Most weekday nights these days, I fall asleep on the couch around 8 or 9:00. Tristen watches a bit of TV and gives me a kiss before going to bed. I wake up at some point in the night, usually around 1 or 2, do some work for a few hours, then head to bed around 3 or 4. This is how I’m able to take care of the boys during the day, usually handling email, administrative things, and social media duties while they nap or after Tristen gets home, saving bigger project things for the wee hours.

It’s good in that I usually get enough sleep (though it’s broken up, which probably isn’t as healthy) and I get to take care of work, but the downside is that I’m not going to bed with Tristen. I used to read to her almost every night and we have a tendency to snuggle up. I miss those things, but we should be able to get back to them. (In three, four, five years? Hopefully sooner.)

Last night was like most nights except that I didn’t wake up on the couch until around 4:00. I figured at that point there was no point in going to bed, so I just stayed up.

Today was the first day that I put into practice not giving Fawkes and Phoenix bottles except for when they first wake up and when they go to sleep for the night. It worked out fine. I gave them some oatmeal after their first bottle, then instead of doing a bottle at 11 and food at noon, I gave them a small snack of Cheerios at 11 and prepared a plate of scrambled eggs, carrots, and some leftover shepherd’s pie (I’m not exactly worrying about the foods fitting together) for lunch, along with some water from their sippy cups. Phoenix is a lot better with the sippy cup than Fawkes currently. They had a bit of Cheerios, puffs, bunny crackers, and yogurt melts to finish it off.

Then, instead of bottles at 3:00, I gave them each a fig bar and some more Cheerios as a snack. It all worked out pretty well.

Tristen was starting to feel a little sick yesterday and that continued into today. She went grocery shopping on the way home and bought some medicine and some soup, but Torrie said she, Johnny, and their boys were going to eat at Wrightsville Brewery, so we decided to join them instead of having soup and bread at the house.

The place was packed. After driving all around the building, Tristen and I lucked out and got the second-closest non-handicapped parking spot. And while they don’t take reservations, Torrie had called ahead and got us on a list to be seated. We still had to wait a little bit though, which didn’t bother any of us.

The food and service were good. Johnny and I both sampled a few of the beers on tap. The big thing, though, was that at eleven months, this was the first time we ate anywhere that we actually bought a meal for Fawkes and Phoenix. In this case it was a kid’s order of chicken nuggets, which they very much enjoyed. We have bought fruit cups for them, but it’s different buying a real meal. Eating out at restaurants just got a lot more expensive.