This week’s Multiples and More question is about stuff:
What are your favorite products for your multiples?
I asked this question to Juice and he said, “Fruit snacks!” And after having a nice long discussion about toys, gifts and baby twins, we landed on one thing. The one product for our multiples that we have given a first name to. The one thing that I seriously don’t think we could live without.
Bob is freedom to me. To us! Bob is a pack mule, a bed, a swing, a roller coaster, our stroller. We take him everywhere. To the beach where we load him up with so much stuff it’s amazing the wheels are still turning. I’ve put 6 kids on that stroller and pushed it around Harper’s Ferry, WV (one very hilly town). I’ve taken it to the fair, the doctor, and several states. The one place I haven’t taken Bob is the airport. I’m afraid that he will be damaged and I can’t imagine life without Bob. (See here for more thoughts on Bob.)
On to the follow up questions!
Do you have one for every child?
No but sometimes I wish I did. They fight over who gets to push the stroller sometimes.
What types of products can you get away with just buying one of?
I think a stroller is probably the on thing that you WANT to get away with buying one of. It’s kind of hard to push 2 strollers at the same time. I know, I’ve tried. Besides, Bob pushes like a dream and turns on a dime AND fits through any doors that are wheelchair accessible. I see no reason to buy anything BUT a Bob but that’s just me. (Just for the record, the boys are 2 and seriously you can not buy just ONE of a toy. Just sayin’.)
If you have boy/girl multiples do you buy gender neutral so they can all play or do you stick with pink and blue? Does it matter?
I don’t have b/g multiples but I really don’t think it matters. The boys wear Butterfly’s old pjs. They used to use her pink blankets before they got their lovies. They play equally with princesses and ponies as they do cars and trains. Although all 3 of my kids shun the pink plates and fight over who DOESN’T have to use it. That’s annoying.
What product did you buy that you wish you didn’t?
Oh there were a lot of things I never used. Like review mirror car seat thingies. The DVD player that sucks batteries…I should have just bought a used ipod or something for each of them. Cheep picture frames. Only one of certain toys.
How do you keep everything organized?
Clearly, I don’t. We do have A LOT of toys. And I do try to keep them rotated. I’m just not sure how the above happens almost every day.
Oh wait, I think I do! It’s called The Wave of Destruction!
This morning we all got up and made the trek over to the big park to go sledding with Butterfly’s BFF Vinny and his mom, Lala. We had such a great time! And by we, I was excluding Professor. The poor guy is just unhappy about the whole sledding experience. This time I didn’t even put him down once and he was still unhappy. Poor kid.
We brought Soot along because she needed to get out. Poor thing had to deal with this:
She did very well though once she was on the sled track. She ran after the sleds growling and barking and having a merry old time.
I could have stayed out there all day long but the babies started crying and so we decided to head on home. I think Butterfly would have fallen asleep on that sled if she could have. She was one tired girl!
After everyone had lunch and naps, we headed out to see the lights at the DC Temple. So beautiful! Butterfly and I had been there earlier this season during the day but this time we went to see the lights. We met up with our friends who come with us every year. It was fun to have their girl and Butterfly run around together.
We cut quite the path with our double wide stroller. We held up traffic in several places because BOB’s wheels were scraping each side of the snow on the little paths they plowed. What a great day!
Okay, so let’s talk strollers. When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I started researching strollers. I have to admit, I am a stroller-a-holic. I seriously need to go to strollers anonymous because I have 3 strollers for Butterfly. One child, 3 strollers.
Stroller #1- We got this stroller with our car seat when I was pregnant with Butterfly. It was huge and we found it was hard to push around our neighborhood with all of our stairs. We used it a few times with the car seat, but found it was easier to carry her around.
Stroller #2- We bought it to push her around the neighborhood when she got too heavy to carry on our nightly walks. Actually, I think we bought it to take with us on one of our many trips to Utah. It was cheep and if it got trashed on the airplane, no big deal. We used it every night after that to walk around the neighborhood with.
Stroller #3- A Christmas present to me from Juice. It’s lightweight, has a carrying strap, and I love it. This is the stroller I take with me everywhere for Butterfly. It lives in our car. It’s been hiking (easy to sling over a shoulder when the pushing gets too tough), downtown, down the street, several different states (like Hawaii), and to the beach. We have really used this stroller and it shows. It’s starting to wear down.
Since that stroller is starting to wear down, I decided to get a new one with baby #2. I decided on a really nice stroller. That pregnancy didn’t work out. And when we found out we were having twins, I switched to their double stroller. But then I heard some rave reviews about a different stroller. So when we went to the store to look at the strollers, I test drove a lot of strollers. And I really liked the different stroller.
I liked it so much more than my first stroller, that we decided to get a BOB dulie. I love this stroller. And the reason why we bought a BOB over a Phil and Ted’s stroller? The sun flaps that come down were longer and had little windows in them to see the kids. We took it hiking around the lake by our house (and I use the term hiking loosely since the path is paved). We did push it on the grass some and up hills. It was no harder than pushing it on a paved path. Loving the stroller.
Hiking was cut short by Butterfly grabbing a thorny bush and getting a HUGE thorn in her hand. Luckily I started carrying around the kitchen sink in my diaper bag again because we were able to clean up all the blood and bandage it.
We did see this heron on the dock on the way home. The lake is a heron nesting sight and we see them around the area all the time. This guy likes to stand on the dock when the fishermen are there and steal their fish when they catch them. He must enough to have him stay on the dock so calmly. I was about an arms length away from him.
Bottom line: I love the BOB stroller. Do not touch thorny bushes. Try fishing away from the main dock.
Safire
PS- Yes, I have one more stroller. That makes a grand total of 5 strollers for 3 kids. This other stroller is a snap and go for their car seats. I’d like for it to live in the car while the boys are in their car seats. It is kind of hard to push. But I got it for free and the lady said I was the 3rd family to use it. It’s nice to not have to pull them out of their car seats to get out and walk around. However, if I need to pull one out of the car seat, I can’t push the snap and go with one hand and hold the other twin. (I can with the BOB.) Still, it works fine and when the boys grow out of it, I’ll pass it along to another family. Honestly, I haven’t been out much to actually use either stroller extensively but I hope to this summer. And of course, since the boys are in a stroller, Butterfly wants to be in hers too. That’s been fun. Good thing I haven’t gone out alone and needed a stroller. We’ll have that fight when we’re alone.
