Playtime at the Park

For the past two days, the weather here in Boston has been right around 70! It has been beautiful so the girls and I have spent the last two afternoons at our favorite park in Somerville. Yesterday I met a woman with twin boys the same age as Sophie and Olivia. She and I chatted for a bit while the kiddos played near each other. She was at the park this afternoon as well and it was nice to have a friendly face to recognize on the playground--or anywhere in this strange city, for that matter. 


The girls' activity of choice for yesterday consisted of pushing/riding one of the little carts that they keep at the park for kids to share...and by pushing and riding, I mean that Olivia was pushing while Sophie was riding! It was adorable and hilarious!

Today's adventure in the park was a special treat for all of us since Matt was able to join us for our afternoon outing. We snapped a few photos with our iPhones to show how our afternoon played out:

Thanks to Nana who sent the girls special Valentine's Day sweatshirts!

Sophie loves the ride down

And wants to get right back on!

They played with the colored rings for a while and Matt stood on one side, me on the other, to make sure they didn't fall anywhere! This playground is great for little kids, but mine are still on the little-little side in terms of being a good size to handle the equipment.

She wanted to stay and play...

...until suddenly she didn't anymore.

They had a lot of dirt in their shoes from playing with the sand...and we all know how Mommy feels about that. They wanted to take their shoes off so I said "ok" because we were in Daddy's car!

The girls love being in the car and car rides usually produce some pretty silly sounds or faces from the backseat. In this case, we were treated to both!

"Sophie, what does an elephant say?"

"Sophie, what does a monkey say?"

"Sophie, what does a lion say?"

"Sophie, what does a wolf say?"

We love trips to the park! We take along a snack and drink in the diaper bag, and the girls get time to just let loose (although they never wander far off) and Mommy gets to sit and take it all in. Fun times!

Bursting the Beautiful Belly Bubble

When I was pregnant, I was told that my body would do amazing things--then the stretch marks came! Eeeek! While this sudden burst of epidermal expansion should have made me feel excited, I was slightly bereaved at my belly that would be no-more. The "battle scars" that arrived during my third trimester did indeed put me at war with myself. I felt like I should be in awe of how my body was adapting to its task of carrying twins but was instead filled with dismay at the ugliness that would remain once my truly beautiful babies had been born. I battled with this vanity, and still do, as the longing for my teenaged tummy sets in every now and then. 


While I still doubt a thorough benevolence with my post-baby belly will ever be reached, I discovered an article last week that made me feel okay with not feeling okay. As I was perusing through Yahoo! news, I stumbled across a link to a piece on the Huffington Post by Jill Smokler, a blogger, a mother, and fellow stretch-mark hater! 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jill-smokler/a-mothers-body_b_1274769.html


Her description of the non-trophies that were accepted consequences to carrying a child (or two or three) hit the nail right on the head for me. To those women who are loud-and-proud of your stretch marks, my hat's off to you. I do admire your positive attitude and willingness to embrace yourself as-is. I feel though, as if I am doing the same for myself, at least in this case. I may be slightly cynical at times (shut it, Matt), highly-opinionated, and have a completely type A personality (my mother says I have CDO, which is OCD with the letters in alphabetical order, as it should be of course!) but at least I have embraced who I am as-is. I'm able to recognize that I'm not overtly thrilled about the physical leftovers of pregnancy that have come to reside on my tummy, and I make no apologies for my lack of enthusiasm. Like Jill said, I wouldn't trade my kids for my old belly back, but I think I'm entitled to a little fond reminiscing here and there. 


Like Jill, I may not be a roarer either, but I'm definitely on-board with the hissing.