Solidarity Sister

I feel a little closer to all the ladies of the world today. The reason ? The Mrs. and I took a weekend shopping trip to Target and persons of the opposite sex were constantly staring at my chest and talking to my chest. Girls of all ages including a 4 year old in pig tails and a group of octogenarians would see my chest and a friendly grin would appear on their faces. Even the occasional man took a peek.

Okay, so it wasn't quite the same as the typical female experience. My audience at Target was actually staring at the baby strapped to my chest. You hear a lot of hype about baby carriers, and that hype is totally true. We heard good things about the Baby Bjorn carriers before the terrible twosome came, but we weren't quite ready to spend $90 each for two of them. Fortunately The Mrs. went to a consignment sale in Franklin back in February and managed to find two of them on the cheap. At the time I was pretty ambivalent about it, but I've discovered how much the babies like them.

The first several times we used the carriers, the wonder twins faced inward toward the person wearing them. But Saturday we decided they had enough head control to be able to turn around and face the world. When they were inward facing they mostly just slept, but now that they're turned around they enjoy scoping things out. Luke likes to check out the ladies and give them his biggest smile and a wink. My son is quite the lady killer apparently. Unfortunately he'll probably grow out of it if genetics are any indicator. Leia just enjoyed the show. Every time something interesting came into view I would hear a little exclamation out of her and see those arms start waving. The breeze as we walked through the parking lot was a realy eye opener.

It was our first time taking them out in public together, and it was quite an eye opener. You could watch the smiles ripple out as we walked through the store. I'm positive that the effect was much greater just because we had twins. Most people just looked and smiled, there weren't as many people stopping to talk to us as I expected.

It was pretty weird on several levels. I'm not used to having so many women, young and old, smile at me. And whenever one of them came over to talk to us, they either looked at my chest or spoke to The Mrs. I was just the conveyance. But I did enjoy the chance to show off my kids.

When Mommy Ain't Around Part 1

Today I'm starting what I expect to be a recurring feature around this ole blog. I call it 'When Mommy Ain't Around'. It's what happens when you bring together the combination of two helpless models to exploit, a digital camera, my bored brain, and a lack of motherly supervision. So without further explanation......

We have so many babies around here we have to stack them.

Leia shows Luke that sometimes fifth wave feminism means a boy has to take a knuckle sandwich.

Not entirely true since certain babies were born IN JANUARY.

A solid 22 hours of sleep is elusive when you live with babies.

The Feeling of Impending Doom

For the first three months of being parents, neither The Mrs. or I were actually alone with both of them at the same time. Sure one or the other of us would be alone in the room with them, but there was always backup downstairs or at the other end of the baby monitor just in case things got out of hand. We have both proved we can take care of them on our own one at a time. Several times she would take one with her to run errands while I stayed home with other, but neither of us stepped up for the double team.

Last week that changed. The safety net went away and The Mrs. was solo parent all day while I was at work. She's been handling it pretty well. When I get home from work their's dirty laundry and bottles everywhere, and she is itching to get out of the house for awhile, but the terrible twosome are fed, clean, and reasonably happy. A definite success story.

But now it's my turn. The Mrs. has an appointment to keep this afternoon and I have to step up to the plate. The terrible twosome aren't mobile yet, so I don't expect it to be quite as exciting as Sarcastro's experience, but I do expect lots of crying and cursing. On the plus side, no one will be there to stop me from taking the kind of pictures I can use to embarrass the wonder twins during their teen years. (I like to plan ahead.)

The neighbors must be watching Jaws, because that music is really loud.......

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Bananna?

Today's post title is an homage to Hutch. Both for his awesome post titles and feelings about orange.

Every Friday everyone at TDOT gets an email from the Commissioner. They're written by different people on the executive staff and they're meant to inform us about what some portion of TDOT does, or current events related to the department. Last Friday's was about safety in highway work zones. Apparently this week is Work Zone Awareness Week. Lots of states are banding together to remind all you customers not to run over highway workers. There were a few interesting statistics included, but I found one thing especially interesting.

The Capital building is going to be lit in orange every night this week just like all those lovely orange barrels you see on a construction site. I seriously wonder if any of the other states observing Work Zone Awareness week are doing something like that, or if it only got approved here because construction barrels share a common color with a certain particular university that shall go un-named.

I'd love to see this myself, but I don't think I'll be making it back downtown while it's dark. So someone please ask Chris Wage and his trusty camera to drop by for me.