Him Not Nice Mama

About 2 yrs ago I went into Apples to Zinnias with my friend, Wendy and the LGs. The LGs were still in a stroller. When we walked the man working there looked like he was going to blow a gasket. He followed us around and made us feel really unwelcome. I called the next day and talked to the owner. The owner was as nice as could be and apologize profusely. A week later I went in and bought the wallet I had been trying to look at when I was in there the first time.

Today I had A LOT of time to kill in Orlando so I met Wendy at Borders. After that we went to lunch, then I asked her if she wanted to go to A to Z with us. She said sure.

As we walked into the store I saw the employee behind the counter bristle as if he had just seen something that really makes him angry. I told the girls they could touch things with 2 fingers but could not pick them up. As we rounded a corner Avery came face to face with her first Christmas tree of the season. She was touch, touch, touching it. I repeated my touch but dont pick-up rule a few times. I noticed that the employee (who was still behind the counter talking to another patron) was visibly upset everytime one of the girls touched or even looked at something. He would lurch forward and make an audible noise, like he wanted to yell "STOP!!!!"

I saw that Avery was bending my rule a bit. She was taking two ornaments and "tinking" them together. Not pulling them off the tree but making them touch so that they made a pretty noise. I told her a few times to stop. She wasn't listening. In my head I thought, 'I could make her stop. then she would move on to something more expensive or I could take my chances with the $12 ornaments. ok, I would rather pay for those then something $100 that I dont want.' So I kept walking and the clerk was getting more and more upset. I was about 3 feet away from Avery with Emerson in between the two of us and the clerk yelled, "Hey, They are not listening to you!" I of course was already on edge due to the way he was acting so I turned around and realized he was the same guy from 2 yrs ago. Here is a paraphrased version of the conversation(yelling match) that happened next. I am not proud of my self for loosing my temper. I am trying to be a better role model for the girls...I do believe though that I did a lot less yelling then he did.

"Your the guy who was nasty to me the last time I was in here!"
"Probably, if you had them with you."
"Let me talk to your manager."
"Im the owner."
"I dont think so."
"I'll bet you $50, 000 I am!"
"whatever, If they break something I will pay for it."
"YES, YOU WILL PAY FOR SOMETHING IF THEY BREAK IT!"
as if the fates were listening my gentle little Emerson who was standing right in front of me picked up the ugliest ceramic reindeer ever and dropped it.
"OK, YOUR GONNA BUY THAT!"
"IT'S NOT BROKEN!!!" and it wasn't

"Emerson Avery, come on we are leaving."
"Good. (something I dont remember, but it wasn't nice)"
Avery looked at me and I said, "Come on we are not welcome here." and she started to cry (like a fit cause she did not want to leave) "No, Avery we are leaving...Wait actually cry, cry like you you've never cried before." She just looked at me like, 'what? you've never asked me to cry before...'

Im thinking I need to plan a playdate with all my Mothers of Multiples friends.

When we left I had to go sit to calm myself down and Wendy then told me he was talking about me and the girls to the other customer. Avery said, "Him not nice, Mama." I agree Avery, him not nice.

For those of you who own a business...here's a little customer service advice: If you are worried about a child breaking something all you have to do is engage the child. Talk to them about the things they are looking at. Show them other "shiny" stuff. It does two very important things. 1. It lets you keep tally of what the kid has it's grubby little hands on. 2. It gives the parent time to SHOP!!! SPEND MONEY!!!

I was in retail for over 10 yrs... I should know...

Ay Chiwawa...What A Great Weekend!

We had a busy and fun filled weekend. Julie finally had the weekend off so I think she was wanting to make the most of it after working two week ends in a row.

We started out the weekend by having a weenie roast in the back yard Friday night. Then Saturday we bought some flowers at Lowe's to plant with the girls. Saturday night we packed up some fried chicken and headed to little beach to fly kites and eat dinner. Sunday morning we planted our flowers, then headed over to our friends house for lunch and swimming. See, we were BUSY!

While at the beach we met some very cute little (big to the LGs) girls. I showed them all about hermit crabs. They were afraid of them at first. A few minutes in and they loved them. One of them took one to show her sister and when her sister saw it she screamed. The little girls told her to, "Calm DOWN!" this apparently left an impression on the LGs cause they recounted it over and over and over again. Avery would do a blood curdling scream and Emerson would yell, "Calm DOWN!"

Can you believe I have never flown a kite?

It was soooo much fun!

While we were planting our flowers Avery wanted more water in her watering can and how she said "I more water." sounded just like "Ay chiwawa."

Avery doing a great job of watering the flowers:

Emerson watering the sidewalk...

Sunday we headed to Katy, Pam and Graham's house for play time and lunch. The kids played in a kiddie pool, then we ate lunch and headed to the big pool. In the kiddie pool the kids were jumping and throwing themselves into the pool. We all concluded that if we did this we would have to call 911 and have an ambulance take us to the hospital...where we might not make it. The kids on the other hand had not a scratch!

They splashed so much the pool had to be refilled.

"Picnic...COLD!"

Julie has been on vacation this week. It's been colder then normal here in the sunshine state. The other day she decided that we should have a picnic at the beach. Sounds nice right? It was! Kind of...
She packed us a great meal of popcorn chicken, sweet potatoes, honey glazed carrots, wine for us and juice for the girls. We packed up the car and headed out for a fun family picnic at the beach. We even took the dog, "Pooper" AKA Cooper to those over the age of two. It was cool and breezy at our house so we were not prepared for how freezing cold and windy it was going to be at the beach.


Since this picnic if you say the word picnic in front of Avery she will start a complete dialog containing many many "No, Mom. Picnic COLD. Pooper, No Mom... COLD" It can go on and on... To say that is was cold would be an understatement. It was REALLY FREAKING COLD! I have to take some of the blame on our lack of preparedness. I had them dressed in short sleeved dresses and when Julie suggested that we go on this infamous picnic I put some leggings on them. That's it. I did NOT grab sweaters or jackets for them. Thankfully, we have blankets in the car for them. Blankets are their lovies. So we were able to have them wrap the blankets around themselves for a little extra warmth.


You know how they say a picture says a thousand words? Well, in this case a a video says it ALL...

At this moment we are on what I call "my vacation". We are staying at the beach with the girls. We have to have (at the very least) a one bedroom suite because the girls go to bed at 7:30 most nights 8:30 is actually really late for them.

We got here at like noon. AND, by the way, with in 10 minutes of getting in our room Avery managed to get herself stuck INSIDE the coffee table. She saw Emerson attempt it. Emerson stopped when I told her to. I missed Avery's attempt so I had to help her get out.

I wanted to get the girls some lunch and get them down for a nap. Naps are VERY important!

At home they sleep together. Here for some reason they want to sleep on separate beds.

When I put them to bed for their nap Emerson started to cry when I went to leave the room so I decided to lay with her till she fell asleep. She was happy about this and cuddled up to me. Avery on the other hand laid in her queen sized bed and yelled at me, "MAMA, GO AWAY!" At the time I thought it was cause she wanted to trash the room. I found out at bedtime tonight that the actual reason was cause she wanted her Ma (Julie) to lay with her. This is what we had to do tonight to get them to sleep. Emerson and I laid in one bed and Julie laid in the other bed with Avery. Our plan was to lay with them till they fell asleep then head into the living room enjoy some wine and go to bed a few hours later. I kept my part of this plan, however Julie fell asleep at 8:30 with Avery. I feel bad for her...sort of. hee hee. I'm enjoying my solitude right now actually!

Here are some pictures from today:

Here is the view from our room:

Headed to have a snack on the beach:

(Avery on the L)

Emerson:

Where Is THE Waffle Man???

A friend of mine met me at Lake Eola a few months ago for the Farmer's Market that happens there ever Sunday. She introduced me to the most Heavenly Thing I have ever tasted...a waffle. It need no syrup, you eat it as is and it was about the best thing I had ever tasted! So a few weeks ago we went to Orlando to visit grandma. I started thinking about the waffle I had a few months back and couldn't get it out of my head. We made plans to meet my friend and some of our relatives at the farmer's market so we could all have a heavenly waffle.... the thought awakens my taste buds and makes me salivate. (of course when we lived just 4 blocks away from Lake Eola they did not have the Farmer's Market!)

We get there and let the girls and their cousin Cameron play at the park for a bit then head over to the market. First thing on our agenda was to find the WAFFLE MAN! We walked all the way around the courtyard to no avail. He wasn't there. I was crestfallen. We decided to get some lunch there. We found a nice place to sit and I headed back to get us some food. I went to the first place that looked good. Tacos...While the guy made our tacos I figured I would ask the taco guy where the H#LL was the waffle guy. He tells me he had to go back to Belgium to renew his visa...No freakin wonder those waffles were so good. The guy is from Begium! We still had a great time and some wonderful food...but no waffles...so sad.

Grandma bought them a little hair salon to play with and they LOVED IT!!!

Bear Building and New Foods

For the girls birthday they each got a gift certificate to Build a Bear from their friend Mahogany. Today we met Megan and her little girl Anna at the mall and we let the girls build a bear. Anna is Avery's BFF...seriously, you may think 2 is too young to have a BFF but you would be wrong! One day at open gymnastics Anna and Avery were walking side by side and Anna put her arm around Avery and said, "You are my best friend." It was about the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

By the time we got to naming these poor bears the girls were tired and I was loosing patience so they ended up with the lamest names on earth. "Baby" and "Bear"...sad, I know...

Here is how BAB (Build a Bear) works. They pick a an animal they want to build. They have them on display all stuffed and looking cute, but what you get, that you need to stuff, is a pelt...and quite frankly kinda creepy looking. So they pick that out then a nice lady stuffs it and they put a heart in it. Then you brush it and clean it up. After that you can pick out lots and lots of different clothes and accessories that all add up-to BIG $$$. Lucky for me the girls had just as much fun brushing their new bear as they did picking out an outfit. After that you take it over to a computer and input all your info and name the new addition to your family. It really is quite cute.

After BAB we met mom at Queen of Sheba for lunch. It is an Ethiopian restaurant. I like Ethiopian food and I like to introduce the LGs to different foods. They love Chinese, and Thia. They liked Ethiopian but not as much as the 1st two... They had a good time though.

Here are some pictures from our Ethiopian experience: