Wednesday, August 22, 2007

1st playdate

I did it, I did it. I finally got out and got social with the babies. The babies had their very first playdate at my friend Valerie's house. We used to gather like this once a week when we all just had one kid. Then everyone had more babies and the gatherings slowed down. Valerie finally had the urge to host 5 adults and ten kids. Because Valerie was having a crazy moment?

Valerie provided baked goods for the snack AND fed us lunch. This is a working mom with two kids. Come to my house and you're lucky to eat goldfish crackers off the floor.

Don't be too impressed with me getting out with the babies just yet. I had to call Britney out of the house to park my van because I can't parallel park. I especially cannot parallel park a mini van. Britney said there was enough room for two mini vans. Hello, I'm a dork!

Then Britney helped me carry the pumpkin seats into the house. I wanted to do it myself. Just to prove I could. Look at me! I can handle twins, dammit!! Eh, that went out the window when I was parked in the street and begging my friend to park my vehicle. What's a little assistance with the babies at that point?

The playdate turned out to be traumatic for little Avalon. She took one look at my friends and burst into tears. Juna just sat on the floor and tossed toys in the air. I thought he opposite would occur. When Avalon burst into tears, my friends said, "She looks just like Narnia." Yes, because Narnia is a wee bit emotional. Ahh what a shocker. What with their mother being the picture of calm and collected.

A playdate with two babies isn't much of a playdate. Because a playdate is just an excuse for the moms to socialize. With two babies, you don't socialize much. It's just the usual frantic routine, but at someone else's house. It's double the bottles, double the jars of baby food, double the diapers. It's probably more work than staying home, but it was nice to have a location change.

And here you go. Two babies in borrowed chairs at the table, eating jar food. It's an assembly line process. Bite for Avalon. Bite for Juna. Bite for Mommy. I had pizza, not jar food.
These two were across the table from me. Siblings? No. Best friends Hannah and Mason. Mason is our group's "big brother." It's mostly girls and he watches out for them. Don't they look angelic?
This is more like it.
I get a big kick out of people watching me take care of the babies, then saying, "Wow, that's a lot of work." Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes it is! My friends knew this, of course. But now they have a better understanding of why I look as worn out as I feel.

But it's wonderful. I don't care that I'm exhausted day and night. I really don't care about me right now. I've had most of my life to be self absorbed. Now I'm just soaking up the cuteness and getting lost in the experience of being a mom to these girls.

And I don't mean I'm lost in a bad way. I'm just pushing aside all the other crap that tends to ruin motherhood for many women. The worry of career, looks, weight, a sparking clean home. How do you balance them? Which comes first? When I "whatever" those issues, I enjoy parenthood so much more.

Each week my babies change so much. Last week Avalon could barely sit up without falling over. This week, she's standing up while holding onto the couch. Where last week she was barely making any noises, this week she's babbling non stop.

And Juna? Today she made her All Done hand signal and actually said, "All done." Not Ahhh duh. All done. She's starting to stand without my assistance. And she's done with baby food. We've moved to table foods and she just happily feeds herself bananas or pasta or cheese or whatever is small and soft and edible. Not avocado. Hates avocado. Or as Narnia calls it, "Guaca-Mowee." (We have a cat named Mowee.)

The babies are mimicking each other's noises and cries. Last week I could tell them apart by their cries. This week? They've learned to imitate each other. Juna and Avalon now have the same happy shriek and angry cry. I knew bio twins did that, but who knew two babies in our unique situation would too?

This is why I don't care that I haven't booked a voice gig since we got home from China. I'm getting super cool auditions. Like today's audition for a show on the Cartoon Network. Am I booking any of them? Nope. Maybe because when I audition, I just want to get it over with and get back to my babies? I play back the audio and it sounds fine. But my heart's not in it. Maybe that's why I'm not booking gigs. Oh well. Money comes and money goes. I'll make more another time. Just like I'll be thin some other time.

Yeah, and then I woke up.

I'm in Baby Land. Pardon me while I enjoy my stay.

4 comments:

meowmix said...

My first thought....why must I be so freakishly tall?? I'm only 5'10" and the shortest of all my inlaws. No wonder my kids are over the 97th percentile.

The playdate was sooo much fun, and I didn't even realize there were 10 kids there until I was telling someone about it today. They were soooooooo good! Why can't they be that good at home?

I've also given up on lots of other things besides being the mom. My house is dirty in all the places no one looks, and also in lots of noticable places. I'm resigned to the fact I'm going to gain about 30lbs by my Feb due date, and my face will rival the moon in it's roundness. Someday I'll be thin(er at least) and my house will be clean. Just not today or anytime soon.

Skywind said...

I'm happy you have a beautiful life with your girls. After all the work you went through, it's so wonderful to see you living happy. Yay!!!

Chris said...

Hi, I've been following your blog since a blog back before you went to China. I have a 4/17/07 (yes 2007! UGH) LID and love to read about your beautiful children! Makes the wait not as bad when your reminded of what it is all for. Anyway, someone posted this on one of my Yahoo groups and I thought of you right away (well, not you..LOL your daughter..LOL). http://disneyshopping.go.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/DSIProductDisplay?catalogId=10002&storeId=10051&productId=1187598&langId=-1&categoryId=13811&CMP=EMC-eml&att=20070823DSIH (you might have to paste it all together) Thanks for giving us waiting families a climpse into what we are in for!

Chris http://freddyandchris.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Hannah and Mason look like brother and sister!

-Tara, not Jonathon