Last week was a week filled with firsts. With highs all the way up to 100 degrees, we were pretty sweaty, headache-y, bored and hot. To make matters worse, the raging fires to the south of us have made the air quality in the morning horrible and the sky black. When I woke up Friday morning and looked at my the weather app on my phone, instead of a picture of a sun, or rain, all it said was “smoky” and featured ominous black clouds in the background. Yuck!
Anyway, we were pretty desperate to get out of the house, but because of the heat, our options were limited. By the end of the week, I was completely desperate and ready to try some things I had never done before.
First off, I had my first solo experience taking the twins to the pool, which is something I swore I would never do by myself when they were so little. Famous last words.
It took about 45 minutes to get the girls suited up (attempting to lather on sunscreen on a wiggly toddler who conveniently abhors sunscreen application takes up a ton of energy, not to mention having to do it all over again with twin #2) and about five minutes to walk to the pool with Bandit and all our gear. Total, we only actually spent maybe 15 minutes at the pool before heading back home, but it was totally worth it!
I was really nervous about how I would get the girls in and out of the pool by myself, but what I ended up doing was keeping Samantha in the stroller while I put Amelia in her inflatable device at the shallow end. Then, I walked backwards so I could keep an eye on Amelia who was squealing in delight in the water, grabbed Samantha and walked as quickly as possible back to the pool where I put Samantha in her tube.
Fortunately, there was another lady there suntanning, so it was a little comforting to know there was a second adult there in case of an emergency. We swam around the pool together, with me pulling both girls in their respective floaties, spinning around and tickling their toes underwater. After a few mins, both girls wanted out of their tubes, so we swam back to the shallow end where I somehow managed to pull both of them out and then we walked around the pool together, with one twin on each hip.
Getting out of the pool was probably the most difficult part since I had already taken the girls out of their floaties. We sat on the steps of the pool and I put Samantha down on the cement as far away as I could reach. She started screaming because she wanted a towel, so I quickly pulled Amelia out, wrapped her up and then went back for Samantha, praying she wouldn’t dive into the pool. The stroller and our gear was literally sitting steps from the pool, so it wasn’t like she was alone for longer than five seconds, but it was still pretty nerve-wracking.
Even though we weren’t at the pool very long, by the time we returned home, we had killed the entire morning and it was time for lunch and afternoon naps. The girls were exhausted from our adventure and we all took a nice siesta.
It’s a relief knowing I can handle the pool solo since it’s so close and and easy way to beat the heat (at least while they are still this age. Talk to me in a few months and it could be a different story as the girls become braver.)
Side note: I don’t have any pictures from our first solo pool experience since keeping them from drowning was taking up the majority of my brainpower that day.
Another thing I always swore I would never do until the girls got a bit older was go to the grocery store with them by myself. Since I make all my meal plans a month in advance and try to do shopping for the majority of that food all on the same day each month, I don’t grocery shop that much anyway, although I do go every week and a half or so when we run out of fresh produce. I normally go on these trips at night after the girls are in bed and Jake’s home, but I needed some veggies for dinner and Jake volunteered to go with the girls when he got home from work.
I was skeptical, but he assured me it would be fine. When they returned, he raved all about how much fun they had and that all of my fears of them throwing food out of the cart were unfounded. So, the next day, out of pure desperation for something to do with the girls, I decided to venture to Costco with them.
Hooray for extra wide carts so I could fit both girls in the front seat!
I only had to get three items, so, theoretically, our Costco run should have only taken ten minutes. However, what I didn’t account for was the fact that the majority of people at Costco at 10:30 in the morning are above the age of seventy-five.
We were stopped no less than six times by well-meaning grandmas and grandpas gushing over the twins. lamenting the fact that they either don’t have any grandkids or don’t ever get to see them, and asking all sorts of questions. And that doesn’t even count the others who saw us barreling down the aisles, and exclaimed to their friends, “LOOK, twins!” clearly hoping I would stop and engage. I just smiled, looked straight ahead and continued on in those situations.
I wouldn’t say the girls LOVED their Costco experience, but they didn’t put up much fuss until we got in the car and they decided they were sick of being strapped down. It was still worth it just go get out of the house and run around somewhere were we wouldn’t die from heat stroke and that offered free samples galore.
Feeling a little bit braver the next day, I dragged the girls to Target. Normally, I buy diapers exclusively off Amazon, but I had miscalculated how many I needed for the month and didn’t figure that out until I was down to my last diaper. Off to Target we went.
The girls were clearly not enthused about the fact that not only did they have to go to the store, they were stuck in their stroller instead of in a cool shopping cart.
Overall, going shopping with the girls was not the equivalent of my own personal sixth circle of hell as I had imagined, although, I wouldn’t do it again unless absolutely necessary.
Last, but not least, the girls also had their first eyeliner makeover! Somehow, Jake got into his head that this would be hilarious, so right before bed, he drew his masterpieces. When I walked upstairs to help with bedtime, I jumped back in shock.
Of course, he just HAD to try this at bedtime when the girls were exhausted.
Not cool, guys.
Daddy deserves some major payback for this, girls!
Lots of love,
