Out and About

I seem to be running quite a few errands lately.  We've reached the food stage so I've been working on gathering essentials for feeding babies.  Rice cereal, spoons, bibs, oatmeal, pureed food, looking for books on making your own food, more spoons and likely more bibs and some bowls.  I also had a day were I tried to find outfits for S and E 6 month pictures, and then a few days later returning the clothes we didn't use.  S has recently jumped up to the next size, 12 MONTH, and after "shopping" the clothes tubs of gifts and hand-me-downs, I'm sad to find out he mostly has winter clothes in that size, which makes sense since he is only 6 months old and it will be dead of winter when he is a year.  So either we need to visit some place where he can wear sweats or he needs some summer clothes in his size. At any rate we've been out a lot.

When out in public twins get a lot of attention, especially our adorable ones.  :-)  I have also found that when I'm by myself more people talk to me than when I'm with Paul.  Today while in Estes Park I was sitting next to a park bench with the stroller watching the people, and the river, waiting for Paul when no less than 4 people stopped to talk to us in less than 5 minutes.  I was wondering if I was wearing a sign that said, "Please talk to me!"  I really don't mind, it is kind of fun to hear what people have to say.  So here is a sampling of what we hear from strangers.  We get the usual:

• "Are they twins?"
• "A boy and a girl?" usually followed by something along the lines of "How perfect now you can be done."
• "Are they identical?"  --no silly, they are a BOY and a GIRL
• "How old are they?"
• "My sister's cousin's boyfriend's family has twins and...."
• "Double Trouble", "Better you than me"  "I bet you're busy"...
• and my favorite "They sure are cute"

But every once in a while you'll get a really interesting one.  From the cashier at Sam's Club a couple of months ago:
It is amazing the kind of stuff they have for twins these days, now that they are popular.  (Paul and I had no idea we were part of a trend.)

Today at Sam's Club from a nice older man:
You really have a live wire there.  Her car seat is bouncing and moving all over and his is barely moving.  (This is a very true statement.  S was a little under the weather today...solids are a pain.  E on the other hand was in quite a mood.  She loves books and gets super excited when you show one to her or give one to her.  She had already entertained Paul and I in the book section while I read her some for sale, then in line I gave her the box of books we bought and she was kicking, flailing her arms and squealing with delight.  I LOVE it.  She continued to kick and move and did indeed bounce around her car seat that was in the cart for almost the next 20 minutes while we ate pizza.  I love the description... live wire.)

Last thought about running errands.  I am currently using our Double Snap 'N Go stroller to run errands when I'm by myself.  It is easiest to just put in the car seats.  I will write about my stroller dilemma soon.  It is a tandem stroller so it is difficult to steer but fits wonderfully through store doors.  But it is a juggling act to try to open the door, steer the stroller and pull it into the store.  It makes me want to shop in a real mall where I don't have to open a door to get into every store.  So next time you are out at your local outdoor mall and see a mom struggling to maneuver a stroller into a store help her out and hold the door open for her.