Former assistant to the head of high school Gabriella Foster’s twins, Kensley and Peyton, celebrate being 10 months old.
Gabriella Foster, former assistant to head of high school Brooke Wells, left her position in December 2016, to move to San Diego. In May, Foster gave birth to twins, Kensley and Peyton, who are now 10 months old.
Q: How are your twins doing?
A: The twins are doing great! They are both so different from each other.
Kensley is walking around and just is into everything. She loves carrying toys around the house and sharing things with us.
Peyton is our little talker. She chats away all day long. She loves investigating things and will find the smallest speck on the floor and spend time just examining it.
Q: What has been the most challenging thing about having twins?
A: Everything! I thought I was so prepared to have twins. One baby is hard, but having two is way more than double the work – it is nonstop.
I am exhausted all the time. I go to bed at 8:30-9 p.m. because I know I will be up a few times in the night – although they just started sleeping through the night, so I am hoping it stays that way.
Really, just doing anything is a lot of work. I never thought about something so simple as grocery shopping with twins until I actually had to do it. How do you push around two infants in a stroller and a cart? (Should I just carry) both of them and push the cart?
Scheduling is key with twins. I am 10 months in and we are still working on it.
My husband works for Callaway, and he has to travel to China a lot for work. When he is gone, just tackling bedtime is extremely hard. The twins love to be held when falling asleep, but now that they weigh 20 pounds each and want me to put them down at the same time, it becomes almost impossible. I am getting stronger; that’s for sure!
I will say (that the first six months) were the hardest. The twins couldn’t sit up on their own, and they didn’t have the same independence that they do now.
Now that they are interacting with us more, it is getting easier. We are figuring out what they want when they cry or get frustrated.
I have heard the first year with twins is the hardest and we’re almost there. Is that true, Fels? Julie Nelson? (However,) for me, every stage has gotten harder and easier in different ways.
Q: How has the transition to San Diego been?
A: I grew up here, so everything is pretty familiar. Both (mine and my) husband’s family are here as well, and they both live within 10 minutes of our place, which is nice.
Gabriella Foster, former assistant to the head of high school, and her husband, Charleton, hold their twins on a beach in San Diego.
Q: What’s it like living in San Diego?
A: San Diego is a very relaxed city – people surf on their lunch break.
We live in Carlsbad, which is in north San Diego. We live about three minutes from the beach. I am actually closer to Orange County than I am to downtown San Diego.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about San Diego?
A: I love the sunsets. I think I saw more of them before kids; now I am in the process of (putting the twins to sleep) when the sun is setting. Having family close by is super nice too.
Q: How does San Diego compare to Sacramento?
A: San Diego is a total beach city. When I say San Diego, I (really mean) north San Diego. I actually rarely go to downtown San Diego – I am about 30 min out of downtown. It’s like living in Folsom (and going to downtown Sacramento).
Sacramento felt like more of a mountain town to me. People love the outdoors in both places, just different forms of nature: beach and water versus snow and mountains.
Q: Is there anything you miss about Sacramento?
A: I miss a lot of the restaurants. I miss Country Day. I miss rain – we don’t get much.
We are going to try to make it up to Sacramento in the next month or two. It has been really hard trying to find time with the girls and then my husband traveling a lot, but before the school year is over, we will come up!
Q: Do you miss the Country Day community?
A: Yes! That was the hardest part about leaving Sacramento. I miss everyone there, really.
I’m not sure I’ll ever find a workplace like that again. I really enjoyed coming to work and doing what I was doing.
—By David Situ
