Once upon a time there was a woman who was married to a man she loved dearly and with whom she enjoyed spending lots of time.  So much time, in fact, that she would sometimes just tag along with him when he was at work.  They often went to movies, ate sushi, and occasionally even slept in on Sundays.

And then they decided to bring a child into that blissful world of their love, so they did. 

And everything changed, or so they thought it did.  Yes, they still went out to eat, but generally not for sushi.  They went to places that served things that toddlers would like to eat, even though they usually ended up sharing what was on their plate and wondering why they ordered him his own food.  They went to movies less frequently as the ticket price didn’t include the price of a babysitter.  They took him fun places, snapping photos of his infant toes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

Then this little family of three decided to bring another child into their happy home, so they did.

She was an easy, easy baby.  This baby loved going everywhere, rarely got cranky, and generally shared her sunny disposition everywhere they went.  Including a madcap flight to California on which she wanted to nurse the entire time, flipping her mother's shirt up willy-nilly and without regard of other passengers in the aisle.  Fortunately, the flight attendants decided that a brief moment of public nudity was worth it to have a calm toddler somewhere in the air over Nevada.

With such an easy time with their first two children, these parents decided that their family wasn't going to be complete until they had a third child.  But that third child turned out to bring with her a twin sister and BOOM, instant family of six (just add water).

And now the formerly pleasant and put-together woman is sleepy, harried, and stressed.  She longs for an evening to tag along to her husband's job, or maybe a chance to take a shower uninterrupted.  The husband longs for an evening to be at home, untethered to his electronic leash (his smart phone).  They have misty memories of dates, dinners out where they walk into the restaurant at 9:00 instead of begging the server to bring the ticket so they can get home before the twins need a nap.

Sleeping in on Sundays?  Right now, the woman would take just sleeping for more than a 2 hour stretch.  Preferably a stretch that happens in her own bed and not a rocking chair with an infant who has a genius ability to produce snot, but not the two bottom teeth that have been threatening to erupt for three weeks now.

Does she regret it?  No.  Did her idea of a dream vacation change drastically?  Yes. 

She knows that in the blink of her exhausted eye, her son will be taller than she is, her daughter asking to get a cell phone, and the twins will be taking turns learning to drive.  It will go by too fast, she knows.  So she adds to her Netflix cue the movies she's not seeing in the theaters.  She grabs sushi to-go when she’s grocery shopping for the week.  She brings the kids to daddy's work for a change of pace, and because his college students envelop them and give her a moment or two where her hands aren't busy holding, comforting, cleaning, and feeding her children. 

But only for a moment because when she’s gone from them, her mind always turns toward home, wondering what they are learning and doing, if they are happy, and if they miss her as much as she misses them.  She knows that she is a very lucky mother to have four beautiful children that challenge her in ways she never thought she'd be challenged and bring her more love, laughter, and life than she ever thought she’d know. 

Yep, it's a fairy tale all right.  The end.