Good Night

After my strangely crappy weekend and awful start to the week, things a have been steadily improving around my house, and last night was just lovely.

For starters, I had an "Aha!" moment on Monday evening when I picked the kids up from daycare. I had friends scheduled to babysit that night while I went to a Moms of Twins club event, and I wanted to lay the groundwork for Maddie and Riley to be on their best behavior. When I picked them up from daycare, I decided to take a little drive and let them get a 15–20 minute catnap before we went home. On the days that I do this (or take a walk and let them stroller nap), the kids are universally happier during the evening and generally go to bed better. I have been avoiding the 5:00 nap for a while for two reasons, one semi-legit and one silly. The legit one is that during the week I spend so little time with the kids that I like to have as much of that evening time together as possible. The silly reason is that at nearly one year, I felt like they should be over that late afternoon nap.

Well, clearly they aren't over that nap. And if they aren't ready to give it up, why should I push it? I've taken a drive with them every evening this week, and it's made our evening time noticeably more enjoyable. They'll let me know when they are ready to drop that nap. I don't know why I was pushing it. Not only that, but even though that nap cuts into our evening time together, it makes the evening so much more fun that it's worth it.

So we took our drive last night and got home in time to play a bit before dinner. Dinner went great. I've really been trying to relax about the eating and the cup banging and all that. It helps that I've found a new favorite food for the babies: Gardenburgers! Riley especially loves them, and they are a snap to prepare and healthy to boot. I love finding new stuff to feed them.

After dinner, it was more play, then bottles, then bed. Both kids were just smiley and happy and fun, and they went down with no problems. Riley slept like an angel, which is good since Monday he had nightmares and Tuesday he woke up a few times, although nothing that I had to go in for. Last night, I didn't hear a peep out of him until I had to wake him up at 7:15. Maddie had a rougher night. She's had a cold, and she coughed so much at 11:30 that she threw up, so I had to deal with that. Poor baby! She's doing better today.

Anyway, the short version is that we had a nice, normal evening on our own. After the kids went to bed, I got some much-needed time to myself. Of course, I had to do things like pay bills and try to put together an eVite for the twins' b-day party, but I did manage to squeeze in one episode of my new addiction, Freaks and Geeks. I can't believe it's taken me until now to watch that show. It's so awesome. I'm going to have to check out Undeclared next, and I might need to see if I can sneak out to see Knocked Up in the theater while my parents are in town for the twins' birthday.

I feel like we're getting back on track. It feels good. We're in for a busy weekend; one of my cousins who I have not seen for at least twelve years is going to be in town, staying with us, for a few nights starting tonight. Then I have plans with some other friends who happen to be coming through town over the weekend. It will be good to reconnect with people.

Hey, thanks for all the underwear tips! I don't think I can do the thong thing, but I might have to check out some of the other options you recommended. I knew that people would have something to say about underwear. You can always count on the Internets.