My 29th Year

So I turned 29 this past Friday. I'm relishing this last year in my 20s, one more to go before I hit the big 3-0! There are more occasions these days that I physically feel old—creaky knees, body aches from keeping up with the quads, being tired all the time—but most of that is because of the quads! I'm still recovering from the toll that the pregnancy took on my body. (More on that in a long-awaited post soon...)

There are still many times I feel young, though, like teenager young. Especially since I'm still in my 20s, a decade I've certainly enjoyed very much. So many things have happened since the day I left the teens behind and became a 20-year-old. In fact, I was graduating college and finishing plans for my wedding just a few months later! Not the usual activities your average 20-year-old is involved with, per say, but clearly my life has become an example of the unusual. I would have thought it very unusual for someone to have told me I'd be having quadruplets just one week before my 26th birthday!

the husband and i in june 2006, we were married just months later in september!

I was very blessed to enjoy a weekend-long birthday celebration this year, and it started unexpectedly on Friday morning when I rolled out of bed to find a brand new iPad wrapped and waiting along with a card that my babies had made! What an awesome surprise! I kept thinking I didn't really need an iPad, but the husband knows how often I check my email and blogs on my phone since that's my connection to all my quad mamas around the country and Facebook keeps me quickly updated with friends and family. He knew better than I did that a larger screen and more user-friendly device would be appreciated and man, he was right! I already love it! It's certainly much easier on my eyes to catch up on my favorite blogs and Facebook in bed at night, then reading tiny text on my phone.

For breakfast, I made my absolute, hands down, favorite breakfast meal ever. Pan-fried potatoes with scrambled cheesy egg whites, turkey bacon and a Coke. Yum yum. Obviously I don't eat these very often since it's not the most calorie-conscious way to start your day, but of course the babies dug right in with me. Then we all read magazines in the play room. ;)

That same night, we got another bonus when both of the husband's parents showed up (we were only expecting his mom to come give me an extra hand that afternoon). They insisted we get out for the evening so the husband left work a few minutes early and we hit up dinner and a movie—our favorite sort of date night these days! Dinner gives us a chance to talk without fighting the volume levels of four toddlers as well as eat food that we neither had to make nor reheat. And movie-going is about as low-key and low-stress as it gets! There's just something I love about a dark theater, a slouchy seat and a bucket of popcorn.

Saturday morning we headed off to my sister's kiddo's fourth birthday party, which was an adorable Pirate theme! The quads had an absolute blast playing with all of Rayne's toys—they maintain a play space much like ours, and filled with even more fun things!—and we also got to bounce our faces off in a Pirate bounce house and visit with family. Thankfully Grandma and Granddad were on hand to help us out and we even gave all four babies baths before heading home in time to get them down for short naps. I tried to take one myself but not to much avail...

granddad and harrison

left to right: my aunt deanie my sister, me and my aunt luann behind us

the ONLY photo i got of the quads with their cousin rayne!

So I sucked it up and got ready for a night out with friends of my own! The husband and I met up with a group of our buddies at a local icehouse and stayed out for hours eating and drinking and taking tequila shots! I admit to not having a hangover in quite some time and we both most certainly had one the next morning. They aren't so easy to kick these days! Grandma and Granddad came to the rescue once again as they had spent the night with the kids at our house and got them up and did breakfast.

I napped harder than the babies that afternoon and finally kicked my lingering headache in time to finish off the day and watch a movie with the husband while multitasking with bills, emails and meal planning before we called it a night.

It's truly been an awesome weekend and I enjoyed every second! Now I'm launching into this week with every intention of knocking out random stuff on my quickly growing to-do list. So far I've whittled down the list by a couple items, including meal planning and a grocery store run yesterday morning since my nanny is back at last after being gone the past two weeks!! I've missed her, to say the least.

I also have lofty aspirations of entertaining the quads with a single different activity every day this week. Just a little something to change up the usual schedule, since I don't intend to take them anywhere until this weekend when we head to a pool party. The activity can be as simple as chalking up the front driveway or eating a meal al fresco on the back patio, spending an entire morning on the playground outside or creating colorful blobs of playdoh one afternoon. I'm determined!

This morning my nanny and I took them on a stroller ride around the neighborhood and they all wore their sunglasses and rocked their PJs, bobbing their head to music playing from my phone. So cute! Then we hung out in the front lawn and played with chalk and chairs, because that's what the cool kids are doing these days.

However it is only Tuesday so here's hoping I keep my motivation to entertain the quadlings. Perhaps tomorrow I'll turn them loose on the playground in the backyard....though I'm holding my breath because Logan has a low-grade fever and runny nose and that's usually the indicator that I have two days until everyone is sick. The anticipation is killing me with thoughts of exhaustion....

Happy Tuesday!