Here's the catch-up paragraph(s)--the last 4 months. It's been great. We're lucky. Not just saying that. I know we are. Yes, we have two beautiful girls and everyone is supposed to say how lucky they are. But I think we have exceptional, good girls. They are happy. They are smiley and they laugh hysterically. They have been sleeping through the night since the day I returned to work (how did they know?!?), which has been about a month now. In fact, last night they slept 12 hours! Insane. Everyone at daycare loves them, and tells us what good babies they are. Couples in the street can't believe they sleep through the night.
Now I know what you're thinking--it won't last. And I'm sure it won't. But we're taking it for now.
They've been a joy. They've (overall) been easy. There weren't many times we felt sleep deprived. We're getting out, though I must admit it's more of an ordeal. And we even traveled to the east coast for 2 weeks when they were almost 3 months old. They were perfect on the long journeys.
I've been back to work for 1 month. The first week was great--easy because the workload was light, and daycare started off great, and the girls started sleeping through the night.
The following 3 weeks were a bit difficult--preparing for one of the biggest, most challenging meetings I've had to worry about, changing positions (taking on several new accounts), being stressed at work. My meeting was last week, and I'm moving on. Hopefully things at work will normalize somewhat.
We've also had guests for the weekend twice this month--good times overall.
Now to focus on some current things. Yesterday was a great day. One of the things Ian and I have been doing is spending a day every weekend (the nicest day, typically) to explore a new neighborhood. We hit up Queen Anne, Tangletown, and other parts of our neighborhood. The weather this winter has been exceptional.
Yesterday, we woke up around the usual weekend time (7:00), and fed the girls. They're the best in the mornings, so we lounged around and hung out with the babies. Then it's activity time for the girls. While I spent time with the girls, Ian made a delicious stack of blueberry pancakes. Yum.
He took off to play soccer with some friends at Green Lake around 11. About 10 minutes later, I had the girls packed up in their stroller and we were heading out on the town. We stopped in Meridian Park, and ran into our neighbor Jim, with his son Hughie and their new twin boys (Jane and Sylvie's betrothed). I stood and chatted with him for about 45 minutes, before moving on and walking around streets I had yet to explore. The day was gorgeous, and everything is blooming here. I met another neighbor, Helena, who has twins as well.
When I got home, the girls and I had lunch, and then took naps while Ian watched some TV. I then grabbed a shower, and we got ready to meet the Gilmartins for dinner at Tutta Bella. The girls were complete angels at dinner.
We all walked to Molly Moon's ice cream after and then went home. After hanging out more with the girls, we put them down a little after 8. At 9, we were heading over to our next door neighbors' house with a bottle of wine and the baby monitor in tow. We all sat by the fireplace until almost midnight, when Ian and I slunk back through the gate to our house and crashed.
I miss San Francisco a lot. I figured out one reason--that I know what perfect days are like there. That if someone told me to take a day off from work, and go after my perfect day, there are a million scenarios (brunch at Absinthe, walking through Hayes Valley, or Noe Valley, Chrissy Field, or Golden Gate Park...a movie at the Castro, etc....). Limitless! But the timing for moving here was poor--I was 5 months pregnant, and seemingly shortly after on bed rest. And not much time since then to figure out what my perfect days would be like.
I think yesterday would be one of them. Another one of my favorite moments was last weekend. We were walking back from Green Lake, and when we walked by Carrie and Paul's house, they and neighbors we knew were all on the sidewalk having a beer. We joined. It was a gorgeous day. After our beer, we moved along towards home, and waved at other neighbors (someone else I work with) who were all on their sidewalks hanging out. Such a fun, friendly place.
Anyway, here's a video of Jane laughing. They both get on a roll where they just don't stop--it's really funny.
