Shoe Shopping & Mayhem

Ever wonder what a long day, no nap, two tired babies and a crowded mall can cause? Well, let me tell you. Over the weekend, I decided to take the girls down to see my Mom and made plans that we would all go over to the local mall to find gym shoes for the girls. As the warmer months have faded away, it has occurred to me that sandals won't cut it anymore. (The sandals with socks look is cool, you know?) Especially sandals that are too small.

So after a long morning of trying to get all of us out the door, we finally got down to the Mom's who lives over an hour away. By now it was afternoon and normally the girls take an afternoon nap, but because I was on a mission to find gym shoes, I decided to give them a reprieve from taking their nap and we would just go without one.

Before we were able to leave Mom's for the mall, my brother stopped by and so we all caught up which was really nice and the girls were acting cute for him, so it was an enjoyable time. When he headed out, we realized it was dinner time, so Mom, the girls and me went to a restaurant at the mall.

Let me stop the play-by-play of our Saturday to put a point to all of this. I had a specific mission to accomplish on Saturday - Operation: Get shoes. There were many things that came up that could have prevented this from happening, but I was determined. I failed to see the glazed look in my girls' eyes that they had had enough and that shoe shopping really needed to be done another day. But the whole point of venturing out was for this purpose! It had to be done, right?

Right?

Back to our Saturday: Well, we finished our dinner. (The girls guzzled their milk and ate very little of their dinner. This is another sign my babies are tired. Lack of appetite.) Did it discourage me? Nope.

We ventured into the mall and ran into a store to return something and had to wait in line there. (Could this have been done another day? Yes, but it was right by the restaurant! C'mon, people, give me a break!) As we waited, the girls got squirmy in their stroller and cried to be taken out. So, Mom & I caved because they were getting louder and louder and the other people waiting in line didn't need tired, ticked off babies in stereo.

Finally, we were on our way to Children's Place to find shoes. I had gift certificates, so this was going to be a cheap transaction. After getting lost trying to find the store (still holding Jelly Bean as I push an empty stroller while Mom and Peanut were trailing behind us because Peanut wanted to walk and she is so slow. I mean, how dare her and her short legs, why can't she walk FASTER??) We walk into the store to find no shoes.

...they only sell shoes online, PEOPLE!

I calmly load the babies back into the stroller because my arms are quivering from holding Jelly Bean so long and Mom looks tired, when the girls stage a revolt in the middle of The Place. We leave as quickly as possible and now I am gone from determined to obsessed.

What would a good mother do at this point? She would have said sweetly, "We will do this another day. It is getting late and the girls need to go to bed."

What does a psychotic twinmama say? "I spent hours getting the girls and myself ready to come to the mall, we have rare help with us (Thanks, Mom!), we are already here and who knows when I will have the nerve to do this again, we are getting SHOES!"

We make a beeline for the Stride Rite store (which I realize would have been many people's first choice if you are at the mall, but remember I had gift certificates to The Place.)

Two associates greeted us and one of the ladies started measuring feet which apparently is very painful to babies. Having to stand on a foot measuring device and hold still is simply torture for 20 month olds. But after some coaxing, (yeah, coaxing, that's it!), we had our shoe sizes and the associate brought out different selection of shoes.

First we fit Jelly Bean. We let her walk around to make sure they fit and they looked good. Mom was holding Peanut, so I took Peanut and we put another pair of shoes on her. In the meantime, Jelly Bean had climbed back into my lap. I put Peanut on the floor so she could walk around and she looked down and pointed, "Shoes." Then she walked over to the floor mirror inspecting them. I thought this was cute. Then she decided to turn around and run out of the store. I didn't think this was cute.

My Mom took off after Peanut as I was still holding Jelly Bean. I got up to run after them, too, until I realized my Mom had stumbled. I thought at one point, she was going to catch herself, but then across the aisles of shoes, I see my Mom do a slow motion fall right out into the middle of the mall. Next thing I heard was Peanut screaming. Feeling helpless, I thrust Jelly Bean in the sales associates arms, so I could go help and ran to find my Mom and Peanut both laying on the mall floor. I called to my Mom as I picked up screaming Peanut. She started to get up and I helped her up while inspecting Peanut for bumps and cuts. Mom had hit her mouth on the way down, but fortunately was okay. Peanut had a bump on the forehead, but was physically okay.

We all walked back into the store and I see Jelly Bean wide eyed, but relaxed playing with the sales associate's name badge. I look at the lady and say, "We will take them."

So, to wrap up the point on this post is this: In the twin world, there are a lot of inconveniences. It is much more logistically involved to get your babies from point A to point B and it can ware on us twinmamas and twindadas. When things need to get done, keep them simple and do one or two a day. Don't become obsessive about it because who knows what will happen. Twingrandmas will fall, babies will have nervous break downs and twinmamas will spend $80 on two pairs of shoes.