Walking the Kids

Please don’t judge me. Before I had children, I thought harnesses were like leashes for children - a way of treating them like dogs. Those mothers who put their kids in them were lazy and heartless. As with many things in my new world of mommy-hood, I must eat my words.

Last week, we purchased two friendly looking harnesses – one is a monkey and one is a puppy. The harness straps are made to look like the animals’ arms and legs and the “leash” part was the animals’ tail. Knowing their penchant for stuffed and cuddly toys, Patrick and Luke loved them instantly. They wanted to hug and wear their special friends all of the time. So far, so good, but we hadn’t attached the tails yet.

We tried out our new gadgets on an evening trip to the library. This way, the boys wouldn’t have to spend the whole time strapped into a stroller (like they usually do) and could explore a little on their own – or at least get a little exercise walking into and out of the building.

Maybe it was just me, (because of being so judgmental before) but I was nervous the whole time, wondering what people must think of us. Just to complete my misery, both twins had mini-breakdowns when they realized what the tail did. The calm and quiet of the library was shattered irreparably as Joe also pitched a fit over not being able to check out his beloved VeggieTales. I let Dad deal with checking out and one harnessed boy while I took Joe and the other one outside. Joe continued his meltdown right outside the door. (Scott tells me they heard it all inside, too)

What a disaster. Three screaming, uncontrollable kids, two in harnesses. We must have looked like the worst parents in the world.
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We decided to give the harnesses a second chance, however. The twins love wearing them as backpacks, so we couldn’t return them. What is really cute is that Luke always wants the puppy and Patrick always wants the monkey. There's no fighting over them!
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Joe has recently learned to ride his bicycle - with training wheels, of course - and we took him up to the high school track to ride around in relative safety. We even got to “walk” the twins on their leashes (again, the alternative would have been their being strapped in the stroller). Patrick even walked almost half a mile!

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