Bumps and Bruises

November 10, 2014 by
At our gym class the other day, one of the teachers, Steve, told me he was so impressed with how calm and collected I seemed with the twins. I thought that was hilarious considering I constantly feel frazzled and like I’m on Terror Alert: Elevated keeping track of S and A.  
However, I will say I’ve come a long way as far as not trying to control their every move. It’s not uncommon for the girls to fall down or go down the slide a little too fast at the park, bumping a knee or forehead along the way. When this happens, I’ll hear audible gasps or “Are you ok?” from all the moms there–all the moms, except for me. 
I’ve taken a tip from Jake’s parenting style that when the girls fall down, I’m calm and non-reactive, simply helping them up if they need it.  Nine times out of ten, the girls are fine and not a tear is shed. Those times the tears do come, I’ll kiss their boo boos better, and they’ll usually be up and at it again within a few minutes. It’s out of necessity that I don’t helicopter around them or flip out over bumps and falls…I can’t be in two places at once!
After music class, the girls love to run around in circles on this raised cement mini sidewalk. A few old ladies coming out of the community center were having heart attacks that S and A were going to fall (12 inches) and hurt themselves. I consider this my time to sit back and enjoy the fact that the girls are entertaining themselves. 
We had a few bumps and bruises, but nothing that the girls couldn’t handle. They usually just get back up, brush themselves off and go at it again. 
At some point, Amelia decided to crawl around the circle like a dog and Samantha followed suit. Major scrape-age alert. 
Others often comment about how tough the girls are. Powder puff/hockey here we come. 
The swings are my favorite activity at the park because there’s virtually no way the girls could hurt themselves…except when they try and climb out or run behind sister who’s swinging full speed. 

The many varieties of sliding: feet first, on their tummies, head first, on their backs, and every which way in between.

              

Sometimes S and A fall off these ride-on toys into the sand. The other day, I had just lathered Samantha’s face, legs and arms up with sunscreen. She fell off the horsey, flat on her face.  She didn’t cry as she got up crying, but was visibly uncomfortable as she had a face, arms and legs covered in sand, which was sticking to the sunscreen like glitter on glue. That’s one of those “I wish I hadn’t left my camera in the stroller” moments.

The bridge at this particular park is the one thing that gives me an anxiety attack every time. It’s super slippery and of course, S and A feel the need to run 90 mph up and down it. They’ve been known to flip over these bars a few times too.

Samantha has fallen off this more than once. And yet she still loves it!

Even sand is not completely toddler proof. We are working on teaching the girls not to throw sand (why is this such a “thing at this age?).

Dumping sand all over mommy’s shoes. Because scooping sand into buckets is for babies.

There are a few parks I usually don’t take them to, mainly because they are too close to roads and the girls (particularly Samantha) run FAST. Amelia is pretty good at stopping in her tracks when I say “STOP!” but Samantha usually just turns around, grins, and starts running faster. This is a fun game, mommy!
Lots of love, 
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