They really bite

On Saturday Milo bites Huck on the face.

This is not the first face bite, but it is the worst. I run when I hear the screaming, but I don't get there fast enough. They are squeezed in the toy closet fighting over something (that we probably have two of) and I can't reach Milo's jaws at the right angle to jimmy them open. Huck is crying so hard that I decide to pull Milo off him.

If I hadn't done that, the bite probably wouldn't have broken skin.

I hold Huck to my chest. He is still screaming and I can feel wetness on my shirt where his face is. For a few minutes I don't look at the bite. I don't want to. I turn to Milo and say the thing I still say several times every day--"No biting." Then I give him a look that I hope conveys how disappointed in him I am, but instead probably conveys my still utter confusion as to how my sweet, sensitive boys can cause so much pain to each other.

When I finally summon the nerve to look at Huck's face, I am releived to see that it is his tears I feel and not his blood. It shouldn't suprise me. Their bites to each other rarely bleed. Sometimes there are white flecks of skin, like eraser shavings. The skin turns red and then a bruise forms.

How did I become a person who knew so much about the anatomy of a human bite?

When Huck slows down his crying I wash the bite and put him back down on the floor. Then the two boys continue to play with each other like nothing has happened at all.

It should be noted that Milo is not the evil twin. Huck is just as likely to bite Milo and in fact does bite him pretty hard on the forehead a few hours later. Milo is also more likely to climb on things and give Huck the idea to climb on things, like my dresser which toppled over on them last week as I walked into my bedroom just in time to catch it.

Are you starting to get an idea about why I don't get to write as much here as I'd like?

Comments

[Ruth H]

Hmmmm.... I don't know what to say about the biting. Does it happen when Dad is around. A deeper voice for scolding (his of course) might help. I am of the old school and must tell you a quick swat to the bottom might work, but it just might not.
As for climbing - I am a 70 year old twin and I know we put our mother through fits climbing. I remember pulling a large bookshelf over because we were climbing it, I couldn't have been more than 4 at the time. We were very small children and climbed everything in site and if our knees could take it we still would. We had a large old oak tree in the yard and I remember Mother having to climb up and rescue us on a regular basis. I guess that means she was a climber too.
I also taught my 4 year old grandson how to climb doors like a monkey, one foot and hand on each side. My daughter won't let me forget that even though it was 20+ years ago.
There are health problems in climbing, kids really can hurt themselves as you surely know by now. But it didn't stop us. All I can say is GOOD LUCK, you are going to need it.

[Suzanne]

We all go through this phase with our kids. However, most of us only have one at the biting stage-you've got two. It happens, and they *do* grow out of it. It just seems far worse because they've got a ready target the same size.

I found furniture anchors in a hardware store for my dressers, as one of mine was a monkey around the twin's age. He graduated to swinging on my canopy-my husband then understood why getting one was a bad idea.

Besides, with three preschoolers, I consider it a wonder that you get any time to post at all! :)

[kate michele]

My twins are 2 1/2. They've been biting each other since they've had teeth. Carter seems to bite Levi more, poor little Levi's back will go through spouts when its covered in bruise up bite marks, some breaking skin. I keep telling them NO! but nothing, I think it's flustration on there part, I mean they gotta be tired of looking at each other all the time! LOL.....

I feel ya, yesterday was a day that I thought to myself..."I can't be a stay at home mother of twins any more...I can't take it anymore!!" But then today is a whole new day...they seem to since when I've had enough and give me a good day every once and a while....

[zmama]

Megan, all I can do is offer a big, big hug!!! This, too, shall pass, and then there will be other things to capture your attention and concern. Overall, it's a really amazing, exciting and rewarding process (this raising kids thing).

And, for the record, my two younger kids (who are 18 months apart in age) bit each other on a regular basis... and they're still alive to talk about it and still genuinely like each other. ;)