Grocery Store Stalkers

I have always maintained that – while it can be a little cumbersome – I generally don’t mind people ooh’ing and goo’ing over my sweet baby girls when we’re in public. As long as you don’t try to touch my sweet baby girls…in which case I will go Ninja on you…I fully understand they are completely irresistible.

Even the usual “double trouble”-type comments, I try to savor to some degree…as I know they won’t last forever.

Since the girls have gotten a little older, though, I’ve started to get much more sensitive to what people actually say.

I don’t want random strangers, well-meaning as they may be, to plant a seed in my girls’ heads that they’re trouble…that they’re a handful…that one is smarter / prettier / more outgoing than the other.

At the grocery store a couple of days ago, we kept running into the same older couple.

The lady was polite, but ultimately she was focused on her shopping. Hmmm…I would like to focus on my shopping as well. The man, though, seemed just along for the ride. He was not interested in matching coupons to brands of oatmeal. It was obvious he was looking for diversions.

Aisle 8
Oh, look, how sweet! Are they twins?
Yes, ma’am! Say, ‘Good morning,’ girls!
B: Good morning!
Double trouble!
Double blessings!

Aisle 6
Hm. Brown eyes and blue eyes. How’d you do that?
Smile sweetly. [Via special order at the Buy One, Get One Free store.]

Aisle 5
How are you girls today?
B: Good.
Brown eyes must not be able to talk.
Oh, she’s a talker. She’s just taking it all in this morning. [And she apparently thinks you’re creepy.]

Aisle 3
You’ve got your hands full driving that limo (referring to my double stroller, behind which I was pulling a full cart).
Yes, sir! I just try not to run over too many toes. [But I could run you down and mow you over, dude.]

In Front of the Bananas
So who’s older?
B: Sissy!
Smile slightly. [Seriously? Are you following us? Or do you just happen to have the exact same grocery list as I do? I could call security, ya know?]

In Front of the Grapes
Who’s the boss? (To B) You’re not going to let your little sister be the boss, are you?
B: Mommy’s the boss!
Good answer, Baby Girl! Tell this nice man to have a good day.
A and B: Have a good day!

[Whew! Made it to the check-out! And no one's following us!]

That’s the thing about the grocery store…I’m there for a reason, and I’m working my way through my list. Oh, and I happen to be on a schedule, too. It’s not like I want to haul my refrigerated items (and my two children…who might eventually like to eat lunch!) over to the sporting goods section to kill some time to allow these folks to get out of my hair.

I know people are well-meaning. And I want my girls to appreciate idle chit-chat with folks in public. But I sometimes wish I could request people think before they speak.

Or maybe I should wear a Ninja outfit???

A Scratch or a Pick?...HELP!!!

I worked with this guy one time. Long before we even thought about having children, he volunteered – very much at random, as I remember it – that his children didn’t do gross things. “They don’t pick their noses and eat their boogers. That’s disgusting, and I won’t allow it.”

At the time I thought, “Well, duh…who would allow their children to do gross things???”

And now, I can only rationalize that Michael worked long hours and traveled on top of that…such that he was rarely home to witness any grossness.

In the scheme of the world, I feel like the grossness at our house is relatively nominal…or maybe I was just desensitized long ago by projectile spit-up and diaper blowouts.

Still, I counted it as a small victory that I had not had to deal with any nose- / booger-related issues.

Until now.

It’s like Baby B has just discovered her nose, and she is so mesmerized by its spelunking opportunities that she can’t keep her fingers out of it.

Fortunately – KNOCK ON WOOD – everybody is healthy at our house, and her digging has been purely recreational…in that I don’t think she’s scored any gold.

But frankly, I’m at a loss.

There was a day or so that I “counted” her each time I saw her fingers in her nose, and she served a couple of time-outs. Alternately, I’ve told her, “Big girls don’t put their fingers in their noses.”

“But I have a boogie!”

“Well come with Mommy into the bathroom and we’ll get a tissue.”

No avail.

At three years old, I thought we were past the “body exploration” of infanthood.

No?

I’m looking for some advice from you seasoned mamas. Is this a phase that will pass? Should I just ignore it? Should I punish it?

Help, please! I would so like to be able to claim, “My children don’t do gross things!”

Letting My Guard Down

Literally.

I’m a little ashamed to say that our girls just turned three years old, and – through yesterday – we’ve continued to have them gated in the den.

In my defense, our den is big…it houses all their toys, and there’s plenty of room to run and jump and play. And, more important to note, our house is otherwise very open. There wasn’t a great way to open up just one or two rooms, and I just haven’t felt like I’ve been up for that challenge.

In hindsight, I might have taken the baby gates down long ago. It’s been a little cumbersome (and back-breaking!), lifting them over the gate 100 times a day. And it’s been a bit embarrassing to have people over at times (although I’m hoping that’s my mind playing tricks on me…I think all our friends understand, “ya do what ya gotta do”).

Still, this system has worked for us. I just didn’t feel like my nerves were up to what I anticipated would be some pretty extensive behavior modification.

(I should also note that we haven’t done any baby-proofing in the kitchen. It’s something that Hubby has been quite opposed to, and I just couldn’t trust being able to turn in one direction, risking the girls getting into something dangerous in another direction.)

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that our girls have FINALLY started to respond to time-outs…as in, they HATE it. Woo hoo!!! Having that as a behavior deterrent (as part of the 1-2-3 Magic methodology) has worked wonders for us all.

That in place, I decided it was finally time to take down the big gate dividing the den from the breakfast area / kitchen. (I also reached a compromise with Hubby and put two cabinet locks on the cleaning supplies.)

When the girls woke up this morning, they came downstairs to find their play tent from Aunt Alison set up in the den.

Wowza!!! Who would want to leave that kind of fun???!!!

And so far, so good! I’ve reminded the girls a few times that the den is for playing, the kitchen is not. The same rules apply as always…no reaching up on tables / counters…no crawling or running on the wood floor…you have your cabinets (in the play kitchen), and Mommy has hers.

This feels like a long-overdue change in a lot of respects, but I’m hoping – having waited so long (???) – that it won’t be as bad as I’d feared.

Still…if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days…please stop by to check. There is a remote possibility that the girls will have stuffed me into the oven and are swinging from the chandelier.

Love is in the Air

Valentine's Day is just a couple of weeks away, and I've started talking to the girls about it.

We broke out our Valentine's books yesterday, and I've got a handful of crafts in mind.

The girls are definitely starting to feel the buzz.

In response to the heart-patterned shirt I got out for A yesterday, she said, "Ooh, we could wear these hearts for Valentine's Day!"

And one of the first things B told her daddy when he got home was, "Daddy! Valentine's Day is a very special day when we celebrate love!"

I'm even thinking of getting crafty and making a card for the hubs this year. My mind keeps going to this picture that we had taken before the holidays...I love it!


I love all the hearts and glitter and CHOCOLATE surrounding Valentine's Day...and it's so much more fun to share it with our baby girls!

Fabulous Friday!

We’ve had our share of rain this week, but we did enjoy a bit of time outside, including a really invigorating jaunt with the jogging stroller. I think it was December 30th, or there about, the last time we did that…way too long! I’m very thankful for that, and so many fabulous things this week!

1) Baby A has been pretending to fold laundry, and she is some kind of serious about it. She buzzes around like it’s her JOB to fold the little doll blankets in the den. And she really does an excellent job of it, matching the corners almost perfectly…that’s my girl!

2) The girls have been really into crafts lately, which just makes me smile. We’ve done lots of water colors, crayons, and stickers. I got out the girls’ scissors one day, and I was so surprised how well they did! Baby A, in particular, cut a piece of paper into about six strips, all by herself. I can foresee our crafting hitting new levels soon!

3) I let the girls help me in the kitchen on Thursday afternoon. I measured out everything to make Strawberry-Kiwi Shortcake, and they had a lot of fun dumping everything together and stirring. They were beyond excited to tell Daddy what they’d made. He was teasing them, calling it “Tall Cake”, though. Baby B didn’t find an ounce of humor in that. She was very defensive over her “Shortcake”.

4) After a particularly good nap on Tuesday, I decided to treat the girls at the yogurt shop. Daddy met us there after school, and we had a sweet time together. I then tempted fate and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things…sans stroller. I’m so thankful to report we had a successful trip!

5) Baby A woke up early a few days ago, and so she was already downstairs when I got B up. Baby B and I were alone in the bathroom, and I just couldn’t resist telling her how cute she was…sitting on the potty with her bed-head and super-soft fleece pajamas. “And I’m sweet!” she added. “Like a dessert!”

6) Baby A was trying to tell me something one day, and I just couldn’t understand what word she was getting at. She finally said, “Seep!!! A little lamb!” It’s happened a couple of times where she’s offered an explanation for something, which just amazes me.

7) A very sweet friend sent the girls a couple of new CDs for their birthday. They are in.love. with one, and they request it most mornings after breakfast. It is amazing to me how quickly they’ve picked up on so many words already. And I just love how Baby A asks to dance with me to the first song. She wants me to pick her up (which is rare), and dance around. I very happily oblige.

Hope you had a fabulous week, as well!

Goodbye, Nighttime Bottle!

That’s a little over-dramatic…as our girls haven’t actually had a bottle since they were 15 or 16 months old…but we have been holding on to their nighttime milk routine until just recently.

When the girls were infants, countless people told us to “stuff them full” before we put them to bed for the night, to get them to sleep as long as possible. Of course there’s only so much “stuffing” you want to risk with the wee ones, but I appreciated the concept.

Once the girls were a few months old, we had worked up to a rather sizeable bottle of milk, particularly before bedtime. We were blessed with really good sleepers, but the idea of them staying full overnight still made sense to me, and that seemed like a bit of insurance, at least psychologically.

We proceeded in similar fashion until the girls were 18 or 20 months old, and we started to have MAJOR issues with leaky diapers. I tentatively cut back their 12-ounce sippy cups to six or eight ounces. That didn’t directly solve our diaper issues, but I learned that my almost-two-year olds didn’t wake up from hunger, either.

Fast-forward to Round 1 of potty training, when the girls were about 27 months old. Baby A was waking up at the CRACK of DAWN to use the potty.

At that point, I further reduced our end-of-day cups of milk, to about four ounces.

A quick poll of my mommy friends revealed that most had long ago abandoned a nighttime milk routine…but this mama just wasn’t quite ready.

I loved the idea of one last snuggle with our baby girls, just before bed…the same sweet snuggles we’d been enjoying since Day 1. The girls seemed attached to the routine, too.

A couple of weeks ago, though, one of the girls asked for milk with supper (as opposed to water). On a whim, I told her she could have milk at supper, but then she wouldn’t have any before bed.

Both girls agreed. They drank a big cup of milk (I felt safe giving them more than their four-ounce allotment), and there was no fussing before bed.

For the next couple of nights, I gave the girls the option of milk at supper or before bed, and they continued to choose supper. We’ve officially decided that’s our new M.O.

And while I do miss those extra snuggles, it gives us a little more time to “snuggle proper” over our bedtime story.

And – it may be a coincidence – but the girls are more consistently sleeping until 6:30 in the mornings…and I think that makes us all feel more snuggly.

For the Love of...Rats???

Before the holidays, a family friend stopped by. She was telling me about someone she knew whose Christmas decorations were mouse-themed. I’m picturing little mice in Santa hats, I guess, but our friend said, “It just creeps me out. I hate rats!”

Sponge A and Sponge B, hearing everything, of course, have been asking about rats ever since.

It is almost a daily discussion at our house…

“Mommy, why does Nana Audrey hate rats?”

Well, some people don’t like rats very much. And let's not use the word 'hate'.

“Are rats bad?”

Well, maybe some are, but I don’t think all rats are bad.

“Do you hate rats?”

No, remember, we don’t ‘hate’ anything. And generalizations like that aren’t nice. Remember the little mice we saw at the pet store? They were sweet.

“Some rats are sweet, but others are not.”

Well, that could probably be said of many things. We haven’t met all the rats in the world, so we don’t know.

And on…and on…and on.

The girls started with Daddy last night. He did his best to answer their questions…although he was not as “protective” of the rat species’ reputation as I have been.

I finally heard him tell the girls, “That’s enough talk about rats. We’ll talk more about them when you’re older.” And they moved on to dissect another rousing subject.

After the girls were in bed, Hubby asked me what was up with the rat convo. I told him the background, and – clearly creeped out himself – he said, “You know that rats are not mice, right? Rats are disgusting. They carry diseases.”

I know, I know. And I have no affinity for mice or rats, I can assure you.

But I want to encourage the girls to form their own opinions about things, based on their own experiences, and not just adopt what they’ve heard in some random context.

It just so happens that rats are the girls’ subject du jour.

And while Hubby agrees with me in theory, I think he would say we could just go ahead and pass judgment on “disease-laden sewer scoundrels”.

Hmmm…another parental quandary, for sure.