My daughter peed in a jar at the park!

Interesting park experience.  I met up with another twin mom I have met recently at a nearby park.  She had also invited a mom of quads that she had met.  It was really nice talking with them and sharing experiences with them both.  I have never met a mom of quads before and it was nice getting to know her in short sentences in between us helping our children navigate the play equipment.  First impressions are always great and my first impression of this lady in one phrase is, "HARD CORE!"  At first it was like I was star struck and it was so hard to comprehend how she did it!  Carrying, birthing, and staying home with 4 kids for 4 years now.  I asked a few questions and we got to chat a bit, but I knew she was hard core after this next experience.  My daughter had to pee pee, she had drank like a camel storing up for a long trip across the desert this morning.  She was doing her pee pee  dance and the bathroom was pretty far away.   The quad mom said,  "Hold on, I have a jar in the van."  My first thought was, "Whoa, lady that is a whole different level of hard core!"  What what she came back with was AWESOME!   It was like a female pee pee jar to prevent against splashing, with a screw on top and everything.  She explains how she just stores it in the car and how it has come in handy so many times and her kids actually like using it.  So, I asked Jae if she would use it, to which I expected her to decline with tears, but she was into it and said, "Yeah!"  So sure enough we dropped her drawers behind a bush and let her do it.  After a little hesitation, things came out just fine.  No drippage or anything!  I was amazed and impressed all at once.  This mom is awesome and I love her level of hard coreness.  I definately want one of those to store in the car for long trips.

I hope I get to meet with this mom again.

Check out the device.  Just found it on amazon.com.

Worst Public Tantrum yet!

Today was the first day I have ventured back to the gym since I joined this summer.  When I joined LA Fitness I was concerned that taking the kids to the "Kids Korner"  would be a problem.  I didn't know how they would do since we never really drop them off anywhere.   When I talked to the ladies that run the Kids Korner room at our gym they said that the kids always cry at first, but the best thing to do is to come consistently to the gym so that they get used to it.  So, that is what I did......for 2 weeks.  It was heartbreaking for the first week.  They cried and cried and the poor ladies in there just had to hold my kids the whole time while the other kids ran around them.  This was just starting to get better and then one day they didn't cry anymore.  So, naturally, when everything was going just great, I quit coming to the gym.  I got really tired because I started a new school year and took on way to many responsibilities.  I literally don't think I have been to the gym in 5 months.  However, on of my goals of staying home was to get the kids out more and used to being independent from me, even if it is only for an hour while I am working out. 

So, when I ventured back into the gym today, I got my due.   I knew it would be bad because I haven't taken them for so long.  As soon as Ana, this is usually the woman who holds Jaelyn the entire time, saw me walk through the door, she said, "If you can wait 5 minutes Suelynne will be in to help me so I can take them from you."  She knew it was going to be bad and this was my first sign.  Kaden was besides himself.  He was slobbering and sobbing and had his entire body wrapped around me, begging me not to leave him.  I felt like the worst mom in the world.  Jae was hanging onto my leg.  When Suelynne came in she pried Kaden off me. He was flailing and arching and screaming.  Ana had take Jaelyn at this point and walked off into the distance and i could see her wet, red little face with her arms reaching for me.   I felt so guilty as I went into the class I was taking.  I wrestled with leaving them throughout the class, when I was distracted by the incessant pain coming from someone who hasn't taken a class in 5 months.   At first, I was thinking, this was bad of me, is my work out really so important that I left my son while he was in a panic and out of control. 

After I beat myself up about this for a while, I started looking at the bigger picture.  Fact 1)  They need to get used to being dropped off and away from me at some point.  Fact 2) They need to be able to play among other kids.  Fact 3)  I am sure I will need a break from the twins eventually after being around them 24/7, and this is an excellent solution.   Fact 4)  Other kids in there where not crying and having a good time, which means eventually they will probably like it there.     So by the end of this butt kicking class, i had come to the conclusion that I am going to move forward with my plan to get them used to coming to Kids Korner at the gym.  As I made my way into Kids Korner to pick them up.  I saw them playing and laughing together with Ana.  They were happy to see me, but not in the desperate way that I expected.    Ana informed me, that they had cried for no more than 5 minutes and then they were fine and playing nicely.  I asked them if they had fun, and they said yes and I asked them if they wanted to come back another time to play here and they said yes.  
So I beat myself up over it all and felt so guilty, and it was all okay in the end.   I am really, I didn't give into my feelings of me being the selfish one to go and work out.  I think they will be happy and I think they are more ready for this now than they were this summer.  

First Day at "School"

    We decided to enroll the twins in a Mommy and me class.   The class is called 123 Learn with Me, and it is a class offered at one of our local churches for children between the ages of 1 and 3.  During this 2 hour weekly class, they get to do circle time, singing, free play, arts and crafts, and snack time.  I was a little nervous going into this class today because the twins tend to stick to me pretty closely, and I didn't know if they would venture out and do some of the activities.  For example, yesterday, we did a first time play date with another twin mom at a park near our house.  The twins stayed next to me most time and did not interact with the other kids at all and Jaelyn especially would not venture out to play at all without me.   After about 40 minutes, Kaden took off and was playing, but not Jae.  She remains with me. 

    So,  I was a little worried about class today and didn't know if they were ready for this.  To my surprise, they did a good job.   The class starts with open play.  Jae didn't do anything unless I was with her.  I finally got her interested with a puzzle.  Kaden would venture a bit from me but constantly check my location.  When we moved on to circle time they panicked when they saw the chairs starting to assemble into a semi circle.  The started to cry, "NO CHAIR, Mommy, NO CHAIR!"   I reassured them and they both sat on my lap (one on each knee).   During the circle time, Kaden moved down to his seat.  He even jumped up and ran up to the teacher when she held up a picture of a gray elephant. (We have been learning about Elephants and he has been talking about them all week).  Jae remained on my lap throughout circle time. They were doing a color activity and you were supposed to raise your hand if you are wearing that color.  Jae was wearing a multicolored shirt and raised her hand twice. (I was thinking to myself that this is a good sign.) During the music song, they both went up to grab a maraca shaker but then Jae came right back to me and asked to be carried. Next, we moved to snack time and she sat in her chair next to brother at the snack table.  They both got involved in arts and crafts.  Except Kaden freaked out when I tried to help him with the scissors, and he started shrieking at the top of his lungs and swinging his arms around and almost poked the kid next to him in the eye with the scissors.  I took him out to talk to him about this, and Jae did not freak out, but she did come looking for me and found me.  The last activity was the goodbye circle where they sing goodbye to each child and they come up to get their sticker and hug.  I did not even have to prompt Jae, she took her seat in the semi circle next to brother and when they started signing her name, up she went to pick a sticker and give Mrs. Carol her hug!  I was so impressed!  Kaden also did well with this.  All and all they didn't interact with any of the other kids, but they participated, so I call this a success!   I think they are ready for a class like this where they learn new skills and it was nice for me because I got to talk to many new mom friends.  I think this class will go well.

Pee Pee Panic = Dashing through the SD Zoo

 I was just uploading pictures to my computer and remembering our trip to the SD Zoo last week.   I took the twins to a play date at the Zoo with and it was so fun and calm.  I am liking this whole missing the crowds during the working week thing.  Everything was going so well.  The kids were behaving and we were all having a great time.   The animals were pretty well visible and there was not much crowding so we could see well.  For the first time, we saw the tiger close up.  Usually, like any of the big cats, they are just barely visible lounging up at the top corners of the exhibit, but we just happened to walk by at feeding time and the tiger came right down close to the glass,  I had just finished snapping a shot and thinking this is going to be so cool to watch, when Kaden announced, "Mama, my pee pees!"  This is said as I look down to see him doing the potty dance with a look of urgency on his face.   So, I turned to my friend Mary, who knows the zoo like the back of her hand, and she pointed me in the right direction and we took off running towards the restrooms.  We were nowhere close!  Looking back it could have been bad, but my daughter was totally cooperating.  I had one in each hand and they were both running while I speed walked. I know my the look on my face as I shuffled through the zoo with the kids running next to me I must have looked like a crazed freak!    I was just thinking, " Are you kidding me?  Where are the restrooms?  Should I let Kaden stand and pee in the bush or keep going for it and hope for the best?  I swear we just kept going, and just when I would think it had to be right there at the next cluster of buildings, it wasn't.  I was very lucky because it was almost as if the kids understood and knew not to throw a fit.  (There have been many unmanageable public fits.)  Looking back, I would have been so screwed if they were not both willing to hustle.  They are too big for me to carry and there is no way I could carry one and bolt through with the other.  And I hadn't packed a change of clothes.  Looking back I think our Restroom dash was between a quarter and a half mile!   I have no idea how it turned out.  I am so proud of my little man for making it all the way. 

Here are some pics.  The tiger had just moved down and I couldn't believe it was even this close, before it moved down in front of the window.  Then, we were out of there and didn't get to see meal time.

Here are some other pictures from the zoo.

The Amazing Race to So Cal

Recently, we survived the most brutal trip back from visiting family up in Northern California.  I hope that this is "the one" that goes down in history as the worst family trip we will encounter.  Let me tell you what happened, and then I will let you know my own personal strategy of how I endured it.  We were just beginning our second week of staying up north with family when my son, Kaden, came down with a cold.  He woke up all sniffely and conjested and we decided that rather than risk driving back with all four of us at our worst stages of the cold in a few days, that we should go ahead and start home before this thing blew up.  So, we ran around the house gathering all of our stuff that had been scattered and intermingled throughout the week and piled into the car to drive home.  Probably should have taken a closer look at the step by step weather along the route home, but i think we have become spoiled Southern Californians that don't think about the weather posing an obstacle for us.  Well, we were reminded of the challenges of driving the day after New Year with the rest of the people trying to make there way back before Monday began and they had to start up at work again.  To top off that traffic, we were slammed with a horrible storm that closed all of the mountain passes that lead to So. California.  Fortunately, we found out that the passes were closed while we were only a few hours into the trip and could still take a detour.   After examining my handy dandy CA map, we decided to head towards the coast where it was less likely to freeze and try to go through the Santa Margarita pass on the 101 right before San Luis Obisbo.  For anyone who knows the normal route, this is WAY out of the way.  To get to this pass we had to venture out on 1 lane roads through the country side past farms and through foothills .  As we inched along in the rain, Jaelyn, who I hadn't noticed had gotten increasingly more sick, vomitted all over herself 3 times.  We are in the middle of nowhere inching a long with nowhere to pull over, turn around, or exit to.  I turned around in my seat and tried to "wet wipe" the situation as best I could, and we had to endure several more hours of the vomit/candy cane smell coming from her.  Once we made it through the pass (thank the Lord!!!), we stopped at San Luis Obisbo and ate and regrouped, changed clothes, and looked at hotel options.  And then, my husband said, let just go for it and drive the 8 hours left to home (this was at 7pm).  So we did!   We endured more rain storms, stalled traffic, and the weariness that comes with traveling for 14 + hours with a sick pair of toddler twins. 
  So, how did I deal?   As soon as we got the call informing us of the mountain closures from my awesome sister-in-law, who is always looking out for us, I "gamed up" and got into what I like to call the "Amazing Race" mentality.  This dreadful drive was now a game of survival where there are definite winners and losers.  the losers being the ones that give into their emotions and melt like a puddle.  I was determined that I would not go down like that.  NOT TODAY!!!   :)    There would be obstacles and puzzles thrown our way, surely, and our jobs (and part of the competition) was to not be defeated by those obstacles and to press onward towards our destination.   So, my husband and I got into this mode of "Amazing Race" type strategy. We were both aware that we needed to be that power couple storming across the vast terrain being plagued with indecision and obstacles that you see on the show.  :)  Finding the correct detours, dealing with the vomit situation,   sitting in traffic,  enduring screams from our son, who could not get comfortable enough to fall into a good sleep.....these where our test and as long as we pretended we were in a game, then we could get through it.  We are both competitors and I am so proud that we saw this as a game and stepped up to bat.  We made it home sometime in the wee hours of the next morning all in tact and still with our senses about us.  I have to say I did not think we would be able to get through this without some serious melt downs, arguments, or traumatic experience.  But we did, and I can defintily say we are stronger for having done it the way we did.
   So, as I start into my new experience of staying home with the twins this year,  I think this was a good and meaningful experience to have.  If I can "Amazing Race" it through the tough days of staying home with the twins and not lose my cool when all seems to go to crap, then I think this adventure will be a lot more pleasant.   I look forward to hearing how other mom's do it.  I am thinking that there has to be some commonality among moms out there where there is some sort of "game up" type strategies that helps us to get through the long days that are just brutal.  I would love to hear other stories if anyone would like to share.