4th of July

She is just precious of late.  I adore her.

Obviously we are a very busy family right now, and I am finding difficulty showering, much less writing blog posts.  Things are a bit more difficult these days than they were 3 weeks ago.  The boys cry a lot.  And when I say a lot, I mean pretty much anytime they are not sleeping or eating, they are crying.  It makes for some very stressful days, evenings, and just within the last 24 hours, nights.  God help us if they start crying every night, sleep is my only salvation at this point, and I'm not getting much of it.  Our only saving grace is that our 2 year old has actually been quite lovely lately. The twins were six weeks this Wednesday, so everyone says we should be coming out of the woods, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible.  We pray to God that is the case, or you might be seeing us on the news.  My sister-in-law may have said it best when she called to see how I was doing, only to hear all 3 kids crying in the background, "Well, you haven't been arrested yet, that's a good thing."  This is coming from a woman who's done this before, so she knows.

Lilli's face shows the heat

Basically we noticed a distinct shift in crying towards the end of last week, the babies were just over five weeks.  We started the weekend off with a bang, no pun intended.  Our neighborhood had an annual bike parade and BBQ on Friday night for the 4th of July.  We try to do these things for our sake and for Lilli's, its good to get out of the house even to just go 4 houses up the street.  Problem was, it was about 165 heat index that night, and we didn't even consider how hard that might be for Sam and Will.  Well, crying ensued on our walk home and continued for almost 2 hours straight.  They were fed, changed, burped, etc.  They just screamed.  Endlessly.  We think now due to heat and stimulation.  Thankfully Lilli was so tired that she slept through all of it.

The only birthday present John received.  A small poop from Sam.

Since that night we've had good days and bad.  I think Monday the 4th was a good day, but honestly I can't remember all the details.  The amount of interrupted sleep we get is enough to let us function, but not enough to accommodate a full service memory.  I did happen to remember though that Monday is also John's birthday.  Not that it really mattered that I remembered though because he still didn't get any gifts, just like Father's Day.  Usually all he wants is to celebrate the 4th like he did when he was a kid.  At breakfast he said, "30 years ago, we'd all go to my uncle's house, or they'd come to ours, and then I'd just blow shit up.  All. Day. Long."  Then he added, "I can't believe I can say 'thirty years ago' and actually have a vivid memory of it."  Yes, we are on the back side of our thirties, and this twin infancy thing is making us older by the minute.

Adorable 4th of July feet.

We spent most of the 4th at home.  Lillian got to play in her new purple elephant pool, a birthday gift from her aunt and uncle.  She loves it.  I spent most of the day inside with the twins trying to keep them pacified.  Then Lilli and I took a girls' trip at snack time to Starbucks for chocolate milk and Chai tea.  Around dinner time we decided last minute to pack everyone up and head to John's co-worker's little party over by Lee Park where they were to shoot fireworks off at dark.  After dinner at the party, we decided fireworks were out of the question for us for the second year in a row (Actually last year we didn't have a choice.  We were in Vail, just John and I, and it rained heavy on the 4th.).  Lilli was bouncing off the walls around 8:00, which in our world means she's super, super tired.  So we did the right thing and headed back home, no sense in repeating Friday night's nightmare.

Lilli having the best time with Dad in her pool.

John and I decided lately that we are just a little bit crazy.  Not only do we decide to pack up our small children and go to parties, but we've also of late taken the whole family places like Home Depot because we've decided we have nothing better to do but paint and redo our bedroom.  When telling my mother about this latest endeavor and our lack of sleep, her words were "Well, I can't really feel sorry for you then."  Obviously, she's right.  We might be certifiable.