I can’t remember what time it was when I got my first “Happy birthday.” Might have been a little after 1:00 while Tristen and I were sitting in bed feeding Fawkes and Phoenix. Milly had the sign at the top of this page on her bedroom door waiting for me. Her door is directly across from mine and Tristen’s, so I saw it immediately the first time I walked out the door once the sun was up and she was awake and about.

There was some leftover pancake batter from yesterday and it was enough to make a pancake for me, Tristen, and Milly. I left Tristen’s on the pan a little too long and was frustrated at myself for burning one of my mom’s delicious pancakes, but Tristen didn’t mind. She acted like it was still good anyway. She also made some eggs.

For my birthday, Milly made me a “Twin Vision 2000,” which is a decorated tube for looking at the twins. Tristen got me a Game of Thrones-themed Monopoly set, which is great because I enjoy a quality board game set, and this one is pretty nice. Plus, surprisingly, we don’t have a Monopoly set. Plus it’s a game that it won’t take people hours to learn to play, so maybe it’ll get played a good bit. I also got cards from the boys (Tristen taught them how to write apparently) and one from Tristen (though I didn’t open it until the next morning).

Matt texted me to invite Milly to go ice skating with Penelope and Adeline, but since it was my birthday I selfishly wanted to keep Milly around, even though we had nothing planned. Abigail ended up coming over, which was fine because at least Milly was still around.

I got tired at one point and Tristen told me to go take a nap, that she’d take care of the boys. Not only did she do that, she and Milly also made cupcakes and ordered a pizza for dinner. That was my request, since her mom had given us a few free pizza certificates. I ended up napping for three hours. I suppose I needed it.

I got calls from all my immediate family, although Andra called while I was napping and we didn’t end up being able to connect. Jason also called. The biggest surprise was a video call from my old friend Antonio. He’s in the Air Force and is currently stationed in Korea and didn’t realize it was 12:30 in the morning when he called, but I was up anyway. It was really great catching up with him.

We’re still working on a routine with Fawkes and Phoenix. We had them eating on the threes: 3, 6, 9, 12, but they have kind of thrown that off by their nighttime wake-ups, pushing it to 4, 7, 10, 1. We were trying to get into a go-to-bed ritual of a diaper change, a cleaning and a book reading, but we end up doing that kind of late and are usually pretty tired, so we don’t always get the cleaning in.

It was a pretty uneventful day for a 40th birthday, but I had a good week and a very nice weekend. I also wasn’t expecting a lot to go on anyway, what with having three-week-old babies in the house. I got to take it easy, which is something in and of itself, and I had my wonderful wife and three kids around me. There’s not too much more someone could ask for.

So of course, anytime you hit a milestone birthday people ask if it feels any different. I don’t at all feel like I’m 40. Maybe that’s because Tristen keeps me young. Maybe having two brand new babies will change that soon. Most people wouldn’t guess I’m 40, so I guess I don’t look (or maybe act?) it. It is a little sad to know that my life is close to half over though. Another funny thought I had is that any girl I ever had a crush on in any of my classes growing up, they’re all 40 (or close to it) now. In general, though, you don’t see people you grew up with as the age they are, especially if you’ve always been in contact with them. They’re some hybrid age of always-young and getting-older. At least that’s how I view them now.