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A hard night Me pushing Daniel along the paths Daniel and Oliver in the bird's nest at the Botanical Gardens

The babies must be sick or their allergies are too annoying for them to sleep quietly. At least Oliver is. Every hour it seemed, one of them would be crying. Daniel even when healthy, gets up twice a night. Shanna deals with the grand majority of this. Her husband currently has a muscle pull in his back and can't pick up kids. I don't know how Shanna copes with this living on very little sleep. I don't know how Naomi will cope further down the road when Maya's newborn adorableness wears thin.  But so far, she's very patient and soft spoken as she should be to her sweet but demanding baby.
I didn't sleep much as the topical steroids aren't working their charms plus I heard the babies. I dreamt many disturbing dreams. In real life, I have a friend who has 10 children, most of whom are adopted. I have just found her again and know that her one child that is Shanna's age just had a baby. But in my dream, she was a celebrity coming to town. I know her! I kept telling anyone within hearing distance. There were press conferences with people criticizing her decision to have so many children. I kept trying to get her attention and remind her how we were friends. She recognized me in the crowd and asked for my phone number which she didn't write down. I found her husband who had turned into an old man with Alzheimers'. I was trying to make a connection with him but the disease had too far progressed.

There was finally a break in the heat wave and we had rain late in the day. While Steve was with Naomi and Maya dealing with many issues including the dog, I had Shanna and the kids. Her husband was in the ER trying to get help with his back but was too low in triage for them to see in any reasonable time frame. They will try again today. We took the babies to the Children's garden at the Botanical Gardens which I thought Oliver would enjoy. He did to a point but the heat was too oppressive. They have a tube slide built into a hill I knew he'd enjoy. But if kids try to take a short-cut instead of following the path back to the top, they will meet up with my friend Poison Ivy. I stopped one little boy from this route. Oliver enjoyed the gift shop with its wind-up bugs and snakes. Daniel liked the chirping bird stuffed animals. We enjoyed the air conditioning. It is fun seeing the boys learn new things and see how their minds work. Shanna was taking Oliver for a walk the other day and asked him if he thought it was time to turn around. He said Yes and he rotated his body around a few times and continued the path they had been taking.

We are keeping Maya away from the boys in case the runny noses aren't due to allergies. I didn't see her yesterday at all and missed her little sounds. I am hoping she'll become more alert. She is now 8 days old.
Posted by Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer at 6:30 AM