Every once and a while I'll let Reese skip her afternoon nap and we will spend the afternoon at the gym. I'll work out while the girls play, then I'll take them to the pool. But let me just say it is EXHAUSTING doing all that by myself. I've only done all that twice. It sounds simple enough, but wow.
My first attempt at this suicidal task went as follows:
I packed everything I needed for the day so I wouldn't have to come back home. I also realized I didn't have any swim diapers for Reese. I decided to put a regular diaper on her under her swim suit and told Maddie to put her swim suit on and some clothes over it. I put on my work-out clothes and packed my swim suit, floaties, tubes, sun screen and all things needed to have a fabulous outdoor experience. In the 95 degree heat, I loaded up the car and headed down to Walgreens for swim diapers. It's quite annoying when it takes longer to get in and out of the car then the amount of time I spend in the actual store. So the girls and I truck our sweaty selves through Walgreens on a mission for diapers, then back into my oven on wheels. (The AC in my car works fine, its just THAT HOT.)
I parked the car at the gym and laid Reese on my legs to change a simple wet diaper. WRONG. Little had I known her diaper was quite dirty. I was sitting on the middle back seat with Reese's bootie up in the air, I had no were to go and the wipes where in the front seat. Awesome. I asked Maddie to crawl up to the front and fish around for the wipes box. After a few minutes she finds the wipes box with no wipes inside. Again, awesome. I had to resort to using a Wet One. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer wipes. Her bottom got extra clean that day. After I get her all cleaned up, I get the new swim diaper on, then her swim suit, then the cover-up she was wearing. All from the back middle seat. On my lap. They really should make baby swim suits that snap on the bottom. That would have made the changing of the diaper a little easier instead of having to strip her down completely. On my lap.
I got the girls to the play-place and I did my thing on the treadmill. Goal: running one mile. Achieved: NO.
When I got the kids after my work-out, I took them to a "family" restroom (that doesn't have a toilet, only shower) for me to change. As I change into my swim suit, Maddie says: "Mommy, I need to go potty."............. If I had ever wished my kids were not potty trained, it would be at this moment. I do what I can to cover myself with my towel over my swim suit and lug everything all around the building to the restroom area. I always take Maddie into the stall to make sure the seat is clean and cover it up with toilet paper for her. I then lift her and sit her on the seat ever so gently so my efforts to avoid coming in contact with Hepatitis don't go cascading down the toilet. On this occasion however, I turned a blind eye and just waived her into a stall. There was no way I could get all three of us plus the stroller and all of our swim gear into a 2x4 stall. I cringed a little as I watched her. Public restrooms are really NOT my thing. As I sat there waiting on Maddie, Reese got really fussy. I knew she was not hungry, and it was not nap time. I lifted her out of the stroller and felt that her bottom was wet and lo and behold, Another dirty diaper. As I think about the next move to make, as in, where should I change this baby since I have yet to see a baby changing station, I realize I had left all the swim diapers in the car. Maddie comes out of the stall, I pray she doesn't have a contagious infectious disease and we make our move back outside in the 95 degree stale heat. I change Reese in the car (where I do whenever we are out, because again, I hate public restrooms) and head back inside. (Which is actually a chore in of itself. There are 4 different doors to go through from the parking lot to the pool area, and when you have a stroller and your hands are full of everything else imaginable to get you through the day, it is very difficult to push a stroller and open doors at the same time). We FINALLY make it to the pool. After lathering the girls with sun screen they are finally able to enjoy the freshness of the water. About an hour had passed since I picked them up after my work out and all I wanted to do was take a nap on a block of ice.
So there you have it. This is why I really don't enjoy summer time. Unless I'm on a tropical island, this concrete jungle we call DFW, does not appeal to me.
But aren't they the cutest?
