Sundays. My favorite day of the week. They always start with little fingers poking into my ribs, jerking me awake. Then come the tiny feet in my back. I open my eyes to see huge green eyes staring back at me. And if I turn my head, I just know that I'll be met with another pair, but a deep chocolate brown. They always wake me first. And I don't know why. The littles wake me first, and once I'm sufficiently awake for them, they start to giggle and then jump over me (one usually landing right on my bladder) and wake Maura, who is usually awake, but pretending to be asleep.
The twins can't help themselves. They know Sundays are the days we always have off, and they can't wait to see what we have in store for them. Usually, its just a lazy day at home, starting with a big breakfast that Maur and I cook together. Then before we can watch any movies or have any real fun, Maura insists on doing something somewhat educational. Some kind of art project to promote creativity.
Then, if the weather is nice, we'll go outside and play in the yard. I've taught Allie how to catch a ball. She's my wild child. She likes to do anything that gets her moving around. Alannah is more shy. They're only four, yes, but their personalities are strong and stinkin adorable. Alannah is more like Maura. She's curious about the world. She'd rather look at plants and the grass and whatever bugs she can find. Allie, looks just like me. She's got dark curly hair, but she's got Maura's eyes; the dark green/hazel. Alannah's hair is straighter, but a lighter brown than Alli's. Her eyes are a dark chocolate brown like mine.
We play outside or inside until Ma comes over to start cooking for our weekly Rizzoli Family dinners. The girls always rush inside to help Ma while Maura and I clean up the messes from the day. Ma loves the girls. It doesn't matter if they are more of a hindrance than help; she'll still find a way to keep them by her side through the process.
Rizzoli dinners have extended to non-Rizzolis. That's how its always been. Maura was the first - though now she really is a Rizzoli, Rizzoli-Isles - then came Korsak, Nina and now Nina's husband and Frankie's wife and even Lydia. Ma and I bookend the table. Maura at my right and Frankie on my left. Maura, Nina, Nina's husband Korsak. Frankie, his wife, Lydia, Tommy, and Ma on the end. The three kids sit at the island. The twins just graduated from high chairs next to us, to boosters at the island. TJ loves his nieces. Even though they hang all over him and terrorize him a lot, he always sit between them and helps them.
Though the prep of the meal and setting the table is usually chaos, it always is pulled together in time for everyone to sit and enjoy the meal. Since the table is full of cops, Ma instilled a rule that there is no shop talk. So we talk about everything else, and its surprisingly easy. We talk about the Sox, the food in front of us, memories from childhood, family holiday plans, the next Sunday meal and who's bringing what.
Each Sunday, I find a moment to glance over at my wife. My beautiful, amazing, talented, loving, caring wife. Her eyes are always shining with pure joy and bliss. For some unknown reason, she agreed to marry me and take on my crazy family.
But my favorite part of the day, my favorite part of Sundays, is the end of the day. It's the way all Sundays end. After the rest of the Rizzolis and Company leave, and its just the four of us again, we end up on the couch. The couch that has seen us through so many years and so many important events of our lives.
And each Sunday night, I take a moment to look over my family and reminisce over my life. Maura and I both have a twin draped across our bodies, both sleeping soundly, bellies full of food and bodies tired from the day. This couch. Its where I first told Maura I loved her. It wasn't after some crazy life or death incident that forced me to rethink my life, like I always thought it would be. It was just another night, after another dinner together after a long day at work. She was beautiful. She'd already taken her make-up off and changed into comfy clothes. I just couldn't take it anymore. I told her, and miraculously, she felt the same.
It was the same couch where she told me we were pregnant. The same couch I spent countless nights with her, watching her belly grow steadily bigger and bigger.
And its the couch that where we always sit together as a family. My life and vision of a future has changed dramatically from what I wanted when I was younger. I never really wanted kids when I first started as a cop. And I couldn't really see myself getting married because I was already married to my work. But when I met Maura it all changed. She opened up so many new things; new experiences and showed me things that I could have. And one of those things was actually two things, the twins, our girls. The girls changed everything we thought about work and about careers. When Korsak became Lieutenant after Cavanaugh retired, I took the Sergeants exam and aced it. Now I'm a Sergeant and have regular hours most of the time. Maura has taken on more classes at BCU and less dirty work as the ME, leaving that to an assistant ME. Instead of being married to our work, we're married to each other and family comes first, above all.
Our weeks are long and tiring and having four-year old twins who are full of endless energy makes the days seem longer than they should be. And sometimes it feels as though the week will never end.
But it does.
Sunday is the last day of the week.
And even if it is our only day off, I feel more refreshed after a day with my ladies, than I would with a month of time-off.
There's no other way I'd rather spend a Sunday, than like I did today.