Thursday, May 6, 2010

Taking The Dog For Shots, The Missing Shoes and Other Items

So, last night I took the dog in for his yearly shots, with the twins in tow.  Luckily my Mom had found a low-cost vet clinic so I could save a few bucks on shots, heartworm, etc this year.  Only drawback is standing in line (for a long time) in order to get these savings.  But, I think it was worth it.  What usually costs me $350 per year cost less than a third of that.  Claire was delighted to see all the dogs in line, she was laughing, squealing and saying "doggie" over and over to each "customer" in line.  I didn't quite share her enthusiasm because people cannot control their dogs!  The dog in front of us growled & showed his teeth at Ranger, at which point we left a safe distance between the angry dog and us.  The man behind us had his two small dogs on retractable leashes but apparently he didn't know how to operate the retractable part because they continually got tangled around Ranger, my Dad & his two dogs and the stroller (It also could have been that the man with the small dogs was WAY too interested in his Blackberry to notice his critters were running amuck).  

After we successfully got the shots we headed back home.  Upon arrival I quickly grabbed the babies jammies, overnight diapers and sippy cups of milk and we went to work preparing for bed.  I took off shoes, changed clothes and we brushed teeth.  Once they were ready for bed, I turned around to put the dirty clothes in the hamper and gather up their shoes.  I picked up Claire's shoes but Matthew's were gone.  I looked around at my list of "suspects".  Matthew - nope, he's interested in trying to disassemble one of his toy cars.  Ranger - nope, sound asleep on the couch and not really much of a shoe fan either.  Claire - yep, narrowed it down.  So I asked Claire "Can you tell Mama where Matthew's shoes are?"  She looks up at me with her big eyes and says about a 15 second string of words that no one can understand.  At this point, I'm laughing so hard because she thinks she's answering me and doesn't understand why I don't know what she's just said.  So I try again "Can you "show" Mama where Matthew's shoes are?"  She giggles and runs to the family room.  I decided to give up and just go on my own shoe search after I get them tucked into bed.  As I was picking up the family room, I found the missing shoes.  Where??? In Claire's shopping cart!
I'm going to have to remember to check Claire's cart when I'm missing other items (my cellphone, the remote, etc, etc)!

 We started swimming lessons a few weeks back and Matthew & Claire are really enjoying them.  It's more of getting them used to the water and playing around that actual "lessons" but I think it's good for them.  The instructor plays games, sings songs and they are able to play with water toys and floaties.  It's actually a parent/tot class so usually Jeremy takes Claire (who is much more easy-going and cooperative) and I take the "Wild-Man".  Matthew likes to kick and splash and do things on his own time, so at times he doesn't necessarily want to do the things the instructor says!  The instructor is really good about letting the kids do their own thing and I'm all for not forcing the babies to do things at this young age.

After swimming lessons a couple weeks ago, I decided to do a quick grocery shopping.  (Jeremy was at work so Susie took his place in the class for me).  We went to Kroger and I was getting ready to put each baby in the top of a separate cart (I usually push one cart and pull one cart so I can keep them both contained and safe).  Well, Matthew & Claire had other ideas, they spotted the little ride-in car on the front of the cart and proceeded to "tell" me they wanted to ride in it.  It had seatbelts, so I thought it seemed like a good idea.  They loved it!  They each had their own steering wheel with a horn and I felt they were pretty safe since they were strapped in.  They kept it together through 99% of the store, even though it was very close to their bedtime.  We finally made it to the check-stand and I proceeded to use the U-Scan since the only other lane they had open had a huge line in it.  I scanned the groceries as fast as I could and I was almost done when the double meltdown started.  Claire was touching Matthew's steering wheel, Matthew was trying to escape, I think they were hitting each other.  It was not pretty.  I even had some other shopper offer to finish scanning my groceries so I could "hold my baby".  I politely declined and scanned the few remaining items as quickly as possible.  I felt bad that M & C were having a rough time, so it didn't even cross my mind that I should be embarrassed by the spectacle that we had become.  As soon as I paid and loaded the cart and we started moving again, they were fine.  The crying stopped and they were back to laughing and enjoying the ride. 

Here's a photo of the babies in the ride-in car, it's a little fuzzy but what can I expect from my cellphone camera?

I still need to get around to some milestones and updates since they're now 16 months.  Look for that post shortly as well as some new photos from our trip to the park.

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