Another Adventure with Twoddlers

This weekend was nice. It was very mellow and normal. Don't you just love that word normal? The boys were sick for much of July and so normal is a beautiful thing. We went to Daddy's softball game on Saturday and the boys played in their baby prison (aka Play Yard). After the first game the sky turned dark and opened up and poured on us. Thankfully every one helped us get the boys, their toys, their snacks, the stroller AND the play yard under the shelter quickly. It was quite an accomplishment. The reason I mention it is because the boys absolutely loved the storm. The wind was blowing so hard that even under the shelter we were getting misted and they thought it was magnificent. It was really cute and I love experiencing these new things with them.

Yesterday we attended church for the first time in a month and the boys enjoyed some time with Grandma Dolores and Grandpa Jon in the nursery. The told us the boys were perfect, of course. I am pretty sure that even if their heads had spun and green vomit had been spewed out exorcist style they would have told us they were good but either way I am glad the boys enjoyed themselves and got to socialize with others a bit after the isolation that they have been experiencing.

Today Mindy, Alex, Eli, Alli and I went to Macy's Day at Greenfield Village. It was nice and there were some extras for the kids. One of these special extras was a train ride around the village. I was a bit nervous but after the month we've had I just wanted to do something "normal" (there's that word again). I have these moments of pure bravery where I don my cape and become supermom. I thought twins shhmins I am going to take them on this train ride. I can do it. How hard can it be??? I began questioning my decision as we got into line and parked our strollers at one end of the gate and had to walk away from them to get into line. Ummm, my children don't walk yet and I am waiting in a long line holding a 25lb baby in one arm, an almost 21lb baby in the other with a mammoth diaper bag slung across my shoulder. I did have my sister Mindy who is pregnant, with 14 month old in tow AND her own diaper bag there also. It didn't start off too badly. O.K. Eli crawled away once when I decided to give them some freedom and stand up holding onto the gate while we waited but other than that no major issues.

This false sense of confidence overtook me again and I decided to board the train. First of all there are not many empty seats but we manage to find one before I drop a squirming child. (Contrary to what you may think people are not quick to get out of your way arms full o' baby or not.) Mindy was behind me with Alli and I had one boy in each arm. Confidence is now gone and I wonder if as the conductor has the entire train yell "All Aboard" I should scream out "WAIT, I am and idiot who thought she could do this and I can't and I NEED OFF"!!! Alas, I chickened out and sat their grimacing and convincing myself we would be fine. I am pretty sure this is when the conductor chimed in and said "we will be taking a ride around the village and it will take approximately 35 minutes". Are you kidding me? I could walk around the village in 35 minutes. Crank this bad boy up and lets haul some butt!!! Well the boys squirmed and wanted down and wanted up and wanted down and wanted to sit by themselves and wanted to take off their shoes. We did lose 3 of our 4 shoes and retrieved them all by the end of our ride. I didn't care if they'd lost all of their clothes as long as their limbs were in tact by the end of the ride but a nice elderly gentlemen came after me with a shoe wondering if it was the crazyladywhothoughtshecouldtaketwintoddlersonatrainbyherself's shoe, and shock of all shocks, it was indeed.

We decided to get off at the first possible stop which by the way would leave us strollerless with 3 non-walking toddlers at the other end of the entire village. My brilliant sister, however, offered to walk back and get the strollers while I watched the 3 kids. (Now you know why I said she was the brilliant one. She always did have this knack of talking me into doing the hard part without me realizing it. We won't get into that right now though). So after her leisurely stroll by HERSELF (just kidding, Mindy) we headed back towards the exit stopping only for some of the yummiest, frozen custard on the planet. We actually did have a great time but I will never attempt the train ride again without Jared. So that's our weekend in a nutshell.