Bye Bye, Quad Stroller!

I can’t believe how hard it was for me to say goodbye to my quad stroller. We had a big garage sale this weekend, and I sold it. I got a good price for it, considering I practically ran the wheels right off of it for almost three years straight. And it went to a mom who really needed it – a mom of toddler-age triplets and a brand new baby. And Paul is REALLY glad to have that extra space in the garage, because face it – as compactly as it folded up, it was still a big space hog. So why was I almost in tears as I watched someone else loading it into the back of their SUV?

Back in 2005, when we had two brand new little babies and two rambunctious little toddlers, I was having a really rough time. Like you’d expect, I suppose, adjusting to the reality of having two sets of twins under age two. What made it worse was that I was completely trapped in my home. The “big” twins were only a year and a half old – certainly not old enough to just walk around parking lots and stores while I lugged around the “little” twins in their heavy infant carseats. While poking around online one day, I discovered this amazing quad stroller – brand new, not even available yet – and I quickly put my name on their waiting list to order one. Unfortunately, the $500 price tag kept it completely out of reach for us. Fortunately for me, there are lots of wonderfully generous folks out there who read my blog, and who wouldn’t hear of leaving me trapped at home. Someone set up a Paypal fund, and within a few days, I had MORE than enough money to buy that stroller.

Once it finally arrived, it truly DID change my life! Finally, I could go anywhere I wanted. I could strap my kids in and get sunshine and fresh air, or groceries, or walk around the mall with my mommy friends, or whatever. It really changed everything for me. And I used to bitch plenty about being such a spectacle wherever we went, pushing that huge stroller with one hand and pulling a grocery cart behind me, but I’m SO thankful I was able to do that. I don’t know what I would have done without that stroller! I hope the lady who bought it ends up getting as much use out of it as I did. And honestly, if I didn’t have any physical limitations, I might have hung on to it longer. I’ve gotten to where I couldn’t lift it in and out of my vehicle anymore (the thing weighs 80 pounds!) and I really couldn’t push my big ol’ kids in it, either! The last time we used it was at Disneyland last year, and it was a lifesaver then, but Paul had to push it everywhere!

So with that, I’d like to offer my gratitude once again to all the generous ladies out there who reached out to a mommy in need. I was, and continue to be, honored and humbled by your kindness. Huge thanks to Donna, Ami, Lisa, Shawn, DonnaLeigh, Cat, Aimee, Laura, Tracie, Amy, Denise, Colleen, Megan, Maggie, MS, Darla, Sindy, Annette, Janelle, Jammie, Cindy, Amanda, Jeanne, Audra, Bev, Allison, Jessica, Andrea, and Christine. I always thought I should engrave your names on a little plaque and hang it on the stroller!

Looking out for Little Sis

My girls LOVE to swing. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a bigger swingset, because they’ve really outgrown the one we have, and I’ve had to stand out in the yard holding onto it so they don’t flip it completely end over end from swinging so high.

I remember when Mallory learned how to pump her legs – it changed her whole world! She was pretty little, but she caught on quickly, and she’s been a swinging fool for probably two years now. And early this summer, Nikki figured it out as well. The two of them can touch the sky, and they love it. Lexi, though, is another story. I’m not sure if she just doesn’t get it, or if she just can’t get her brain and her legs coordinated enough to figure out how to get it done. Poor little thing is always furiously kicking her feet all around, hollering, “I can’t dooooo it!”

Lately, though, I’ve seen something over and over that just melts my heart every time: Mallory and Nikki will start swinging, and once they’re moving along pretty quickly, they reach out and snatch one of Lexi’s swing chains, so she can swing along with them. For as much bickering and fighting as they do, it’s always amazing to me to see such tenderness among them.

If the weather warms up a bit, we’re going to head over to the park while Pablo and Mallory are at school today and practice on some BIG swings! Maybe she’ll catch on!

5 years ago.

I want to write about how much fun we had last night downtown amidst the chaos marking the end of the DNC. I want to talk about how cool it was to meet so many great bloggers at the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash, and I want to gush a little bit about how awesome Mile High Mamas is. But, I’m going to put that off for the moment, because I don’t have Paul’s pictures from his camera, and he took some good ones. So, wait for that, I guess. I do have a few pictures from my camera up on Flickr if you want to see.

What I’m going to write instead is a little of what I wrote about today on How Do You Do It? The big kids’ birthday. Yep, Pablo and Mallory are turning five tomorrow! Five! It doesn’t seem like their birth was just yesterday or anything, but it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it was five years ago.

I had no idea what I was in for five years ago today, which was also a Friday, as we headed across town to welcome our little babies to the world. We grabbed lunch at Le Peep before we went to the hospital, and Paul told everyone there that we were about to go give birth to twins. Our food reached the table surprisingly fast.

The delivery was uneventful, and except for Mallory’s blood sugar being too low, the kids were born very healthy. They were born at 12:16 and 12:32 a.m. on Saturday the 30th, and I didn’t get to hold Mallory until Sunday night at 8 p.m. I cried and cried when I finally got to see her in the NICU – I missed her so much! We didn’t know if we’d be able to take her home, since the NICU nurses told us the rule was that she had to be maintaining her blood sugar and off her IV for 24 hours before we could leave. I’ll never forget our precious doctor, Howard Corren, telling the nurses, “They know what they’re doing. I think we can let them take these babies home and love them now.” It had only been about 15 hours, but he was kind enough to bend the rules for us.

It was cold and rainy that Labor Day weekend, and it seemed like it went from hot summer to chilly fall during those couple of days while we were in the hospital. And it was a good indicator of how quickly time would pass for us from then on. Those were crazy, terrifying, amazing, wonderful, horrible days. We got little sleep and I struggled with PPD for months. But what precious days they were. Thank God I took so many pictures, because I honestly don’t remember some of it – we were just too sleep deprived, just getting by day-to-day in survival mode. Oddly, it was ten times easier when the little girls were born just 17 months later. I guess we knew what we were doing by then.

And now, we have kindergarteners! It goes by so fast.

Nikki-Noodle.

This is my littlest baby, Nikki. She’s the clown of the family, always making us laugh with her silly faces and funny expressions. She’s the bravest out of the bunch, always first in line to try something new. She was the first one to scale the big slide and stand up on top of it, ten feet in the air. (Ack!) She was first to learn how to pump her legs while swinging. She’ll jump from the top step, from the back of the couch, and from the kitchen table. She loves music, and she loves to sing. Nikki is a constant source of entertainment for us – she says and does the funniest things.

Nikki regularly cleans things up without being asked. I think she’s got a little bit of her dad’s enginerd qualities. Many times, she’ll call me in the room to show off what she’s done – sometimes she’ll arrange all the shoes up in a neat line, or stack all the books neatly on the shelves. Just this evening, she picked up the whole living room, and she was so pleased with herself afterward. I love that I have at least one child who inherited the neatness gene, because I’ve always worried I was going to raise a family of slobs like myself.

Nikki works hard, plays hard, and then crashes hard. She’s like a wind-up toy – running around crazy, full of energy, until she finally hits the wall. She’s the only one who still naps regularly, and I never have to put her down for a nap – I just always find her holed up somewhere, cuddled up with her thumb in her mouth, snoozing away. We’re trying to break her of the habit, but honestly, it’s still so precious to me to see a sleeping child with their thumb in their mouth. I need to get over that, I guess, so my child doesn’t mess up her teeth.

I just wanted to post a few things about my children here, because people keep asking me lately what it’s like now that two of them are in school. And my answer: it’s a lot of fun! Three and a half is such a fun age, I think. It has such a bad reputation, three. But I just love it – kids do so many cute, precious things at this age. Every day, I find myself just smiling when I see the girls playing together, making up elaborate pretend scenarios. It’s really cool, this parenting thing. I recommend it!