Well, we’re chancing it. We are taking our first shopping trip as a family. As you know from my post office experience last week, it’s a rather large event to get out of the house at all, much less accomplish anything. And we have a nearly unattainable goal: to get to Sam’s Club to stock up on the cheapest prices in town for formula, diapers, and yummy food for mommy and daddy, all within one segment while not missing naps or meals on either side of the trip.
I have tried to mentally prepare Matt for the experience… I rarely take the babies shopping with me and he never has. He has obviously been in public with them before but hasn’t yet experienced the celebrity status of strangers seeing your cute and smiling twins and completely preventing you from accomplishing anything at the store because you need to pull over multiple times and answer some staple questions (How old are they? 7.5 months; Do you watch John and Kate plus Eight? no, we do not; Are they aware of each other? very; So, is it crazy having twins? Sure, but they are alot of fun! and so on). I have to say, I get a kick out of the celebrity status they have because we think they are pretty great so it’s fun to see that they have that effect on so many others. In fact, one of my parenting books geared directly toward parents of twins suggested that if I’m having a really crappy day, just try to get out in public somewhere so that I can experience the celebrity status for an instant pick-me-up. But we’re not going to Sam’s for a pick-me-up, so I’m interested to see how Matt deals with this 🙂
We tried several options this morning for how to best work this. Sling one baby, carry the other (works), baby backpacks (works), using the twin cart at Sam’s (doesn’t work, they are not yet solid sitters for that much time and will bonk their faces on the handlebar), sling + baby backpack (works). We decided that the stroller is the best option and we’ll bring the sling as a backup in case one of them gets antsy because if we each wear one baby, neither of us can lift the cases of formula etc. into our cart. Here’s a picture (I made Matt and I’s matching jammies pants back when we were dating and life was carefree and full of free time):
To prepare for certain stress later today, we cuddled this morning to have peaceful time. We are exhausted because the babies woke up ridiculously early and they can’t blame an earthquake this time! (I blame the sun for coming up sooner and sooner). Matt fed them early this morning, they went straight back to bed and so did we, then we hung out in our room before breakfast. In the third picture, Rissa is making the face she uses when she wants something from Zach. When she was tiny, she made this face right before trying to latch onto his head or right before she managed to steal or share his pacie. I’m thrilled to know she still makes that face! This time, she wants to peel that green dinosaur right off his shirt, and she managed to get a good handful of it before Zach rolled away!
If we survive, I’ll let you know how it goes!
We survived! We totally missed our nap deadline, but other than that, success! And the staple questions I predicted? Their age: 3, John/Kate/8: 1, Aware of each other: 1 (although this guy just pointed out that they were holding hands in their stroller which was incredibly cute. Rissa pulled away as soon as they were discovered but Zach fumbled around looking for her hand for awhile after she ditched him), Is our life crazy: zero.
I wish I was there! That sounds like fun but what is with the “Aware of each other?” – you have to wonder about the asker, if he or she is aware of what planet they are on?
I think I have to go with Granpa – I’ve had another human being right by my side since conception but oh wait, is there something next to me crying? I’m glad you survived! Unfortunately, my timing for a Target run didn’t coincide with Isaac’s toileting… I’ll spare you those details.
Seriously. When babies are tiny, they don’t even have a sense of self much less me vs. you, just impulses: hunger, wet, tired, etc. And even then, they snuggled together for warmth and comfort. But now??? They are best friends and arch-nemeses all rolled into one! And apparently, they hold hands when no one is looking 🙂
Ahh, toileting… we’re never going to be able leave this house! I’ll shame my parents here… we can do like they did: brought my potty chair with us and made me use it in parking lots (and took pictures!). Too bad it wasn’t with Mom and I in that long line in Connecticut when I left a little pool on the store floor 🙂
I just don’t understand why people might think of talking to random strangers for such a random reason. It would never occur to me to say something to someone based solely on such a factor that they happen to have a baby or two with them. I know I get annoyed when random people talk to me when I’m busy of in a hurry (like grocery store clerks who want to conversate and end up making the transaction take twice as long). If I ever have kids, I plan to ignore such people with impunity. When did the Golden Rule go out of style even in the mundane arena of public etiquette?
Hehe, the good old John and Kate plus eight standby. I really want to know why everyone asks that? I can’t tell you the number of times that we’ve been asked it.
Kyle, I appreciate your tact in the public setting! As Matt noticed while we were at Sam’s, if I need to breeze by someone without being stopped, I just avoid eye contact and pick up the pace 🙂
Nathan, seriously! I know you guys get this too. I can think of 3 reasons people are obsessed with mentioning that show to us (and their kids will maybe mention it to our kids):
1. They don’t have “multiples” experience with kids except for on tv, so they are trying to share our experience even though twins + sextuplets and twins are not the same,
2. Twins blow their mind so to get us back, they try to blow our minds by ensuring we know they think it could be much, much worse (except that having different varieties of kids isn’t “worse,” it’s just different, so this doesn’t make sense to me),
3. We have a secret decoder message on our foreheads the moment we know we are having twins that only others can see that says, “Ask me about John and Kate. You know you want to!” This is very similar to the new mom secret decoder message that says, “I’m stupid. Please tell me what to do whether I ask or not and give me advice or my child(ren) won’t survive their time under my care!” It’s a mystery.
I have a great idea, Jaime. Create a little tag you can attach to your stroller (probably in plastic, like the tags at Sam’s – which our Sam now calls “my store” as in “are we going to my store today?”) with answers to all those questions. If people ask, you can give them an info card and keep walking!