As you know, this week was really really rough for us. By Thursday we had all pretty much had it (including poor Owen who just wanted his brother, mother and father back) and Kyle was still out of day care. I had morning duty and Heather had afternoon (she had to teach in the morning). K and I went to do some errands.
We went to the UPS Store to drop off some mail and then we went to the book store to find a magazine. They didn’t have the copy of Twins that we wanted (the one with Heather’s letter in it and the photo of K&O) so we moved on. Of course our next stop was the learning express. It’s impossible for me to go into one of those places and not get something for the boys, I fail pretty much every time; or succeed, depending on how you look at it. We browsed around and I settled on something I knew Owen would really like. I didn’t think Kyle would be too into it, but O needed something special.
So I got two of the little airplanes of course – you can’t just get one in our house. This morning, Owen woke up first and got a little good solid one on one with Mommy and Papi. And that meant I got to play with the airplane with him. Heather was surprised, but I knew he would figure it out. Now we just have to watch out for broken objects as this little thing whizzes around!
Pudding. The child would only eat pudding.
OWEN PLAYS ALONE
One of the presents from MorMor & MorFar that arrived for Adoption Day was “a Mini Cooper! Just like MorMor’s!” Here Owen was playing that MorMor and MorFar were going to the beer store (!). MorFar was driving and MorMor was in the passenger seat. MorMor and MorFar bought “many many beers” (!). The presents that MorMor and MorFar sent have saved us over the past few days. For Owen, they have been just the bright spot that he needed while his best-friend-twin-playmate has been out of commission.
KYLE WAITS FOR OWEN
By Day Three of having to stay home from daycare, Kyle was so forlorn without his brother. After his nap today he stood at the window in the playroom for about a half an hour, just looking out at the street, just watching for Alex’s car (Alex was picking up Owen from daycare today), just waiting for Owen to come home. Looking out the window he’d say, “Owen, where are you Owen?”
KYLE &
PAPINo matter how sick the boys are,
Braydon always seems to be able to get a smile out of them.
PAPI’S KISSES
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!!!
Well, in our desire to post meaningful sentimental thoughtful heartfelt beautiful things on our blog in honor of our 2nd Adoption Day, we have been denying you — our dear readers — the down and dirty (read:
not so beautiful) truth about what’s been going on here at the Johnson-McCormick Family Homestead for the past three days. Now that the Adoption Day Lovliness is over you have to deal with the inside scoop on high fevers puke parental stress and other unpleasantries! Ha! Just when you thought everything was all warm and fuzzy lovely lovely!!!
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]:
Sunrise Two Years Ago, looking out from our hotel room in Haiti, 2005One 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.
Heather & Kyle’s Hands Two Years Ago, at home, 2005
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 did not carry our camera with us while we were out and about each day in Port Au Prince. These few photos were taken in our hotel room:
In the airport, bound for Miami:
The view of the “suburbs” of Port, from our hotel room:
The boys, coming alive:
An AP photographer from Britian, also staying at the hotel, took our first family photo for us. We used it for our Adoption Announcement, and it hangs in the hallway of our house now. I remember that even though we had only had the boys for a few days, we already felt like a deeply connected family:
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:
One of our first visitors, our friends Kristen & Darin, took this photo of us in our living room. It is our first family photo on U.S. soil:
Madly in love:
As I was looking through the photos of our first weeks together, the transformation in the boys was more transparent than ever to me. Here are K & O, in the kitchen, at the end of our first five weeks home:
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