Entries in the Category "Rants"
A day in our life....Busy is the word
People often ask me what it's like to have twins. I never know exactly what answer their are hoping to hear. It's not easy! Not easy at all. When I told my sister I was expecting twins she said "I wouldn't wish twins on my worst enemy."
I could write a dissertation on why it's so difficult or even rant about how I want to hurt people every time they said "Oh I wanted to have twins so bad so I could be done with it all at once"
No you don't. You get twice as fat while pregnant, Your body falls apart faster then it did during years of excess partying, you have a more difficult pregnancy, most often end up on bedrest praying to God the contractions you feel at 20 weeks aren't the real thing. Not to mention the complete and utter lack of sleep the first few months and during any period of cutting teeth. Plus you don't get to experience that cute tiny sweet smelling little baby period twice. Instead you rush right through it trying to remember who's diaper you changed last and who needs a bottle next all while trying to live normal daily life. I swear I don't know how women with 3 or more do it. My hats off to you ladies! Amen and God bless you!
Now that's not to say that there are not amazing moments as well. One of my favorite pictures is of the boys sleeping together in the pack and play while holding hands. You don't get moments like that with a singleton. Plus I get double the kisses and hugs and loopy grins. They make life that much sweeter.
So what was the thought that started this rambling? I'd like to tell you about one type of typical days at our house.
I was having a bad week at work. Too much to do. Not enough time to do. Deadlines that had been extended and missed time and again with the absolute deadline looming large. People interrupting my thoughts every 30 sec (You know who you are). It's hard not to bring that stress home. No matter how long you sit in the car breathing and listening to music; the first time a kid whines for something- all that serenity goes out the window. Plus why is it on days like this that I forget to get something out for dinner or we don't have enough leftovers to have a meal? Is that Murphy's law or something?
The Hubby has softball and I'm home alone with the nearly- 2 year old who think they need to start the terrible twos now instead of...oh never. Now I've got to feed them- with no food prepared in the house. It's 6:15 and they are starving. After dinner we play a bit but it's more like me playing referee. "Here you each take a car and go to your corners."
Then bath time arrives. Yea fun. Let's get Mommy as wet as we can all while staying firmly out of reach of the wash cloth and dumping water on each other's heads.
Then there's the dressing of said Terrible Twoers who don't want to wear a diaper or clothes for that matter. They'd rather run around nakkid....until they pee on the floor.
After wrangling them into their clothes, we need to head back to the bathroom to brush teeth. Yep, that's difficult too.
Finally into bed- read story, turn on quite music, turn off light. Listen to kids scream for 2 minutes from the bathroom as I straighten up. Hear giggles. then.....wait for it........wait............................silence.
Ah! Big deep calming breath. I'm alone. (savor it for 30 sec) Now I can change in to dry clothes, clean the house, do laundry, watch tv, answer my email, make phone calls, spend quality time with the Hubby, get dinner ready for the next night, oh yeah and do all the work from work that I still haven't finished. All in a 2 hour window before I go to bed.
I stumbled into bed at 1 am (Waaaaaaayyyyy too late) but I was on a roll for work and got a lot done. At 1:20 Chip woke up. At 2:10 Dale woke up. At 3am I fell asleep. At 6:15a the alarm goes off. Time to do it again.
People often say to me "I don't know how you do it." Frankly neither do I. I just do it and every once it a while I need to bitch about it like I'm doing right now.
My daily fantasy isn't about finding 5 minutes for myself. I want to win the lottery so my life can slow down. Hire someone to clean my bathroom. Quit work. Sleep until 8am. Do nothing more strenuous then go to the park with my Hubby and sit on a blanket watching the boys play and discover the world.
Sounds nice doesn't it?
If you'll excuse me- I've got to go clean the house, do laundry, spend quality time with the hubby and be in bed in 55 minuts so I can do it all over again tomorrow with a smile on my face while I daydream of winning the lottery.
More stories from the Stupid File
Yesterday, I took the boys to the grocery store because we were out of the oh so needed MILK. I used to love the grocery store. I loved going and figuring out what great culinary delights I was going to make that week. Now I hate the grocery store. It is not designed to go shopping with small children. When the boys were still in their car carriers I couldn't put them both in a cart. Sure one carrier fit on the front seat but where does the other one go? It doesn't fit across the cart, it barely fits in the cart. And what's the point of putting the child in the cart if that's where you are supposed to put your groceries??
So when I had to go to the store I'd take them in with their stroller. Worked Ok for a while and only if you were buying a few things that you could put in the basket under the stoller. One a few occasions I have tried to buy more by pulling a cart around after me but that's more difficult that it sounds because the stroller really requires two hands to maneuver otherwise you're running into the displays at the end of aisles.
Now the kids are walking (ok running) and don't want to be in the stroller. So what do you do? Well they have those kid carts. Tried that once. They were really too little for it because they couldn't follow one step directions yet. Plus now they are at grocery level and can reach out and pull things off the shelves. Yeah! Fun. More bending over for me to pick things up.
One day at Giant Eagle I see a twin cart! Yea! A Twin cart! It puts both kids up in front near you with their legs dangling towards the groceries. So you can talk to them and keep them entertained while shopping. But the store only has one cart. And they don't have it at all of their stores. It's hit or miss if I am going to get one when I go in.
Ok, I've gotten away from the story I wanted to tell. Yesterday we went shopping. I could not find a twin cart, or even a little car cart, so we were stuck with a regular cart. I put a basket down below for the food. Two minutes into our trip, this older woman stops us and wants to know if their twins. Nope just felt like complicating my grocery store experience by bring my neighbors kids with me.
"They don't look a like" she says.
I said, "No they don't because they are fraternal but you can tell they are brothers."
"Well who do they look like", she wants to know?
I told her they look like their dad and his brother.
"Well that's stupid" she said. "Everyone knows that twins should look like each other."
Thanks I'll make sure to tell God when I meet him upon my death.
"And if they don't look like each other then one should look like mom and one should look like dad."
"Sure", I say, "that would be great but I'm happy with my children's looks and I think it's great that we can readily see the family resemblance."
Then she says to me, "Did you hear about this one woman who broke up with her boyfriend and had sex with him?"
Um, no I didn't but I hear that happens a lot when people break up. Thanks for sharing.
Seriously though, I thought she was telling me a joke. It just had that set up. Then she tells me that the woman went and had sex with her new boyfriend the next day and she got pregnant with twins and each child was fathered by a different man. She heard that each man was fighting for custody of his offspring.
Then she asks me, "Do you know what happend in that case? Because I never heard the outcome?" Well let's see, I'd have to consult the manual they gave me at the hospital, or was that the one I got when I joined the twins club? Well in any case I'd have to check one of the manuals They gave me that makes me an expert on all things twins and get back to you.
(sigh) I swear. As Hubby says, "Stupid People Rule!"