At five months old, Thing 3 looks like an offspring of the Michelin Man. For a long time, he wasn’t able to turn over because of the extra, shall we say, chub. This kid has a great future as an offensive lineman in the NFL. Or maybe as an actor playing a young Jabba the Hut.
Michelin Man
Jabba the Hut
I can’t believe it is Friday again. That means tomorrow, to quote Thing1, is a Stay Home Day.
Stay home days are difficult. Much harder than weekdays when all I have to do is go to work, where it is quiet and no one fights or whines or cries (usually).
With the holidays over the last couple of weeks, there have been a lot of stay home days recently. In fact, a stretch of 7 out of 11 days were stay home. Sure, to be home with your kids for 7 of 11 days may not sound like much to SAH moms and dads. And I wasn’t doing it alone. I had SuburbanMommy to join in my happiness torture. (By the way, I have no idea how you SAH types do it every day!)
But when you aren’t used to it, when it isn’t part of your kids’ daily routine, it is not an easy undertaking for the parents OR the kids. The last time we spent this much time together was on our summer vacation. And you know how that went.
My kids are used to, and really enjoy, being in preschool/daycare full-time all week. I rather like it too. They thrive on the structure, constant activities, and socialization.
So, when it comes to stay home days, by lunchtime they are bouncing off the walls and we’re usually out of activites.? Especially when the weather is too cold to go outside. Getting them to nap is near impossible, even though they take one every day as part of the routine at school.
We resort to a “divide and conquer”, 2-1 zone defense, where one parent stays at home with two kids, and the other parent takes the third kid out of the house somewhere. Anywhere. Around 5pm, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we get our second wind. It is also the time we crack open a bottle of wine, which doesn’t hurt.
TGIF? Right now it’s more like TGIM for Monday. Wish me luck this weekend.
It was time to get new sneakers for the kids. Somehow, Thing 2 had managed to wear a hole on the top of his shoe. Probably from all the time he spends on his belly, kicking his feet, during meltdowns.
Naturally, we have to get both kids new shoes at the same time, or else there will be major trouble. And, whenever possible, we get the same style for both. Remember: variety is a bad thing.
So, off to Target on a full family outing. We have to take two shopping carts to keep all three contained. Luckily they had one of these double carts.
Letting the oldest walk is simply not an option. First of all, there is no way Thing 2 would sit down if he saw his brother walking. Why not let them both walk on their own? I might as well just hand a blank check to the cashier on the way in, as a retainer to cover all the damage they would do. No, they must be contained.
The store didn’t have a great selection of shoes. Thing 1 quickly found a Transformers pair in his size. But the only acceptable size 8’s (to a toddler) were the ones with Lightning McQueen.
He instantly fell in love with them and refused to put the old ones back on, so we continued shopping with his new shoes still attached to each other by the security device.
Double carts are great if you have two kids to contain. The problem with the double cart, however, is that the riders are facing, and within arms reach, of each other. It didn’t take long for them to draw the attention of everyone else in the store with their standard preschool humor consisting mainly of potty words, laughing, pointing, singing, and fighting.
If only there was a better way to buy shoes…well I found one, and it’s called Shoebuy. Shoebuy has every brand and you can always find the right size, with whatever kids characters happen to be popular that month. Shipping is free. No sales tax. Low price guarantee.
And here’s the best part, returns are free, too. You can try on as many shoes as you want, just like in a store, and return the ones you don’t like. If you’re like me you hate shoe shopping. But Shoebuy is so easy. Really.
And you never have to deal with the dreaded double shopping cart.
Do you have resolutions for the new year? I do. I’d like to exercise more, take better care of myself like get more sleep, eat better, spend more time on my blogging hobby, and, uh, I better stop myself.
Those aren’t resolutions. Resolutions are things you intend to do and actually have a chance at completing. My resolutions are more like pipe dreams.