Matching

Matching is such a different topic to me. Since having twins I've learned that you should not under any circumstances match your children daily. It is frowned upon big time in the twin community. I dress them in matching stuff for pictures sometimes, or coordinating stuff, but for the most part they are their own people and they wear what they want to wear.

This worked out well right up till we started down the adoption road. Now there are new rules. Dress your kids alike so your new kid feels a part of the family. So now for the first time I am hunting through racks of girl's clothing for matching 2T and 6 dresses, tops and skirts. The girls just glow when they match, but finding matching toddlers and girl's clothing is a chore!

This means of course that we are doing a terrific job of making sure the girls feel a part of the 'club', but what about our son? How do we make him not feel excluded? We can't really pony up another son just so he can have his own club. If you think finding matching girl's clothing in different size groups is hard, add in a boy and the fun really begins! So we struggle daily with how to make sure Jakey feels like part of the gang.

One thing we do is to talk about how we are a 'Pile of Powells' or a 'Powell Sandwich' or 'A Line of Powells'. This means we are either all stacked on the bed together, or we put the kids in the middle and hug em (sandwich, we are the bread) or we walk 5 across holding hands.

If you have any ideas on how to make your kids feel part of the group, send them along, we are all ears!