Our 3 & 8...

A bit off the topic, but I had to announce that today is the big 3 and 8 for hubby and I. What, you may ask, is the 3&8? Well... it's our 3 year wedding anniversary and 8 year together anniversary. We got married 5 years (to the day) from the day we started dating. Yep, super cool, I know! ;-) I can hardly believe our time together is creeping dangerously close to a decade already! For those of you that don't know us very well, let me fill in the story a little bit.

On a beautiful, autumn day an innocent (and rather geeky) blond girl began the first day of life in a new middle school. She had just moved to a new, VERY small, and quite "hickish" town and was determined to make a great impression. She'd cut her long flowing hair to try a new look (and learned that somewhere along the way her wispy blond waves had become a THICK head of hair... picture an unintentionally goofy looking chin length cut that was not too flattering). As she walked boldly into this new school she was greeted with glares and looks of disapproval. The innocent little girl was about to learn that in 8th grade you were only "cool" if you'd been born and raised in that little town or were miraculously blessed with the cool gene from birth. In THIS school, this girl was an unwelcome nobody. Ugh.

This girl, however, was undeterred. She was a TALKER and when nervous this blessing/curse was at it's best. Therefore, when assigned to sit by a dufus-cute boy in her science class that ACTUALLY said "Heyrmph" (an 8th grade boy grunt of a greeting as it turned out), she immediately began chatting his ear off. Over the first few weeks of school she learned VERY little about the quite guy that sat slouched waaaaayyyy down into his chair and grunted responses to her, while HE got to learn way more about her than he'd care to. Ahhh.... the beginning of a friendship. ;-)

This boy quickly learned that this girl was quite studious and received fabulous grades. He therefore began occasionally peering over her shoulder to "check" his answers on tests. This boy was not too subtle in his peeks (apparently) because during one fateful test this boy was caught CHEATING and the boy AND the innocent girl were given big, fat, and incredibly UGLY "F's" on their tests. This was beyond devastating to the girl (duh!) and she ran from the classroom crying. Totally cool, obviously. Soon after the school's requests to move her to 9th grade were accepted by girl and her parents and she left the terrible 8th grade memories behind to begin enjoying HIGH SCHOOL! At this point, the boy and girl no longer saw each other until the boy made it to high school the following year... and gave her goofy looks of surprise when she would say "Hello" and acknowledge him in the hallways. Thus, was the "end" of their friendship.

Many years later (ok, actually it was only 3 but back then that was a long time!), that boy began hanging out in the library during the final period of each day. This period happened to be that girl's peer counseling hour, and when there was no "counseling" to be done to peers, she spent HER time in the library completing scholarship applications on the TYPE WRITER (!!!). The boy began sitting in the lounge chairs beside the type writer and talking with the girl. It was one of those adorable and totally pathetic boy/girl flirting relationships in which loads of teasing and giggling occurred.

One day, the boy (after a day ditching classes and 4-wheeling with friends) decided he wanted to see the girl so badly that he LOOKED HER UP IN THE PHONE BOOK and called. Yep. He did. At that moment that girl was already "fighting" with her current boyfriend about something lame and was totally caught off guard by the call. She told her boyfriend to leave as JOE had requested to come over. Yikes... that girl was totally not a player, she just KNEW her boyfriend wouldn't have been friendly to any male friend she had. From that point on, the boy and the girl began spending exorbitant amounts of time together, quickly growing increasingly fond of each other. He escorted her to her senior prom (after double checking with her that he actually did have to wear a Tux), and broke his neck the day of her baccalaureate just to see how much her nerves could handle (did I mention he rode moto-cross and was actually SPONSORED to do so?! Yes, he was awesome but this terrified the girl). The friendship blossomed into more and on June 18th it became official (sealed by their FIRST KISS!).

So, you guessed it. That story was about us. Joe & Jesi... the beginnings of one heck of a pair. We've endured deployments to Iraq, enjoyed laughing until we cry about things so stupid I couldn't remember to tell you what they were, and even the ups and downs up the adoption roller-coaster, a layoff, a move to a new state, and life with THREE incredible and very spoiled dogs.

This is to you baby... I love you!

For the rest of you, thanks for suffering through the mush! I'll do my best to refrain on most occasions in the future!

(First photo is 1/1/2003... blissfully unaware of a war that was about to begin with Iraq and that hubby would be activated on Valentine's day the next month... :'-( and the second photo was on vacation in January 2007)

Raspberries for breakfast, anyone?

Yep, our little angel LOVES raspberries! Check it out. This has become her FAVORITE treat (and she loves to share her treats with us!) in the last week or so...

Blue horizon

OK, so I thought THIS topic deserved a brief and separate post from Father's Day. My mom left us for Colorado on Friday and I have definitely been in a funk. My mom is my best friend and a huge support. We had the most quiet goodbye possible as her and my dad left on Friday. Mom and I couldn't speak as we were completely choked up and fighting back tears. My dad told me "I love you" and I couldn't fully reciprocate the words before the tears poured forth. I cannot believe this is real. Heck, I can't even TYPE about this without crying. Ugh.

I HATE this. Even if they visit EVERY month it won't be enough. That's what I love/hate about being so close to my family... hate that it's too hard to be so far apart but love that we're all this close. As if it's not hard enough to be missing my brother like crazy (he arrived in Afghanistan the DAY our babies were born!), now I've got to be missing my parents too! Poo.

Oh, and I REALLY hate that now Ezi & Livi don't get to have their grandma around regularly. They are seriously missing out on tons of lovin', smoochin, and fun with her now. It was bad enough that my dad couldn't see them regularly, now it's BOTH of them. Double boo-hoo.

Sorry... I'll try to be more optimistic about all this now, but I had to get my sob fest off my chest!

A Happy Father's Day... mostly

Seriously, there's nothing cooler than getting to tell the new daddy in our lives how amazing we think he is. So, Livi, Ezi, and myself spent the day trying to tell their daddy what an INCREDIBLE daddy he is. It was a relatively "uneventful" day, other than having two showings of the house, we didn't have a lot going on. Joe decided to take the wee-bots out for their first run and they did about 5 miles. No small feat in the afternoon on a hot day! The twins seemed to love it and came back smiley and content. Their daddy was also super pleased to get in the exercise and manage to get his sweat on. Oh yeah, that guy LIKES to sweat... that way he knows he's really working. I, on the other hand, think it's NASTY and sent him for an immediate shower! Yuck!

Sadly, the wee-bots became possessed as we did bathtime and we got to laugh at ourselves as we sung round after round of "Wheels on the Bus" to two screeching, howling babes. I really don't know WHAT we would do if we didn't laugh... I mean their moods were TERRIBLE! I told Joe they just wanted to SHOW him how awesome he was on Father's Day by allowing him to be his best when they were at their worst! It was probably our fault that they were so upset, I can TOTALLY admit to that. Their naps have been a bit funky lately so we thought based on their sleep/wake patterns that they may need 3 shorter naps rather than 2 longer ones. So, their when they woke up early for their morning nap, we got them up and went for a walk. The timing went well as it allowed us to be out of the house for one of the showings yesterday. However, it was the beginning of a ticking bomb I think. They were literally a timebomb waiting to blow. And blow they did... about 5:30 pm. Ugh! Let's just say we WON'T be doing that again!

Luckily they still went to sleep like the perfect angels they are, as the bedtime bottle and cuddles seemed to banish the demons. They slept through the night (as usual) and awoke to their normal sweetness. In fact, they napped REALLY well today and I was one SUPER happy mama! We have the two most amazing little bits in the whole world. I know I'm biased, but there's no denying it. They are such AMAZING people already. I mean, Ezra will MELT your heart with his flirty smile and easy giggle. He is SOOOOO ticklish and I cannot help by take advantage of it and tickle him often to hear his grunting and laughing. Olivia... well let's just say our little button (as in "cute as a button") is a tiny little bundle of sweetness. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face when we go in to get her up in the morning or after naps and I cannot wait to be greeted by that smiling face and her little legs kicking from excitement to see us. That girl will wrap ANYONE around her finger I think!

So, all in all we had a phenomenal Father's Day. And despite the evening craziness, we STILL laughed at it and had a great dinner together after the kiddos went to sleep (yummy burgers on the grill, mac'n'cheese, delicious watermelon, and salad... oh yeah I made a REAL dinner for once... and total comfort food to boot!). I love that despite being new parents to twins our lives seem pretty relaxed, Joe and I are NOT at each other's throats about the stresses of parenting, and we can both laugh during the moments that ARE stressful. Will the "ball" drop and things get as crazy and hard as people told us it would?! Who knows... but for now I'm counting my blessings and enjoying our incredible new lives. And, in 2 days I'll be celebrating the 3&8 with my amazing hubby... hard to believe it's been "that" long... times flies when you're having fun!

P.S. We finally decided that since Livi and Ezi have become FREQUENTLY used nicknames for the wee-bots, we wanted to decide on a spelling we liked. So... it's now Livi & Ezi (vs. Livvy & Ezzy). Livi is PART of the spelling of Olivia, plus it fits the pattern of her mom and grandma (Jesi & Juli)... unique 4 letter spellings, and Ezi follows suit. Like the new spellings... or hate them?!

Cystotomy

I wanted to dedicate a post just to my eldest daughter... my sweet miniature dachshund. She's been struggling with so many health issues since late October of 2007, and in January we learned she's dealing with a very large bladder stone on top of the neurological issues. So, today, she is finally in surgery getting it removed. It's for the best as she has blood in her urine and it definitely causes discomfort, but still stressful for her mommy!

We are anxiously awaiting word from her fabulous veterinarian to hear how surgery went. Please send some well wishes Chloe's way!

This is Chloe and I her first night with me... all the way back in December 2000!

Chloe watching over the feeding of her new babies, Olivia & Ezra!

Pre-nap calm

Ok, I finally managed to force myself to run down the stairs yesterday after E&O finished their bottles and waited for me to move them from their bouncy seats to their cribs. The scene you are about to witness is far from uncommon... and is always before the afternoon nap (never the morning nap). Prepare yourselves for your heart to melt...

People may ask, "Are you nuts?"

Yes. We may just be nuts. Who knows. However, as nuts as we may be, it still seems to be the right thing to do. We have put our home up for sale. Yikes! I'm not sure what the "scariest" part of it is... but right now I think it's the idea of having showings. Need I remind you that we have THREE (yes 3) dogs, and now TWO (yes 2) five month old babies?! That makes for a lot of toys laying about, beds to pick up (dog beds), baby/dog gate obstacles to get out of the way for showings, etc. How in the WORLD will I keep our place tidy enough to be ready on short notice to get all FIVE (yes 5) of my kiddos out the door, into the car, and stay there to hang out during showings?! I have no clue. Especially considering that E & O sleep about 5 hours out of the day... nap times will really make showings a pain. Alas, getting this place sold would be nice.

Those of my readers (like I have any these days!) that have followed our adventure for a while will remember that our house WAS on the market last year and nearly sold before the couple we were under contract with decided not to buy and see where the market went. At that point we kept our place listed another couple of months and then decided we would focus on the adoption and wait to sell until sometime in the future when we had our kids home. Well, apparently that "some time in the future" came sooner than we'd originally thought it would. There are a NUMBER of factors that play into why we're listing again NOW. I don't want to bore you with that though. Suffice it to say we're ready to move up to a slightly more spacious pad as these kiddos grow and begin really stretching their limbs and running about.

On another note, I am incredibly saddened to say that my mom is moving back to Colorado. I am trying to be happy about it and supportive, but mostly I'm just grumpy, pouty, and quite a bit LESS than pleased. My mom is my best friend and I can't believe we'll be so far apart again. She moved out to California a year and a half ago (while waiting for my dad to finish some remodels on their home in Colorado and get it sold) and is STILL waiting to be able to get my dad out here. There's been a number of factors that have played into why he's not moved yet... getting the house finished has been a huge challenge, blah, blah, blah. But, she had no plans to head back that way until about 3 weeks ago when she got a call from an old co-worker that had an INCREDIBLE job opportunity for her. After much uncertainty and stress she decided it was the right thing for her to do. I think she's also hoping that ultimately it'd be the right thing for Joe and I to move back to Colorado too since the cost of living is much, MUCH lower, and somehow that her moving will bring us back that way. Who knows. We don't really want to give up the lifestyle (and year-round warm weather!) we have here, but I do hate the idea of not having my parents close-by. Never say never I guess. If Joe got some CRAZY amazing job offer in Colorado we'd probably consider it.

Speaking of jobs... Joe will be starting with a new company in a couple of weeks and it's an INCREDIBLE position. Really, truly exciting for him. I'm so proud of him. He's such a driven, incredible, hard-worker that really deserves this huge, new opportunity. It's quite an undertaking, but I know he'll handle it with no problem. I'm excited for him like you wouldn't believe, and thankful as it also should provide some security for us as I continue to stay home with the kiddos. I am NOT ready to return to the life of a consultant and risk being asked to travel and be on the road (aka OUT OF TOWN!) 4-5 days per week. No way. I hope to be able to get into another remote position/contract where I can work from home, but if I can't, it won't be a big problem anymore, THANK GOODNESS! Talk about a stress relief! Taking care of the kids is probably as much work as my job ever was, although more rewarding by far.

Soooo, if I haven't bored you to tears just yet, let me fill you in on E & O updates. On the SAME DAY the two of them decided it was time to start rolling from their backs to their fronts. Constantly. Non stop. Ugh. It's super cute to watch, but they can't roll from their tummies to their backs yet so it's a huge nap-time issue. They both get rolled onto their stomachs and cry like there's no tomorrow. Thankfully, Olivia now seems to prefer sleeping on her tummy so no more fussing from "accidentally" rolling over and getting stuck.

Ezra on the other hand... Oi! That little man rolls over then cries like the dickens until I fix him. Sometimes he continues to cry after he's been put back onto his back as though it takes a moment for him to relax and realize he's comfortable again. Then, as I walk away, he rolls onto his tummy again and wails! So NOT a fun game to play! ;-) Makes for a cranky little guy when he does this throughout his nap time. We have a sleep positioner but that just gets him upset from being constrained (and his head is now beautifully symmetrical with no flattening on the right from ONLY sleeping on that side at Toukoul). So... using the sleep positioner didn't solve the problem. He seems to be starting to nap better now that the novelty of rolling over is wearing off. He's also doing MUCH better with upper body strength and seems to enjoy being on his tummy more than before.

On the "mobility" front I think we're in trouble! Olivia is now wiggling forward and backward. Not crawling yet.... but on her tummy she gets moving/pulling/pushing enough to move forward & backward. She can hold her self up for short periods with her arms straight under her and will undoubtedly be crawling much sooner than we'd like! ;-) We're THRILLED with their progress, but once they're mobile I know we're in trouble! Especially with Olivia... that girl is a mover and I imagine she'll be all over the place! As far as progress though, there's nothing cooler than seeing Ezra finally make a big step forward with the upper body strength. We've worked on it for so long and so hard and it's finally paying off. It seemed like he was making very little progress and now he's pushing up and able to stay up with his arms straight under him for very short periods and he's "helicoptering" when on his tummy, keeping his upper body/head UP (as opposed to slumped over) when in his Bumbo seat, etc. Yahoo! He'll be pumping iron in no time! :-D I doubt he'll be too far behind Olivia with the crawling... yikes again!

Ezra is still a screamer. It's what he seems to do for pleasure. He SCREAMS and then smiles at himself for being so shrill. Seriously. He's got the most high pitched, shrill scream of anyone out there. He LOVES to do it. I keep telling him it's really not the best indoor voice... but he doesn't seem to care. ;-) He's also seeming to attach the scream to anger. He seems a little young for it, but he's starting to scream before crying when he's waiting for his slow mama to get a bottle into his mouth, or if he isn't getting what he wants. We're in big trouble when we hit toddler-hood and tantrums if this is going to be the case. Gulp. Thankfully Olivia is still a MUCH quieter talker... her voice is much less mouse-like than before, but she's not a screamer (yet?!). Let's just hope it's not one of those things that she picks up from Ezra!

Oh... I nearly forgot! They fought over their first toy the other day! It was actually REALLY cute! I know, I'm terrible. I couldn't help myself, I couldn't stop laughing. Picture this:

They are both sitting in their Bumbos, up next to each other at a right angle so their feet are together and overlapping. I set this fun, new toy on their legs and they both grabbed it and started pulling towards themselves. It was this cute little tug of war that lasted about 30 seconds before little Miss Muscles ripped it from E's much weaker grasp and giggled about her success. Ezra just sat there (rather slumped over since he wasn't showing the upper body strength improvement yet at that point) and grasped at the air towards the toy. He had this look of disappointment and shock. Poor little guy. I know soon he'll be able to keep everything away from his tiny peanut of a sister so I'm happy for her that she was able to enjoy the victory. Her brother is growing SOOOO quickly and definitely outpacing her on that front. He's going to be a big boy at this rate!

Okay, that's it for now! Gotta get the kids up from their naps and feed them dinner! They've started on meats and fruits so their palates are enjoying lots of variety these days! They haven't disliked anything up until meat... then made some funny faces the first few times they had turkey. Now it's back to sucking down whatever I stick in their mouths. Yummy! Oh, and I started making my own baby food finally (only sweet potatoes so far... but I have lots of veggies in the fridge to make all sorts of other goodies during their naps this week!).

Long time no post...

Whoa, I had no idea it'd been 10 days since I last posted! Sorry! Time flies when you're having fun!

We've been staying busy with our growing babes and loving it. I'm not one to normally NEED to get out of the house a lot, but since the babies have been here (and we have such a limited area to play in), I am always zooming out the door with them to one place or another. I love taking them on walks and bopping around with them in the Town Center. We draw a crazy amount of attention and the comments we get are incredible and nearly non-stop... but it's still great to be out. I'm sure one of these days I'll get used to toting around our beautiful little celebrities.

I can't say that things are perfect, but holy smokes I'm actually able to admit I'm proud of how our transition continues to go. I'm not sure if it was the way we became parents (both incredibly ill in another country, then traveling nearly 40 hours to get home, etc., etc.) or just skill or luck or what, but we're really doing pretty well (I think). We are pretty good at the schedule - I work HARD to stick to it no matter what, and Ezra & Olivia seem quite happy and generally pretty content in their new lives. They have changed so much since we met them nearly two months ago and amaze us every day. Days go by where they couldn't make life easier on us, and then one of them tried throwing a curve ball to test us out. :-D

It's amazing how much harder it is to keep my feeling of absolute cool when one of them breaks into all out tears and wailing in the middle of Barnes and Noble. I have this pact with myself to just smile about it and not freak out... but seriously. Barnes and Noble is one of those "quiet" type stores and when Ezzy lost it I thought I was going to lose it. All eyes in the store are instantly on the lady with the big, orange stroller that holds a screaming baby. My eyes quickly began scanning the store to see where Joe had wandered off to during our previous time of calm. Thankfully Joe heard the little man and rushed to my rescue to scoop Ezra up. I should also mention that I already had Olivia in the sling, so quickly scooping him up myself was not too easy. Or, maybe I'm just not that talented. Who knows. :-)

Anyway, as we checked out while getting the glare down from a cashier at another register, Joe stayed calm and cool and I stood there wanting to hide. Yep... that's my little man letting you ALL know he's here and he's not happy! When that guy needs to sleep... it shows VERY clearly!

In addition to the regular outings, I've been having fun (I'm definitely more excited about it than E&O are!) introducing new vegetables into their cuisine. They started veggies last Monday, so it's been nearly 2 weeks now. They don't seem to act any differently when I put a new veggie into their mouths than they do when it's just cereal. Oh well... it's fun to add new foods for me because I love the variety. Tomorrow we start with the green vegetables! 'Nough with the yellow veggies... we can't wait to go green! One interesting thing has been watching the changes in their diapers though... who knew you could SMELL carrots in poo? (TMI? Sorry... I'm a sharing kind of girl!). Thankfully though the veggies also seem to have finally firmed Olivia up quite a bit so her diapers aren't generally nasty, blowout, raunchiness anymore. Normally to get ready to change her stinky diapers we get EVERYTHING ready before the diaper gets opened, and this morning was no different. She is a BIG kicker during diaper changes and often gets her feet in the mess if you aren't careful. So, when someone is here to help I take advantage of it. My mom was handy, so she was holding Livvy's feet when I went to open the incredibly smelly diaper. I was bracing for a huge mess based upon the seriously pushing she'd done combined with the smell and amount of kicking she was doing. We were all ready for a huge mess and all there was in the diaper was the tiniest little rock. That was IT! Total Ezra style. My mom HAD to make fun of me and all the "Mama drama" getting ready to change that little thing. Ugh. Figures... I'm all ready for her typical and she was making it easy on me.

Now that I've probably lost most of my readers (who wants to read about poo?! At least I haven't shared any PICTURES of blowouts with you... yet), I guess I'll wrap up. In case any of you are going through E&O photo withdrawals, here's a couple new ones I took on Tuesday.

She's TALKING, a BUSY weekend, and the vampires

Woohoo! Over the weekend Olivia started talking... little bits at first and now it's pretty regular! She's sooooo adorable and has the softest, most mouse-like little giggle and coo. I really MUST get the two of them talking on video and post it... it will melt your heart. Well, Olivia will. Ezra's talking will likely make you think we're unable to keep him happy as it really sounds like yelling/screeching/screaming. When people around us hear it, even after we warn them that he talks like that, they ALWAYS come over to see if they can help... as though he's needing comforting. It's kind of funny and not too surprising since the first few days he chatted like this we thought he was upset too!

So, we had a BIG weekend... on Friday morning my cousin and his wife had their first baby - a little handsome guy by the name of Luke. He's a total doll and I can't wait to meet him. We've loved ogling at his picture and reveling in how fun it is that babies are just flying into the family these days! (Ok, well 3 new ones so far this year and 3 more expected by the end of the year!) After the baby excitement in the morning we rounded out a VERY hot afternoon with a fantastic dip in the pool. It was our second time taking them there and they seemed to enjoy it. Olivia definitely preferred to be glued to my shoulder for the first 3/4 of the visit and was so busy sucking on my shoulder she left hickey marks! Yikes! But, by the end she was also frogging her way around the pool TRYING to kick a little and catch up with her swim-crazy tadpole of a brother. Ezra is SUCH a pool fiend already!

On Saturday Joe and I hauled the kids to Tustin to visit briefly with the lovely families of OCEAN (Orange County Ethiopian Adoption Network). They are a great and growing group of families in the Orange County area adopting from Ethiopia and we were THRILLED to show off our bundles of fun. The neatest part was that Olivia and Ezra came out of their shells almost immediately and were smiling and giggling. Often they're a bit shy for a while and have the most serious expressions when people meet them, so it was so neat they were so comfortable there! Thank you to the C. family for hosting! Sadly our visit was only about an hour since we had to zoom home and get the kids to bed.

On Sunday evening Joe and I took the babies to Laguna Beach for family photos and their first experience with the Pacific ocean. They were COMPLETELY entranced by the ocean and getting them to smile was a TOUGH task. I hope we got some good ones with them smiling, but who knows. A friend of Joe's does some photography on the side and I am so grateful to him and his wife for helping us out and doing that. There's no way we could afford to have hired someone, so we are indebted to Bill and Kara BIG TIME! Thank you guys! Hugs and kisses from Olivia and Ezra! Oh, and to me one of the coolest things about having our family photos taken yesterday was that it was our one month of being home forever with the kiddos! How neat is that?!

Then today was a little less fun. Ok, a LOT less fun. The morning started with sticking U-bags (literally STICKING since there's adhesive to hold them on) to my beautiful babies' undercarriages. Then, giving them bottles and hoping they'd pee for us. After a while of waiting, I had enough urine for them both and went to remove the bags so I could pour the contents into the "pee cups." Seriously, have you ever used a U-bag on a baby?! The doc told me they'd peel right off. Huh! Not even close! Talk about torturing your wee ones! It seemed more like the bags had been crazy glued to their skin to never be removed again. It was especially bad with Ezra who was a champ through part of the removal... until we hit a large amount of loose skin that was determined to never be parted from the bag. It was agony peeling it off... I can just imagine the nightmares he'll have from the experience.

After that bit of fun I zoomed to the lab since today I had to have some blood work (including fasting blood work) done and share with them a ridiculously humiliating amount of stool specimens with them. Yep, you read that right. My doctor is trying to figure out what is cycling through Joe and I over and over and ordered a lot of blood and stool work to be done. You can't imagine (or maybe you can if you've BTDT) how incredibly uncool it is to walk through a drug store to the lab in the back carrying 3 days worth of specimens. Ugh. Of course, there couldn't be any less than 30 people crammed in the tiny waiting area to overhear the questions about my specimens and confirming what had been needed. Um, yes. Would you like a megaphone lady so the whole store can hear you ask me about it?! Fun stuff. I really pity the person that actually deals with the stool cultures for people, that must be one of the suckiest jobs ever. Can you imagining opening the jars of poo and looking at it under microscopes and whatever else they must do?! Ewwww. After visiting the vampire in the back and donating a bunch of my hard earned blood to him, I raced out of the store and headed home so my mom could get to work and leave her post as grandma-sitter. :-)

As soon as I got the wee-bots up from their naps, it was race mode. Bottles, change diapers, get them dressed, loaded into the car, and off! Now I had to run THEM to the lab to get THEIR blood sucked and give them the fun stool specimens from the kids. Yeah, there was a LOT of poop scooping at our house over the weekend and I'm NOT just talking about the dogs! ;-) Oh baby, what fun! Now, on to the vampires. After waiting a ridiculously long time to be seen, a terrible phlebotomists proceeded to try and hit a vein in Ezra's itty bitty arm. The poor guy was NOT thrilled to be restrained by his mama, let alone have his arm immobilized and felt for a vein. When the actual needle was stuck in I thought he'd explode from screaming so hard. Then I nearly screamed at the woman when she began wiggling the needle around in his arm and dug for a vein. After a few attempts I told her that was WAY too much digging and she stopped. We then had to wait around for 45 minutes for some guy that does the pediatrics in another part of the hospital who would supposedly have more chance of success.

Joe had met me at the lab for a lunch break and was none too thrilled that he now had to cancel a meeting to wait around for this new guy. I was none too thrilled since now this meant the babies would be having their blood sucked by the nasty vampire when they should be having a bottle and going down for a nap. So much for getting to the lab early and expecting to have plenty of time to get home for the nap routine... bleck.

Long story short, the pediatric guy shows up and luckily seemed to know what he was doing. He hit veins on both the wee-bots on the first try and knew that the previous woman had been planning to take WAY too much blood since there were so many tests being performed and she was going to use full-sized vials rather than the micro-vials. The babies both screamed initially, but about halfway through Olivia was overtaken by an almost eery calm. She even smiled and wiggled as I went to lift her up when she was done. I may be deaf in both ears from having been hunched over them whispering in their ears and restricting their body movements during the ordeal, but that smile made it all better.

You may be wondering what all the tests on the kiddos were for. We took them to see Dr. Feldman in Long Beach a couple of weeks ago to have thorough assessments of their physical condition, developmental milestones, attachment, etc. He specializes in international adoptions and was really incredible. It was a grueling 3 hour visit, and part what he wanted to look at were their blood titers (to see where we should start their immunizations at - were the ones they've already had effective, do we have to repeat the ones done in Ethiopia, etc.), check to be sure there are no underlying issues anywhere, no giardia, etc. Mostly just precautionary stuff, but good to know and also great to have a baseline of for the future if ever needed.

On Thursday we have their next appointment with their regular pediatrician to do a well-baby exam. If the results of the titers are back we'll begin immunizations based upon the needs determined by the blood titers. More fun to look forward too... poor babes! We will also be starting vegetables this week! Woohoo... no more cereal only for solids! I can barely believe that Wednesday is their 5 month birthday! Happy 5 months sweet angels! We love you!

I leave you with some pictures of Friday evening's pool fun...

Where's Daddy??

There he is!

Picture-a-palooza!!!

Finally some long awaited photos! I found my memory card reader and am happy to show you the latest shots of our cuties! This evening we're heading back to the pool to cool off after a hot day!

Ezra and his Grampa Paul

Our little man tasting his hand

Olivia - lots to think about as she enjoys her cereal!

Ready for their first pool adventure! (Still have a lot of growing to fit into their 3-6 month swim suits!)

Mommy and her beautiful babes after their first swim

Tummy time fun

Seriously, could she be any more gorgeous?! :-D

Talk about a cute smile... love to see him having fun on his tummy since it's not exactly the norm

To be a baby - it's a rough life

See! Told you it's rough! Smiles to screams in 2 seconds flat!

WHOA!

(A very typical Olivia expression for the camera... seems to think it's a scary device!)

Watch what you say or I'm gonna slap you!

Take that...

And THAT! Ha!

I think they communicate to each other with their tongues...

Love the big bums, compliments of G Diapers

Telling Ezra how it's gonna be...

I told you to feed me NOW!

Seriously?!

We love hugs!

Awww... what style they have!

Our little guy is one cool dude!

Ready for their daily walk and looking good!

Hurry up and get this show on the road! I have places to go and people to see!

Olivia's heading out for a stroll, don't tell the paparazzi!

An addition to my last post

Ok, after skimming quickly through my last post I realized that despite all the ramblings, I made the picture of our new life out to be perfect. However, in order to share more of the reality with those considering adoption, starting the process, waiting for their referral, waiting to travel, or whatever; I thought I'd add a little update.

Things HAVE been tough. Not all the time, but occasionally. There has been so little issue with the kids attaching to us since they are so young (and according to the Docs attachment really starts to happen after 6 months apparently), but for us to attach & bond with them it hasn't all just come instantly. We have loved them since we first laid eyes on their referral pictures... but to really start to feel like their parents and love them through and through... it has/is taking time. There are moments when one of them is crying for no apparent reason and I can't get them to stop that I feel frustrated beyond belief. I wonder what I'm doing wrong or "WHAT IN THE HECK WERE WE THINKING?!" There are times when I am counting the minutes until Joe comes home from work so I can get a break or get away. But, usually just after I have one of these breakdowns in thoughts, I'm flooded with how lucky we are to have these amazing little people and how much I DO love them. Their smiles are the best gift in the world... and I can't tell you how perfect their giggles are. Really... hearing them laugh is food for the soul.

So, while we both have struggled to feel like we ARE a family and question why it didn't just feel like that overnight, we know it's a part of the process. It's a difficult part at times, but one that makes it all the more rewarding. These babies deserve our love more than anything or anyone else, and we're thrilled to be able to give it to them. For every down there are 10 times the ups in our daily lives... so the good really does outweigh the bad, but it's not all easy. I don't want my last post to make it seem like it's been a total breeze... we HAVE had challenges! Many times I read other peoples blogs and think "WOW, how do they do it so easily?!" and then remind myself we often on talk about the good... at least in public. When I read some one's blog that is honest, open, and get to really read about the roller coaster, I find it so refreshing and helpful in my difficult moments of the journey. Therefore, it's my commitment to all of you to continue to try and share the good AND the bad! (Lucky you... I know! ;-) )

Oh... and Joe and I are still cycling through the battle with the GI bugs... so send those get well wishes our way! We are SO ready to be back to full health so we can REALLY start having fun with these two gorgeous babes!

Alive and... doing GREAT!

Hello blog world! I am so sorry for being such a dud with my blogging lately! It's taken me a while to feel up to answering the phone and returning emails during the days, let alone getting the blog updated. At this point though, I think I can safely say we're really getting into the swing of things and I'm starting to return (at least somewhat) to the world of COMMUNICATING! I know, it's terribly exciting! I've missed it!

On that note, let me point out some exciting things. First, we met Olivia & Ezra more than a month ago now! Our first meeting was on April 7th, and while the memory is still vivid and fresh, it feels like a lifetime ago. I really feel like it's been so much longer, as they have become such a part of our lives and I can barely remember what life was like without them. We arrived home the evening of April 18th, so we've been home ALMOST a month now! While it seems amazing it's been that long, it really feels like it's been so much longer. Every day we see changes in Olivia and Ezra - at least developmentally. I think I'm too close to them to see how much they are physically changing, as they still seem like precious little babes to me! I know they're growing though, and Joe and I see Ezra's face filling out at least!

Soon, we'll be starting them on vegetables and we've already gotten through all the different types of cereal. I now have some recipes to make my own baby food, so I'm excited to start that adventure soon. It's funny how much I get excited about starting them on new food... I'm not too sure they care yet about having more variety in their diets. :-D

Health-wise both our angels are doing great. Ezra still has some congestion sounds, and his cough is occurring more frequently than before, but apparently it's nothing to be concerned about. This week we'll be taking them in for a slew of blood & urine tests as well as stool cultures, and then next week we have a well-baby exam with our regular pediatrician. At that point we should have a good idea of where we're going to go with their vaccinations, since some of the blood tests are to check the titres (level of antibodies in their blood) for various vaccines they were given in Ethiopia to see if we need to start the vaccination schedule from scratch or move forward from where they are already at. I am NOT looking forward to the blood tests or vaccines, but it's all a part of life so I guess I'll have to get over it. :-S

As for their daily changes... here's a little of what they're doing these days:

Olivia is such a strong, tiny peanut. She weighs in at about 12 pounds now (at just shy of 5 months - not TOO tiny, but still little). Her strength is really impressive. She's already rolling over (not consistently quite yet), and can pull her knees up under her during tummy time. She's also a tummy time champ and will hang out and move around on her tummy for a long time. She's still a quiet little thing, and a bit behind in her "language development" since she's not doing too much cooing and chatting just yet. BUT, I will say that in the last week she seems to be doing a lot more of the tongue "Thhhbbbbbbttttt" type stuff and getting a bit more vocal - so I think she's on her way! The lag in her language isn't too much of a concern yet, but obviously "could" indicate hearing issues. We aren't going to test her for that until a bit later if there's still concern, as the international adoption pediatrician wants to give her 6 months to settle in at home and get comfortable before worrying. Plus, hearing tests in infants under 6 months are apparently not too accurate. Olivia is also grabbing objects and sticking them in her mouth like crazy now. When we met them they could barely grab an object intentionally (you know, where they see something and reach out to touch or feel it), and now she's definitely getting that down. HOORAY! Some days, she even holds her own bottle for a short bit of time... ok, it's more like she balances it and it falls when she turns her head... but she's starting to get it!

Ezra is also doing phenomenally. He is SUCH a talker! He really chats up a storm... and his version of cooing can be super cute little coo type noises, all the way up to a LOVELY scream he loves to do - and OFTEN! I swear the first week or two he was making the noise I'd run to him to be sure it wasn't caused by pain or make sure he wasn't crying! He's just really excited to try out the full range of his vocal cords I guess! The bummer is, he's NOT a fan of tummy time and is a HUGE fan of being held over your shoulder and conforming to your body like an amoeba. Therefore, his upper body strength is a bit on the weak side and compared to Olivia he feels fairly floppy. When he's sitting he often lets his head just droop down and his back hunches over... so we're working hard on that. He also is ADORABLE when he soothes himself as he gets tired.... from the time we met him it's been the same exact action. He lifts his right arm straight up over his head and turns his head to the right and pushes his face into his arm. At the same time he takes his left hand and puts it on his chest and grabs his clothes. Then he starts suckling against his arm. It's REALLY cute... but has also contributed to a slightly flattened right side of the head. He also would barely look to the left at all... no matter how hard we'd try to get him to look that way. So, we bought a sleep positioner and now have to lay him down on his left side. I think I'm already noticing the right side of his head curving back out AND he now looks left fairly often! YIPPEEEEEE!!! We're so proud of him! :-D

They are both also sleeping pretty well now, and the schedule is getting pretty routine. Ezra is the one that most often wakes up at some point during the night and it doesn't take too much to get him back to sleep usually. Yes... this is the BIGGEST help of all I'm sure and probably the biggest reason our transition into parenthood has been so smooth! We're still tired a lot... but I think it's more from how exhausting it can be "entertaining" them and playing than it is from lack of sleep at night.

We LOVE taking them out for adventures too. We went to the pool a couple of weeks ago for a short swim and they both did great. They didn't seem too sure WHAT they thought of it... but there were no tears and they looked adorable in their swim suits! They do have some growing to do before their suits fit thought... the 3-6 month size is still swimming on them (no pun intended!).

The biggest adjustment to our trips out though is the attention we draw. Don't get me wrong... we EXPECTED to get a lot of stares, comments, etc. But, it's still an adjustment. How I respond to it depends on a few factors, including what is said or done. We've had some comments/questions that were so beyond rude I could barely contain my disgust, as well as some genuine, sweet remarks. The part that really irks me is when someone interrupts Joe or myself mid-sentence when were talking to each other to ask us something incredibly personal... and I must admit the "Are they adopted?" question is getting pretty old. Some times I want to tell the person asking that question... Um, let me think... I can't remember! Joe and I are thinking the next person to ask this may get a response from us like "No. Sometimes when you swing accidents happen... and that's exactly what happened." We're thrilled to talk about our adoption when people are polite and/or we're having a conversation, but the way people go about asking their questions is just downright stupid sometimes. And seriously people, don't step in front of our big ole' double stroller and stop when we're plowing along on an outing. We DO have places we're trying to go to and don't need to be stopped every 10 feet for the barrage of questions!

Sorry for the rant... we really do love to share the miracle of adoption with people and are thrilled to educate the public about it. It's just hard in the moment to answer in a polite or friendly manner when someone asks something that's just out of line. We ARE getting used to it though, and finding ways to respond that we *hope* Olivia and Ezra will one day be able to be proud of. Baby steps... we'll get there! In the mean time, if you walk up to me and ask me how much I paid their birth mother to be able to adopt them (or if we got them 2 for the price of 1)... you may get a pretty gruff response!

So, as you can see we have two incredibly, amazing blessings. I cannot possibly imagine life without them. We've settled into being a family more quickly than I could ever have hoped, and parenting twins really hasn't been nearly as hard as I'd prepared myself for. I really can't imagine how boring things would be with just one! No offense to the parents of singletons... I'm sure they're great!!! I just love how we have two incredible personalities to keep us entertained, watching them interact with each other, dressing up a boy AND a girl... that sort of thing! Why in the world do parents of twins or singletons make it sound like multiples are so awful or challenging?! Seriously? It's definitely got it's additional complications, but it is SOOOO worth it, trust me. If ANYONE wants to hear more about parenting twins, feel free to ask. I'm no expert yet and definitely still expect plenty of tough days ahead, but I'd be happy to share more about what we've learned and how we make it work.

I'll try to add a few pictures today too... I just have to find my memory card reader so I can download them! Sorry I've been so bad about pictures TOO! I know what fun it is to see them growing and changing!

Hugs to all... and a late Happy Mother's Day!

Laughs in our daily lives

What a weekend it was! During our gap between the morning and afternoon naps we had outings on Saturday AND Sunday! We ran to CostCo, visited some friends and family, and even took Joe to the hospital! Poor Joe was feeling really crummy when he woke up Sunday morning, and before long was experiencing more fun like we had in Ethiopia! :-( I have no clue why he was sick like that again, but the poor guy was down and out for the day. Sadly for myself (yeah, I know, I'm selfish!) I lost daddy's help for the day too... so it was an extra bummer! I somehow still managed to get the kiddos fed and out the door (albeit late) to visit during our awake time prior to the afternoon nap (or cry fest... depending on how you look at it), and then after the nap got Joe to the hospital, kept the babies entertained there for a couple of hours, and then zoomed home to put them to bed by myself. Whew... what a day.

Today, Joe's totally out of commission still, but has been desperately trying to lend a hand where he can. As I was finishing afternoon bottles and getting ready to take E & O upstairs for their afternoon nap, Joe offered to change Olivia for me since she'd been working on filling up her diaper during her bottle. What a guy... I tell ya. So, he's on the floor with her on the changing mat, and gets the new diaper, wipes, and a diaper bag ready to go. Then, he opens up her diaper to the aftermath of a real explosion. It was no blowout (I've had to change her after a few of those already...), but there was a lot in that diaper! As he rolled it up to Velcro it closed on the mess, she began shooting poo at him! This was no drip action, it was full on projectile poo missiles! It went about a foot... that's some serious distance for such a little thing!

Being the helpful and loving wife that I am, I instantly jumped into action to help. Oh wait, no I didn't. I began laughing hysterically... so hard my abs hurt and I was crying. I just couldn't stop laughing! I've had so many nasty diaper change accidents (both babies have pooped into my hands during their changes, I've been peed on by both, dealt with Olivia diaper blowouts, you name it - and Joe's gotten off easy until then!), so I was unbelievably entertained by the incredible mess she created. I only wish I could've gotten it on video, it was too funny to not share.

So, yeah. That's the fun from today. At the moment the little munchkins are ACTUALLY sleeping (or at least quiet) during their afternoon nap. It's been 30 minutes since we put them down, so I expect that the pattern of lately will continue and crying will begin momentarily. Wow... as if on cue, Olivia JUST began crying! Ugh! Off to try and do some back patting and soothing. I have no idea why she's no longer able to nap longer than 30 minutes or so between wake ups... but it's the pits! So much for being productive OR getting a nap of my own during their nap time! :-( At least they're still sleeping reasonably well at night!

Later all! Off to give some kisses to our little princess!

Pictures!

Together in the visiting room at Toukoul

JUST HOME! Comatose babies...

Little Miss Olivia enjoy some cereal

Our handsome man NOT enjoying cereal

Fun in the bouncy seats

Sleeping before bath and bed... this guy goes into a coma when he's ready for bed!

Our little beauty out of her bath and smelling wonderful!

That's all for now... more later! Enjoy!