Our First Outing! (I can do this . . . )

I am now a mother of two and in a learning process as to how to manage two little people at the same time, especially when we leave the house! Well today was my baptism by fire you could say! Russ is back to work, Alyse is back from her trip up north, and Thatcher is here to stay; no time like the present! The doctor called this morning and said he wanted us to take Thatch in for another jaundice test and since they wanted the result ASAP I had to leave NOW . . . well what is a mom to do but pack up her kids and go! Easy enough right? Wrong! Alyse was throwing a bit of a fit because as luck would have it it was time to feed the baby and she has some issues with that. Well, there wasn't time to feed the baby and there wasn't time for a fit! I packed Thatcher in his car seat and gave him his 'mimi' that might tide him over it shouldn't take long to run there and back (I packed a bottle I had pumped just in case), I told Alyse is was time to go bye-bye and carried her screaming self out to the car. Both kids in the car, diaper bag in hand, let's go! As I pull out of the driveway Thatch spits out his 'mimi' and joins in his sisters crying (it was lovely!). I am pulling out of the neighborhood as I silently pray that a little music will at least calm Aly down. I stick in one of her favorite kids CD's and we are barely through the intro of "Octopus" when my prayers are heard and she stops immediately looks over at her brother in his car seat and says, "Baby sad? Baby sad mommy!" I reply with, "Yes, Aly baby is sad. Can you sing him a song to make him feel better?" She responds by singing as loudly as she can to the rest of Ocotopus and by the next song all her woes are forgotten. I may make it through this after all! We reach the instacare building and I get Aly out first, of course she refuses to walk and must be carried. I stick her on my hip and retrieve brother from the other side of the van, luckily his car seat is still light, since he only weighs 8 lbs. , even more lucky . . . they have handicap buttons on the doors and I am able to enter the building without risking a fit by putting Aly on the ground! We sign in and they put a little warmer on Thatch's foot, Alyse proceeds to FREAK OUT! I calmly try to explain to her that it is okay and that it doesn't hurt him, but nothing is working so I choose to distract her with the drinking fountain, it works! 5 minutes later they call us back and as soon as she sees the lady take off brother's foot warmer we start all over again! Luckily one of the nurses takes Aly and I around the corner to get some Dora stickers and I leave my little man to get his heel pricked and blood taken all on his own! (Now I am wishing for Russ, it feels so wrong to let my child suffer while I hide around the corner!) Alyse can hear him crying and she begins crying, whew! I had considered running to the store quickly before heading home, let's just say no longer an option! As soon as the test is complete we scurry to the car and drive straight home! Our only other outings for the day are to the park next door! I survived! Maybe I can do this yet!

Below are some pictures of our afternoon at the park! We brought out the bouncer for brother but it got more use from Aly and her baby doll, Oh well Thatcher didn't mind! (Can you believe my little man is one week old today! Time goes by too quickly!)

BTW: I must say I am grateful for the shade and the breeze otherwise we would have been stuck inside again and Aly needed OUT!