During the years that Adriene and I tried to have children I used to describe my life as sitting in a plane circling the airport in a never-ending holding pattern. Well, if we’re going to keep using that analogy now the plane is hurtling me along at breakneck speed towards somewhere. Three years have passed since our girls were born and it’s been an exhausting, tiring, but ultimately fulfilling three years. I’m starting to wonder if there will ever be a time again when I am not tired and yet, it’s still not the sleepy haze that was most of the first year of raising twins. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be an infant or toddler kind of person. Sorry, I’ve tried. That’s not a bad thing, though, because the next phase of childhood, the pre-K to primary school years are my absolute favorite. I feel like I’ve put in a lot of hard work during this phase and it’s about to get real fun.

I’m thankful, though, they’ve gone from some fragile, scary little things to care for to such sturdy, confident (and sometimes argumentive) little girls. I’m very thankful. They are healthy, strong, and happy. I don’t know if a parent can ask for anything else after three years. Oh, and I’m not an alcoholic yet from caring for two toddlers at one time. Thankful for the little things indeed.

It’s been about the most perfect Labor Day weekend I can imagine. I got to go to not one but two football games, not one but two sessions at the grill and a real fun birthday party for the girls. I wish my parents had been able to make it but alas, they were feeling ill and thought better of getting anyone sick. Otherwise, the birthday party was just about perfect.

Now, we’re heading into fall. I’m excited about this fall because this is the first one where the girls are going to be cognizant of what’s going on and start to grasp all of our traditions, from football games to pumpkin hunting to Halloween to Thanksgiving and into Christmas. (They really liked the Charlie Brown specials last year, but this year they are going to LOVE them.) I’m looking forward to watching all of these events through their eyes. We’re flying at supersonic speed past summer, but the next stop is my favorite time of the year.

(We have photos of the birthday party on my Flickr site, but you must be my friend on Flickr to see them. Feel free to add me as a friend or if you don’t want to create a Flickr account, let me know and I’ll gladly send you a Guest Pass link.)