Having twins has made me into a fairly rigid mom in some ways. We've always kept a pretty rigid schedule to help us stay prepared. I was talking to Irene earlier in the week and we were discussing the fact that while keeping a solid, predictable routine is such a huge help for the kiddos, it can sometimes be boring for the parents with its monotony.
Last night, I felt the need for spontaneity. The boys are completely obsessed with construction vehicles and there's a new construction site on the way home from day care. The workers were working late, so I pulled into the parking lot next to the site, and the boys and I sat in the grass watching the construction for about 30 minutes.
Earlier in the week, I wrote a post on HDYDI about how and why we watch tv with the boys. One of the commenters asked if anyone had ever seen a small child sit and stare at something for a long time. I can answer YES, my boys sat there for 30 minutes, staring at the construction vehicles. Nate talked a mile a minute but Alex didn't say a word.
At some point, I saw fire ants crawling on my hands. I got the boys out of there pronto but I got bitten about 10 times on my right foot. The boys started crying when I told them we had to leave. I explained that ants bit my foot and I needed to get a boo boo buddy. When we got home they happily put boo boo buddies on my foot and told me, "There, all better!"
We ate dinner but I was not done with what I wanted to get accomplished. I wanted to go to the bookstore to get Twilight. I tried to get it at the library but I'm #450 on the list! I loaded the boys up to go to the bookstore and promised them we could play with Thomas. You have to love Barnes and Noble and their train tables.
After 30 minutes at B&N, we had to leave. Alex started sobbing because he did not want to leave Thomas. Nate ran away from me. I picked up a crying Alex and ran after Nate. Once I got them both in the same place, I put them both down, explained nicely we do not cry in bookstores, and marched out the door. They both started SOBBING.
There I was in a quiet bookstore with a little cafe, marching two crying toddlers out the door, happily holding Twilight in my hands. You would think the staring would bother me, but the staring started when I was 6 months pregnant. I've had a lot of time to get used to it. When the boys act cute in public by hugging each other or making each other giggle, we get the "I wish I had twins" stares. Last night was definitely the "better you than me" stares.
In the last week or so, I've had a new zen-like attitude about life with twin two year olds. Before my zen attitude, getting 10 fire ant bites and having two sobbing toddlers in a bookstore would have made me stressed out and cranky. Last night, I accepted it as part of my life. Instead I focused on their excitement at the construction site and being able to go to bed knowing I would be reading Twilight this weekend.
The longer I am a mom, the more I learn to move along with the ebbs and flows of parenting. This may be the calm before the 2 1/2 year old storm, but I hope to carry part of this zen attitude with me.
7 comments:
good for you! I agree, the stares don't bother me much anymore (they do bother my husband though) because I feel like my job is to keep my kiddos safe and relatively happy (and well behaved when possible) and not to worry so much about everyone else's experiences at every moment. Not going to take them to a 5 star restaurant to scream, but if we're somewhere reasonable and they're acting like toddlers, so be it.
Your life seems very much like mine....trying to find the small things that make my twins and I happy (21 mo old boys). This morning at 8 am I was blowing bubbles in the house, but hey whatever makes u stop and "smell the roses" is good to me.
I love the construction site diversions. We take the long way home some days just so we can drive past a really good one (casino going up as always in Vegas), and J never tires of it.
Love that Zen attitude! I believe it's the only way to make it thru some days.
I just found out my girlfriend is having twins! So I told her to check out your blog. She will find out what they are next week!
okay, i just read the bionic ear story. wild. i especially love the getting pregnant part. might be tmi. but tim and i used, um, conventional methods to prevent babies for the first 12 years of our relationship. the first time without resulted in twins, which resulted in pelvic rest at 20 weeks due to my PTL. nice, huh?
he should have a bookmark of my whole salary for that.
i love that you are going with the flow with the boys. just gotta' breathe and let it all be.
I feel so much better knowing that I was not the only mother in a B&N this weekend buying a Stephanie Meyer book while her 2 year old melted down because he had to leave Thomas. In fact, I feel great knowing that I was only dealing with ONE of them.
Enjoy your Twilight reading! I hope you like the books as much as I have.
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