Got Crazy Twins

Traveling with Twins (Plus Three)

Nearly two weeks ago, we headed to Colorado for my family’s reunion. Via car…for two days…each way. I was super excited.

I’d filled the backseat with everything from coloring books to Leapsters to what are, in my experience, the when-all-else-fails surefire happiness creator: juice boxes.

We had a whopping 7 minutes under our belts when we first heard those two dreaded road-tripping words: “I’m bored.”

“I don’t get this,” commented David. “When I was their age, we drove for three days in a car without air conditioning or radio, let alone television, video games, or ball point pens. I had to hang my sweating head out the window to get air, and then nearly died from breathing in the fumes from the trucks!”

“You mean they didn’t even have pens when you were little?” inquired Grace, clearly disgusted by how old we are, and never altering her gaze from the episode of Hannah Montana.

Eavesdropping…they’re doing it even when you think they aren’t. Grace didn’t remove the headphones from her ears for eight hours, and interestingly they allow her to hear us date ourselves but not repeatedly ask for a fruit punch juice box for the driver.

When I was younger, my family embarked on a 3-day drive more than once. Delaware to Nebraska (and back). In a Volkswagon Rabbit. Without air conditioning (it broke halfway through the first day, forcing my father to drive with his bare feet submerged in a puddle of freezing water that had dripped from the air conditioning unit. It didn’t seem safe then nor does it now).

My mom made these cute little apron-like-things that she hung from the back of their seats. Inside the pockets were coloring books, crayons, car bingo (remember sliding those plastic windows over items as you passed them on the road?), a pad of paper on which to write down the states of all license plates we passed in an attempt to get all 50 by trip’s end, and perhaps a red box of raisins.

I don’t remember loving the three days in the car (especially the night we checked into a Motel 6 and, for reasons I don’t believe I was privy to even at the time, checked out no more than 8 minutes later). What I do believe is that had we had all the road-trip entertainment at our disposal that kids do today, I would have almost begged to embark on this trip more than once per summer!

And yet here we are, 30-some years later, with our five kids relaxing in the back of our wonderfully exotic minivan, their heads resting comfortably on their chenille travel pillows as they order us to switch between Nick Jr and The Disney Channel, enjoy an array of movies from which they can choose (but never agree on), one Nintendo DS, 3 Leapsters, 8 Leapster games, 2 brand new chapter books, multiple coloring books from the Dollar Stop at Target (love that section), an iPod, and a Trader Joe’s insulated bag full of all kinds of exciting foods like grapes and peanut butter sandwiches.

And they were bored.

7 minutes in.

***

What did you do to entertain yourself for days on end during long car rides as a child?

Peace

This afternoon the kids and I went on one of our thrice-weekly trips to Target. (Still can’t get out for under $100 — and today I went only for Ziploc sandwich bags.)

As we were walking into the store like ducks, I spied Four (a.k.a. George) applying chapstick. Which concerned me.

“Um, Sir? Where did that chapstick come from?” I inquired.

“The parking lot,” he responded.

At the moment he began to holler (because I was snatching the tube of possibly Ebola contaminated lip balm from him), Two informed me that the chapstick had merely fallen out of Four’s pocket whist sojourning toward the entrance to Mom’s Magic Kingdom.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Seriously,” replied Two. “Do you THINK there’s another 4-year-old who uses Tutti Frutti Peeps lip balm in a bright yellow tube AND comes to this Target?”

Good point.

Halfway through our excursion, by which point George had applied at least half the tube of chapstick in multiple layers to every square inch of his face below his nose, he paused only briefly from his makeup routine to announce, “Mom, we’re missing a child.”

Big Daddy concurred. “Yeah — it’s Three again.”

45 minutes later we exited the chamber of all things good and holy. With (among other things) the Ziploc sandwich bags, a copy of People magazine (even I am not immune to wonderings about Jon & Kate’s status), and a peace lily from the garden center…for my office.

Here’s hoping it brings me some.

***

What’s your kid’s favorite flavor of chapstick? And have you ever applied it in a moment of desperation much like you may have drunk from a kid’s sippy cup during an especially parched moment?

The Important Stuff

Sometimes I feel a bit like a fraud.

I write and talk and talk and write about the importance of finding and maintaining balance as a mom. And yet every once in a while I realize I’ve gotten to a place where I’m about as balanced as a rabid dog. Continue reading…