We have one smart little girl...

Last night Izzy and Matt were sitting at the kitchen table while I made dinner when Izzy decided to stand on her chair, which she knows is a no no, so Matt told her that if she couldn't sit in her chair correctly like a big girl then she had to sit on the floor like a baby has to. (Whenever she is scolded by her daddy she instantly cries for me, and last night was no exception.) She kept trying to get up to come to me but everytime she tried to get up Matt made her sit back down because she was in trouble for not obeying the rules. So she decided to outsmart him. She slid across the floor on her bottom to me! Technically she was obeying what Matt had told her, she was sitting on the floor! Matt had to leave the room and I had to turn around so she couldn't see us laughing hysterically! We are so in for it if she is outsmarting us at 2.5 years old I don't want to think about what she is going to be doing when she hits the teenage years.

likes and dislikes (27 mos. old)

The kids are growing up so fast that I want to make sure to keep track of their likes and dislikes at this age. So here are the lists. I'm sure I am forgetting some things but I'm pretty sure the major ones are on here.

Isabelle:

Likes:
- food
* Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches
* pasta alfredo
* green beans
* fruit
* breads
* most cereals (see dislikes)
* donuts
- purses
- dolls (i.e. babies)
- teasing daddy
- phones (or anything that become a phone. the other day it was half of a cereal bar:))
- bracelets
- belts
- brushing her teeth
- swinging
- coloring
- helping mommy cook/bake
- dancing
- ticklemonster (i.e. mommy and daddy)
- rocking horse at her sitters house
- getting her toenails painted

Dislikes:
- Food
* meat
* Fruity Pebbles cereal
- wrestling with her brother (or rather when her brother wants to wrestle. LOL)
- picking up her toys
- napping
- shopping
- getting her hair done


Avery:

Likes:
- Food
* fruit (especially bananas)
* green beans
* pasta alfredo
* donuts
* hot dogs
* cereal
* pizza
- The Wiggles (like is really not a strong enough feeling, he is absolutely obsessed with them)
- music
- dancing
- doing summersalts
- going to the park
- going for walks (walking on his own not in the stroller)
- going up and down the stairs
- opening and closing doors
- turning lights on and off
- climbing
- his silkies
- cars
- ticklemonster (i.e. mommy and daddy)
- books (especially Brown Bear Brown Bear)
- playing with water
- digging in dirt
- wrestling with Daddy
- brushing his teeth
- being outside

Dislikes:
- Food
* breads
- shopping
- being in his car seat
- Daddy going to work
- being still
- coloring

what's going on around here

Here are some things that the twins have done, said, or are into nowadays.


-Izzy was playing with her baby on Friday night and she put her baby on the couch then she pretended that a play bottle of ketchup was lotion. She "shook" out some lotion on her hand then rubbed her hands together and rubbed her hands on her hair and arms then onto her baby. She then got a spoon and a cup and started feeding her baby. So wish I had had a camera!

-The dogs were barking at a person walking down our street. Izzy ran over to me, pointed out the window and said "Who dat?". First time she has ever said this and it took me by total surprise.

-Matt trimmed his beard Sunday morning, after he got in the shower Avery picked up his trimmer and started shaving his face. Luckily he doesn't know how to turn it on, yet anyways.

-We were over at Matt's parents house Sunday to watch the Bears play and it was during the twins' morning nap so we set up their pack and plays in a back bedroom. Avery woke up first so we shut the door so Izzy could keep sleeping in peace (meaning keeping Avery from waking her up). We were in the living room and heard a knock. Went back to the bedroom and there was Izzy. She had climbed out of her pack-n-play and was knocking on the door to get out. She really is getting too big!

-They love to go for walks, especially when we let them take their babies in the strollers.

-We went to my mom's house to visit the other day and we decided to take my mom's dog for a walk. Izzy really wanted to hold the leash and since Zoe is a chihuahua she could handle her. It was so cute and Izzy really took this resposibility seriously, even letting Zoe know when she wasn't supposed to do something, like eat garbage on the road. Avery on the hand really doesn't have the attention span for this and kept dropping the leash when something caught his attention, which was really cute in its own right. Love my boy and his ever wandering mind, he definately keeps up on our toes.

-Avery is addicted to the book "Brown Bear Brown Bear". He has read and seen it so many times now that if you ask him where the red bird, yellow duck, green frog, etc are he will point them out to you. Of course he could also know these things because he is a really smart little man too!

-Avery knows where the park is from our house. So now if we are outside or even in the car he points in the direction of the park and will scream to go to the park. I have even gone so far to go a different route home but he still knows where it is and insists on letting me know and crying to go there. It is really hard to deceive a child who is too smart for his own good!LOL!


On another note, we had both kids assessed by a speech therapist and developmental therapist through our states Early Intervention. Both kids will be getting speech therapy because they both assessed at 31% behind for their age. They did not assess low enough for developmental therapy though. Avery is going to be reassessed by the developmental therapist in 6 months to see how he doing because he was very close to 30% behind. I have a feeling he tested so low because he really had no desire to do what the therapist wanted him to do but he is totally capable of doing everything she asked him to do. He can be bit stubborn at times.LOL!

Well that is all for now. I'm sure I will think of more things and type them up as soon as I can.

Well I received my first "I don't like you no more mom" today! Fortunately it didn't quite come out like that!
Isabelle kept standing on her chair this morning at the kitchen table while I was making their breakfast and after warning her numerous times to sit on her bottom I told her she had to go to quiet time. I placed her on the step and she began to cry. She stood up and through her tears told me "Mama Bye Bye". She said this about 3 times. I am guessing this is the two year old version of "I don't like you no more mom", which I am so not looking forward to BTW. As much as it hurt that she was saying this I stood my ground and made her sit in quiet time for the two minutes that we give them. After it was all said and done she was back to being her smiling little self giving me kisses and laughing. I know all kids say stuff like this to their parents, heck I remember doing it myself, but it sure doesn't feel good hearing your child say them.

So my apologies to my mother for ever telling you I don't like you no more!

The kids are growing like crazy! Avery has figured out the art of moving chairs around to reach things. Last night he moved his chair up to the counter while I was fixing dinner so that he could "help", luckily I caught him in time before he "help"ed himself to a nice cut from a knife I had been using. Nothing is safe anymore! They are climbing much better (good and bad) and going up and down the stairs much better (good and bad). Saturday morning we opened the sliding glass door and let the kids play outside while we made breakfast. It was so weird watching them play while we were inside, but they did a great job. Until Avery decided that he needed to bring a cup full of water into the house and spill it all over the kitchen floor, but at least it was only water and easy to clean up. Last night while I was cleaning up Izzy after dinner Avery put all their toys that were in the kitchen back into their playroom without me having to ask him to, I was so proud of him. They are noticing more around them now too. When we are eating, or at the store, or doing anything really they are always pointing at things for us to tell them what the object is. Tomorrow a speech therapist is going to be coming to the house to evaluate Avery to see if he qualifies for therapy or not. Isabelle's appointment is next Friday. I'm really interested in seeing how it goes.

I will post again after Izzy has her evaluation to let you all know of the results for both kids.

2 year checkup

First of all let me start by saying I can't believe that I just took my babies to their 2 year checkup! It just seems like yesterday we were bringing home babies and now we have toddlers. Just crazy!

Avery is now 32" tall and weighs in at 24 lbs. Isabelle is now 31 3/4" and weighs in at 22 lbs. Neither is hitting the charts, Avery is in the 10th percentile and Izzy is in the 5th, but the doctor didn't seem to think that it was a problem. Which in turn means that I am not going to worry about it. They might be tinu but they are healthy which is whats the most important thing. We do need to start giving them pediasure, boost or ensure. Especially to Isabelle because she has a love/hate relationship with meat. So this way she can get the protein her body needs. Other than that their checkup got a thumbs up from the pediatrician. They got their last shot until they enter kindergarten, which I am very happy about. They did have to get their blood drawn to do an anemia test, which really sucked, I'm not sure who it was harder on Mommy or babies?! It was a long afternoon but we all survived so all in all it was a good day!

Memorial Day Weekend

The Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend my SIL, Matt's sister, got married to long-time beau (by long time I mean 10 years, they started dating their Sophmore year of H.S.) and the twins were the flower babies. So on Friday night we went to the rehearsel then to the rehearsel dinner. The kids did great, we had one melt down but fortunately it didn't last that long; we fed the kids before the rehearsel so at dinner we just ordered some fries to keep them happy, Avery started throwing a major tantrum but we had no idea why for, ended up all he wanted was the plate that the fries came out on. Once he got his plate he was just fine. Silly boy! Saturday was really crazy! We had to be at the church at 1130 to take pictures then the wedding started at 1pm. Luckily our church also has a preschool and our pastor's wife is the preschool teacher and she allowed us to let the kids have free reign of it after the twins ate their lunch and we attempted to get their pics taken with the bride and groom, needless to say it didn't happen pictures I mean. The kids did really well in the wedding. I think they stole the show but I am a bit bias. They were supposed to carry a little basket with rose petals in it. I sat in the pew waiting for them to come to me and Matt released them. Izzy held on to her basket and as she ran her petals came out but Avery dropped his basket at the door. It was sooo cute and funny watching them coming down the aisle. I know I had a terrible face going on because I was trying not to cry or laugh at the same time. Izzy did great during the service but our little show off, Avery, "talked" through almost the entire ceremony. But the happy couple made it through the service without a hitch and Matt's baby sister is now a wife, to a really great guy too I might add. They are a match made in Heaven. After the ceremony we took the kids home, we were going to take them to the reception but they had had a full day and were not in the mood to be in public. It also started pouring down right after the service was over and kept pouring til about 2 hours into the OUTSIDE wedding reception. My grandma came over and watched the babies so we could actually enjoy ourselves at the reception. The reception was beautiful and I'm sure it would have been even prettier if it hadn't been so muddy. But everyone had a great time, the food was good and the beer was even better. Matt left before I did and let me tell you I was so wishing I had left with him on Sunday morning. But I did have a great time out by myself, meaning no kids. Sunday morning the grooms parents had a brunch at their house which so very nice of them and was really good food too. Plus we got to see the bride and groom open their presents. The rest of Sunday was just a lazy day which was so very nice after the last two crazy days we had had. Monday we took the kids to the petting farm, unfortunately the actually getting to pet the animals was from 3-5 and we got there at 1 but the kids did enjoy seeing the animals and running over the bridge. After that we went home and cooked out. All in all it was a busy but really fun weekend. Now to the pictures.

Daddy's little girl

After bath we went down to the living room to play for a little bit before bed time. Both the kids were on the couch with Matt. One of our rules is: NO standing on the couch. The kids know this rule, unfortunately they just don't follow it very well. Avery especially is really bad at following the rules and due to this he is always getting into trouble. Isabelle on the other hand is really good at doing wrong but in a way that she doesn't get into trouble as much. Last night was no different in this. Isabelle acted like she was going to stand up when Matt told her to sit on her bottom, she then smiled at him sat down and crawled over to him and kissed him. Now of course she should have gotten a warning to not stand on the couch but instead Daddy melted and she didn't get that warning. She is not even two years old and already knows how to get on her Daddy's good side. We are in sooo much trouble! LOL!

Milestones

Sunday (march 20th) marked the twins being with us longer than they have been with anyone else. And today is our 1 year referralversary. I can't believe it has been a year since we received the call and email that changed our lives forever. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I will never forget the feeling of seeing the email titled referral or of seeing Avery and Isabelle's faces for the first time. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I remember being at work pacing the floor waiting for Matt to get here so we could open the email together and getting mad because he didn't get here as soon as I wanted him to. I also remembering seeing that I had missed a call from our agency and after hearing the message just saying "please call me back" thinking that they were missing some paperwork, since we had only been waiting 2 months to the day. Not in a million years would I have thought we had gotten our referral. Seeing the email title I just broke down crying and in total disbelief of what I was seeing.

Parenthood is a lot harder than I ever could have imagined but so worth it. Getting to be mommy to Avery and Isabelle is the reason I was put in this world and I wouldn't change a thing.


Isabelle's referral photo


Avery's referral photo

Ethiopia: Day 2

So today was the BIG day, we got custody of our children. We got ready, packed our backpack (i.e. diaper bag), ate breakfast, and left for the orphanage. We needed to be there by 9am so we could go to meet our lawyer at 10am. When we got to the orphanage they put us in the room that I had seen on youtube.com and other families blogs. Every time I would see a video or picture of this room I would envision our meeting with our children. Let me tell you it was better than any of my daydreams. Knowing that these two precious children were to be handed over to us by their loving nannies was much more than I could have imagined. Before they brought the twins to us the orphanage gave us a bag for each child with a traditional Ethiopian outfit in it. They are so gorgeous, I can't wait til they are able to fit into them. They also gave us back all the care package items we sent to the twins. We kept the photo books and the disposable cameras but gave the toys and clothing back to the orphanage. Then we signed the form that said that we were now soul guardians of our babies!! We changed them into clothes that we brought so that the orphanage could have back the clothes they were wearing. We then found out that our meeting with the lawyer wasn't until the next day at 11am. We all went back to the guest house to get acquainted with our babies and eat lunch. When we got back to our room Matt asked me "Now what?" which I had no answer for. I had done all kinds of research on the How to's on adoption but not the How To's on parenting. We were a bit lost the first couple of days but we soon found a routine and it became a little easier. After lunch we went shopping in the Post Office District of Addis. We only went to one shop though because it starting raining Monsoon style right before we were getting ready to leave this shop. Going to this shop was the most difficult part of our trip so far. We hadn't been face to face with the poverty until this point. There were people everywhere wanting us to buy items from them or just to give them money for food. It was very hard to walk away from them but if we gave them any thing we would have been mobbed by all the street people and with three young babies, we were with another family, in tow that would not have been safe at all. So we had to no to everyone.After that we just went back to the Guest House and hung out there. That night when the children were sleeping Matt and I would jump at any sound they made. It was really funny but a tad bit tiring too. Thankfully we learned not to be so jumpy after that first night, or we would have been the walking dead the rest of our trip.

Ethiopia - Day 1 (better late than never)

We arrived in Ethiopia at 7am and were ready to get to our guest house for a shower and a nap. First we needed to get our luggage and our visas and find our driver. Easy Peasy! While Matt went to change dollars to Birr I stood in line to get our visas. We got our visas found our luggage and found our driver. We were out of the airport at around 8am. Pretty darn good for International traveling. To say walking out of the Bole International Airport and seeing our surroundings was a culture shock is not saying enough. People tell you about the poverty and you see pictures but it is nothing until you have seen it first hand. This was my first time out of the U.S. and I thought I was prepared for what I would be seeing and experiencing but I was not. Our drive to the guest house was only about 5 minutes thankfully because we were so tired and ready to get clean. When we got to our guest house we were greeted by the friendliest people ever. They took us to our room and then were taken to the dining room to eat some breakfast. This is where we met Susan and her mom, Maureen. This is also when we found out that we would be meeting our children later that day. After breakfast I went up to take a shower and to start unpacking. Matt came up shortly afterwards but before he could take a shower we found out we would be changing rooms. This was good because we were originally in a very small room with only one crib, two kiddos and one crib is not a good thing, especially the way our children sleep. So now we were on the fourth floor and had two rooms that were connected. It was great except for the climbing the stairs carrying a child and the fact that the air is much thinner in Addis Ababa than it is in Central Illinois. It was good exercise though. We both finally did get our shower and a small nap. Matt slept fine but I was all worked up. Many feelings going on at once. One: I was ready to go home, the culture shock was too much for me the first couple of days there. Two: OMG we are parents to not one but two infants. What were we thinking. Three: I am about to meet my children for the first time in just a couple of short hours. I can't believe that we are finally here. And many more thoughts were there also but those were the main ones. At 3 o'clock we left to go to the orphanage, we made a quick stop at the Hilton so Susan could get her little girl's lap ticket verification. The Hilton is beautiful BTW and it has some great little shops in it. We finally started for the orphanage, the moment we had been waiting for for so long. I videotaped the journey but unfortunately I deleted it on accident. As soon as we got to the orphanage my camera said that the memory was full so I also didn't get any shots or video of us meeting our babies for the first time. I know, we were so unprepared. We did get shots of us after we sat down and I was able to get a new memory card in our camera. After visiting with the twins we went back to the guest house and unpacked, ate dinner and crashed. We needed to be well rested to pick up our babies the next morning.

**As soon as our computer at home gets fixed I will post pics with each day of the trip.**