Drastic times

After the bedtime misadventures of recent days, we really wanted things to go smoothly tonight. In order to improve the chances of that happening, we didn't let any of the kids nap. And it was an action-packed day, with a 10am birthday party in Diamond park attended by a bunch of twin families, followed by an 11am-2pm party at Temescal for Twins By The Bay attended by what must have been 30 twin families.

The kids were beautifully behaved all day, a real pleasure to be around. At one point they were running shirtless (the girls) across the grass, the three of them chasing each-other, laughing and tramping through this gorgeous summer day, and the whole thing was just intensely perfect, exactly the way you'd want life to be. It was lovely, as a parent, to sit and watch them, reclined on the shady grass.

They played in the pool when we came home in the afternoon, and the girls had early baths, and by dinnertime those kids were dog tired. Elizabeth seemed to get a third wind at bedtime, but it didn't have any steam in it, and a couple minutes of patting had her out. Miranda, for once, was asleep before her sister. Parker was good, as he's been throught this process.

We had all kids asleep by 7:10.