Double trouble? Two sets of twins a challenge and a joy

We learned last summer that we were expecting. Our oldest daughter Summer, now 4, and twin sisters Anna and Lilly, now 2, would have a playmate.

Er, make that playmates.

My wife Jami and I welcomed our second set of twins, Rowan and Finley, on Feb. 12 of this year. Yep, we have five beautiful girls.

A few weeks back, I laughed while telling Jami that upon my return to work from family leave, equal numbers of co-workers seemed to be offering condolences in addition to congratulations.

All kidding aside, some have asked, "How do you guys do it?" My answer, first of all, is that we aren't doing anything that somebody else hasn't already done in the past.

Still, our house is crazy busy these days. We face every challenge times five.

Crying: Our kitchen at times looks like a triage station. Our job is to size up which kids are crying the hardest and need immediate attention, and which are merely whimpering and require only for us to acknowledge them for the moment.

Outings: The arrival of two more children meant the end of all kids traveling with one or both of us on trips to the grocery store or to the Playland to expend some energy. So our kids take turns "going with." Summer almost always gets to go out (mainly because she is a good helper), and Anna and Lilly take turns. The mention of "bye-bye" always invokes tears for somebody, it seems. Jami has joked that it's a sad state of affairs for our children when the simple act of "going with" is a treat. All this is fine and good, but what happens when Rowan and Finley are old enough to "go with"? We shall see, I guess.

Bedtime: Ah, bedtime, that magical time of day when calm settles over our humble home. I must say that our 4-year-old has offered the biggest challenge so far on this front. Many nights, Summer tries sneaking out of her room and down the hallway until she gets to our room and begs us to stay up a little later. She's getting quite good at it. One night, about a half-hour after we tucked her in, Jami and I watched through our bedroom door as Summer crawled blindly down our dimly lit hallway -- underneath her blankie. She got all the way to our room under her version of stealth cover before ramming into the door. We escorted her back to bed, but not without an appreciation of her rather creative escape effort.

Alone time: As much as I am intrigued watching Anna and Lilly play (and, yes, sometimes battle) together, I really treasure the times they are apart, too. Their personalities are much more apparent to me when I am afforded time to spend with them one-on-one. It is at these times that I wonder about each child's need for our attention as parents, and I pray that I am doing enough to develop their sense of security and confidence.