Once upon a month ago....

Apparently posting once a month is going to be my "thing" right now! Wow, who knew life would get so busy with 4 kids, right?!

The end of october was lots of fun! Sean and Kaelyn both started soccer and had a blast with it! At least this year Kaelyn actually got out on the field with her team, last year she was a side-liner, by choice! And Sean is getting much more aggressive playing, he actually played offense a few times. I think he enjoys soccer more than baseball because he gets to be moving all the time. I may look into a spring soccer league for him, depending on the cost and how far we have to travel for it.

For halloween this year Sean decided to be Indiana Jones, Kaelyn was tinkerbell, and we had b/g twin pirates to round out the foursome. I took the kids, with grandmother and granddaddy, to the Fall Festival uptown for awhile, and then after daddy got home from work we went to the church fall festival, and then on to Aunt Linda's for some halloween socializing.


The kids had a great halloween! Sean and Kaelyn each had their own pumpkin to "carve", Sean chose a bat, and Kaelyn a silly face. I think they turned out pretty cute myself....considering I did a good part of the cutting! :D







The beginning of november has passed in a blur of sickness yet again. I have a feeling this could be the new norm for our little family of 6. A run of a wicked stomach virus for the 3 little ones, 2 bouts of strep for Sean, 1 bout of strep for me...it's been a busy few weeks here. As of right now, everyone is fairly healthy...let's hope it stays that way for awhile.

Thanksgiving is coming up next weekend. It's still very strange to me to have Thanksgiving so late in the year, it feels like it infringes on the Christmas season. But, there's not much i can do, so I roll with it! :D I have so much to be thankful for. An amazing husband, 4 fantastic kids, an adorable poochie, a house to live in, food on my table, clothes on our backs....and a God who provided it all for us! Thank you God, for my many, many blessings! <3

Bu-bye September!

What a crazy month that was! I hate I don't get a chance to update as much as I would like, but life with 4 kids is chaos!

September flew by in a haze of school homework, and sickness for us! Sean's transition into 3rd grade has been pretty rough. He was averaging 2.5-3 hrs of homework every night. After several weeks of this I contacted his teacher and discussed him doing some homework on the weekends, to help take some of the pressure off his weekly homework. We just started that this week and so far so good. We also had a bout of the stomach flu fly through everyone, 4 nights in a row we had a kidlet up sick. David had a little stomach issue but somehow, thankfully, it passed mommy by! Thank goodness, I was too busy taking care of everyone else to have time to be sick!

And october crept up on us like a mouse sneaks up on a piece of cheese! So far this month we've enjoyed a playdate with the twins club to nivens, a playdate with the church to a park and a picnic lunch, and a trip to the mountains for some leaf-gazing! Such fun! Here's some pics:


























Sean's finally settling into his homework routine and only spending about an hour or so each night on it. Kaelyn is loving going to preschool and is so excited to tell me about her day when I pick her up! Both big kids started soccer this week, to add to the chaos! But they are having fun, and wears off some energy for them too!

The twins are being little monkey's as usual :P Liam is such a busy little boy, he gets into absolutely everything, and always has bumps and bruises to prove it. Rylee is such a sweet little bug, she's so loving and adorable...until her brother ticks her off! HAHA!












These are the kids having fun at Nivens Apple Farm.














This is my fearsome foursome, sitting on the little wooden wall in the exact spot that david and I got married at, 13 yrs ago! How precious is that! And everyone was exhausted by then, we'd been in the mountains all day and it was time to get some supper and head home!

Another first day of school….

Monday, August 16th, marked yet another first day of school for Sean!  Where are the years going?!  I remember taking a picture of him his first day of 4K in front of our bedroom door, and it seems like it was forever ago.  But alas, this year he’s in 3rd grade.  He has two homeroom teachers, one in the morning, one in the afternoon.  He’s been upgraded from the little kids playground, to the big kids playground.  He’s in the gifted and talented class.  The kids he’s with this year he will likely continue to be with for the majority of his school career.  Thankfully he has several friends already!

And today, August 23, marks my baby girl, Kaelyn’s, very first day of her school career.  She’s in 3 yr preschool, or 3 yr kindergarten as they say here!  I can’t believe she’s old enough to start her first day of school picture career!  It’s 3 mornings a week, from 8-11 on mon/tues/wed.  She was so excited to start today!  She did so good, daddy only stayed with her for a few mins before leaving her.  She played on the playground, sang songs, did pictures, had a snack…and soon I hope she’ll start making some new friends!  These are some of the kids she’ll share her school career with, and I’m so excited for her to start making some friends!

My beautiful, fearsome foursome…. And an incredibly rare, but very precious picture of our entire family.  I have been so amazingly blessed by God that it brings tears to my eyes every time I see these children.

M&M QOTW ~~ Potty training

What are your tips and tricks for potty training?

• What age did you begin with your child(ren)?
• How long did it take?
• Did you use a "system", or just wing it?
• Did you use specific rewards for incentive? How did that work for you?
• If you could change anything about the experience, what would you do differently?
• Did you use Pull-Ups?
• Do you think it's easier to potty train multiples at the same time, or separately?
  

DS #1 ~
I started at age 2.5 with him. I tried for 2 weeks to potty train him, and he was NOT getting it! We tried m&m's, bribes with toys, sticker charts, tons of encouragement....and he was still peeing in his underwear. I used pull ups at night, but not during the day unless we were going somewhere. I gave up, tried again in a couple of months....this time for a week, and it STILL didn't work. I let it go, and left him be, and 2 months before he turned 3 he suddenly decided HE was ready to go on the potty.....and it was a piece of cake after that! He was day trained within a week. Night training happened shortly after he turned 3.
DD #1 ~
I tried at age 2 but she was nowhere near being ready. I was pregnant with the twins at the time and it was exhausting trying to run her to the potty every hour or so. I attempted it again right before she was 2.5, just before the twins were born, but she still wasn't getting it. The twins were born when she was 2.5 yrs old, and because of having them, there was no potty training going on anytime soon. I tried again when they got about 6 months old, right after my dd turned 3, and she was close to being ready, but after 3 accidents in one afternoon, one of which was all over the floor and the baby toys, I gave up. At 3.5 yrs, she'd been going on the potty randomly for a few weeks....before baths, in the morning, etc, so when she went one morning I suggested she try her new fancy tinkerbell undies. We used m&m's as incentives, and potty training was finally a success. Originally we set a timer for every 30 mins, but when she wasn't going very often I extended it to 60 mins. Eventually it was every 2 hrs. I limited liquids for awhile until she understood what it felt like to go. It only took a couple weeks for her to be fully day and night trained. I only used pull ups at night for her as well.

I'll let you know how potty training the twins goes when they are a bit older (they are almost 18 months old). For now, I will say that the most important thing I learned with my older kids, was to not push them. They won't go to school with diapers on, they'll potty train when they are ready. It created a lot of stress when I tried to push my oldest son, to the point where we would both end up in tears everytime I said "Let's go potty!". Not cool mom, not cool.....

Let the school year BEGIN!

Yesterday marked the first day of school for my big boy, Sean! Last friday we went and met his teachers, he has TWO this year! He was very nervous, he's pretty shy until he gets to know you, but he was super excited that he knew several kids in his class. His teachers seemed very nice and excited to start a new year. One was even very excited to be teaching Sean finally (her words).

Kaelyn will get to meet her teacher this thursday evening. She's excited, and I'm excited for her! It'll be great for her to have something of her own that she doesn't have to share with the babies. Although, the transition to getting up early is going to be rough, she's already grouchy, and she's only been getting up around 8-8:30 am! 7am is going to be haaaaaard next monday when she starts school. lol!

As for the twins, we're just going to chill at home for the most part! It'll be nice to be able to spend some time with just the twins for a change. Since the big kids have been going to be early last week, David and I have enjoyed having some fun with just the twins, and they've enjoyed the 1 on 1 time with us I think <3

Monday, August 09/2010

Today officially marks the last full week of summer vacation for Sean! Where did the summer go?! It's been very busy, lots of fun....but it flew by much too fast! :( My big boy is going into 3rd grade this year...wow. He's in the gifted and talented class this year, we are so incredibly proud of him! He's much more excited about starting school now that he knows Henry (his friend) will be in the same class as him! I'm sure he'll know more kids too!

Kaelyn is also starting school this year, 3 yr kindergarten. *thud*. She's going to First Baptist preschool, and she starts in 2 weeks! It's just 3 mornings a week, from 8-11, but she is so excited. We ordered her very first bookbag today and she can't wait to get it!

And my babies, my twins, are almost 1.5 yrs old now. We packed up all the "baby" toys the other day, and have started taking gates down in the house. It's all flying by so very fast. So far the no gate thing is going okay, they now have full access to the kitchen and dining room. As long as we can keep the bathroom door closed, it's allllllll good! *thumbsup*

And the last of the trip pictures!

Lots of water fun at Grandma's and Papa's house! Along with a little "twin rivalry" over the scooter!



Sean and his two missing front teeth, the twins doing the pow-wow on the loose boards on papa's front deck, and granddaddy and papa watching the kids in the pool.



My sweet smiley Rylee, Liam motoring around on the scooter, and Liam on his very first quad ride. He wasn't too impressed. Rylee, however, was THRILLED....although since i was driving I didn't get to take a picture of her! :(



Rylee on her first big girl swing ride, Liam very proud of climbing on Auntie 'Chelles swingset all by himself, and my pretty girl Kaelyn.


My best friends beautiful kids, Brady and Keelie! Love that girl and those kids!!!



The twins very first popsicle....mmmmmm......and the whole group enjoying their popsicles at Auntie 'Chelle's!!

What a busy couple of weeks!!

Day 4 of our journey went not too bad, we had to stop a little bit more but overall the kids did fantastic!  My wonderful little sis was kind enough to get our groceries for us so we didn’t need to stop to do that, and were able to get to grandma and papa’s farm sooner!  We got there around 5pm or so, and just let the kids go wild!!  It was tough getting them settled down that night, yet another new place for the twins meant they were completely out of sorts!  But once everyone was asleep we were able to relax a little bit and visit with mom and dad!

    

 

The next day we let the kids run around outside in the beautiful Saskatchewan weather!  Around 70 degrees for most of the time we were there, the kids LOVED it!!  Michelle and her boys came out that night around 7pm and the cousins had a blast playing and racing around and generally filling grandma and papa’s house with noise and laughter! 

Thursday we spend just chilling, and washing clothes!  Friday we took everyone to the park in Regina for a picnic, and then to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum!  Megamunch is looking much better than he used to!  He still roars just as loud as he did when I was a kid, and he scared the twins and Kaelyn a little bit.

 

Saturday the kids raced around some more.  Sunday we went to church, before packing up Sean’s clothes and taking him to camp late that afternoon.  I’m very proud of not crying, but it was very difficult for us to leave our big (little) boy at camp with his big cousin Brandon!

 

The week passed by very quickly!  Liam had another double ear infection that I had to take him to the dr for, we visited grandma at the hospital where she works, and the 3 little kids played outside.  Michelle and Gabe went back to Moose Jaw for a few days while she worked, and we puppy-sat Jinx.  Thursday we went to pick up the  boys at camp and then headed straight to Moose jaw for a couple of days.  After some pointed questions, we found out the boys had changed their underwear far less than we hoped (not at all), showered far less (once or twice), neglected to use deodorant, brush their teeth, or use sunscreen and bug spray….but in spite of all that they took most of their medicine, and most importantly, had a fantastic time!!  I have fond memories of lots of years at camp, and I hope my kids get to make those same kind of memories too!

 

Thursday night at Michelle’s we got to visit with Great Grandma, and let the kids run through the sprinkler and play on the swingset!  Friday my bff came over with her two kids for a bbq, and some more water/swingset fun!  All the kids ate some yummy popsicles, and made a general mess of them in the process!!  I hate living so far away from my best friend, but it’s wonderful to get together with her and have a blast every time we visit!!

 

Friday night we headed back to the farm, and saturday was spent recovering and washing more clothes!  Sunday morning we got to visit with my cousin Darla and Sean, and their daughter Mackenna got to go pea-picking with the other kids.  A campfire and smores finished off a great weekend!

 

Monday was laundry and, sadly, packing up to go day!  Let’s just say it’s a good thing we had the motorhome to pack some things into! :D

 

Bright and early tuesday morning we headed out the door!  Our first day of travel went fairly well, a few grouchy sessions but overall not too bad.  Made it through the border easily, and were into Grand Forks, ND by about 5:30-6 or so.  Day two was a little rougher, but the kids hung in there, and by accident we discovered our hotel in Eau Claire, Wisconsin had a swingset in the backyard!  A good 30 min romp had everyone ready for a bath and bed!

 

Day 3 started off with a pile of rain, about 4 hrs worth!  It’s now 11am and the rain has cleared up, and the clouds are breaking up!  We’re in Illinois now, and just trying to keep the kids settled down until we get down the road a bit more to get some lunch!!

Today we’ve learned…

what two angry, tired, grouchy, tired, squeally, tired babies sound like cooped up in their carseats in a moving vehicle.  At 10am.  What a day it’s been!!  Thankfully we “borrowed” grandmother and granddaddies motor home for lunch again, and let the dynamic duo roam around while eating lunch.  That burnt off at least a little steam.  After a bit of a nap this afternoon they started becoming squeally again, so I suggested milk shakes.  I was hoping it would buy us 30 minutes of silence…..they both finished them within about 3 mins!  WOW!  How they didn’t get brain freeze I’m not really sure! lol!  Now, not only are they tired, but they are hyped up on milkshakes! :P

 

It’s 4:10 on day 3.  By this time tomorrow we will be settled into mom and dad’s place, and the kids can run their little legs off!  We’re going to stop shortly and let them race around with the soccer ball for a few mins, and then it’s around 2 hrs until we get to the hotel!  Hopefully they’ll stay kinda settled down until we get there!

 

Tomorrow is the last day of this leg of our adventure, we keep reminding ourselves that they will never be this little again, and the trip will never be this stressful again.  Over all the kids have done fantastic, minus a few twin meltdown’s, so I really can’t complain about them.  But I will be looking forward to next trip, when they’ll be more entertained by movies, and toys, and coloring books and such!!

Day two of our journey.

Well it was a super duper early morning this morning, started off with the alarm clocking BLARINGLY loud this morning!  Forgot to adjust the volume, the last person to set it must have been deaf!  But nevertheless, at 5:15 am the alarm went off and we began our second day of driving!

 

To back it up a bit, last night when got to my best friend’s house at about 5pm or so.  We had SUCH fun visiting!  I finally got to meet her phantom hubby (haha), and her bro, sis-in-law and their adorable little girl came over for supper and cake as well!  The kids had a blast playing with her 2 kids and her niece, and the twins had fun racing around her house and climbing her stairs!  What a great stress relief after a long day!

 

Back to today, so far everyone is tolerating the trip well.  The babies have been a little fussy, mostly tired I think.  Rylee just fell asleep, and I’m hoping Liam follows suite soon.  We’ve already stopped to play at one playground today, LOVE the rest area’s with playground’s, whoever thought of that idea must have had children on a long car trip before!  Here’s to hoping the rest of today continues smoothly, and that tonight everyone gets a better night’s sleep so we aren’t quite so grouchy for day 3!

On the road again!

So it’s been awhile since I updated!  But today is  now July 3rd, 4pm, 2010….and we are ON THE ROAD TO CANADA!!!  Woot!!  The last month or so has flown by!  It’s been a whirlwind of David working overtime, Sean on vacation from school, Sean and Kaelyn going to VBS at First Baptist Church, and the babies both being sick!  But we managed to get everything together, get a few things bought, get everything cleaned at the house, all the laundry washed/dried/folded (mostly, minus our clean clothes folded), and everything packed into the yukon!!

 

We left bright and early at 6am this morning!  Ugh!  It took us about an hour to get everyone up, dressed, and out the door!  So far everyone has done fantastic!  The twins have had a couple fussy periods, but otherwise it’s been a great drive!  The inlaws are with us, they are just behind us in their “holiday inn on wheels”.  Boy are they in for a shock when they see how wide open and non-commercialized Lipton, Saskatchewan is! lol!

 

We still have 3 days of driving, but today is the longest day of the drive.  We planned it specifically to make a pit stop at my bff’s house in Indiana!  Beautiful lady is going to cook us some supper and save our sanity by letting my fearsome foursome run around with her kidlets and niece!  I can’t wait to see her again!  We haven’t had a good visit in a year so I’m psyched!  T-1hr and counting!

 

In between times here, Sean and Kaelyn attended VBS and they had a blast!  Sean was so upset when it was over!  Kaelyn learned some new songs, specifically “Deep and Wide”, I’ll have to catch it on tape, it’s adorable!  The week before we left, both the twins got sick too!  Liam with a double ear infection, and Rylee with a sinus infection.  Carrying antibiotics on a trip is so much fun! @@  I’m just glad it’s working fast and both are doing much better today, all things considering.

 

Well I’ll likely be bored and have time to write up how our trip is going the next couple of days!  Hope the next three days go as smoothly as today has gone so far! <3

Hello blog-land!

I’m thinking I could get used to this blogging without logging in! lol!

 

So it’s been awhile again, life sure is busy with 4 kids at home!  Sean is 8, he’s going into 3rd grade this fall.  He’s out for summer now, and is enjoying playing with the little kids, for the most part!  He’s going into the “gifted and talented” program at school this fall, he’ll be taking extra classes one day a week!  He’s pretty excited to get back to school, he misses his friends already!

 

Kaelyn is 3.5, going on 4.  She’s loving having Sean at home to play with, and I love having someone to help occupy her and the twins! lol  Her and Sean are both in VBS at First Baptist Church this week and they are having a blast, they don’t want tomorrow to be their last day!

 

The twins are 15 months old now!  At their 15 month appt, Rylee was 23.4 lbs and 31 in long, and Liam was 21.4 lbs and 31 in long!  Both doing fantastic!  Starting to talk more, and get into more trouble too!  Liam is running pretty good now, Rylee tries to run but has to keep her arms up for balance still!  Their favorite game is patty cake, and dumping toys out of the toy bins so they can sit in them!

 

David’s  busy working a ton of overtime, in preparation for our Canada trip!  2 wks and 2 days until we leave!  I think we’ve got everything bought that we need, and now it’s crunch time to get everything packed and the house cleaned up so when we come home it’s not a disaster.  The inlaws are making the trip with us in their motorhome….should be an interesting vacation!

 

And me, I’m busy trying to keep my household semi-clean and sane this summer!  I’ve started a new cleaning regime that’s working pretty good, for the first time in years I’ve kept the dishes done and the dining room clean for 5 consecutive days! lol!  Next step, the laundry folding backlog!

 

I’m going to do my ever loving best to blog more, I really need to document my kids lives more before they grow up and I run out of stuff to talk about it!  I hope I can remember to take the time each day to jot down what new and amazing things they are doing! <3

Testing……

One of the “new” and “cool” features to this new laptop is apparently a “Blogging Button”, where I don’t have to load my blog on Firefox to update it!  I’m just setting it up and testing it out right now!  Hopefully this will help me keep up with my blogging adventures! 

The tv battle!

So this week liam has learned how to turn the tv off! Forget the little plastic shield, he sticks his little fingers behind it and pushes the buttons! Not sure how to prevent that....mommy brain needs to do some major thinking!

Today I ran to walmart with the 3 little ones to pick out something for Sean's teachers! It's Teacher Appreciation Week this week! We've done flower pots with herbs for his teachers the last couple years and it seems to go over well! I found some yummy smelling oregano and parsley, both easy to care for but very versatile to use! I hope his teachers like it!

It's been around 85+ degrees outside lately, I'm not sure I was ready for summer yet! But regardless, it's here, and here for several more months!

To rain or not to rain....

That seemed to be the question of the day today! When we first got up it was cloudy out, so I figured it would rain for sure! Later on, the sun came out, and I contemplated taking everyone outside by myself! Then after the babies nap, it was cloudy again! I really didn't feel like hauling everyone outside only to have to turn around and come back in if it started storming! So we spent a lazy day inside, playing, watching tv/movies, and snacking! :D

Just a quick note: Keebler Gripz Chips Deluxe these are the BEST snacks ever! The kids love them, they are small enough for the twins to eat, but they don't make a mushy mess like big cookies do! And they really are tasty! :D

Tomorrow is sunday, and I hate we have to miss church every second weekend! David's working hard this weekend, the start of the 7 day stretch always sucks!

While he was off thursday and friday we played outside, went to 2 ball games, bought a few more flowers for my last pot, set up the small wading pool for the kids, David cut grass and burnt some burgers on the grill! All in all a productive yet fun couple of days off!

The countdown has begun for our Canada trip! Sean has 4 weeks left of school, it's 8 weeks until we leave for Canada, and when we get back it's only a couple weeks until Sean and Kaelyn both start school again! Sean will be in 3rd grade, and Kaelyn will start 3yr preschool 3 mornings a week! I think she's going to have so much fun! It'll also give me a chance to focus on the twins a bit, and give her the opportunity to do more "big girl things", stuff I can't see to get done with her with 2 little monkeys toddling around!

Question of the Week

Are you involved in your local Mother's (Parent's) of Multiples Club?

In a word....Yes!

As of right now I wish I could be a lot more active in our MoM's club! But it's very difficult when you have an 8 yr old with school and extracurricular activities, a 3.5 yr old who just started t-ball this spring and will be starting preschool this fall, and twin 14 month olds who's attention span is about as long as their pinky finger! Add to that equation that I live an hour away from it, as well as from the majority of the activities, and that it's difficult to wrangler 4 kids by myself when my husband works weekends.....well we do miss out on a lot of fun opportunities!

But I do try to attend the meeting each month, I've had such fun making new friends and learning how to cope with twins! I feel like I may have even dished out some advice a time or two, since I have two older kids as well!

In the long run, I'm hoping to get more involved as my babies get older! I'll still have to work around the older kids schedules, and David's work schedule, but as the twins get older it'll get easier to manuever 4 kids by myself!

What a weekend!

Well we had a busy busy weekend here at the Bell household! Saturday we woke up to a rainy/dreary day, so we headed to Home Depot for a few odds and ends! We swung by a mattress store afterwards and picked out a new boxspring for us, since ours is broken, and a new nicer mattress for Sean. He's been using a bunk bed mattress but it really isn't that comfy. I can't wait for him to try out his new mattress, after David goes to pick it up this week!

We ate supper at Cracker Barrel, which is always so yummy! Then we got to play with the kids before throwing them all into bed!

Sunday was a fantastic service at church. This is the second week we've put the twins and Kaelyn into the nursery. I feel bad doing it, but Kaelyn went to children's church partway through and said she had lots of fun! It also allowed David and I to actually focus on the sermon instead of having to wrangle twin toddler's. I think we'll do this more often!

After church and chinese food for lunch, we bought some flowers and came home to plant them. The babies enjoyed playing in their sand/water table, and making a general mess! The big kids helped us clean up the yard a bit, plant my flowers and we cleaned out the big sand box for them. We had a small forest of elm trees growing in it! After about 3 hrs outside everyone was exhausted, we had some steak and fries for supper, and then baths for all the dirty children, and then bedtime! David and I actually watched Avatar, and it's an awesome movie!!

I love busy, fun filled, family weekends!

My Montage 4/21/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Twins 1st Birthday Cake at OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leashes....YAY or NAY??

So I stumbled on this question today on the "Multiples and More" blog. Leashes. Seems like a pretty simple thing, they're made mostly for dogs, and maybe the occasional strange cat, pig or ferret, but not for kids...or are they?!

Having two older children, I did buy a leash for my oldest when he was about 18 months old. We were flying for the first time with him, and I thought it would be nice to be able to "leash" him in the airport so he wouldn't get away! Needless to say, we didn't need it! 2 parents + 1 child = plenty of eyes to watch him!

Then baby #2 comes along! Now they have cute little backpack leashes for kids! We bought a little puppy backpack, thinking what a great way to give her some freedom when we are shopping or something! And yet, once again, 2 parents + 1 older brother + 1 toddler = plenty of eyes to watch her!

AND then the twins come along! They have just recently started walking everywhere, and while they are fairly content in their stroller when we are moving along shopping, they are much less content sitting in their stroller for the 90 min long baseball game their big brother plays twice a week! Added to my grocery list one week was a second leash! See, the simple one we had for Sean has disappeared over the years, and we only had one puppy dog one for kaelyn. Until I realized how LARGE and bulky those backpack leashes are! I have plenty of other necessities in my diaper bag, 2 big bulky leashes are not acceptable! So we bought a couple simple nylon strap leashes and stuffed them in my already overloaded diaper bag, to be brought out at the next ball game. At this point, the equation looks more like 2 tired stressed out parents(and sometimes it's just 1 tired stressed out parent when my husband works) + 1 child playing baseball + 1 child running around playing + 2 toddlers = far less eyes than are necessary!

And the leashes worked GREAT! I was able to let them roam around in about a 6 foot area around me, still keeping a small eye on them, but still able to watch my oldest son hit his first homerun, watch my older daughter to be sure she doesn't play in the creek....or worse run into the parking lot traffic, and not have to worry about the babies disappearing on me! I even had another parent say she used one with her second child, she can't imagine NOT using one when you have more than one toddler at a time!

So, all in all, I'm in favor of leashes being used appropriately. This is to say if I ever saw someone tie their child in one, or leave them attached to a building post or bicycle rack like I've seen people do with dogs, I would be calling the authorities ASAP. But as far as using them at baseball games....they get a big old from me!