Chinese dragon

I headed to Target on Wednesday with the boys and took a spin through the toy section, thinking, “I am Good Mom and am going to find a toy – one that doesn’t talk or need batteries in any way – that stimulates and excites my kids.” The toy of choice (mine – not the boys’) was a 6 foot long Thomas the Train or Tank Engine or whatever he is crawl-through tunnel.

They won’t go near it. Maybe they think it’s a toddler-eating snake that never closes its mouth, just waiting to gobble them up. Or maybe they think it’s an Alice in Wonderland deal – they think there’s a chance they could get sucked into some netherworld acid trip like Alice did. Or maybe they just want to sit back and see what kind of idiots their parents will make of themselves trying to show how wildly fun crawling through the tunnel is. Though it probably makes their fear worse because when we crawl through it, it flops around and shakes so much that the toddler-eating snake actually looks more like a Chinese dragon in a Chinese New Year parade – all writhing and partially airborne. I guess it’s no wonder they don’t want anything to do with it. I’m kind of creeped out by Chinese dragons, too.

Our double-stroller has gradually gotten harder and harder to maneuver and this morning Dave took the wheels off, cleaned them and WD-40’d them thoroughly. And I’m actually excited about this. I can’t wait to test it out and wheel around Walmart like it’s a race-track. Sad, huh?

My mom had some minor surgery this week and I’m going to visit her this weekend. Twenty-four whole hours of just me – no kids or husband. The last 2 years have been such a whirlwind of life changes for me, resulting in me rarely having alone time. Since my whole life used to be me-time that has been the hardest adjustment to bringing home my two boys and getting married in less than 10 months. So now I’m going to get some time by myself. In theory, it sounds great. We’ll see how it goes.

I found some pumpkin patches that are open today that I’ve thought about taking the boys to, but I don’t want to end up paying for an expensive 20-minute walk. Though what’s a few bucks when I’ve got my ‘new’ stroller to test out? Walmart shmalmart. I’ll take it on a real test drive.