The Halloween parade

Today at Ethan's school they had a Halloween parade. Now, don't get me wrong, I was all excited to see my little Flash in the parade. However, it wasn't so much a parade as a bunch of kids walking the perimeter of the gym a few times for all the parents to ooo and ahhh over. Regardless, Ethan was very excited. Namely because he got to wear his new Flash costume.

So, after dropping Ethan off in his room, the twins and I went to the gym to get a seat on the benches along the walls. The twins were in their stroller, which really makes the most sense. However 'sense' and 'twins' are two words that never go together. Seriously, I cannot even begin to list the amount of things that I have actually done that I once uttered (even after Ethan) "I'll never do that" "I'll never be that mom" "that will never be my kid". Dumb, naive, silly mommy. Never ever say never.

Okay, so where I am going with this lead-up? Well, the twins were in their stroller and they were also crying. Loudly. In a gym. With great acoustics... or maybe bad acoustics... I don't understand that stuff ... all I know is that their cries were reverberating off the walls and people were giving me the "would you do something about them" look. With much reluctance and many other attempts to soothe my little beasts, I decided to set them free. They ran all over the gym. It's a big gym. There were many other young siblings there. They all sat quietly with their parents for that mere 15 minute wait for the parade. Not mine. Nope. Ran all over. So then I got the "seriously? are you really going to let your children run all over the gym like that, the parade's about to start" looks. To them my eyes said "twins... never say never."

There were five classrooms of children participating in this parade. The first room that entered, which was not Ethan's room, had a Spiderman. Ethan actually has a Spiderman costume in his dress up bin that he wears around the house sometimes. When Collin saw Spiderman enter, he instantly ran over to him. He followed Spiderman around the gym - "talking" to him and touching him. Collin was visibly frustrated that Spiderman did not acknowledge his presence. Okay, he was downright ticked off at Spiderman. I was sitting on the other side of this big gym pretending he wasn't my kid and there was no real way for me to intervene and try to explain to Collin without much crying and a big ugly scene. Probably everyone but Spiderman's parents, who probably wanted a decent photo of their child that did not include an unknown toddler attached to his hip, thought Collin knew Spiderman (just as he thought he did). Then, when he made it around to my side again and actually came up to say hi to me, I made a big mistake. Who knows what possessed me? I asked Collin (for the freaking thousandth time) to hand over the binky that he is only allowed to have during sleep time. The binky that he somehow covertly smuggled in with him. I made the horrible mistake of saying "come on sweetie, you know it's only for sleep time." At that point he laid himself on his blankets, which he insisted we bring, on the gym floor and pretended to sleep... for a long while. Then the teachers (not Ethan's teachers who understand our plight at this point in the year - the other teachers) became annoyed because it was right in the line of the parade. At that point my eye message response to the glares changed to "you wanna try this?!" and maybe one or two "shut its". Sorry, it was very hot in there and I was sweaty, tired, stressed, had lost control of my kids and on top of that, I was missing getting to watch Ethan. So, my thought was "just walk around him... it's better than the screams you'll get otherwise... now let me try to see my oldest son please!" Though none of this was spoken, just thought (okay and maybe conveyed non verbally), the mother next to me said "I always thought it would be so hard to have twins - I feel for you." I hugged her. Okay, not really, but I wanted to. At least one person understood the situation. Sigh... (by the way, if you are wondering why I did not just take the binky it's because the reverberating screams would happen once again and if you reason with him, he will normally just give it to you and that results in no crying)

Oliver ran all over, but mostly on the inside of the parade circle.

My handsome little Flash, raising a hand to say 'hi' while keeping his superhero serious face.

Ethan surrounded by his groupies and biggest fans, the twins, during the final lap.

After the parade we went to Ethan's room for a group photo. The twins, who were in their stroller (I HAD to confine them there - it is a tiny room), screamed the entire time. Ethan's poor teachers tried to soothe them, but any attempt made them scream louder. I just ignored it all and got a cute shot of my Flash and his friends.

In the end, I did get to see Ethan in all his glory and pride walk around the gym, regardless of what people felt about the twins running free. I guess I am THAT mom. I guess my kids WILL do that. I guess I can NOT really say the word 'never'. And I guess that's okay... every once in a while... (so "shut it!")