4 (jaylor) gleaming twilight and an infinite afterglow

chapter twenty seven.

Joe was running on two and a half hours sleep - Taylor was running on four. Joe had been trying to let her sleep as much as possible, only waking her up when they needed to be fed. It was hard trying to balance everything - the first week was a nightmare, and they both felt so lucky that Blake and Ryan wanted to help so much, but this week it was getting a little easier day by day. They had to create a new routine, and that was working better. Thea's routine was pretty much the same - they'd worked really hard to keep it consistent. Luckily, Thea's room was at the end of the hallway - meaning that she often got the best sleep out of everyone.
Joe would do pretty much all of the night things, and Taylor would get up early to sort out Thea's school lunch and make sure her bag was packed. She would get dressed at six o'clock in the morning, in a sweater and exercise pants with her cat slippers, and move the twins into their little beds that were in the living room to let Joe get some sleep.

It was seven o'clock in the morning, and Taylor was sitting on the couch feeding both Nora and Luca. She softly hummed a sweet melody from one of her newest tracks that she and Jack had been working on. Thea was sitting on the couch beside her, watching television whilst she was eating her breakfast. Taylor would sit with her afterwards and they'd do homework together. This was something that Blake did - and it was working so well with Thea too. Initially when Thea had been given homework, they'd tried doing it in the afternoon, but usually by the time that she got home, she was far too tired to do it. There were many afternoons where she used to sit at the table doing maths and cry, or have a meltdown because it was all too much.
So, Taylor had talked to Blake about it and she'd said that they do it worked really well. The girls would get up in the morning at 6:45, they'd have breakfast around seven, get all dressed in their uniform and then they'd do their homework. Taylor had been doing this with Thea for months now - and it was already working so well. Thea was much more awake in the mornings, and Taylor found it easier to help her too. It was a little bit harder with the twins, and trying to keep them happy while making sure that Thea was doing okay too.
"Mommy?" Thea asked as she looked over at Taylor, a smile on her face.
"Yes, Theabear?"
"Can I please do Ice skating?"
Taylor smiled. She'd been trying to get Thea to try doing an extracurricular activity for months, and she hadn't wanted to. Taylor had suggested learning the piano with an actual teacher - but Thea had hated the idea and insisted that they could teach her even better. Taylor had suggested ballet, and painting, and gymnastics, all of which she'd tried as a kid, but Thea hadn't wanted to try any of them. Even when Betty had started doing gymnastics, Thea hadn't wanted a bar of it. So it was interesting to her, that all of a sudden, she wanted to do something like that.
"What made you want to do that?" She asked as she put Luca down in his portable bed beside her. Nora was still hungry, and Taylor smiled at her softly.
"There's a new girl in my class," Thea started as she spooned a mouthful of her breakfast into her mouth. "Her name is Elisabeth and she is me and Betty's bestest friend ever! Mrs Green says she's from a place called Ger... Germany and she's soooo pretty and she's from a far away place and everything but she's doing it and she says I would be really good at it too because we practiced on the playground together! Can I mommy? Pleaseeeee?" Taylor looked over at her, and she saw that sparkle in her eye that her own mother had once seen in hers when she'd been given her first guitar.
"Of course you can! Daddy and I will have a look and see where's the best-"
"Can I do it where she does it pleaseee!" Thea had put her bowl on the coffee table, and was now snuggling up beside Taylor.
"Where does Elisabeth do it?" Taylor asked softly, as Nora had finished. Nora was a lot fussier than Luca. Whereas he preferred sleeping in the crib, Nora was a lot harder to settle down when she wasn't being carried. Nora just generally liked being cuddled. They were now nearly a month old, and Taylor couldn't believe how big they were - she couldn't remember it feeling like Thea was growing that fast, but now... Thea was so grown up. She'd learnt that she couldn't even let herself think about that even for a moment, because she'd cry. Thea was so beautiful, and Taylor loved every single moment that she got to spend with her.