I've been screwing up my courage and taking the girls out to places that scare me a little. It's just not fair for them to miss out on fun experiences because their outnumbered Mama is chicken about taking them out of the stroller by herself.
So I took them to the library storytime on Friday, and that went swimmingly. They actually sat on my lap (one sweetie on each leg) the whole time and listened and clapped and giggled along with the songs. (Believe me, they won't be so well behaved next time. Once they get comfortable,
look out! However, I found a storytime that's held in a big community room with only one escape door, so if all hell breaks loose I can just stand by the door and catch them as they careen by. There is simply No Way I can lose them. Oh god please don't let that be my "famous last words...")
And I signed them (or me?) up for a neighborhood playgroup that meets once a week at rotating houses. I was actually terrified of this one, but we've been twice now and the girls seem to like it, and they haven't given me the slip or destroyed anyone's house yet. The only problem today was at the end when we were out the door and had almost reached the van (damn, almost made it unscathed!). Here's the sad tale:
I've switched to a backpack for my diaper bag so I can ditch the stroller and walk with one girl holding each of my hands. It's way easier for short distances (tiny, little, miniscule distances, to be specific) and tight spaces. But the girls just aren't that great at the "walking together" part yet. They yank on my arms, lean wayyyyyy out to the side, giggle and swat at each other, dangle around in circles, or walk hunched over and stumbling so their noses are practically touching the ground. It's a fun game apparently. Today as we left and got near the van they started leaning hard toward it, yanked out of my hands, did a wobbly run, ignored me when I pleaded with them to "freeze! stop! don't move! arghhhh!" then (one after the other) tripped over their feet, rolled down the mound of grass and over the curb, and landed in the muddy curbside ditch, hitting their heads with a sickening "thud, thud." Nice... Now they were both screaming bloody murder,
and covered from head to toe with grass and mud,
and I didn't even know what to do first. I'm sure someone will be mailing my Mother of the Year Award shortly. I hope they have my address.
Sigh... the girls are ok now, they're napping angelically after a nice lunch. And I've checked their pupil dilation with a flashlight several times (isn't that how they check for a concussion in the movies?). But we're going to start practicing our "walking while holding hands" a little each day, and we're also going to start some games that teach them the word "stop." I'm pretty sure today's spill took about 3 years off of my life.
On a happier note, here are the latest pics of the girls, including fun at library, playing the BIG tuba with daddy, new backyard equipment, my fave pic "Rapper Lil M is in da house!" and more. Click the image below to see all pics with captions (there are 3 pages worth this time, so you'll have to click "next" when you get to the bottom of the pages):
or you can view the pics in a
non-captioned slideshow. Have a great week.
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