Breaking In the New Stroller
Our new triplet stroller came in the mail on Wednesday. I spent a good bit of time on our front porch assembling it, as we just couldn’t fit it into the living room with everything else! I was so excited over it, that when my son suggested taking it for a spin on Thursday, I agreed.
Armed with a well-packed diaper bag and two insulated bottle bags full of sippy cups, we headed out the door for the day. We were feeling ambitious and had decided to try and take the triplets to see their very first movie.
I headed down to the Boardwalk to check it all out, figuring that we could see a movie and maybe even get some lunch if the triplet’s moods stay happy! I had hopes of not having as much trouble there as we do shopping indoors at Wal-mart or even the mall.
Because it was still really early, (we were shooting for an 11:30 movie) we were able to get a good parking spot right next to the elevators in the parking garage. It was looking really positive at this point!
We managed to get the kids strapped into the new stroller and everything loaded pretty quickly and found that we were even a bit earlier than I had planned. This was great, considering I had only ever been down to the Boardwalk once, when I was first pregnant with the triplets, and hadn’t any clue where anything would be.
Our first obstacle came at the movie theater. I managed to get to the movie theater and get the tickets pretty much problem free and without much question. I say this because usually we are stopped every few feet and inundated with questions about the trio (something I don’t mind, but I do have to allocate extra time when trying to get somewhere that has a time constraint!)
It was the concession stand that would be the interesting part. We don’t go to many movies, and it’s a treat for my 12 year old to get to buy things at the snack counter. He had to have a pretzel, a box of skittles and a drink. I also bought a drink and some popcorn for myself, knowing that I would be sharing with my masses.
The trouble came when we discovered that the movie sized drinks just don’t fit into our cup-holders on the stroller, which was over-laden in the first place with baby gear. I ended up balancing the pretzel and candy on top of the diaper bag which was hanging from the handle of the stroller by means of my purse to keep it from sliding down past the backseat. If we didn’t hit any bumps we would be okay.
The drinks and the enormous bag of popcorn that had started to seep butter ended up having to be split between us. I ended up having to hug the drinks in the crook of my arm so I could push the stroller while Bregon juggled the popcorn, a bunch of napkins, and sippy-cup retrieval duty (the babies think it great fun to toss cups to get people’s attention so they can play with them.)
In spite of a volley of sippy cups, we managed to very slowly find our way to the right auditorium for our movie-we had decided on “Shrek the Third” because it would please everyone. Thankfully, this particular theater had a ramp-an uphill one, but a ramp none-the less!
Next, we found ourselves standing in the middle of the theater, left with a dilemma. We could either sit in the handicap seats, and risk offending someone who was truly handicapped, or we could take the second ramp all the way down to the front of the house and risk the babies getting sensory overload by sitting on the very front row.
I made an executive decision, and decided that because there were two handicapped spots, it would be okay for us to occupy one of them, being that we really didn’t fit anywhere else. I managed to park the behemoth stroller at an angle with the front closest to me, and get the kids situated.
They seemed okay at first, overwhelmed with the huge screen and the cartoons playing on it, but still pretty jovial in spite of the new and alien surroundings. I shelled out teddy grahams to keep the peace and waited for the lights to dim.
Once the previews started, we ran into a small problem. The previews were not as kid-friendly as the movie we were there to see. We did okay through the preview for “Bratz the Movie” and “Nancy Drew,” but once “Transformers” boomed across the screen, my trio hit the ceiling.
The “Transformer’s” preview was full of fire-balls and booming sounds and it made my tiny trio cry. The volume on this particular preview was so loud that nobody else could have possibly heard them crying. Thankfully, it was soon over, and the actual movie began.
Almost immediately, Kian started chanting, “Shrek! Shrek! Shrek!” over and over again with much glee. You have to understand that he is an avid fan of the “Shrek” public service commercial about getting up and brushing your teeth and having breakfast. In some effort to try and be courteous to the rest of the audience, my eldest decided that Kian should sit in his lap so he could try and keep him quiet.
Next, Puss made his appearance on the screen and we were rewarded with Vivie screaming in true cheer-leader mode, “A Cat! A Cat! A Cat!” as if the character needed some sort of pep-talk intro to the audience. She was so excited and so happy, I didn’t have the heart to try and quiet her. Luckily, most of the audience was only about a year or two older than we are and didn’t seem bothered by it!
Overall, we did pretty well. All three babies made it through the whole movie. Of course there were times when I had two sitting in my lap, or when the boys decided they wanted their own seat until Kai got a bit too cuddly for Kian’s taste. Then I finally relented and let Kai and Vivie walk around the stroller while they watched the movie. They only had a few melt-downs and most were over the initial noise, or because they were hungry.
After the movie, we headed cruised our new ride over to Carter’s for some new jammies. We checked out the Build-A-Bear workshop, the arcade and headed over to the toy store. There we acquired two new trucks that light up and make engine noises, and a bubble machine!
All in all, it was a very pleasant outing. We didn’t have as much trouble getting around as we normally do in most shopping venues and we weren’t stopped nearly as much either. The only real problem was the heat. Even with the breeze off of the river, it was still too hot for the babies to stay comfy.
The new stroller has now been christened with juice, teddy grahams, and popcorn. The wheels are covered in dust and there is this spot on the front tray where Kai decided to try and teethe a bit. It now stands in the corner of the living room, waiting to take us on our next adventure.
Armed with a well-packed diaper bag and two insulated bottle bags full of sippy cups, we headed out the door for the day. We were feeling ambitious and had decided to try and take the triplets to see their very first movie.
I headed down to the Boardwalk to check it all out, figuring that we could see a movie and maybe even get some lunch if the triplet’s moods stay happy! I had hopes of not having as much trouble there as we do shopping indoors at Wal-mart or even the mall.
Because it was still really early, (we were shooting for an 11:30 movie) we were able to get a good parking spot right next to the elevators in the parking garage. It was looking really positive at this point!
We managed to get the kids strapped into the new stroller and everything loaded pretty quickly and found that we were even a bit earlier than I had planned. This was great, considering I had only ever been down to the Boardwalk once, when I was first pregnant with the triplets, and hadn’t any clue where anything would be.
Our first obstacle came at the movie theater. I managed to get to the movie theater and get the tickets pretty much problem free and without much question. I say this because usually we are stopped every few feet and inundated with questions about the trio (something I don’t mind, but I do have to allocate extra time when trying to get somewhere that has a time constraint!)
It was the concession stand that would be the interesting part. We don’t go to many movies, and it’s a treat for my 12 year old to get to buy things at the snack counter. He had to have a pretzel, a box of skittles and a drink. I also bought a drink and some popcorn for myself, knowing that I would be sharing with my masses.
The trouble came when we discovered that the movie sized drinks just don’t fit into our cup-holders on the stroller, which was over-laden in the first place with baby gear. I ended up balancing the pretzel and candy on top of the diaper bag which was hanging from the handle of the stroller by means of my purse to keep it from sliding down past the backseat. If we didn’t hit any bumps we would be okay.
The drinks and the enormous bag of popcorn that had started to seep butter ended up having to be split between us. I ended up having to hug the drinks in the crook of my arm so I could push the stroller while Bregon juggled the popcorn, a bunch of napkins, and sippy-cup retrieval duty (the babies think it great fun to toss cups to get people’s attention so they can play with them.)
In spite of a volley of sippy cups, we managed to very slowly find our way to the right auditorium for our movie-we had decided on “Shrek the Third” because it would please everyone. Thankfully, this particular theater had a ramp-an uphill one, but a ramp none-the less!
Next, we found ourselves standing in the middle of the theater, left with a dilemma. We could either sit in the handicap seats, and risk offending someone who was truly handicapped, or we could take the second ramp all the way down to the front of the house and risk the babies getting sensory overload by sitting on the very front row.
I made an executive decision, and decided that because there were two handicapped spots, it would be okay for us to occupy one of them, being that we really didn’t fit anywhere else. I managed to park the behemoth stroller at an angle with the front closest to me, and get the kids situated.
They seemed okay at first, overwhelmed with the huge screen and the cartoons playing on it, but still pretty jovial in spite of the new and alien surroundings. I shelled out teddy grahams to keep the peace and waited for the lights to dim.
Once the previews started, we ran into a small problem. The previews were not as kid-friendly as the movie we were there to see. We did okay through the preview for “Bratz the Movie” and “Nancy Drew,” but once “Transformers” boomed across the screen, my trio hit the ceiling.
The “Transformer’s” preview was full of fire-balls and booming sounds and it made my tiny trio cry. The volume on this particular preview was so loud that nobody else could have possibly heard them crying. Thankfully, it was soon over, and the actual movie began.
Almost immediately, Kian started chanting, “Shrek! Shrek! Shrek!” over and over again with much glee. You have to understand that he is an avid fan of the “Shrek” public service commercial about getting up and brushing your teeth and having breakfast. In some effort to try and be courteous to the rest of the audience, my eldest decided that Kian should sit in his lap so he could try and keep him quiet.
Next, Puss made his appearance on the screen and we were rewarded with Vivie screaming in true cheer-leader mode, “A Cat! A Cat! A Cat!” as if the character needed some sort of pep-talk intro to the audience. She was so excited and so happy, I didn’t have the heart to try and quiet her. Luckily, most of the audience was only about a year or two older than we are and didn’t seem bothered by it!
Overall, we did pretty well. All three babies made it through the whole movie. Of course there were times when I had two sitting in my lap, or when the boys decided they wanted their own seat until Kai got a bit too cuddly for Kian’s taste. Then I finally relented and let Kai and Vivie walk around the stroller while they watched the movie. They only had a few melt-downs and most were over the initial noise, or because they were hungry.
After the movie, we headed cruised our new ride over to Carter’s for some new jammies. We checked out the Build-A-Bear workshop, the arcade and headed over to the toy store. There we acquired two new trucks that light up and make engine noises, and a bubble machine!
All in all, it was a very pleasant outing. We didn’t have as much trouble getting around as we normally do in most shopping venues and we weren’t stopped nearly as much either. The only real problem was the heat. Even with the breeze off of the river, it was still too hot for the babies to stay comfy.
The new stroller has now been christened with juice, teddy grahams, and popcorn. The wheels are covered in dust and there is this spot on the front tray where Kai decided to try and teethe a bit. It now stands in the corner of the living room, waiting to take us on our next adventure.
Labels: boardwalk, movie, shopping, stroller handicapped, triplet
posted by Mimi Rankin Webb at 1:20 PM
Mimi is the mother of four: a 12 1/2-year-old boy and 1-year-old triplets (two boys and one girl). She is very happily busy taking care of everyone, whether it's the triplets' multiple doctor appointments, attempting a shopping excursion or volunteering to plan her son's school renaissance festival.
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