We were up all night with Kyle who had a fever. He spikes fevers really high — last night our highest reading was 104.9 at 4:30 a.m. (and that’s with an ear thermometer, which they say is always a degree or two lower than the real temperature?!)… Even though Kyle has always had high fevers when he’s sick it is still scary. Braydon had him at the clinic when it opened first thing this morning. He’s on an antibiotic and on the mend. We’re sure he’ll be just fine, but it is super hard on our whole family when one of us is sick (and wow doesn’t one of us getting sick just make us realize how close to the edge of everything falling apart we are living???!!!; It is hard to manage it all on a good day, let alone a sick day). Today was a tough day. But more than any of us, Owen HATES it when Kyle’s sick. He loses his best-friend-playmate for the day… all of our plans for family fun get thrown out the window… and worst of all… his twin brother gets tons of attention which just drives him (understandably) nuts. Kyle is very demanding when he is sick. He demands constant attention and requires that he is held (usually by me) 24 x 7. That alone is very hard on Owen. And Owen lets us know it. Anyway, while Braydon and Kyle were at the clinic this morning I was at home with Owen. We’ve been working on two big things lately and this morning — with the one-on-one time — Owen mastered them both. Owen was so proud to show off: 1] how well he can put his moisturizer lotion on and rub it fully into his skin all by himself (photo above), and 2] how he can zipper his own vest all by himself (photo below). We also went to the grocery store together this morning — just Owen and I. And although I have no photos to show it, I can attest that at the grocery store he was so proud to show off: 3] how when out and about without his twin brother side-kick he can still charm the socks off of many of the shoppers all by himself (and what a joy to go grocery shopping with just one three year old instead of two!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
P.S. About the first photo— “Barack the Vote. Obama 2008.” — It is a tough call, but I’m pretty sure I’m standing behind Obama for the next election. However, I’m VERY sure, knowing my boys, that they would definately vote Barack all the way if they could.
For better or for worse we let the boys each take photos tonight. They actually held the camera, looked at the digital screen to see what they were composing, pushed the button, and took the shots. Here they are:
Owen’s first photo– of Kyle and Papi– shockingly, he actually got Kyle to look right at the candle and smile, which is something Braydon and I find almost impossible to achieve.
Kyle’s first photo– of Owen and Mama– not quite such a perfected shot as the one above… however… Kyle was able to achieve something possibly even more shocking: at the young age of three he was able to capture the true essence of the end-of-a-long-day-of-him-being-sick on the faces of his brother and mother.
Today was a beautiful, beautiful summer day. Not too hot, and perfectly blue sky. We went to the Delaware Water Gap (click here) and hiked for two hours in the woods. We saw several beautiful waterfalls along the way. Doing this kind of thing as a family is K & O’s absolute favorite way to spend their time. They are almost always happy, almost all the time. But when we’re exploring new places (especially outside) the boys are unbelievably happy. As always, click on any photo to enlarge.
Sadly, at the last minute, our friends Jessica and Paul and baby Sammy had to cancel on coming to visit us for the weekend. We were feeling really down about that today. But we decided that we’re going to try to make the most of this very rare opportunity to have a weekend alone at home just the four of us. We started the weekend off with a *bang* this evening: we had our first real WHOLE FAMILY COOKING TOGETHER EXPERIENCE… We made pizza. It was crazy. It was messy. It was fun.
7:39 a.m., Friday, June 22
Jessica Kyle Owen, February 18, 2005Braydon and I have a lot of friends. Old friends, new friends, friends we see often, friends we rarely ever see, friends from past stages of life, friends from the here-and-now, friends from online who we’ve never even met in person. Even though I often feel like I’m not a good enough friend (I’m not in touch enough, I forget birthdays, I am horrible about sending ‘thank you notes,’ I hate talking on the phone, etc., etc., etc.), I feel so grateful to have such a wide network of friends in my life who in their own ways each are sticking it out with crazy-ole-me. And one special thing about life “Post K & O” (as we fondly refer to it), is that I have been able to watch as this wide net of friends embrace my boys — each embracing K & O in their own way. Some of my friends know my boys well, some have yet to meet them, some read this blog daily and still want more details about my boys’ life, others have never logged onto this blog and know virtually nothing about K & O… yet each of my friends have, in some way, shown love for Kyle and Owen. Sometimes the showing of love is subtle, sometimes overt, sometimes spiritual, sometimes material. But I can’t think of one person who I love that hasn’t shown love for my children. How amazing is that? Even before the boys arrived the love was showering down; we had four baby showers thrown for us, we received literally hundreds of “Happy Adoption” cards, and people all over the place were praying for my boys. I feel so truly blessed. So blessed. And I feel so glad for Kyle and Owen that they have that in place in their life. Nobody could ask for more. At the same time, as I mentioned above, I’m often self-conscious that I’m not a good enough friend to my friends. I worry that I let too much slip too often. I worry that I don’t do enough, that I don’t show my love enough, that I’m too selfish and wrapped up in my own little life. So today I wanted my “Love Thursday” post to be about the love I feel for my friends — and the appreciation I feel toward my friends for loving my boys so unquestioningly. Tomorrow some very dear friends arrive for the weekend. We don’t see them often enough. We don’t do enough for them. But there is no doubt in my mind that they love my boys with a passion. And that just makes me love them even more than I did “Pre K & O” (which I didn’t think was possible). The photo above is of the first time our friend Jessica met my boys. Jess is one of the very best friends I have in the whole wide world. She drove for hours to come meet the boys just a couple of weeks after they had arrived home. I was in a hazy-blurry-New-Mom-of-Adopted-Twin-Babies-fog, but somehow I had the wherewithal to pull out the camera and click this one shot. I love this photo because I feel like you can see on her face the love that Jessica felt for my boys (and she had just met them), AND you can see in the boys’ postures the comfort they felt with Jessica right away. It is all so beautiful. Happy Love Thursday Everyone!
People joke about the funny things that little chidren say related to all-things-potty. But what about the funny things we find ourselves saying during that fleeting (and luckily relatively short-lived) phase of life in which we potty train our children?! My guess is that potty training twins just makes for double the ridiculously bizarre things that come out of our mouths?! Here are the top ten potty talk things I’ve heard Braydon and/or I actually verbalize in the past several days. Note: This is a family-friendly, “G” rated blog so some of the really good quotes have been censored here.
- O.k., listen. Look at me. No matter how hard you push sometimes nothing comes out. If you’ve been sitting there for fifteen minutes you probably don’t have to go!
- Good job! Yay! Yay!!! O.k., now just let me clean it all up.
- Wait! Wait! If you’re both going to go at once you need to aim for the water not for your brother! Careful! Ooops. O.k., listen, next time you have to try to not pee so much on your brother.
- Yes, you are right. You are both good poopers.
- No, that’s not a funny thing to say. We can’t touch it and we cannot eat it. That’s gross and I want you to both stop saying that. No, stop it! Don’t laugh at him when he says that!
- O.k., as soon as I look at his poopie then I’ll come look at your poopie.
- Wait! Don’t move! You can’t always try to watch it come out. Look– now there is poopie all over the potty!
- No, we don’t have to show them. Believe me, they don’t all want to see it. Only your mommy and papi and twin brother want to see your poopies.
- You know what? You don’t need to go every single time your brother goes. Let’s just try to get through the store now, o.k.?
- O.k., just calm down. Relax. Next time you can flush his.
Interestingly, they are exactly the same for both boys right now:
Breakfast:
Milk & Orange Juice (OJ is, hands down, their current favorite drink. They’d drink it non-stop all day if we’d let them.)
–> that’s it. No actual food. If it were entirely up to them, they’d never eat any solid food for breakfast. Of course, it is not entirely up to them. So they eat breakfast foods, but they are definately not their favorite foods.
Lunch:
Turkey & Cheese Sandwich. On soft wheat bread with a little mayo.
Dinner:
They’ll choose going to Carrabba’s Italian Grill (click here) over my cooking any night of the week. They have, on occassion, tried things off the Children’s Menu there, but by far their favorite meal is the following (which is off the regular menu): Italian bread dipped in olive oil; caesar salad; penne pasta with alfredo sauce and tons of fresh parmesan sprinkled on top.
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