Cookies for the firefighters

Hi friends and family,

There are two terms I should define right off the bat to correctly frame the blog about today.

Daddy Day Care - Some portion of a day dedicated to taking care of the twins alone.
Mr. Mom - Full management of the house and the twins for an extended period of time without Kendra.

Today was a "Mr. Mom" day and I did a smashingly good job, if I do say so myself. Kendra took the full day off to enjoy a relaxing, fun time with her friend April. She planned to wake up this morning and spend the first couple of hours at home, but "off duty" as a mom. However, she still jumped into the middle of breakfast as if it were an involuntary reaction. She put on their bibs, poured cereal, and doled out blackberries. I certainly wasn't going to tell her "no helping", but I found it amusing she had to really fight off helpful desires as she prepared for the "staycaction".

The timing of our weekend plans was perfect because after working so hard the past week I had lots of lost time to make up for with Easton and Layla. Here's the short summary of our day:

park
swim
firehouse
homemade lunch
nap
Best Buy
homemade dinner
snow-cones
bath, books, bed

Not bad for one day's worth of fun, right? After Kendra left it took me over an hour to get them dressed and ready to leave. I'm not setting any records at that pace, but knew we had a long day ahead of us. Speaking of records... Today I set a record which gives me NO sense of pride or accomplishment. I changed FIVE dirty diapers in 10 hours. That's ridiculous. Can anyone top that or should we call the Guinness book of world records? I do my best to avoid fecal discussions in the blog, but my expectations were missed by a mile in that department today.

Anyway, I slathered on sunscreen so thick it looked like the twins had mud masks. Layla's feet are starting to get the Arizona-foot-tan where the sandal straps create tan lines across your feet. On the way to the park I called Jason who met us over there to join in the fun. As soon as we arrived Easton and Layla both introduced themselves to all the kids in the playground area. Easton sat down under the slide to dig a castle and ended up with six kids hanging out with him attempting to build a sand castle with bone-dry sand. I wasn't about to go find a source of water because of the mess it makes in the car when it's all said and done. Instead they scooped and poured pretending the mound of sand is a castle.


Layla found a girl named Katie who is close to her age. She overzealously bossed Katie around ordering her to follow her and hurry up.


Poor Katie didn't stand a chance to keep up with Layla who ran around the playground as though she were testing in the military for field duty. She scaled the rock wall with ease.


They had a good time together until Jason showed up with his two kids. From then on it was the Layla and Layla show. Our Layla felt the need to accomplish everything her friend did including swinging on the "big girl" swing. I think this is her first time to go solo in the big swing. Although she was a little hesitant, I believe she made the switch away from the baby swings and won't want to do those anymore.


After getting overheated and sweaty at the park we drove across the street to Jason's in-laws house and swam in their pool. I managed Easton and Layla in the pool with no floatation device on either of them. Not by choice, but because I didn't bring the floaties with me in the swim bag. They love swimming so much it was hard to convince them to get out of the pool without persuasion. After drying off they asked for snacks because running around the park and swimming put their appetite in overdrive.


We went home and ate mac-n-cheese, fruits, and yogurt. Any meal which involves opening a can or turning on the stove is "homemade" in my book.

With just enough time before nap I loaded up the Pilot and drove to the firehouse for a tour. Kendra made two bags of homemade chocolate chip cookies because I've been planning for the past week to bring treats to the firemen. I made a point to set the stage throughout the week by telling Easton and Layla repeatedly how we were going to give the cookies as a present to the firemen to show our appreciation to them and honor them. It is important to me for the twins to be respectful of local law enforcement and fire and rescue.

We knocked on the door and Easton piped up first saying, "Hi fire man! My name is Easton." Then Layla jumped in singing the "happy birthday" song. In hind sight, her only connection with giving presents is in relation to birthday parties. so when i told her we were going to give the cookies to the firefighters as a present she assumed it was for a birthday. The firemen all looked around at each other trying to figure out who's birthday it was. I was laughing so hard it took me a minute to explain Layla's misperception. They graciously took the cookies and one of the guys took us outside to see the truck.

The fireman asked who wants to get inside the truck and Easton took a few steps back saying, "I don't wike it". Layla said, "OK!"


As the fireman showed us around each compartment of the truck Easton and Layla were both amazed to see and touch the real equipment. Our tour guide, Craig, was kind enough to sit by them and get a picture. Easton's face says it all. The twins were overwhelmed with joy about the exciting experience.


The fireman turned on the lights and I could tell their brains were working overtime to take in what they saw.


This was the highlight of the day for me and the twins. By the way, it was FREE and I'm all for awesome experiences which don't cost anything. After we arrived home and read books for 10 minutes they were practically begging to take a nap. Mission accomplished!

After nap time we went to Best Buy and other errands. I realized the double stroller we have is no longer a valid way to take the twins anywhere. Maybe if it were a tandem style they wouldn't have the opportunity to bug each other? They argued and poked each other the entire time through the store. This turned out to be the most difficult part of the day.

Layla refuses to wear the puppy leash anymore so we are left with no other option than shopping carts. This presents a huge problem when it comes to one parent with two kids. They aren't old enough to wander around by themselves or abide by instructions like, "don't touch ANYTHING and stay next to me." That kind of thing goes in one ear and out the other. The only thing they ARE old enough to do is fall out of the shopping cart if we were to let one of them sit in the seat and the other sit in the main part.

I was happy to have Jason and his kids over for dinner. Kendra had everything prepared for me ahead of time and all I had to do was follow the instructions. Viola! homemade manicotti and garlic bread. She completely set me up for success today and I'm very grateful for her efforts to help things go smooth at home for me.

The only money spent during my full day of Mr. Mom duties was at the Snow-cone store. With 90 minutes between dinner and bed time I decided it was easier to go through the difficulty of getting the twins out of the house again than it was to entertain them at home.

Easton and Layla went calmly to bed after the bath and books routine. The day couldn't have gone any better if I wrote it out in a script. Hooray for mommy's massage, movie, dining out all day experience!