I had some extended Milly time, which I always appreciate, thanks to Amanda being out of town for a wedding. On the weekends I have her, I usually pick Milly up from school Friday afternoon and keep her until I take her to school Monday morning, then I also have her every Tuesday after school until that evening. This week I picked her up Thursday after school and kept her straight through Tuesday evening.

Friday

Tristen and I decided to give Milly a little surprise on Friday and decided to bring her brothers and have lunch all together. I told her that morning so she would know why I didn’t pack her a lunch. I was planning on getting some Subway or something, but I got distracted with work and left a bit later than I planned. I probably still could have done Subway, but we ended up stopping at Lowe’s Food and picking up a meal from their deli. It was actually pretty good. I got two meals, which fed me, Milly, and Tristen and still left enough for me to have a decent lunch from the leftovers.

Anyway, it was school picture day and Milly wore a dress she had picked out and bought on her own, so I think she was proud to wear it. When we got to the school I went on in to make sure we got the food to her in time while Tristen unpacked Fawkes and Phoenix and put them in the stroller. Milly’s class was a little late to lunch because they were just finishing up their pictures. I talked to Milly’s teacher who said they were going to eat in the classroom today. At first, I was going to just have us eat in the cafeteria, mainly so th

e boys wouldn’t be too oohed and awed over in the classroom (and, honestly, to avoid germs), but Tristen was fine with eating in the classroom, so we did that.

Of course, we got lots of looks as we were signing in as school visitors. The lady at the desk has twin boys too, and the school nurse and several teachers who were in the office loved seeing them.

In the classroom, the kids were definitely curious about the boys and we answered a few questions about them, but we didn’t have to worry about fending any of them off because they had to sit at their desks for lunch. Milly’s friend Sophie bragged that she had held them before, which she did a couple weeks ago when she and her dad (who happens to be the librarian at the school) came by to pick Milly up to hang out.

Mrs. Voorhees set us all up at a table. She and the student teacher hung out with us and got to hold the boys. Their luncht

ime is very close to the end of the day, so we stuck around for a few minutes after school to chat with them.

Before that though, and after the kids finished lunch, they played a game. I think it was called Librarian. One kid sits with the eyes closed facing away from everyone else and another kid picks someone to go up behind them and say something, such as “Good morning, Mr. Librarian.” The kid in the chair then has three guesses to identify who talked to them, and if they don’t get it the kid who fooled them takes their place. I was called to do one kid and he didn’t guess me. I guessed one or two right, but the kid after me went on a ridiculous run.

We did a movie night that night. Milly usually does one with her mom on Thursday nights and she had requested that with us, but we got started on everything too late so we put it off one night. We baked some pizzas and watched Milly’s choice of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Saturday

The Azalea Festival was this weekend and we decided to brave the crowd downtown. Torrie, who had to work, came by and traded her van for Tristen’s car. We then went back to her house in the early afternoon to pick up Johnny and Sebastian then we all went downtown.

Sebastian was very excited to do a bouncy house, but you only got two minutes at a time in them. Milly wanted to do one, but she faced a conundrum. She didn’t want to do the one Bash was doing because it was for little kids, but the big fun ones with the slides and all had really long lines. She ended up not doing any of them. There was a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) center by a UNCW department with a few cool things including underwater robots that some kids had built that she enjoyed. She wants to do their camp now and decided she wants to do a STEM-themed birthday party.

After all that we ventured down to River Street where there were food trucks and all kinds of vendors. We got some terrible but yummy food and ate in a grassy area just off the road. Fawkes and Phoenix were starting to get hungry at that point, which is when we discovered that Tristen had packed bottles, but she’d forgotten the nipples. Fortunately, she had her own, so she found a semi-secluded spot, tossed a blanket over each boy in turn, and fed them. We were all kind of ready to go after that, so we didn’t do much wandering around.

Milly and her across-the-street friend Abigail had been wanting a sleepover a few weekends ago, but it didn’t work out for then so her mother and I worked out that they could do one this weekend. After we got back from the Azalea Festival, Abigail came over to play for a bit then the two of them headed over to her house, where Milly spent the night. She told me the next day that she had been awake for a couple hours before Abigail woke up, but she didn’t bother her friend, as she has been wont to do in the past.

Sunday

There wasn’t a whole lot going on Sunday, although Matt invited Milly to play with Penelope and Adeline. Milly didn’t get back home until the early afternoon, so she hung out for a bit and I fed her lunch then took her over there. I felt kind of bad shipping Milly off, but we weren’t really doing anything and I wanted her to have fun. Matt had said something about bringing the girls over here, but the boys hadn’t slept great the night before and were a bit fussy all day, so we opted for their place instead.

Monday

This was the first Monday where I had to take Milly to school and worry about the boys. I also had a photo shoot scheduled for Summer Sands, so the original plan was that Tristen was going to get up when I got up, feed the boys, and come along when I dropped Milly off at school then we were all going to head out to the hotel. It made sense, I figured, since Milly’s school is about halfway between our house and the beach.

That didn’t pan out. Tristen decided to just stay home, until I was already out, at which point she decided that since she was up and the boys were fed, we might as well all go out to Wrightsville anyway. I didn’t really mind driving back.

On the way out we stopped to get breakfast at a place called Rise. Tristen had eaten there before and they apparently have some amazing hashbrown tots or something, but unfortunately, they were waiting on a truck to come in and didn’t have any. They had some pretty amazing doughnuts though.

The shoot took several hours, as I figured it would. I was taking pictures of some of the rooms for them to put on AirBnB. Tristen, Fawkes, and Phoenix hung out with her mom during that time. JJ, Laura’s AC guy, was out there. I’d met him before because he came out to give us an estimate on a new AC unit. He told Tristen, respectfully, that she looked amazing, having had twin boys so recently. For the record, I don’t mind my wife getting compliments, especially since I tend to agree with them.

By the time I finished there wasn’t much point in taking Tristen and the boys back to the house, so we got lunch at Zaxby’s. Tristen had seen a commercial for their salads and had been wanting one. I’m trying to watch my saturated fats and cholesterol, so I got one too.

We picked Milly up from school after that and came on home. Nothing too special in all that.

Tuesday

Last night Tristen and I tried something new with the boys. We each had an assigned boy and were in charge of them that night, then we’d switch boys the next night. It didn’t go great, so it’s not sticking.

On the plus side, though, Fawkes went four hours between night feedings instead of three, which is a nice change of pace. On Tuesday night, Phoenix followed suit. More sleep is coming.

Phoenix had an appointment with the pediatrician this morning. We’d noticed a little bit of blood in the stool. Turns out he’s got a dairy allergy, so he’s going to have to go on soy formula for a bit. Tristen will have to give up dairy in order to keep feeding him breastmilk, at least for a few months.

I noted that since Tristen only took Phoenix to the doctor, it was the furthest apart they had ever been.

I took Milly to school and picked her up. I took her back to Amanda’s right at 6 since she hadn’t seen her in a little longer than usual. And that was my extended Milly time.