Featured M.O.M. Lori Rollins 12/11/10

Name: Lori Rollins

Age 34

Marital Status: Seperated/Divorcing

Multiples names and age: Conner & Ashley are 5 years old

About you - I am currently at home, going to be going back to school for medical billing, which I am so excited about! I love photography and then scrapbooking those memories as well. I like reading, riding bikes with the kids, camping, the beach, watchin movies. I have fun doing work for the school, my local twins club, the Northern CA twins club and National. I love meeting new moms that "get me" and having a good time with them.


About your Multiples: the kids are in kindergarten this year. They were split up (not by my choice, we actually were not asked and the other 2 sets in Kinder were seperated as well) The good thing is, they have GREAT teachers that are team teaching, so there are 50 kids that we get to know this year. They are in the Dual Immersion program, which is english 2 days, spanish the other 2 and half/half on Friday. They love learning spanish and are doing rally well at it! Conner is sweet and loving and a BIG help to me. He likes to be with his cousins and play video games and be outside. Ashley is FUN and playful, with a princess side. She loves to clean and will literally not go to bed if her room is not clean and her bed not made with all the animals in a row. UGH! She is just starting Girl Scouts and is looking to have so much fun with that!

favorite items for multiples: Love the co-sleeper, it was great to us for the 1st 6 months! Love to get new "matchy" shirts for them to wear.


favorite toys for multiples: Right now, we love the Wii and the DS ssytems. They are so good with them and I was not expecting that! Legos are a good friend right now too. pink and purple for her and all the other "boy" colors for them.


advice for other moms of multiples: Thankfully take that help. My first shopping outing was HARD and the kids both cried and were hungry. A very nice mom in arters sat next to me and said to not let other people make you feel bad about anythin. Feed those babies and realize this is not the 1st or the last crying child people will hear and it is ok. Also, you get really good at just nicely taking the silly questions, answer them as nicely as you can and walk away. Not everyone "gets it" until they are around or have their own multiples and once you understand that, it makes it a little easier to tolerate.

Thanks so much for sharing this with us Lori,  cute photos!

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boy was that exhausting....

Today, my awesome friend Lori and I met at the mall in the late morning...because the kids all needed to get out of the house and it was a bit cold outside.

We agreed I would bring along the choo choo wagon . Only the plan was not very well thought out. oops.

We decided to eat in the food court and walk around for some light exercise. It turned into a lot of hardcore exercise.

First off I had this brilliant idea to meet at one of the lower level parking lot areas.  RED ALERT RED ALERT,  uhhh the mall elevator can not hold a choo choo wagon with 4 carts.  Choo choo was too long. We were pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So we went outside of the mall and walked up some steep areas in the parking lot with my twins and her daughter in the choo choo.  OUCH!!

We eventually made it to the food court, but wow next time we will bring just 3 carts.


WAIT......no way that does not need to happen....why?

Because my other awesome friend Theresa informed me that there is an actual freight sized elevator inside Macys.  Well, at least we know for next time.

It was a bit stressful and strenuous at times but we did get out and get some exercise...
So I guess mission accomplished but with a few repercussions.  Passes 2 tylenol to Lori (hope you are not too sore in the morning)  :)

By the way, stay tuned for a REALLY really cool update about a product I happened to find online that is custom made for the choo choo wagon!!!! 

So cool, can't wait to show you all!!

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OK I can not hold out any longer!!!

I found a super cool toy for toddlers!!! Pop on Pals! They are AWESOME!!!

I am thrilled I did not make my 2.5 year old twins wait until Christmas to open these.

They love them and they are really fun to play with. I imagine them as a combination of paper dolls, Mr. Potato head, Barbie, and some action figures.....all rolled into one and done in a cool toddler friendly style. OK so these pop on pals come in a variety of animals, girls, and boys. They have these clothing or costume pieces that they snap in to. So neat!! They are for ages 2+

You lay a piece of their "clothing" on the floor or table and sit the person or animal inside of it and push down..they snap down and snap into their clothign or costime! It is really easy to do. I think they might even be good for 1 year olds to at least start out getting them hang of them.

 I am really impressed by these toys. I bought a plastic storage box with a lid so we can keep all the pieces together. Actually I am planning to buy a few more plastic storage boxes with lids to store other toys that have a lot of pieces. I don't like toys with missing parts. I really like to keep the toys with their parts whenever I can for them.

They can mix and match the costumes/clothing with each animal, boy, or girl so it makes it a lot of silly dress up fun too!  The only thing that does not work with the animals is the party hats. They seem to only sit well on the girls or boys head and stay. That is slightly frustrating for my twins but they do not dwell on it. I must say I might have to go buy another bird though. That one is their favorite. They both LOVE birds though and have since before their were even a year old. They ahve a fascination with all kinds of birds. :)

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Him Not Nice Mama

About 2 yrs ago I went into Apples to Zinnias with my friend, Wendy and the LGs. The LGs were still in a stroller. When we walked the man working there looked like he was going to blow a gasket. He followed us around and made us feel really unwelcome. I called the next day and talked to the owner. The owner was as nice as could be and apologize profusely. A week later I went in and bought the wallet I had been trying to look at when I was in there the first time.

Today I had A LOT of time to kill in Orlando so I met Wendy at Borders. After that we went to lunch, then I asked her if she wanted to go to A to Z with us. She said sure.

As we walked into the store I saw the employee behind the counter bristle as if he had just seen something that really makes him angry. I told the girls they could touch things with 2 fingers but could not pick them up. As we rounded a corner Avery came face to face with her first Christmas tree of the season. She was touch, touch, touching it. I repeated my touch but dont pick-up rule a few times. I noticed that the employee (who was still behind the counter talking to another patron) was visibly upset everytime one of the girls touched or even looked at something. He would lurch forward and make an audible noise, like he wanted to yell "STOP!!!!"

I saw that Avery was bending my rule a bit. She was taking two ornaments and "tinking" them together. Not pulling them off the tree but making them touch so that they made a pretty noise. I told her a few times to stop. She wasn't listening. In my head I thought, 'I could make her stop. then she would move on to something more expensive or I could take my chances with the $12 ornaments. ok, I would rather pay for those then something $100 that I dont want.' So I kept walking and the clerk was getting more and more upset. I was about 3 feet away from Avery with Emerson in between the two of us and the clerk yelled, "Hey, They are not listening to you!" I of course was already on edge due to the way he was acting so I turned around and realized he was the same guy from 2 yrs ago. Here is a paraphrased version of the conversation(yelling match) that happened next. I am not proud of my self for loosing my temper. I am trying to be a better role model for the girls...I do believe though that I did a lot less yelling then he did.

"Your the guy who was nasty to me the last time I was in here!"
"Probably, if you had them with you."
"Let me talk to your manager."
"Im the owner."
"I dont think so."
"I'll bet you $50, 000 I am!"
"whatever, If they break something I will pay for it."
"YES, YOU WILL PAY FOR SOMETHING IF THEY BREAK IT!"
as if the fates were listening my gentle little Emerson who was standing right in front of me picked up the ugliest ceramic reindeer ever and dropped it.
"OK, YOUR GONNA BUY THAT!"
"IT'S NOT BROKEN!!!" and it wasn't

"Emerson Avery, come on we are leaving."
"Good. (something I dont remember, but it wasn't nice)"
Avery looked at me and I said, "Come on we are not welcome here." and she started to cry (like a fit cause she did not want to leave) "No, Avery we are leaving...Wait actually cry, cry like you you've never cried before." She just looked at me like, 'what? you've never asked me to cry before...'

Im thinking I need to plan a playdate with all my Mothers of Multiples friends.

When we left I had to go sit to calm myself down and Wendy then told me he was talking about me and the girls to the other customer. Avery said, "Him not nice, Mama." I agree Avery, him not nice.

For those of you who own a business...here's a little customer service advice: If you are worried about a child breaking something all you have to do is engage the child. Talk to them about the things they are looking at. Show them other "shiny" stuff. It does two very important things. 1. It lets you keep tally of what the kid has it's grubby little hands on. 2. It gives the parent time to SHOP!!! SPEND MONEY!!!

I was in retail for over 10 yrs... I should know...

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