This summer flew by. The combination of pregnancy, birth and caring for two newborns has created a much higher activity level than normal. The latter in particular has caused considerable sleep deprivation, which has seriously distorted our sense of time. The twins generally sleep during the day, while Everett sleeps at night (and he is rarely awakened by them). This combination has been rough for us. Many days we are so tired that we are just trying to remain functional. After an especially noisy night last night, Chris joked this morning that he had to have a cup of coffee to be awake enough to make a trip to Starbucks for coffee. Everett is mostly taking these changes in stride, and we have repeatedly assured him that we are sometimes short-tempered and grouchy because of lack of sleep, but it’s not because of him and we don’t feel any differently about him now that the babies are here.

In terms of weather, this has been the most pleasant summer either of us has ever experienced. Temperatures were consistently in the 70s and in the low 60s or even 50s at night. We did have a few hot spells, but none lasted very long and it was never as hot as last summer. This was a blessing for Melissa while she was pregnant and a blessing for all of us in terms of enjoying the outdoors. The lower temperatures meant fewer fireflies than normal (or flash bugs, as Everett calls them), but it also meant fewer mosquitos. In fact, we hardly saw any mosquitos at all.

To wind up the summer we went to our last day at the pool on Sunday

and had family dinner on the patio for Labor Day.

We are also preparing for Everett’s first day of 5K tomorrow. Chris tuned up the bike today, and we set alarms and made lists of things that must be done before we leave in the morning, especially since it is even less likely than usual that Chris will remember everything. Everett is very excited – he was overheard saying “My heart is beating so fast with joy!” when the subject came up a few days ago. He is excited because:
-He will be one of the senior kids in his mixed 4K-5K class, and he will get teach the children coming in.
-He wants to see his friends again.
-He will now be going to school for full days, and as a result he gets to have lunch and recess and gym.

Melissa is excited to have 8 hours a day when she is only watching two children. She has big plans for establishing a routine with the babies and conquering several large projects that have been languishing at our house.