"Mama! Mama wake up! I misseded you!" Matty was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement.
I rolled over, head still pounding a bit from my fun the night before, and smiled so wide when I saw the sweet little face of my baby boy bounding towards me, I sat up, pulling him in tightly for a hug as he climbed into the bed.
"Oh, Matty, I missed you so much!" I pulled him close again, pushing his hair out of his eyes a bit, examining him up and down as he informed me excitedly that they had ridden on a train.
"Where's your brother," I questioned.
"I'm here Mama!" Luca waved gently at me from where he sat in Lindsey's arms as they entered our room.
"Hi, Luca!" I exclaimed, extending my arms to grab him as he reached for me. Lindsey walked him over to the bed and handed him to me as I snuggled both of my babies close.
Lindsey slipped me two aspirin and a glass of water and I mouthed a silent 'thank you' as I discreetly took the pills while the boys chattered away.
"Are you sick, Mama?" Matty immediately asked.
"No," I told him, realizing that I could get away with less and less every minute with these two growing up so quickly, and becoming so smart.
Lindsey sat with us, his arm going around my shoulder as we listened to the boys tell us about their trip and what we had missed while they were in Italy. And though all I could gather from their pieced together stories was that our neighbors may or may not have gotten a dog, I was still completely elated to hear their versions of events.
"Ok, why don't you guys go with Daddy and help him quietly make some breakfast while mama gets dressed, okay? Then we can start our fun day together."
The boys began to cheer and run out of the room.
"Boys!" I whisper yelled. "I said quietly, please. Auntie Christine and Mick and John are still sleeping, okay?"
The both nodded.
"Sorry, Mama," Luca offered.
"Yeah, sorry Mama," Matty chimed in.
Lindsey chuckled, kissing me good morning and following the boys down the hall.
We sat on the back deck enjoying pancakes and coffee with my mother and Lori, who would soon be off to Paris for a few days, as the boys ran around in the back yard playing. Lindsey excused himself to get a little bit of work done before we left the house.
He retuned in just over an hour as I was getting the boys dressed for the day, placing them into little pairs of blue jeans and boots, zipping small blue and green windbreakers over their respective dinosaur and airplane tshirts.
Lindsey was completely passive to me, speaking only to Luca and Matty, who wanted to play with blocks on the floor.
I wasn't sure what his deal was all of the sudden but he directed all of his energy into positive conversations with our sons so I decided to let it go for the time being.
We spent the day at a local farm, the boys enjoying seeing and interacting with the animals. They pet goats and sheep, fed snacks to the horses and eventually we picked some berries to take home with us. I could tell that they were both glad to be outside where they could run and play and I was just glad to have them close again. We stopped at a large play area not unlike the one Lindsey had built them in California and I lay a blanket under the shade of an old tree to watch them as they expended the remainder of their energy.
