Triplets & Shopping Do NOT Mesh

 Shopping is a necessary evil that must be done, triplets, or no triplets. Being that I don’t have anyone to leave them with while I go shopping, I have to take them with me.

In the beginning it was different. I didn’t have a stroller until they were five months old, which meant I had to really improvise. 

In theory, I should be able to attach the car seat/baby carrier to the buggy. To do this, I would need no less than three buggies. 

Not a good idea for someone shopping solo. It looked promising at Sams, as they had a double seat in the front of the buggy that would seat two theoretically. 

Note to self: It does NOT seat two car seats. 

I quickly found a solution that would allow me to go out and get the things I would need SANS that stroller. 

The solution was to place two of the seats (usually the boys) facing each other(so that they could entertain each other) side-ways in the container part of the shopping cart and put the other seat in another cart. 

I could have put the third seat in the front and just had one cart, but I wouldn’t have been able to see over or around the car seat and I couldn’t have bought anything which would never do! 

I would shop like this for nearly four months.Eventually, it became necessary for me to have a stroller. I had to make a trip to New Orleans to say good-bye to my Grandfather and I would be going places that did not have shopping carts. 


I had many people looking out for me and one Saturday a friend of a friend who was out garage sale-ing ran across a triplet stroller. 


What luck! I threw on clothes and ran over to buy it sight unseen. Luckily it was in great condition and came with much triplet advice from the triplet mom who sold it to me. 


She gave me a very important piece of advice: Push the stroller, pull the buggy. I felt like Ralph Machio from “The Karate Kid” learning from Mr. Miagi. 


Little did I know that advice would take me very far both figuratively AND literally! It’s not easy pushing something so long and heavy and maneuvering through the angry mob shopping at Wal-mart. 


It takes a lot of coordination and patience to get anywhere with my “Limo” as I affectionately call the stroller; even more-so when I am pulling that buggy along as well. 


People defiantly take notice of us, that’s for certain. I have to be very careful when I go shopping to only buy what will fit into the trunk of my car along with the stroller. 


I know that the stroller doesn’t fit all the way into the trunk of my car(yes I still drive a sedan) and that the trunk must be bungee-ed shut.

I did once forget what I was doing and had a major issue when I had to buy a new TV set and get it home in one piece. 


You cant just leave the babies or your 12 year old in the parking lot while you run the TV home. Luckily, I drive around with a trunk full of various sized bungee cords so I was able to puzzle piece everything into the trunk and literally bungee the TV balanced precariously in the trunk next to the stroller and still get all four kids and the grocery’s home in one piece. 


Now, that was scary!

I have other issues that come up while shopping. I don’t recall having the same problems shopping when I had just one baby. 


One weekend, for example, I made the mistake of running to the Bossier Wal-mart to pick up some baby veggies and Shrek Triplet beanie baby’s (yes they were on my list too!) 


People who shop that Wal-mart are just not used to something like us, I guess. People were running their buggy’s into my stroller which really can hurt my baby’s. 


I can’t really maneuver out of their way like they expect me to because the stroller is so incredibly long plus I am dragging a shopping cart behind us. 


My only recourse is to ask them to please not run into my stroller, something that they apparently find an outlandish request or rude. I honestly don’t know what else to say really. 


If I try and move the stroller sideways, I run the risk of it tipping over which I figure is worse than the buggy impact. This sort of commando shopping behavior really frightens my kids. 


Kian cried when someone decided to back into him on the veggie aisle and that man almost sat on him it was so bad. 


The man in question actually glared at my 1 year old for daring cry in his presence. I haven’t ever had someone almost sit on them before. 


It wasn’t just an isolated incident either was the scary thing. This sort of thing continued to happen the entire Wal-mart run that day. 


The kids were so upset by the run-ins that they were crying by the time I got them to the check-out line. I was only in there for about 30 minutes, but it was 30 minutes too long! 


The funny thing is, I don’t have this problem at the Youree drive area Wal-mart. 


I don’t even have that problem at the mall where the department store racks are so close together that its nearly impossible to shop anywhere but from the main walk-ways. 


I suppose I should just be thankful that I can go out and do these errands all by myself. The struggle IS REAL!

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

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Breakfast In Bed

 Mornings are very peaceful at my house. Each day I wake up to breakfast in bed. Not you’re usual breakfast mind you, but one for my triplets.

My husband gets up for the day and turns on the baby monitor so he can listen for the baby’s to wake up while he gets ready for work each day.

Once he hears them begin to stir, he makes their bottles for them and brings them to me in bed.

Next, he will deliver my daughter to me for her morning bottle while he picks up both of the boys and lays them side by side on the bed.

They usually will all lie in bed with me together and have their bottles while we change them and cuddle and play with them.

It’s really the most peaceful way to start off a day. After they eat, the baby’s will sit there and play with each other while they wait their turn to be burped.

This is the time when they will usually say and do the silliest things. Each day brings new baby tricks!

Kian usually starts his day saying, “I get up! I get up! I got up!” This is something my tiny couch potato picked up from an early “Shrek” promotion commercial about good habits.

Kai once actually told me not to call him by a pet name, saying, “Not Doodles, Kai!” Now he has decided to create a persona for himself and prefers to be addressed as “The Dude, Doodles!”

Kian replied to this by accidentally banging his head on the headboard of the bed while nodding his head up and down in agreement (he now addresses his brother in this way.)

This led Kai to say, “He can’t help it!” while shaking his head side to side as if to say, “How silly!”

It was one of these mornings that found Vivienne frantic for her bottle, but when my husband picked her up to feed her, she wouldn’t eat.

Because the boy’s were hungry too and needed some cuddling, he put her down in between us and turned to pick up Kai.

She had this look of total shock on her tiny, beautiful face as she gasped and said, “Bad Daddy!”

My husband laughed so hard he almost fell off the bed. My triplets really have turned me into a morning person with our breakfast in bed ritual!

Originally published TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2007

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

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Oh the Things People Say and Do!

 As a triplet mom, I hear all sorts of things being said both to us as a family and about us as we go about our daily lives. People always are surprised to see me out shopping with my baby’s or going to the doctor by ourselves.

I know we must be quite a site to see. Our stroller seats three, one behind the other and has foot rests for each baby. It is very, very long. So long, that I call it our limo.

It doesn’t drive well for a stroller; however strollers rarely do drive well. Complete with our diaper bag and bottle bags for three and my purse and adorned with three sippy cups hung over the sides of each compartment, we must appear quite a site.

We stop traffic, that’s for certain. Whether it is grocery shopping at Brookshire’s for our 97 cans of formula or shopping at Sam’s for our case of diapers and wipes, you can be assured of seeing quite a spectacle when I push that limo sized stroller loaded full of baby’s and pull that shopping cart.

People react in many different ways. Some just stare at us, while others will talk about us as if we can’t hear them. Then there are those who will stop us and ask questions. I don’t mind talking to people about my baby’s. It doesn’t bother me if they are pleasant and kind.

Some people ask about the baby’s names. Other’s ask their birth weight, or if I was on fertility when they were conceived, and the usual “How old are they” and “How much did they weigh when they were born?”

I don’t mind the general questions, but the fertility question is really much too personal and really border-line rude. It’s almost like asking if a man is that baby’s father or if that baby is adopted.

Then there are the people who just make comments. I like to think that they are just awkward and don’t know what to say. I really hope that’s the case. These types of people say things like, “Better you than me,” or “Triplets?”

Then there is,”I’m sorry.” I can tell you right off that I am not sorry in the least. These are my children, folks, not lesions caused by a plague, and let me tell you, it is NOT catchy!

Another thing people will say is, “You’re hands must be full.” To this, I always reply, “Very happily full!” Then there is the old, “You must have a lot of help.” Actually, I don’t, something that appears to shock most people, including other mother’s who have multiples.

I always figured that I didn’t deserve my triplets if I couldn’t take care of them myself. I would like to be one of those moms that you see out with their mothers or mother-in-law, however I am just not that mom.  It simply was never in the cards for me and I'm good with that.

You see, my mother died the month before my 12 year old was born and both of my grandmothers died the very next year. My mother-in-law died when Bregon was three. I did have a sort of step-mother-in-law for lack of a better term, however, she lived 45 minutes away and had many, many other grandchildren of her own that she ALSO must be grandmumsy to.

Ultimately, she, too, ended up leaving long before my children turned 4 and they barely even remember her save for the one time she came to take us all for dinner several years ago.

I don’t mind not having help, but it does sadden me when people assume that I must have some.  OR they actually look at me as if there is something wrong with me for doing this all by myself. I like to think or rather hope that they mean well, but sometimes I get the idea that they do not.

It’s really hard to stop and be nice to all of these people and still remember what it is that I was out to buy in the first place, or where it was exactly that I was headed to before they stopped me. I do try very hard to be pleasant and smile and at least try and answer some of their questions as nicely as I can muster, even though it’s most difficult when the children are sad, hungry, or crying and need my attention.

It seems that someone almost always wants to talk when I need to be helping my babies. The strangest person I have come across while shopping actually sped up her walking in the grocery store to physically block me from turning down an aisle that I was in the process of heading down.

This lady literally swung her cart around and blocked the end of the aisle with her buggy and jumped in front of it, heels clicking on the floor and all, just to stop me and strike up a conversation about my triplets as if they were THE MOST interesting  infants she had ever laid eyes on.

I was just as surprised as the ladies who had also been trying to exit that particular aisle and who found themselves also being blocked by the very same person! She actually said that she figured I wouldn’t talk to her if she didn’t block me like that.

I told her that in the future it would be pleasant perhaps if she were to try giving me the benefit of the doubt.

I get all sorts of strange reactions from people while out and about. I try to learn from what they say and do, though. I really have learned to stop and think before I say something to  another Mom  about her newborn or baby.

I know that while I may mean well, ya just never know how what I say may be taken and I would HATE for a fellow Mom to misunderstand and not take something the way that it was meant!

After all:  we're THE MOMMIES and we are ALL In this together!!!

Originally published TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

HTTP://MIMIRANKINWEBB.BRANDYOURSELF.COM/