I usually don’t take Fawkes and Phoenix to Torrie’s on Wednesdays since I pick Milly up after school on Wednesdays and my thinking is that it’s already a day where I can’t sit and focus on work the whole time anyway, but she’s not going to be able to watch them tomorrow, so she took them today instead. Plus I’ve got a deadline that I’m trying to make, so I’m taking any time I can get.

She did ask if I’d pick Sebastian up from his half-day school. It’s always fun seeing how surprised he is when I pick him up. I told him last time I picked him up that we couldn’t do lunch, but we’d do it the next time. Of course, it almost negated the time I was saving by taking the boys to Torrie’s, but it’s hard for me to renege on something like that.

We went to Waffle House, a semi-tradition that started the first time I picked him up. The road his school is on lets out near a Waffle House so I took him there that time, and so he’s asked to do it every time I pick him up now. While we were there he was proudly proclaiming that he was four years old now, and he even still remembered that I’m 41. The kid is great at remembering numbers. It wouldn’t surprise me if he still remembers everyone’s room numbers from our Cozumel trip.

Speaking of being four, his actual birthday was yesterday. Fawkes, Phoenix, and Gabriel all got small samples of birthday cake. Milly had some too, despite picking all the strawberries out of the middle. Tristen did get her to eat one, but you’d have though from her face that it was a live slug.

Anyway, Sebastian was putting his face down into the cake, I guess to lick it or something, and Tristen bopped him on the back of the head to smash his face in it. She did something like that to Milly with a cupcake a couple years ago (I’ve got a video of it somewhere); it’s just something she likes to do and everyone generally has a good laugh. Milly laughed when she did it to her. Sebastian though, the poor kid, you could see the thoughts working through his face. It was almost like he was in shock at first, but then he got upset. I think he was embarrassed at everyone laughing more than the betrayal he might have felt towards Aunt Tristen. She apologized of course and said she was only trying to be funny, so to prove that it was funny she let him smash her face into her piece of cake.

Johnny and I each tried an Orange Vanilla Coke last night, too. It was alright, but not quite as good as I was expecting. I’m sure it would taste great with ice cream though.

Back to today.

I was talking to Milly about when the new baby is getting here and asked her if she knew the date. She said she knew it was May something, and when I told her the actual date she said she thought Battle of the Books (a team quiz competition she’s doing at school) might be around then, but she would skip it to see the baby.

You should understand that Milly’s been going to Battle of the Books practices pretty much all school year. You should also understand that Milly has not exactly been thrilled at the prospect of having yet another baby around the house. The fact that she’s so excited to meet him that she’d skip out on the actual competition she’s been training for all school year meant a lot to me. I told her that she hadn’t seemed too keen on the baby’s arrival, but that she sounded excited. She said he was going to be her brother and she loved him. We talked a little more, and I think the fact that Fawkes and Phoenix are a lot easier for her to interact with lately, that their burgeoning personalities are more evident, probably makes it easier for her to accept and understand that babies aren’t just little balls of crying and inconvenience. It really meant a lot to me that she’s actually looking forward to him getting here.

Milly’s been tutoring Sebastian once a week for a little while now. It’s a way for Torrie to keep Sebastian engaged and give him some attention from someone besides herself now and then. Plus, like I said before (or intimated), the kid’s sharp, so having Milly teach him some mathematical concepts is good for everyone. All that is to say that she went over there for a while.

Milly had wanted to avoid seeing her new room (a.k.a. the boys’ old room/nursery a.k.a. my old office) until the weekend, but after seeing the boys’ new room (a.k.a. her old room) and me saying something about it, she decided to look at her room. It’s much smaller and compact, but she seemed to genuinely like it except for the fact that her desk was gone. Tristen and I were both pretty certain we’d each told her that the desk wouldn’t fit in the room, but it didn’t dawn on her that we didn’t have any other good place for it and were getting rid of it. She asked where it was and I looked out the window to point to the curb, but someone apparently came by and picked it up today (after someone took all but one of the knobs yesterday). She was upset by this (and even suggested that I could have put it in the attic) because she has fond memories of us painting it at the old apartment and using spray paint on paper stencils we made. Both Tristen and my mom, when hearing of this, remarked that she is definitely my daughter.

Fawkes and Phoenix were in silly moods when Tristen brought them back home. I feel like there’s something new they did recently. Phoenix was putting a cookie in my mouth yesterday and after he pulled his hand back from that he was standing on his own for a second or three. They can also squat without any support, which shows me they have decent balance- they just need to realize they can stand on their own for more than a few seconds.

They’re certainly more babbly than they have been. I’m pretty sure Phoenix has tried to say “hat.” Fawkes, when you’re holding him, likes to point at things and make noises like he’s telling you what he’s looking at or where he’d like to go. Tristen tried to get a video of what may be the beginning of twin speech, but they didn’t keep it up long enough for her to get it.

During bath time this evening I was putting foam letters in my mouth (or letting the boys put them in my mouth) and sneezing them out. Fawkes would make a sneeze noise and shake his head, but he got tired of doing it by the time we got the camera out. These boys better know better than to be camera shy.

I’m going to get back to work. I’ve got a big, tedious-but-you-need-to-be-mindful project that’s supposed to be done before the end of the month. I knocked a lot of it out yesterday and tonight already, so I should be able to finish it up soon (a few days before the deadline).