Recently Kyle discovered the joy of playing with water. More accurately, he re-discovered it, since both boys really have always loved it. But what he discovered is playing in the upstairs sink by himself with the soap (see blog post here). Today, he enlightened Owen to the joys of the sink and the soap.
Heather and I decided we could let them play for a couple minutes while we dressed (I am sure you can now see where this is going). All was well, we heard lots of chatter and splashing and delight.
I finished getting dressed and went to check on them. As I rounded the corner, I could see a stream of water rolling across the floor. When I looked in to see what they were doing, there was water everywhere.
They had filled the sink with water, and then filled it with washcloths and soap. In doing so, they covered the overflow hole on the sink. Water cascaded down the side of the counter and pooled all over the floor. Naturally, I exclaimed “Heather, I need your help now.” She ran in, we removed the perpetrators from the scene to their roars of laughter and “what happened mapi?”
We proceeded to clean up. Five or so towels later after the floor was dry and the carpet draining in the tub, we found that two of the cabinet drawers were filled with water and under the sink had an inch of water as well. Kyle and Owen were now having a fantastic time jumping off the bed, running over, looking over the gate and asking “what happened mama/papi?”
I went downstairs and noticed that the ceiling was leaking and dripping on the floor – in several places. In fact there was a nice pool in between the kitchen and playroom. The drywall tape was bubbling and dripping. I went to the basement and…. there was dripping and a pool there as well. The water had travelled into the walls and was making the house circuit. Other than put more towels down there was little we could do.
We went out to the grocery store and by the time we had returned the dripping in the basement and the kitchen had stopped. The carpet is still draining in the tub.
Really, we only left them playing for about 5 minutes in total. But 5 minutes x 3 gallons per minute x twin 2 year olds…. ’nuff said.
Pudding. The child would only eat pudding.
ADOPTION DAY FLOWERS FROM CARIN
Mrs. Peterson has a special place in our family. The flowers are beautiful and have definately cheered things up around here. Thank you Carin — especially for the sweet message!
OWEN WHISPERS TO PAPI
In the past few nights Owen has been doing this at the dinner table: He reaches over to Braydon, pulls him close, then whispers into his ear: “I love you Papi.” Braydon says, “Thank you Owen! I love you too!” Then Owen pulls him close again, and whispers in his ear: “You’re my special boy.” This is so, so, so sweet — it is what Braydon has always whispered to Owen day in and day out for the past two years.
PAPI & OWEN
Another regular scene at the dinner table these days.
PUDDING!
Being so sick, Kyle has had no appetite. The doctor recommended that we try giving Kyle pudding — since apparently this is a food that many toddlers enjoy even when they are sick, and it helps buffer their stomachs from the side effects (nausea) of the stronger antibiotics. We had never bought pudding, and the boys had never tried it. Kyle did not like it at all. He ate one spoonful and turned it away. Owen, however, LOVED it! Here’s his reaction upon tasting chocolate pudding for the first time!!!
Monday, from all reports, everything was great at daycare. Around 6:00pm I was making supper and Braydon was with the boys upstairs supervising while K & O were playing their new favorite sport: Jump Like Maniacs Over And Over Off Of Owen’s Bed While Holding As Many Stuffed Animals In Your Arms As Possible. According to Braydon, suddenly, in the midst of the maniacal jumping, Kyle picked up Hunny Bunny and Sheep, matter-of-factly announced “I’m sick,” and walked out of Owen’s room. It was then that we knew something was seriously wrong.
By 6:30pm Braydon thought he should take Ky Ky’s temperature: 102. Ugh. By 7:00 Ky Ky had puked up all his supper. Nice. By 8:00 he was in bed. At 3:30am the ear thermometer was reading 106.4 and we were having a hard time remaining calm.
By 10:30 Tuesday morning Braydon and I had cancelled everything for our workdays, Owen was at daycare, and Ky Ky was at the doctor’s office with both of his anxious parents. Antibiotics were prescribed. And we’ve been battling the yuckies ever since. He’s on the mend, and doing fine (no worries, he’s okay), but our life has been thrown into a terrible out-of-control spiral.
We feel like we’re barely managing (or as we think of it: “living on the edge” — i.e., the edge of dispair/disfunction/disaster) all the time… but when one of us (or any combination of us) gets sick EVERYTHING falls apart. And I mean, everything. Kyle’s a trooper: he’s not a whiner when he’s sick, he’s just a boy-who-needs-to-be-held-by-his-mama-24×7 when he’s sick. Braydon and I have been trying to make due by tag-teaming and working from home and cancelling whatever we can, but it is TOUGH. We’re now on Day Three of this try-to-swing-it-and-look-like-a-professional-but-prioritize-your-kid-too thing. And poor Owen. Honestly I feel worse for him than his brother: it just sucks to have to go to daycare alone for three days in a row. And there just is nothing worse than being neglected because your twin brother is getting all the energy. Owen is a sweetie, and he handles it about as well as any two year old could possibly be expected to handle it. But really, it is all such a big bummer for him. And worst of all, this whole case of the yuckies has centered right smack around our Adoption Day. For us, our family Adoption Day is big. It is bigger than birthdays or anniversaries or most major holidays. And this year’s did not go as planned: it has been a big drag.
The highlight of this whole thing (so far) was definately last night. We had been planning to go out to dinner to celebrate our Adoption Day. Braydon and Owen and Kyle were determined to make it happen. I was a little hesitant given that Kyle was still not even close to 100%… but I went along with it. We arrived at the restaurant and were seated at a great booth. Our server had just taken our drink order and was off to fetch it for us: 2 chocolate milks and 2 sangrias… now that’s the way to celebrate in style! And then it started: the PUKE. Poor Ky Ky threw up everwhere. All over the table, all over the booster seat, all over the leather cushions of our lovely booth… and… all over himself… and… all over his Papi. It just kept coming and coming and coming — it was dripping off of the table and dripping off of little Ky Ky and his Papi. Owen was just sitting in his little booster seat, scared, saying: “What’s happened? What’s happened Mama??” I was desperately trying to get Kyle out of the booth. Braydon was trying to wipe up puke with linen napkins. The rest of the restaurant (jam packed full during prime dinner time) was watching our family with distraught dazed looks on their faces.
We got outta there as quickly as possible. Me holding Kyle, both of us now covered in puke, and Kyle saying, “Mama, I threw up” over and over and over. Braydon holding Owen, both of them now covered in puke, and Owen crying loudly saying, “I can’t ready to go– I want my chocolate milk, I want my pasta, I want my chocolate milk, I want my pasta” over and over and over. Can you picture it? Happy Adoption Day Johnson-McCormicks!
You know Ky Ky is sick when…
(well, when there is puke everywhere and the thermometer is reading 106.4 — but you, dear reader, get to be spared the gory details of what that looks like)…
You know Ky Ky is sick when…
…He doesn’t want to eat his “Newton Cookies” (Fig Newtons = his favorite food on earth) [photo taken on Tuesday afternoon]:
You know Ky Ky is feeling a lot better when…
…He goes upstairs, it starts to get a bit too quiet, you go to check on him, and you find this [photos taken this afternoon]:
One Child
by L.M.A., November 2000
One child for a nation speaks
Her eyes, they ask, implore-
Will you?
She is innocence personified
She is hope
She is future
What will you answer?
Hunger- she has known it
Pain- she has felt it
Tears- her parents cry them
because they wanted only joy
for her
for Haiti
Yet, when she smiles, when she laughs-
that baby laugh, that knows no sorrow
In that moment
when her eyes are shining-
she again speaks for a nation
She asks-
Will you?
But, it matters not because
given the chance
SHE will.
Our first week together, in Haiti. The first two photos were taken by Braydon just minutes after arriving at the hotel from the orphanage — within the first hour of having the boys. Looking at these photos now it feels deeply significant that K & O are still wearing the “dress up” clothes they had been dressed in for our arrival at the orphanage.
We have hundreds and hundreds of photos of the boys, many of them we absolutely love, and some of which are really good. I thought about trying to post a series of photos representing our first two years as a family. But as I started to look through the photo files on my computer, I just knew it would be impossible to choose just a few. So, I’m limiting myself to our first five weeks home. Here are ten of our favorites spanning those first precious weeks…
K & O in their bedroom, our first day home:
Settling in, slowly but surely:
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