide between two items, you can just buy them both!
9. His & Hers
   Each parent has an extraordinary opportunity to bond with their sweet babies. There is never a shortage of opportunities to care for your babies.
10. Double Hugs, Kisses, & Love
    Having twins is truly a double blessing.  Nothing more to say.

copyright 2011 – TwinParenthood / Kathryn Whiteley