The celebrity factor

Most people who have twins or more know what I'm talking about when I say that having multiples will make you famous.

To this day, I cannot take the twins anywhere without getting stopped by someone, asking if they're twins. Then when I say yes, they kind of gawk and look at me like they just realized that I'm Kate Gosselin.

I guess I can understand the novelty...omg! Two babies that are the exact same age! Yay! But I confess that I can't really get into it. I feel kinda horrible admitting this, but I get kind of crusty whenever people call attention to us. At first it was cute and I loved that people crowded around my kids. Now I zoom through the grocery store so fast that the twins must be a singular blur to the naked eye. I don't really enjoy unsolicited attention...I think I subconsciously associate it with tripping in front of a crowd or discovering that I had a piece of pizza stuck to my face throughout a meeting.

I remember last summer, we were driving through Carp and Wayne had to stop to buy a pop somewhere. When he was heading back to the car, a woman from out of nowhere exclaimed "Are those twins in the back of your car???" I told Wayne afterwards that he should have just barked "NO! F&ck off!!!" and gotten in the car, but we reasoned that it would just cause delays and lessons in public etiquette.

Oh well. I guess it's just something that happens. Just don't come and touch my kids. That's awkward and I don't want to pretend that I'm worried about them getting sick when actually I'm just freaked out about strangers touching my kids. Nothing personal.

Sidewalk hog? Hardly!

In keeping with buying affordable things, we registered for everything we needed and let everyone else pay for it. ;) I was very lucky to have been spoiled rotten at my shower. My mother LOVES to shop, so we have her, my grandmother and my aunt to thank for the car seats (Graco) and the double stroller.

Let me preface this by saying that we picked this stroller out ourselves...and I think part of it was that it looked cool. I really should have done my research beforehand, otherwise I would have gone with something else, but this was cheaper and compatible with the car seats we chose (another post in the future).

I was so looking forward to taking my little ones for strolls in that sucker, grabbing some Tim Hortons and enjoying the spoils of motherhood. When the twins were around  3 months old, I decided to do just that. I took out the Graco DuoGlider Stroller, strapped the kids into their carseats, after some maneuvering I plunked the seats into the stroller until they were secure and made my way out. Here is a pic of the stroller:

I gotta say...it's not the easiest thing to 'operate'. You see that front canopy? Once you take it off, you can't really get it back on. Those little trays aren't really needed until the babies are able to sit in the stroller without their car seats, and they are also difficult at best. We took one off when they were old enough to sit in it sans chair and were never able to get it back on.

Getting back to that first stroll, it glided along like a dream and I didn't find it terribly heavy. It turns on a dime and it even has a cup holder for your coffee. Unfortunately the Tim Hortons near my house wasn't well thought out and I couldn't get the stroller through the door (not the fault of the stroller). I walked along for maybe 45 minutes and enjoyed my pretty neighbourhood. When I got back to the house, I first took out the seat and baby that was positioned at the very front of the stroller, no problem. Then I tried to get Rayna out...it was impossible. I was almost frantic, trying to squeeze the release mechanism in the seat and pulling the seat itself. It would not budge. I was getting very angry and threw a few swears out there and had to resort to taking Rayna out of the seat and leaving it in the stroller. Even after taking her out, later on I still couldn't get the darn seat out. When Wayne came home he (of course!) effortlessly removed the seat. So if you're not the strongest person, you might have difficulty with this stroller.

After maybe 10 uses, I was taking the kids for another walk and was stopped before I could even get out of my driveway. The front wheel fell off. We had correctly assembled the stroller with what we were given and unfortunately it was missing a washer. We had to go out and buy one and fix it. Not a big deal, but I was really hoping to get out of the house that day and was already frustrated with the stroller.

I will say that it has a nice storage area at the bottom...

Eventually I was fed up with it and my sister in law happened to have a side by side stroller and was kind enough to give it to me. By far, it is much better for our needs, though it is wider....not the best thing for struttin' on the sidewalk.  I solve that problem by following common sense and etiquette: if someone is coming along on the sidewalk, I make room or I stand by so they can get by!

Babies R Us lists this item at $229.99 and it is only compatible with Graco car seats. It got a 2 out of 5 stars rating on their website, so make of that what you will.