There are weeks where it is truly hard to believe that my kids are growing up as fast as they are-this was one of those weeks. I worked Monday-Wednesday this week and had Thursday and Friday off of work. The preschool was on "break" between the summer program and fall program; therefore, I had to find childcare for my kiddos. I am so lucky to have found a great group of friends! When I moved to Nashville, I began working at Baptist in Nashville and was surrounded with a great group of women-some of the best and hardest working women I have ever met! I was young and they took me under their wing and literally "took care" of me. They were there for me through a LOT! I know that there are some of them that I could call in the middle of the night and they would help me!
When you have kids things really change, like will I ever have a life again? I will say that for a while I truly did not. However, when we joined our Church and when my kids started the preschool at our Church, that gradually started to change. I now have strong, strong relationships that I wouldn't trade for anything! Over the past two months since our childcare situation has been changed, many of these folks have offered to help with the kids or with other things or been there to help when I have had to ask. That is what happened this week, and as usual-my kids had a great time! A real blast!
Thursday, I decided to take the kiddos to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to the Treehouses exhibit. IN total there are 7 Treehouses that have been built on-site that can be played on and in. It was to be another scorcher in Nashville on Thursday-SO, the plan was to get to Cheekwood as SOON as they opened. We did just that and the kids were thrilled to see that the FIRST treehouse they saw was a pirate treehouse. They immediately went to climbing the rope ladder, which H.D. climbed right up. Gigi, however, struggled up that ladder. After all that struggling and just really getting frustrated, she gets to the top and says "seriously, mom, there is a ladder that goes underneath the boat". Note to self: look through slats of treehouses for ladders when going to other treehouses. The next few treehouses were pretty uneventful. Then while H.D. was sliding down a slide on one of the treehouses, Gigi starts heading towards a "pond". Here inlies an issue that frequently arises when you have twins, you have two kids the EXACT same age-you can't say to the older one "stay right here don't move while I chase your sister who won't come when I call her". I said, no less than 3 times, "Gigi come back here"-no response. Then I saw here sitting on a bench-good deal. H.D. exits the slide and we go meet her. Turns out the reason she is on the bench is that she got her flip flops all muddy and nasty and she is having an out of body experience. She insists on not putting her shoes on to go to the next treehouse and I say, sure. They then convince me to get into one of the treehouses which had to have been 150 degrees inside. It is a great exhibit and I would recommend it for anyone with kids!
After we were all sweated out at Cheekwood, we headed to JCPenney to get our free kids haircuts. The haircuts were really well done and saved me money-that was not the interesting part of our visit. As we entered JCPenney and the kids saw some mannequins and then got on the little stand and touched said mannequins, I realized that my kids have not really been to a department store that has mannequins. Some people may think that is strange, I think it is brilliant. I work across the interstate from Cool Springs Mall so I do all that shopping on my lunch hour or after work. The best part is that on our way to the salon, we walked through the lingerie department. The mannequin in this department really caught their eye. H.D. started touching her and said "where are the rest of her legs" (she was a 1/2 mannequin)? "Hey mom, she has a bra and panties on", he said REALLY loud. Gigi says, "she doesn't have a head either, this is so weird mom". I finally convinced them to move on. On our way back out, H.D. said "How do the ones without feet get to their car?" I said, not really wanting to deal with it, "they use the feet of the other ones".
On Friday, it was the day to go to the Zoo! It was a perfectly, wonderfully overcast day! It was awesome. We got there right as they opened! We were 1 day prior to the DinoTrek exhibit closing. This exhibit was the first thing we did when we got there. It was really cool and the kids loved it. The dinosaurs moved and some spit water, it was truly cool. After that we saw and fed the Lorikeets, then went on to the Elephants, and then on to see the rest of the animals! My daughter loves diet Coke and we try so hard to strictly limit her consumption. I, however, love caffeine in the morning. So, I needed a diet Coke. I opted for the "Gripper" that had free refills all day. She had to get her hands on that drink. So, she ask to hold it. I said "no", she said, I will make a "deal". That is Gigi talk for "I am going to try to negotiate to try to get my way". She said, "let me carry it when we are on bridges and pavement". The WHOLE Zoo is on bridges or pavement. Seriously. I countered with "how about bridges and going up hill". She accepted and said "we just came across a bridge and we are getting ready to go uphill so I will go back across the bridge and come back across-stay here". H.D. said, "she is so silly". I really hope she is a lawyer because if not the World is missing out.
The kids insisted on wearing flip-flops. This proved to be a huge mistake. I took a pair of tennis shoes for Gigi, pink and white tennis shoes. H.D. was the first to break down saying he had blisters between his toes. I told him he could wear Gigi's shoes. "No, mom, people will make fun of me-that will be humiliating" that is really what he said. I convinced him to just put them on. He was so embarrassed, but eventually forgot about it. We were there for almost 6 hours. A long time. We were leaving and got all the way to the exit and Gigi said, I have to go potty. I was SO DONE at this point, all I could think was potty training is SOOO overrated. But, what I said was "ok let's go back to the potty". What H.D. said was "you have got to be kidding me". After the potty, we are walking back to the exit and she says, "H.D., I want those shoes back NOW-I am getting a blister", he says "no". I said, "H.D., they are hers and she let you wear them almost all day". He finally agreed, mostly because I think he knew that none of us were getting out of there until he gave up the shoes. She wouldn't have let us leave. She sits down to put them on and has to put the sweaty socks on that he had had on his feet. Of course, they wouldn't go on her feet so crying got cranked up. I said "I will put them on" we got the shoes on and finally got moving towards the car! The aformentioned situation is one of those situations where we are all 3 so tired that I want to lay down on the ground and throw a tantrum when they start whining and crying just so we can ALL be officially miserable.
Saturday has been much less exciting. It is back to work on Monday and that will be slow compared to Thursday and Friday!
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