A New Year

A few days after Christmas, Mark and I took the boys to Target, just to get out of the house.  We do that a lot.  Go places just to go.  None of us do very well when we are cooped up inside for more than a day or so, so there are often mornings when Mark and I look at each other (while Grumps 1 and Grumps 2 are melting into puddles of despair at our feet) and say WHERE SHOULD WE GO?!!  This means trips to Lowes, the mall or any other indoor place that has wide aisles for the stroller and is loud enough for the occasional shriek.  The destination on this day was Target.  And not even our neighborhood Target. Oh no, we need variety here and a road trip that is longer than five minutes to stretch these outings as long as possible.  So we went up to Plano to go to the Super Target. Cue angels singing.

Now I can wander around Target with absolutely no agenda or anything in particular I am shopping for any day of the week.  Am I right ladies??!  I could easily kill an hour or two going up and down every. single. aisle. and buying all the things.  But Target is not so leisurely when you have a husband and two one-year olds in tow.  It's more like a rapid lap around the perimeter (must keep moving or Parker will decide he'd rather you carry him than ride in the stroller) looking at holiday clearance and vacuum cleaners (yes, that is exactly what we did).  We might have lasted 25 minutes in there before we were out of Cheerios and getting close to two meltdowns. 

On this particular morning it was very cold and slightly raining.  So basically perfect weather for unloading two grumpy boys from the stroller, strapping them into their carseats, taking off the stroller seats, loading them into the back of car, dumping out all the Cheerios that fell down into the bottom of the stroller, and then folding it up and lifting it into the car.  While we were doing this (and getting rained on and freezing, btw) a pick-up truck was ever so slowly coming up to us in the parking lot.  I thought that he wanted our parking place and was thinking, "Seriously?! Can't you tell that this is not a quick process so you should just scoot on past us and find a spot a little farther away?!" when he stopped beside us and rolled his window down.  An older man, probably my parents' age, peeked over the window and into the cold and smiled at us.

"You're doubly blessed," he said.

And Mark and I looked at him and back at each other, nodding.  We knew he was right.

Ice Apocalypse

The ice apocalypse did in fact occur today, and we’ve been iced in all day.  We lost power for about two hours this morning, but we’re lucky compared to many others I’ve heard from today, who have been without electricity all day.  Thanks goodness Mark also got snowed in and didn’t go to work today, because our two little guys have been having an off day.  Lots of tears and screams today, and very little sleeping or naps.  We may or may not have just busted open a bottle of champagne, just for surviving this far.  Which I may or may not be sipping as I type this!  Maybe the weather is causing the boys to be off today, but surely tomorrow will be better.

Yesterday, before the weather arrived, my mother-in-law came over so I could do a trial run of leaving the house with the boys.  I have yet to go anywhere by myself with them (in fact, they have only left the house twice so far to visit the pediatrician), so it was a big day for us all. We ventured quickly to the Galleria for a Christmas errand I wanted to do.  While we were making a lap around the mall, we came upon Santa’s “Workshop” and there was ZERO line.  Not a single person waiting.  Just the big guy in red sitting and waiting.  My MIL and I debated.. do we wake the sleeping babies and risk Mall Meltdowns to take advantage of this prime opportunity?

The answer was, of course, yes.

There were no Mall Meltdowns (at least not until after we left Santa) and for once Henry (on the left) was the one who wouldn’t cooperate and open his eyes.  Parker is usually the one who can’t take a good photo!  I surprised Mark by emailing him the photo at work when we got home, telling him we “ran into someone we knew at the mall today.”  He said it made his day :)  Proud Dad!

Moments like these, where we start little family traditions with the twins and get ready to celebrate their first Christmas, they make the days like today - when we are pulling our hair out and trying to reason with two five-week old babies on why it is actually good to take naps - they make it all worth it.

Winter Storm Warning

Today it was almost 80 degrees in Dallas.  In December.  And, even with these temperatures, we are technically under a winter storm warning. Wacky, right?  The temps are supposed to fall forty degrees in the next 24 hours, and we’re due to get some sleet and ice.  I would be all about some cozy days at home inside, but we had some big plans coming up in the next few days!  Plans that will likely get postponed or canceled.  Womp, womp.

With the cold weather coming, I’ve been taking advantage of these perfect days by taking the boys on a walk every afternoon.  It takes some major maneuvering to get them loaded in the stroller and then out the door and down the stairs in front of our house, and there is a very small window in between when both of them eat and nap when they are actually in a good enough mood to go for a walk, but it’s worth it to get out of the house and into the sunshine, even for only 20 minutes.  Henry always rides on the “lower level” of the stroller because he almost immeadiatly falls asleep.  Like before we even make it to the sidewalk from our front walk, he’s out.  Parker rides up top and watches everything go by.  I also play music on my phone while we walk and set it in his seat next to him so he can hear the songs.  He likes to listen to music, and doesn’t mind when I sing along as well!

Weathered the Weather

Well, I spent two hours on the floor of the hallway at work yesterday, but we didn't get much more than some wind and rain.  Better to be safe though, especially when you work with 600 kids!  It was an eventful afternoon, that's for sure.  Hubs was afraid we'd have tree limbs falling at home, but we luckily only had two (very) wet dogs waiting for us.  If we had known there were going to be tornadoes blowing though, we would have left them inside!  Poor pups.