How we go

We received a double stroller as a gift from some very generous friends before the girls were born.  We've used it often but only for Hank with his stuffed monkey companion in the other seat.  Until now, a stroller walk with all three kids required two adults and two strollers.  The girls have been riding around in the bassinet of our other stroller.  Well, the girls are almost too big to go in the bassinet together so it was time to try out the double stroller for real.  (We have an UppaBaby Vista stroller that in theory could hold one baby in a car seat plus Hank but every time we have tried it Hank goes B-A-N-A-N-A-S at having his view blocked by the baby car seat, and I don't blame him, so we are not going to use that stroller in that configuration.  Perhaps when the girls are big enough to go in the bigger seat of the Vista we will try it again.)  This photo is from the first adventure with two kids in the side-by-side stroller.  Ruby and Hank rode in the stroller and I wore Charlotte in the moby wrap.  It was a fun outing and I think Ruby loved being able to see the world around her and then she dozed off for a nice nap.

After making a stop to play at the park, Hank got to walk with Brett for a while instead of getting back in the stroller. 

Ruby enjoying her new ride.

The next outing, we let Charlotte ride with Hank and I wore Ruby.  Charlotte liked the stroller too.

All this was a practice run to see how Hank would do with a sister sitting next to him instead of a stuffed animal.  We've done this quite a few times and it works pretty well.  Last week I took all three kids out on walks by myself.  It is really hard to push two kids and carry one.  It felt like I was pregnant with twins again!  I also realized I need to start working out again.  But that's a different topic and oh yeah I need to find time! 

On the last walk he gave Charlotte quite a few non-gentle taps and it was a wee bit stressful for me.  Now if I can only get Hank to leave his little sisters alone for the entire walk then I might be more inclined to do this every morning. 

(Oh and I've done the whole just put the girls in the stroller and let Hank walk thing - that ended with Hank running away from me and crossing a street by himself, even though he had never done that before and he gets to walk with us all the time.  I had to leave the girls parked on the sidewalk and run down the street after him.  That was not fun and I was panicking and I don't think I can do that again for a while.  Plus I looked like a real big nutcase yelling and running down the street.)

My sister Courtney is coming in town today so I'll rope her into helping.  It's going to be a fun three day weekend!

-a