Summer… annnnd, scene! It was a good one. It flew. It was very sweaty. It didn’t help that the air conditioning in the car went out literally the day we finalized the paperwork to buy out our lease. Why is the timing of that stuff always so bad? Anyway, besides all the fun we’ve had I can’t say I’m not excited for cooler temps. Because I am excited. So excited. We had to finally ditch the little infant buckets seats because the twins are gigantic so now it’s like an assembly line getting them into and out of the car one by one… strapping a fat sqirmy into that middle seat is my new exercise regimen. Not for the faint of heart or tricep. But we are making it work!

Twins are starting to look more and more alike, similar to how you see people and their pets merge to become one over time.

Their personalities are still very different, with Spencer being Mr. Destructo whose mission in life is to bash things and people and objects to make as much noise as possible, and laugh loudly at any loud noises or sudden movements and is always on the go – stopping only to shovel food or anything resembling food or anything that doesn’t resemble food but is within reach into his mouth at the pace of a speed wiener eater. Sasha is a delicate flower who still makes a face with everything we try to feed her and who flaps her hands around and gets an alarmed look in her eyes if anything startles her, and although being the only twin who knows how to sit up or to properly crawl prefers to lay on her back quietly and stare at everyone judgmentally. Except in the middle of the night, when I will peer over into her baby cage and she will be just sitting up in the dark staring at me. GAH!

They had their 9 month check up and are both gigantors, in the 80th and 90th percentiles for height and weight, Spencer’s head as we know is off the charts, but little sis’s noggin also shot up a few gallons and is now 99th percentile on the lady chart. Can’t believe they started out so teeny!

They are both officially delayed in gross and fine motor skills, earning them a Birth to 3 referral. As I told the sweet gal who called to coordinate a visit for them, besides the giant head that Spencer can’t help, the rest of their delays are totally my fault. With Olivia I interacted with her so much one on one and did so many activities and play time games that had her sitting and moving and learning so early. With the twins… well I haven’t done anything with them. Since day one they’ve been plopped in their swings and bouncers at home, and trapped in their car seats constantly so that we could get out and about. They are very good at staring at the world go by… but not so much doing anything else… oops. I’ve made it a top priority, so fret not. And once we get them moving then we get to experience what’s sure to be the sheer joy of chasing 3 children going in 3 separate directions. Bring it.

Don’t even ask about how the sleeping is going. That situation is not sparking joy.

Highlights of the summer for sure were our trips to Minocqua with friends and then our trip out east. We are hashtag blessed in the fact that friends of ours have a cabin up north and invite us up every year for a long weekend. My parents snatched the twins for the weekend and getting to hang with just Olivia was amazing. She is at such a cool and hilarious age, and I really treasure those moments when we can give her all of our attention.

 

A few people have asked me if it was hard traveling with all of the kids… and I can honestly say that it wasn’t bad at all! Here are two insider tips to share that made our traveling so stinking smooth:

1) Bring real adults (in our case my parents and grandmother). One, outnumbering the gremlins is awesome and two, all my kids could care less what I have to say but if Nana says something they all snap in line like she’s the pied piper.

2) Underpack. I mean it. You don’t need half of what you’re considering bringing. We had 3 checked bags for all 5 of us and brought just the diaper bag on the plane. I bought golf club travel bags to shove tons of crap in – pack n plays, travel cot, formula, diapers, etc etc so we did bring a lot of “stuff” but it was condensed together for easy maneuvering. We saw families at the airport traveling with just one baby who had infant paraphernalia exploding from their bags and carts and arms who looked positively out of sorts… Gates and I just looked at them and then each other and mouthed “rookies” and cheers-d our beer. Imagining it all in my head was way more stressful than the actual traveling was. We were a bit of a production during the checking bags part because between the 3 bags and the 3 car seats and the 3 children there wasn’t an easy way of moving through the line together and leaving a pile of unattended items in the airport is generally frowned upon – so just Gates went through the line and I sat with all the kids and junk like old mother hubbard and then when it was our turn we met him at the counter. Oh and the one other tiny hiccup was that apparently when we booked the tickets the fact that we were bringing 2 infants with us didn’t save on the reservation. This little oopsie ended up with us all getting seat upgrades anyway so I’LL TAKE IT! 

For real though, the kids did awesome. I will never understanding how despite getting next to no sleep they are just so dang HAPPY. Smiles all around. I’m sure the passengers on the planes we were on saw our litter of littles coming down the aisle and did a little cursing… But we had exactly zero moments of crying or screaming and only a couple short moments of fussing. Seriously could not have gone better.

We also got upgraded to a brand new Suburban at the car rental place because they ran out of minivans lol. Popular vehicle. AND someone at the rental place overlooked a disgusting water bottle filled with tobacco spit and a little snus floating around when they did their cleaning so we ended up getting a bunch of $ knocked off the total cost of the rental. Teeny little grossness to save a ton of cash? I’ll TAKE IT! It was so good to get back to a place I love so much and to get to share it with my family.

I am so very grateful that we got to take this trip with my parents… as some of you may have heard by now my dad has a whole new bs medical battle to fight, and who knows what the future holds. Before we knew about his diagnosis I had secretly arranged to have a photographer take some pictures for us during our trip, but suddenly getting some documentation of my parents with the kids became more important than ever.

So here we are in a new season yet again! This fall we look forward to pumpkins and apples and football and cider donuts and campfires and farmer’s markets and festivals and jumping in leaf piles and long walks and hopefully putting the bikes to use – it only took us 2 years and someone else doing it for us (cough Nana and Papa cough) but the pull behind bike carrier is now assembled and ready for use!

Thank you Summer 2019 for being everything and more!

 

And finally:

And ACTUALLY finally:

and so should you!