Little Things That Feel Big

With one baby, it can be quite easy to get around town and run errands. With a good wrap or sling, you can wear the baby snuggled next to you and still have two hands free. With one toddler, it gets harder, but is still doable. You negotiate when the child walks or is carried or strapped in, but you can change the arrangement at a moment's notice. And, of course, you have to worry about entertainment as a bored toddler is generally an unsafe or unhappy thing.

With triplets, the details just get more complicated.

This week, for instance, I needed to stop at an ATM to get some cash. Not a big deal, you may think, but it gets trickier with three toddlers in tow.

As I was pulling into the parking lot of the strip mall with the bank branch, I decided I would risk having the kids walk with me to the ATM. This would be a first.

Previously, I would have looked for a parking space with a second empty space next to it and used the second space to load them into the stroller. Instead, I found a parking space that would allow us to walk into the bank without crossing the parking lot - a big plus. I opened the rear door of the minivan and made sure that the bag with my wallet was right at the door. I crawled into the back of the van and unbuckled the three children from their seats in the rear row.

I took a deep breath and backed down onto the ground. William, Jocelyn, and Michael are all capable of getting out of the unbuckled seatbelts and getting down to the ground without my help, so I simply prepared to keep them safe once they got out. Jocelyn got out first and I swung the diaper bag over my left shoulder and grabbed Jocelyn's hand with my left hand as she stood outside the car.

William got out next. He grabbed my right hand and jumped out of the car and kept holding my hand as we waited for Michael. Michael crawled carefully out of the car and stood next to William. He then refused to hold William's hand. Since I cannot let him walk in the parking lot without holding hands, I have to find a way to hold his hand while holding hands with Jocelyn and William at the same time.

The solution is for me to spread my fingers and have William hold my thumb and Michael hold my little finger. This makes for interesting walking. The two who are holding on to the same hand have a tendency to walk in circles.

In any case, we slowly made our way to the sidewalk and two doors down to the bank. Jocelyn recognized the button to make the automatic door function, so she pressed the button and we were able to make our way into the building to the ATM. The entry way of the bank has a row of ATMs separated from the main branch by glass walls and another door. As I used the ATM to get cash, the kids pressed up to the glass walls to see inside the bank. There was nobody there, so they didn't actually learn anything about what happens in a bank, but they were fascinated anyway.

The hardest part of the whole trip was gathering everybody up to go back to the car. After trying unsuccessfully to get them to hold my hands inside, I sent them on a mission to use the automatic door. As the door was opening, I told them that they needed to hold my hand to go outside and I was able to convince Michael and Jocelyn to hold my hands and William to hold Jocelyn's hand. This made us very wide walking back to the car, but was actually easier than having everybody hold my hand directly.

After a short walk back to the car, I had to get everybody to stop and touch the car, letting go of my hands so I could open the car door. That worked, and we were very quickly back in the car. I got all three kids into the car and closed the door before getting any of them into seats. On this particular trip, everybody climbed into their seats and we buckled up quickly and were on our way. Sometimes I have to convince people not to sit in the front seats or Patrick's booster seat, but not this time.

All in all, a quick trip, but hardly simple.