Love Stinks

In parenthood there comes those defining moments where you think, I know I said I'd never do this, but I don't think I really have a choice.  Chris and I pride ourselves on being mobile with our babies.  We even ventured to Vancouver and Seattle last month with the babies.  It was A LOT OF WORK, but well worth it to make sure that Molly and Jack got to meet their great grandmother C who turns 97 this December.  I would be so bold as to say that I would not recommend a two week trip with twin 9 month old babies unless it is for a VERY GOOD reason because while fun exhausting it's tough to get a break.  This trip was chocked full of a lot of those defining moments.

My first moment happened at the baggage claims in Vancouver International Airport.  The flight went really well, the kids fussed for about 15 minutes combined and Chris even got the only empty seat on the plane right beside him.*  We even landed early, and then the baggage carousel broke.  So we stood there for close to an hour before I sent Chris off to arrange for our car rental while I collected the baggage.  The minions were only a little bit cranky** and were quietly entertained by me shaking this plastic elephant maraca singing "This Old Man" until our baggage finally arrived.  I managed to swing it onto our cart, but then we had to await Chris's return.  There was no way I could handle taking two umbrella strollers and a cart full of baggage across the airport to the car rental kiosk solo.

These are the complete set of animal maracas.  The monkey is logically holding a banana, but for some reason this elephant doesn't like peanuts and is enjoying a cookie. Perhaps he has a nut allergy or didn't want to sit in the peanut butter lunch room all by himself.

I tucked us into a corner and patiently impatiently waited for Chris.  After about 10 minutes a foul odor began to waft up from both strollers.  Two sets of eyes looked up at me and started to well up.  I was face to face with two DD diapers.*** There were no bathrooms anywhere near our meeting spot and I couldn't abandon all of our luggage and risk missing Chris's return.

I ducked in behind an old abandoned ticket kiosk, stripped down the babies one at a time and took care of the diapers quickly and quietly while a hundred people awaited their luggage less than 20 feet away.  I had always sworn that I would never be one of those parents who would change a child's diaper in public.  I was clearly deluded.  This was the beginning of many diaper violations the entire trip and beyond.****

After Changing Babies:
-on a pile of paper towels on the floor of a Starbucks washroom.
-on a sink counter in a restaurant that deemed itself "family friendly", yet had no change station.
-on the floor of the basement of a funeral home.
-in the parking lot of a Rona
-at the trailhead of a hike, beside the outhouses,  while Chris berated Molly and I simultaneously while changing her diaper, "Where did you get those pine cones, stop eating them, this is so unsanitary!"

I've decided that if you want to take your babies out in public you aren't always going to get the ideal place to change a diaper, sometimes you just have to make due and sometimes you're going to have to bend your rules.  Chris is slower to come around to my necessity driven revised view on changing diapers in public.

*I am convinced that this was good Karma as a result of volunteering to be in charge of Miss Molly for the flight.
**While I was furious having been at airports or on planes for almost 10 hours by this point.
***Double Diarrhea
****Even in extreme emergencies we have managed to refrain from being those people who change a diaper in the middle of a restaurant.