Fourteen Months!

Yeah, I am still here.  The boys turned fourteen months on the tenth of this month and I had a great post written and then Blogger would not actually publish it.  My draft would not even save and I took Eric's well meaning advice to refresh the page and lost everything.   I should have copied the body of the post into a Word document.  What can I say?  Lesson learned. It had already been a tough week with both boys having colds as well as teething and I was really unmotivated to write it all again.  Then it was Mother's Day and our little dog Scooter disappeared.  Thankfully Scooter was returned the next morning but the week was just one thing after another.  Abraham was super irritable and I brought him into the pediatrician and, sure enough, he had a double ear infection.  Suzie got into some human food and was up all night with tummy pain.  I stayed up with her since Eric had to go to work in the morning and I tweaked my neck really bad because every time she would jerk her body I would quickly sit up.  My house is a disaster.  It is a total clutter box right now but I want to get some of this written down again before it blends into next month's post. 

My sweet boy-- Winston (left) and Abraham

They tend to goof off when I want to take a picture of them. 

So all that to say, the little guys turned fourteen months.  I have recently done some updates about how they are becoming big boys and the milestones we have reached.  I was reflecting upon Mother's Day last year.  The boys were so teeny tiny then and Mother's Day has passed by once again.  I knew last year that I was a mother.  I had carried those babies, delivered them, nursed them and loved them fiercely.  But now I actually feel like a mother. Being a mother is a core part of my identity.  Everyday I am nurturing, educating, correcting and molding them into the little people that they will become.  That is a heavy responsibility but it is also a complete joy. 

Often I write about the boys' changes and progress for the month and then write individual items about each of them.  The big thing I am noticing in the boys' is their strong desire for independence.  They want to do things all by themselves even if it is not really something they can do so.  I have had several people comment to me how they are incredibly independent for twins.  They enjoy one another and play with one another but at the same time they like doing their own thing.  They do not tend to look for one another if they are separated in public and are content being on their own.  I do not normally feed the boys food with a spoon but at breakfast I was making oatmeal for them.  Winston was so irritable at breakfast lately and I figured out that he was frustrated that he was not feeding himself.  I gave him a spoon to hold and try to use and he was happy again.  No more oatmeal though because it is not worth the frustration on either end.  

"Hey, whatcha got?"

The boys love each other, wrestling, making each other giggle and enjoy playing with one another.  At the same time the sibling rivalry thing is really starting to show. They take toys away from one another, fight over things and sometimes slap and tackle one another.  I feel like a referee and trying to be consistent in correcting them each time is exhausting. 

Abraham's classic mischievous grin.

Winston is always finding something to put in his mouth.  Yikes!

One thing that is hard about this age is that the boys are getting so independent but they cannot adequately communicate what they want or need.  This makes them frustrated and they whine.  The whining, oh the whining.  It seriously drives me crazy at times.  It has gotten better again but when the boys were sick it was really hard for me to continuously be patient and not snap at them.  Then the boys go to bed, I get a couple hours of quiet and some adult conversation with Eric and then I start missing them.  I miss them like crazy.  Sometimes we want to wake them up but then our sanity comes back to us.  Ahhh, parenthood.

Yay, papa's home!

The boys have gained some new words.  I have been using cookies as a reward for good behavior and the boys call them 'tooties.'  They can identify apples and call them 'ap-holes.' That last one is a little dangerous, huh? Winston calls both dogs 'Suza.'  They will both shake their head and say 'mm-mmm' as if to say no but I don't think they understand what it means.  They say no but the answer is actually yes quite often.  They started asking for Eric when he was gone at work.  They do the signs for 'milk' and 'all done.'  In general they have really started trying to mimic everything we say and it is so much fun interacting with them. 

Smiling at their papa.

Abraham is our talker.  He talks up a storm.  Winston is also a talker but he is more our singer.  Winston loves to sing himself and he will dance to music.  Seriously, these kids just kill us with their cuteness at times. 

We are doing some early potty training and in general Abraham will go on the toilet about once a day. Winston is a little slower to take to it but he has gone on the toilet about five or six times now. The thing we are working on is just them communicating their need to go.  They can give some clear signals so I just praise them when they do it and they go on the toilet successfully.   I am using a more traditional timing method over all and just trying to be consistent with it.  It is super casual and I am not stressing that they have to go in the toilet because I do not want them to dread that time they do sit on the toilet.  The boys are still nursing and do not seem ready to wean just yet.  I dropped a feeding during the day and it was pretty painless. They were frustrated the first two days because they were so used to the routine but were fine once they were given their sippy cups.  We use a juicer to make them apple or carrot juice and they love it. We typically dilute the juice with a lot of water and the good news is that they do not mind drinking water now.  They also drink coconut milk but Winston seems to like it better than Abraham.

We are still on two naps a day.  The boys are sleeping about 10-12 hours a night.  They were sleeping in until 7 a.m. making for a full twelve hours but they have been waking up earlier again.  With it being daylight longer they have not been going to bed until about 8 p.m.  I wish my kids were the type that if they stayed up later that they would sleep in later. 

This is real life.

 

 

A&W are not walking yet and it is still a neck and neck race to see who will be the first to do so.  The boys can balance well and stand for a while before they slowly squat and lower themselves to the ground.  They have taken to their little toy walkers and like to walk around the house with those.  I think they like it because they do not need to hold our hands and can do it all by themselves. 

Abraham and Winston, you are awesome little boys and we love you so much.  You make our hearts smile everyday with your playful and sweet personalities. 

A Special Baby Shower

Every baby shower is obviously special because it represents a new little one coming into the world.  Over the weekend though I had the privilege of organizing a special baby shower for my friend Lissette and her little bundle of joy.  Lissette and her husband Ed recently adopted a beautiful baby boy. 

For any of those who have spent time reading my blog, you know that adoption is near and dear to my heart.  I love adoption because God loves adoption (James 1:27).  I love adoption because it represents my faith--that God loved me and adopted me as his child when I was even more helpless than a newborn.  I was dead in my sin but God chose to love me as a child (Ephesians 1:5).  I love adoption because I love babies and children.  I hurt for the barren woman.  I want to see little ones in the arms of parents who love them and care for them.

My friend Lissette has seen the desires of her heart fulfilled in the face of her little Lucas.  In Lissette's words, having a baby does not look like she had imagined but it is even better.  Seriously, her baby is gorgeous. He has the sweetest face and roundest cheeks I have ever seen on a newborn.

The shower was held at our church and we had a great turn out.  Lissette is from the Dominican Republic so many of her family members could not make it but lots of her in-laws were able to make it from out of town and out of state.  Lucas' nursery theme has little cars and automotive stuff so I planned the decorations with that in mind.  Forgive the bad photos. Since I was hosting, I was not able to focus a lot on taking pictures.

 The guest of honor--Mr. Lucas being held by his grandma.

 My dear friend Lissette and me.

Our friend Kaycee that also helped with the shower.

 My first attempt at party poofs.

 The cake turned out great!

A brunch buffet.

 

FAQs #3

Wow, you had two kids all in one shot.  Now you can be done.

or

You're done right?
or
Do you still want to have more children?

Oh boy.  I have heard variations of these questions soooo many times.  Those questions are very personal and quite frankly are nobody's business except for me and my husband.  Sometimes it is phrased as just an assumption and a declarative statement.  I started getting this question even before the boys were born.  People did not even give us a chance to adjust to being first time parents times two before bombarding us with the questions.  I was simply trying to get used to having two babies and was not thinking about if and when I was having more.  To give a direct non-direct answer, we are pro-baby and pro-adoption.  It is our desire to add another child(ren) to our family.  I don't know what path God will take us on.  Right now we are just enjoying the little guys that we have been blessed with. 

Aren't you scared of having another set of twins?

If I had been asked that when the boys were two months old, I would have leaned towards yes.  The bonus to having twins as the first born children is that we don't know any better.  All we have ever known is twice the diapers, baths, laundry, cost and crying along with half the amount of sleep.  On the other side of that equation is that we have only ever known twice the coos, giggles, smiles and hugs.  It was super hard those first three months but each month has gotten better.  Now I cannot imagine not having both of my little guys here with us.  I think it is absolutely amazing that God allowed us to have these babies and we would gladly welcome another double blessing.  When we found out that we had conceived twins, we felt it was very apparent that God wanted us to be parents.  If He was pleased to give us another set of multiples then we would be thrilled.  Besides, having another set of twins would allow us to perfect everything we learned the first time around. 

Belated 4th of July Weekend Post

At the beginning of the month I had discussed that we were excited to be having my best friend and her family up for a visit on the Fourth of July weekend. I am actually getting this post up before the end of July so I am kind of proud of that...it's the little things in life. 

It was a whirl wind trip for them coming from the L.A. area to see us in northern NV.  The crazy thing is that (at that time) they took their 16 month old foster daughter and their 6 week old daughter and decided they wanted to take a road trip!  Dave and Kathy are in the process of adopting little Jane but until that is finalized I cannot show pics of her (so sorry there is not a complete family photo to show). Roxy is their newest addition and cracks me up with all her facial expressions. We had lots of low key fun.  With four kids that are so little, there was no going out per se this but we did make it up to Tahoe.  The main thing is we had a nice visit and got to do some catching up.

We also got to celebrate my MIL's birthday with a BBQ.  It was a special birthday because it was her 60th!

So enjoy lots of pictures. 

Grammy with her boys: Abraham (left) and Winston

Kathy and little Roxanna.  They call her Roxy.

 We got some sub sandwiches and had a nice picnic up at Tahoe. 

It was evening but the sun was still really intense.

 

 Me and my honey

Winston says: "I salute you!"

Papa, Mama and Winston

Winston again

Our little family, couldn't manage one without a sun glare in Eric's beard.

Me and my sweet boys

 Showing off our post baby bodies.  Ha! Kathy is already way ahead of me =-)

 The babies have landed!

Dave and Jane (her face is not showing so it's okay)

Mama and Abraham

Papa and his boys

The many faces of Roxy.  I love this little peanut.

She got her papa's features.

Adoption Part Two

As a follow up to my previous post on adoption, I found a post by a couple whom I attended college with who adopted two little ones from Ethiopia.  Their expression for why they are wanting to adopt based on Christian principles is clear, concise and beautiful.

The following is from Dave and Stacey Hares' blog Hare Adoption:

We've had many people asking what led us to adopt, so we thought we'd copy and paste one of our original posts. We're adopting...

Because God cares for orphans, and one of the ways in which he exercises this care is through his church.

Psalm 68:5 says that God is “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows.” Christians, who are being transformed into the image of Christ live out His heart when they care for orphans. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27). As God cares for the fatherless, so we as his children care for them too. Our concern for the orphans is a tangible manifestation of God’s love that has been poured out into our hearts.

Because we have been adopted by God.

Jesus left heaven, lived a very humiliating life, ultimately dying for sinners so he could bring people into the family of God and call them his children. Christians, from every tribe, tongue and nation, have been pursued by God and adopted into his family. In the same way we want to pursue those from another nation, not our own, and bring them into our family. We desire our family to be a little picture of this great Gospel.


So that these children will have the opportunity to hear of Christ.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Believing in Christ is the only way to receive salvation and how will these children hear of Christ unless someone preaches to them? We, put very simply, want to adopt children, so that we can tell to them about salvation in Christ.

Because we have been given so much.

We want to give because we have been given the wealth of America, loving Christian families and most importantly spiritual truth. It is only by grace that we were born into such material and spiritual wealth, and we want to extend that grace to children who were born into poverty and little if any access to the truths of Scripture. We recognize that we are no better than those (now our kids) who were left on the streets without anyone to care for them. We have been blessed to be a blessing.

Adoption Part One

I have been thinking about adoption a lot lately. Parenting. Getting exciting for the future but seeking contentment and finding delight in the present. I have never really discussed this before but those close to us can most likely tell that we love children. I feel more comfortable with children most times than I do adults.

When I was single and contemplating that I would want to be married I actually developed a list of the qualities that I would want in a man. That list represented the non-negotiables for me. A very important item was that any potential suitor would love children, desire to be a father and I could envision him being a good father. The first time I came to visit Eric in Gardnerville he took me on a motorcycle ride around Lake Tahoe. We stopped at Emerald Bay, sat on a rock under a pine tree and talked about what we wanted for the future. Eric talked about wanting to be a dad. He then told me that he wanted to have his own children if it was the Lord's will but that he also wanted to adopt. I was taken aback a little. I had always inwardly had a desire to adopt as well. I knew then that God had put someone very special in my life. It takes a special man to love a child and make that child his own in the same way as if it came from himself. For a man to make a conscientious decision to make a fatherless child his own is the most beautiful thing I can think of. I knew that week I wanted to marry him. I am not sure how long it took him =-)

Now that I am entering into my late 20's (yikes), I have friends and acquaintances who are entering this wonderful stage of life for themselves. It is a indescribable heart filling thing to watch as they wait with joyful expectation for their new little ones. These children have been conceived in their hearts long before they were ever conceived physically in a womb. We live in an era that through social networking and blogging that despite not knowing the ins and outs of their individual processes, it is a privilege to a take an occasional peek and remember to pray based on what I am reading at the time. Some days are a call for patience and endurance for the waiting period and others a revelry in God's faithfulness in providing a child for them in His perfect timing. I find it amazing that I know of four couples that are waiting to or have brought a child(ren) into their home. Is that not just such a wonderful thing?

Adoption is beautiful because God created it. It is what He has done for us.