My first solo trip out with the twins

My first solo trip out with the twins was entertaining. I had been planning what I wanted to get AW for Mother's Day for awhile. The problem was, I couldn't leave the house to shop for her without telling her what I was doing. This meant I needed to make a covert trip while she was at work...which meant I had to take the boys with me since we don't have any family in town to babysit (and we haven't established a list of approved babysitters yet, but that's a whole different story).

The first time I went to take them out, I got both of them situated in the carseats (which was still taking about 10 minutes per baby at this point), get my diaper bag (the 'manly' one, not the flowery one that AW carries) on my shoulder and pick them both up to walk out the door. No sooner did I open the door to leave (after arming the security system) then they both, at the exact same time, start to scream their heads off. Scratch that trip...

A few days later I repeat the process of getting them ready, we leave the house, get loaded into the car and drive to the jewelry store. When we get to the store I get the stroller setup and drop A in (we have the Britax Chaperone carseat/stroller system that is awesome) and then strap on my carrier (an ERGO baby carrier)

Now this isn't one of your standard mall jewelry stores where anybody and everyone drops in to browse. This is one of the more elegant (read: expensive) stores with a "higher class" of clients. Needless to say, I brought the entire store to a halt when I walked in pushing a stroller with a baby strapped to my chest. I could see the salespeople, who are normally tripping over each other to help people walking through the door, flipping a coin to determine which schmuck would have to help the poor, misguided, teenage (because apparently I look "too young to be a daddy") father. It probably didn't help that I was dressed in very casual khaki shorts and a t-shirt, but I wanted to be comfortable with the little radiator strapped to my chest.

A salesperson finally came over and was surprised to find out that I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was. I, like usual, had done lots of research online prior to visiting the actual store. There were a fair number of people in the store, with it being a few days before Mother's Day and early in the evening, so I was very happy that my boys were on their best behavior and were totally content to just sit there quietly and look around nearly the entire time we were there.

I lucked out and got the "last" of many charms for AW's bracelet. Many times the salesperson had to dig through the "overstock" hidden beneath the display boards. It surprised me that being such an expensive jeweler and always putting forth the "high class" facade that they didn't have a better inventory control system. All tolled we were there for a little over an hour and a half and AW was none the wiser to the secret trip. A few days later, when we were visiting the park on her birthday (a few days after Mother's Day), the boys and I gave her the bracelet and she loves it!

I then proceeded to tell her about our adventure and she was very impressed which made me feel great. I didn't think it was all that amazing, but looking back I realize that I accomplished quite a feat and moved into the next phase of my "dad of twins" experience. Now I take the boys out more and more frequently all by myself. It's still not easy, but I'm getting better at it each time.