My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

Psst!  You want to know my secret weapon that I use to combat evening fussiness?

A bedtime snack with Pappy!  In my humble opinion, there’s not much that can’t be cured by good food with good company.

Susie agrees with me.  Here she is offering me some of her cereal.  She must think I need a taste of my own medicine. 

I don’t have the heart to tell her that my personal fussiness remedy is chocolate! 

We took the girls to their first fair tonight.  I think Jim and I may have been more excited than they were.

I was especially excited about this:

I was hoping the girls would seize the opportunity to perfect their animal sounds in the petting zoo…

…but they were more impressed by the Bloomin’ Onion concession stand (Like mother, like daughters, I guess!).

Jim wanted to make sure the girls got up close and personal with his exhibits of choice, such as the antique tractor display:

(Dad, if you’re reading this, I know what quote just popped into your head: “Tractors is sooo dumb!”)

And the tractor-pull:

And the stand selling ATVs.  He even found one just for the girls:

Maybe next year the girls will display a little more enthusiasm for the fair.  I can only imagine it won’t be long before we’ll be bombarded with not-so-subtle requests for cotton candy, stomach-churning rides, and nearly-impossible-to-win stuffed animals.  I guess we ought to savor their laid-back complacence while it lasts! 

Doesn’t Jim look like SuperDad here?  One kid on his hip and another holding his hand, while simultaneously conducting a business transaction (or shooting the breeze, I’m not sure which!). 

Jim, you ARE a SuperDad (too bad I couldn’t have squeezed into your arms and you could have held all three of your doting girls…but then you would have had to be SuperMan as well, to perform that weight-lifting, wife-hoisting feat!).  I love you so much – even if you would rather carry your daughters than your wife in your arms! 🙂

Do you want to know what would make this mom of twins VERY happy?

No, it’s not a trip to a spa or a night out with friends.  Although now that I think about it, those things don’t sound too bad!

But I would be very, very happy if every grocery store could be like Costco.  I don’t mean that I want my local supermarket to carry gallon-size jugs of peanut butter (I’d never fit that in my pantry).  What I want, what I would LOVE, is to find this at the grocery store:

A grocery cart (or carriage, for you New Englanders) with the space for two strapped-in children.  A double-wide, if you will.

It would make grocery shopping so much easier if I could simply strap both girls in the cart and still have plenty of room for my purchases.  I wouldn’t have to employ my current tractor-trailer system of pushing the double stroller in front of me while pulling the grocery cart behind me.  Not only is it difficult to turn corners, but it’s nearly impossible to navigate around other parked carts in the narrow aisles (yet another reason I love Costco: mega-wide aisles).

Hopefully, it won’t be long before I can stick both kids in the cart without needing to strap them in – then at least, I can place one child in the basket, and one in the larger area and just pile goodies around them.  Or I can try the technique my sister-in-law uses of wedging both kids in the basket and sticking one of each of their legs through the openings and crossing their other legs in front of them.  That’s why children are small and flexible.

But until some supermarket-chain-owning billionaire reads my blog and decides to grant my wish, I’m stuck with my unwieldy train-wreck of a system.  Or I could just do all my shopping at Costco – it would make the girls very happy!

When the girls are up past their bedtime, one of two things usually happens.  Either they get whiny and miserable, or they get chatty and giddy.  Tonight, we had them out late, and they thankfully chose the latter course of action. 

Here’s a video so you can see for yourself what happens when the girls should be in bed.  Susie is rambling like a mad woman (and foaming at the mouth as well), and Becky is so tired she can barely walk (she’s not usually all that steady on her feet, but tonight she was acting like a drunken sailor).  The girls were wearing these outfits the last time I posted a video of them showing off, which makes me wonder if it’s the clothes that are partly responsible for their nighttime antics.  To be fair, I guess Becky could blame the overly-long pants for her lack of surefootedness.  I suppose I would be tripping as well if I were stepping on my pant legs!