As I’ve mentioned recently, we usually have to get up several times after Fawkes and Phoenix have their late-night feeding and eventually put them in bed with us around 4 or 5 AM. Last night I think I got up once to adjust a paci for Phoenix. I remember thinking after I did it that I’d probably be back in the room in five minutes or so. I got back in bed and… woke up at 6. In bed. With just me and Tristen!

That was pretty awesome.

Their sleep suits were starting to get kind of smelly though, so Tristen put them in the wash. We were unsure of how that would go because they seem to like sleeping in them. I got to find out during their first nap. At first, Phoenix wasn’t too cool with it, but Fawkes fell asleep fine. We had an extra sleep suit we got from Sam and Berkley, the one we first tried out on the boys. (It’s really thick and I call it their Hulkbuster armor.) Since Phoenix was being fussier about it, I put him in that one.

That was fine for a little while, but then I guess Fawkes woke up and realized he didn’t have his sleep suit on and didn’t like it. I think really the big deal is that for sleep-time pacifiers we use wubbanubs, which are pacifiers with stuffed animals attached to them. They’re great because the length and weight of the animal can help keep the paci in, and we tuck them into the sleep suits to help keep the boys from losing their pacis. It’s not fool-proof, since the boys are dripping things now and sometimes pull the wubbanubs out of their sleep suit, but it helps.

Anyway, without the sleep suit, Fawkes kept losing his paci and kept getting upset about it. I eventually moved him into our bedroom and was able to get him nice and secure so that he fell asleep. Eventually.

The day kind of carried on that way. Thick as they are, the sleep suits take forever to dry, so I didn’t get to use them all day. I tried using some of the swaddle blankets we have, but the boys have become used to having their arms free and didn’t seem to like being so confined. I did end up using one to just wrap a wubbanub to Fawke’s chest, which seemed to help.

The day wasn’t all bad, though. At one point when Phoenix had woken up and Fawkes was still down I stopped in front of the mirror in their room to see if Phoenix would react to it. He hadn’t yet, but he did this time. He smiled real big at himself and then at me. We played with that for a few minutes.

Later on both of the boys were in the pack & play. I figured it Phoenix was aware enough to enjoy the mirror, maybe they’d like looking at each other, so I turned them both on their sides to face each other. Keep in mind that they’ve touched each other plenty, but never really on purpose. I think they have a vague sense that the other exists, but they’ve never really seemed to think anything of it. This time though, they slowly smiled at each other and started making noises at each other. Holy crap, was it the most precious thing ever! It was the first time they actually acknowledged each other the same way they do other people. They were more than just another object to each other. I couldn’t help but think that it was the moment that Fawkes and Phoenix first became friends!

Later, after a nap, I put them both in the same crib and sat them up to face each other and they did it again. That’s when I decided I needed to document it, mainly because I really wanted Tristen to see it, and that’s when the video at the top here was made.

Tristen called a little while after I sent her the video and said she had cried. Things had devolved again at that point and I was having a hard time keeping the boys happy. I told her a bit about that. She has had to work a little later than usual of late, but she got off about half an hour before she was supposed to to come help relieve me.

We had been invited to go out to celebrate a couple birthdays with friends this evening. We didn’t have any available sitters (well, Nonnie was recovering from having her nose fixed, poor thing, and Tristen didn’t want to ask Torrie to sit at our house) and we were thinking about just going out for food and a drink or two with the boys strapped to us. It was after 5:00 by the time I finished working though, and Tristen was already in her pajamas. She said something about just me going out, because I told her I could really use getting out, but I didn’t want to go hang out without her. She had mentioned it to Torrie though, and Johnny had heard and was excited about the idea of us hanging out downtown, so he and I went.

Torrie drove us down there. There was a set of tiles in the backseat, where I sat next to Sebastian. It reminded me of armor, so I picked it up and put it over the front of my body, which really bugged the kid for some reason. I kept putting it different places- on my arms, on my leg… kid wasn’t having it. I eventually put it down, but I picked it back up shortly before we got dropped off and he seemed to have forgotten how perturbed it made him.

Johnny and I started off at Cape Fear. We got a drink and talked to a buddy of his. Turns out he’s an electrician, so I might call him to get our back room reconnected. After that, we walked down to Revolution (formerly Buzz’s Roost) to meet up with the friends of mine who were out for the night.

The cause celebre was McKenzie having had a birthday this past week and Em having a birthday in a couple weeks. Sam and Berk were there too, along with a few people I didn’t know. We weren’t there for long- the rest of them had been there for a bit, before we headed to KGB. I’d never been to the place before and I thought it was alright. Johnny wasn’t feeling it though, even though he was talking to people (the guy can talk to anyone), so he was going back to Cape Fear. I told him I’d join him after I finished my drink, but then Em bought me and her both two Stella Cidres, and that’s my favorite cider, so…

Everyone else wanted to head to Growlers after that. I was going to go back to Cape Fear to check in with Johnny and see what he wanted to do. Turned out that Growlers was at capacity anyway and Janessa and McKenzie and their friend Ellen ended up at Cape Fear, so Johnny and I talked with them for a bit until Johnny hailed an Uber and we headed on home. I got back just in time to feed the boys.

In other news, Milly and a couple friends went to see Incredibles 2 this evening as a bit of a birthday celebration.