Still, I remember thinking how much of a life change it was to have someone going with me everywhere I went. Craig and I were sharing a car as he finished graduate school, so I didn't go many places. Still, finding a cart and plunking the car seat in or snapping it into the Graco seemed cumbersome at first after years of grabbing my keys and traveling light.
When we walked around the neighborhood, I pushed him up and down the Lexington hills in a stroller. When we went to Shillito Park to use the bike trails, I had to collapse the clunky thing and fit it in the trunk. Whew!
Our current stroller makes that tiny Graco seem light as a feather. It took months of searching to find a triple stroller that wasn't a TRIPLET stroller. Finally, we discovered the Joovy Big Caboose, which has tandem twin seats and a little jump seat to secure toddler Devon.
Michael Jackson has his one glove and Jackie O her sunglasses, but the Joovy is definitely my signature piece right now. People slow their cars in the parking lot to watch with frank interest as I load my green machine, get a running start, and then push my crew around. While the occasional family visitor watches the girls, I sometimes go on an outing with Devon, only to hear "I didn't think you made it today. I didn't see your stroller!"
Yes, we make a statement everywhere we go, even if we just need a gallon of milk and decide to make a cameo at Publix. The snowbirds start cooing and clucking when they see the twins looking out and smiling as I thread-the-needle through a doorway. You should see their faces when I then swing wide and Devon pops out from underneath, covering his eyes and yelling "Peeks!"
It's worth the awkwardness of pushing around roughly 70 pounds of babies and gear, or the 10 minutes loading the car with diaper bag, Bumbos, and toys just to make a park stop. It's important for me to go places with my children, even if it requires more planning than the Academy Awards, more feats of strength than the Olympics, and enough gear to justify hiring a team of Sherpas to follow me around like an Everest expedition.
We've been going to a play group at the park on Thursday mornings. I was skeptical of my ability to pull this off, but Devon enjoys the sand and slide while the girls stretch in the Bumbos.
Last week I embarrassed myself by having a freakout moment and screeching Devon's name when he was playing quietly with a truck six inches off my right ankle. With twenty little kids patterning the grass like villagers in a Where's Waldo book, sometimes it's hard to keep track of which ones go home with you.
Devon (red shirt in the background) is in the little boy "parallel play" phase, which means he engages in activities with his friends while avoiding eye contact or direct interaction. So, though he chatters all through breakfast to me about going to playgroup and digging in the sand with his friend "Nickiss", he and Nicholas dig, slide, and toss balls in the air while barely acknowledging each other.
The highlight of Devon's month is going to gymnastics, where he jumps on the trampoline, swims through a foam pit, and climbs on things in a manner that is not allowed at home.
Carrie and Melina enjoy watching the older kids, especially twins Chloe and Addison.
Climbing is also allowed at the mall play area; a rare treat because the closest one is 45 minutes away. I actually wrote the managers of our nearby mall begging them to remodel and add one. Either that or my gas bills will get interesting come May when temperatures hit the nineties.
On weekends, Daddy is home and there are many more options for outings. Here's Devon meeting a real pufferfish (he plays with a plastic one in the tub) at the Manatee Center in Fort Pierce.
Devon enjoys non-stroller time when Daddy can walk beside him. Daddy is a good sport in that way, and other ways, too.
Even a trip to Lowe's for some ant bait can be a fun trip. Too much fun to sit still, evidently.
This neighborhood park doesn't have equipment, but it makes up for that by being within walking distance. Devon watches Daddy fly a kite, kicks a ball, stomps on the storm drain, and picks up interesting rocks as the girls sit on a blanket or watch from the stroller.
When we're a family of five, we usually try to keep as mobile as possible, and that usually means leaving the Joovy in the minivan and striking out with two in strollers and one twin in the Baby Bjorn or Moby Wrap. This was our mode of choice in October, giving us the freedom to mingle in crowds at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Stone Mountain, and the post-remodel Opryland Hotel. Three months later it's getting harder to push the old Graco with one hand while the other hand keeps tugging on the Moby Wrap like a bad pair of underwear and keeping Carrie's feet from digging themselves into my pockets. I think we're going to need a double side-by-side for our neighborhood walks in the future. Yes, it amazes me that we have three strollers and we're in the market for a fourth.
Our most recent weekend trip was to St. Augustine in January, where we toured the old fort by day and the city center by night.
Devon was impressed by the cannons, but even more impressed by walking up the stairs holding Daddy's hand, only to get to the top and want to turn around and go down again.
By far our favorite family expedition is to go to the beach. It's hard to imagine a more perfect afternoon than sitting on a blanket watching the waves and enjoying an ocean breeze break from the Florida humidity as Devon and Daddy meander along the waterline ditching waves and picking up shells.
Craig and I promised each other that we'll go at least once a month, unlike some of the locals who live fifteen minutes away from the beach and never go. We don't want to move away someday and regret the weekends we spent trapped at home with young children. Our kids never trap us at home, although sometimes we make the decision to stay home because it would be easier for everybody. Most of the time, we take out a map, choose which stroller(s), load the minivan, and decide to go someplace.
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