86 months
pa-jammy
I guess this means the boys probably aren’t going to try my favorite recipes anytime soon.

This morning, the boys and I were sitting on the sofa, and somehow we got on the subject of why I started taking monthly pictures of them, and after looking through all 84 of the previous photos, I think they finally started to get it a little bit. It was pretty sweet, actually.
It may have made them a tiny bit more cooperative for this month’s pic, especially after I explained how difficult the younger years were. They may have felt a smidgen of remorse. Or something.
New Year’s Eve…do you say the year that just passed or the one coming up? I guess it’s the one coming up. One of those things that always confuses me but I’ve never actually just figured out once and for all. Okay, so let’s say it’s New Year’s Eve 2015 (but Eve is in 2014, that’s why I get confused, but it’s the eve of 2015, so yeah. Confusion.) Since the boys were born, most years the boys have spent the night at Granny and Grandpa’s so George and I could go to the pub.

And the year after that, they had their tubes in/adenoids out on New Year’s Eve, so that was a quiet night in.
Except the year they were a month old. Or maybe we did go out – I think my mom came to stay that night. That time is a bit of a blur.
But ever since then, we’ve gone to a friend’s house or the pub or done something. But since I leave for Barcelona in a few days, I told George he could go to the pub and I would stay home with the boys. No problem. I’d finish the book I was reading, have a little wine, go to bed early and wake up refreshed in 2015.

Except…I opened my big mouth and asked the boys if they wanted to stay up til midnight. Linus and Miles were gung-ho, but Oliver noted that on previous attempts to stay up late, his eyes would just close because he got tired. Heh.
So, we stayed up. At around their usual bedtime (8:30ish) they started getting a little sleepy. Hours yet to go, but they were determined.
Now, I know what you’re thinking…why not just put on that Netflix countdown at 9:00? Well, we live close to the river and you can actually see the fireworks from our front porch, so I’d actually told them they could see the fireworks at midnight.
Which also makes it impossible for me (a light sleeper) to be asleep at midnight anyway. So. Midnight it is.
The boys played video games, we watched some TV, I put on a movie, and I gave a late snack of sugary cereal.
At around 10:45, Miles and Linus waved the white flag. They went to lay down in their beds, but with the lights on so I could wake them at midnight. I humored them, but I knew that they would be impossible to budge later on.
Indeed, when I went back at around 11:45, they briefly opened their eyes and told me they’d rather sleep than watch the fireworks. Alrighty then!
Oliver, though, the one who thought his eyelids would fail him, was still full of good cheer when we watched the ball drop on Times Square at midnight.
We went out on the front porch, where, through the trees, we could see the big display that the city puts on over the river. After all that anticipation, though, Oliver was too cold to stay outside more than a few minutes. Ha ha!
Linus and Miles woke up this morning rather perturbed at me for missing the fireworks. Ha! I told them we’d get some sparklers today and light them tonight for our own mini display.
Happy New Year 2015! (Now that, I know.)
Even though I support bloggers all day long, I still tend to post more on Facebook and Twitter than on my blog. I guess because I get more immediate feedback, and I crave feedback in the form of likes and comments. (At least one thing I’ve learned as a Happiness Engineer is that I’m not the only one.)
But there are of course huge drawbacks. Even though, of course, Facebook will store everything we ever write or think and use it against us one day, it’s really hard to go back and find old posts. So I’ve decided I’m going to start sharing some of my FB, Twitter, and Instagram posts here on my blog so I can archive them better.
So here we go, the week of December 21-28, 2014:
December 24, 2014, 1:37 pm
Rip my heart out, Oliver. “I like shopping alone with you because then no one says, ‘ooh triplets!'”
December 25, 2014

December 27, 2014, 9:20 pm

December 28, 2014, 7:14 pm
For the first time ever, I can hear the boys talking to each other in French!*
*it seems to be about poop, the universal language of boys.
Ah, social media. Ain’t it great?!
Every Christmas with the boys just gets more and more fun. This morning was just wonderful.
The boys got up around 6:45, but I made them stay in bed til 7 because I’m mean like that. Last year I got up before them (miracle) and was able to have coffee and turn on the fireplace channel before they got up. I was kind of hoping that would happen again this year. Not so much. Oh well.
First, they opened their stockings and got their presents from Santa.
Then, in the most heart-melting part of the day, they opened their gifts from each other. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
The rest of the morning was spent opening the rest of the gifts, and then I cooked, and all of the grandparents came over, and we ate a ton of delicious food, and then after they left, I went to Steph’s house to hang out with friends and drink wine.
More random pics from the day:
Such a great Christmas!
Because, well, I’m me, I’ll be posting a lot of year-end recap posts. It’s just the way I am, man.
First up, the monthly picture recap!
It’s weird, I feel like they don’t look any older from the first picture to the last. Maybe a bit taller, but otherwise not very different. And so it goes as kids get older…
Yesterday, the boys and I had a fun Christmas adventure that hardly involved any whining or tears. It’s a holiday miracle! But truly, it was a wonderful day with my boys, and lucky for you…I brought my camera.
We took the ferry over, which we haven’t done much lately since it costs so much for us to make a round trip ($2 per person, each way) but it is way more fun than driving.
First, we went to Christmas in the District, which is held in the Convention Center. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew there’d be a Santa. Well, it was awesome. One thing that wasn’t there that I was anticipating was crowds. It was the Sunday before Christmas and it was dead. There were no lines for anything. It was nice, but also made me a little sad.
It was great. Santa was there with his elves, as well as a snowman who chased the kids around and Mr Bingle. There were inflatables and a rock climbing thing…
…and amazing gingerbread houses and a really cool wall of beads that the boys got to contribute to. (Another one made the Guinness Book of World Records, and they’re trying to beat that, so maybe the boys will be a tiny part of making it!)
After Christmas in the District, we hit the Riverwalk (a mall that recently re-opened as an outlet mall) and did a little Christmas shopping for Daddy. And some cookie eating.
We got on the ferry, where a nice (or drunk post-Saints loss) man paid for our ferry fares. Yay!
I’d like to say the evening finished quietly, but no, after that, we drove to the mall and searched for new sneakers for the boys. Didn’t get home til 9. Exhausting. But the boys started camp today, and Miles and I are going to have some one-on-one time this evening so he can get shoes and a gift for Linus.
Yeah, this year we’re starting a thing where the boys will pick out a gift for one brother (Miles for Linus, Linus for Oliver, Oliver for Miles – only because I’m cheap are they not getting gifts for both brothers.) We’ll see if they’re able to resist picking out something they really want instead. Ha.
My heart is not going to survive this school year. Miles informed me this morning that his class is learning FIVE dances this year. The Merengue was just a start. They learned SWING already. Can you even imagine?!? This is too much.