The two intrepid explorers press on!

So I know the last post was on Theo and this post is also going to be Theo but I had the pleasure of spending some alone time with him today and well he's just a wonderful little guy.

Couple of things you need to know about Theo.

He is his Grandpa James and his Daddy Neil smushed all together in a fun special way that is all him.

He loves the outdoors.
He loves airplanes.
He loves water.

That pretty much sums him up.  Today we went on a --safari adventure--

Ok, it's redundant since Safari means trip in Swahili but whatever he doesn't know that.

We left our little townhouse and walked down the paver-ed road.  Which is to say a road with pavers on it.  How do you describe a road with pavers on it.  It's not a paved road.  Not really a cobblestone road.  Hmmm.

Anyways.  We crossed the busy street --Gitanga-- and went to our favorite exploring street --Jacaranda Road--

Theo walks all this by the way.  And will walk the entire way down to Ramsi Road and then back again.  He is turning two on Dec 31st.  This boy can outwalk a lot of kids his age.  Reminds me of someone I know.

Anyways, so we're adventuring and that means Theo can say run anytime he wants.

This is how he says to run, "Come on Mommy, RUUUUUUUUUn!!!"  And so we run like for 3 steps.  It's very exhausting.

If there is anything you need spotted give Theo a picture of it and he will SEE it.  A butterfly.  A frog. A lizard. A bird. An airplane.  Those are his specialities.  He's ok at monkeys but they scare him a little so he often just hides.

We got to key destination #1 about 10 minutes into our walk.  The waterfall!!!!

Or a sewer drain that has a drop-off, but hey he gets excited so let's not burst his bubble.

We hang out at the waterfall for 5 minutes or so.  Then we catch sight of a blue dragonfly and chase that around for a while.

Call that? Call that, Mommy? Call that?

That's a dragonfly Theo!

Call that? Call that, Mommy? Call that!?

That's a used toothpaste tube.

Then we continue on our adventure. Finally we get to the quarry. 

Or the side of a road near a construction site.  Theo finds all sorts of rocks, sticks and general rubbish to amuse himself with.  Then he wants to go to Terabithia.

Terabithia, for us, is through some tall grass on the side of the road that someone doesn't mow down for some reason.   It's about the height of a certain almost-2-year-old-boy and therefore extremely daring and exhilarating to walk through.

And on the other side of the grass?  A mowed lawn on the side of the road!!!! It's Terabithia!!! Woooowweeeee!  Oh, that's another great thing about Theo.  He is the one to surprise.  He has great impressed noises.

ooooooooo, mommy!!!  A frog!

Mommy Wooooowww!!!! A flower!!!!

All sorts of fun things here.  Vines. Crazy trees. Big aloe plants.  Lots of surprised and impressed noises from Theo.  And a lot of --Call that? Call that, Mommy? Call that?---

Theo and I had a great time chasing butterflies.  Awh and then he wanted to practice peeing outside.

Don't ask me why, we're not potty training any more but get that boy outside and suddenly he wants to pee in the wind. 

Go figure.

I'm gonna miss when he doesn't want to --play adventure-- with me anymore.  But for the time being I've got one great partner for any adventures I can dream up.

Big Brother

Theo is definitely NOT the baby any more.

He knows that these 2 new guys are THE BABIES.

Most of the time that's ok.  I think he is realizing that he can be more than just a baby.  That he has a lot to offer. He is very silly.  And lately,  Lana and Theo have taken to being with each other.  Inventing games. Running around and howling with laughter.  And a lot of this is that Theo has stepped up a bit.  He has initiated games with Lana and responds to her invitations to go do things.

It's really fun to have Theo burst into the room and then say to Lana.

C'mon Lana!  C'mon, catch me!  And off he goes screaming even before he's sure Lana's going to follow.

Our house has a circuit that is great for toddler running.  You go into the court yard, down the outside corridor to the front, into the front yard, back into the house through the front door, and then through the living room, dining room, and kitchen to leave the house from the kitchen door into the court yard.

Repeat.

Add screaming.  Once screaming is added this is very fun.

Another game the big kids have invented is bus.  They have little outside plastic chairs that they line up like a bus and then they take turns sitting in the driver seat.  Sometimes they yell out, MATATU BUS and they fall out of their seats.

Matatus have no equivalent in the US.  But imagine crazy madmen driving vans.  They are the public transport vehicle of choice here because they are informally ran and so a bit cheaper than the big school buses that are the public buses.  Also, obviously because they are smaller they weave through traffic better, but that's also because the drivers are insane.

Anyways, ***Matatu*** can be added to any game in order to heighten the level of insanity.  Matatu-bus, Matatu-stroller, Matatu-couch jumping, you get the picture.  And appropriately once you hear that Matatu has been added to the game, it's usually not long after that you hear crying.

And so goes the fun of children.  All good times must end in tears.

Let's start getting real

Alright so we've officially become comfortable with each other and now some true colors are emerging! Which is to say, I'm getting a good sense of who antagonizes whom.

Theo really finds Amani to be a bit annoying.

In Theo's defense Amani is a little bit overly doting on Theo. I think it is the beginning of big brother worship that can go a little to the extreme.

Frankly it IS funny. To watch.

Theo will do something and Amani will copy him. Hard to do when you are only 13 months old and immobile. But he makes a good effort. If Theo is jumping, Amani starts to bounce in place. If Theo leaves his blankie anywhere near Amani. Amani sniffs it just like Theo would.

Oooh. And Theo does NOT like THAT.

We've had a number of whoop-downs due to blankie-swipe-sniffing.

On a positive note it is not like Theo doesn't like Amani. He just thinks he's a little strange from what I can see.

Theo is semi-interested/indifferent towards the twins usually. He's got more important things to do. Like try to put things in the toilet for example. Or rip all the leaves off my houseplants. Or his personal best, unpack Daddy's blood sugar tester and put the test strips all over the place. He's busy.

But when he does stop to notice them lately he'll reward the with the occasional -- Hi guys!

And then he's gone again.

Pretty much the extreme opposite of Lana, who considers them now HER babies and loves getting their clothes, their bottles or some toys for them to play with.

Very maternal that one.

Theo, I think has relinquished custody of HIS twin to Lana. She seems to have it all in hand and he would rather be doing other things.

Love

is patient

Well here I am again.  I fell off the blog-wagon for a while there.  Sorry to anybody out there hanging on the edge of your seat.

We're in a bit of a circus over here.  So I hope you forgive me.

I had the insane idea to try to repotty train Lana AND also educate Theo on all things potty this week and THAT sorta pushed me over the edge.  **NEWS UPDATE** Theo has been put on hold for potty-training until further notice. Just too impractical to try to shadow that guy all the time while I'm trying to bond with the new kids on the block; that boy pees on everything.

Lana is in absolute miracle land.  She's back.  She can potty. The girl has game. 

A bit of backstory.  May be TMI for some of you.  If you have ever been in a third world country and routinely talk about poo this will not faze you one bit.

Lana had EXTREME constipation one time but it was all it took.  She ended up ripping her hoo-hah and her poo-poo and let me tell you I have not ever heard even an injured animal make the noise she did.  That said, she stopped going. PERIOD.  When I say PERIOD.  I mean nothing waste-product exited her body without a fight. And it was AWFUL. 

Cut to.  A few nights ago she was having another relapse (I think it was Sunday night) where she had a really hard poo and all that TERRIBLE AWFUL came back and the girl was screaming crying and generally having a psychotic break while going #2 when I just started to pray out loud for her while hugging her (because that literally was how she managed to go at all with me hugging her and crying too).  Anyways, I'm praying that the spirit of SHOCK and TRAUMA would be broken off of her. (a friend of mine told me about this one time-Krista thank you).  Anyways, I pray this and then she manages to actually poo for the first time since OCTOBER on the potty.  Granted it was still awful but it was progress.

The next day and ever since (every single day this week) she has gone potty with no screaming, no fear, and no tears.   I don't know if you can grasp how big a deal that is. Let me emphasize it is HUGE.

So.  That's one Amazing-Thank-You-God.

And the second thing I wanted to share.  Was something another friend helped prod out of me.  (This one is from Aisha, thanks girl!).  She asked me on a moms-night-out how things were going with the twins. 

Now generally I just say fine because they are.  It's fine. It's all good.  We're enjoying chaos and actually all getting along just fine!

But she wanted MORE.  So I had to think about it.  And the honest truth is. I met the twins on February 28, 2011.  I felt NOTHING.  I saw these two little babies 4 months old and so small.  They both had scabies and smelled like poo-pee because at the orphanage they were changed only every time they were fed.  There heads were funny-shaped.  They were not attractive. I did not have this overwhelming sense of love for them.  Nuthin.

But when I met them I decided I would pray for them.  And so I started to pray for them, almost every night. Every night I would pray that angels would hold them and love them when others failed to give them enough.  Every night I prayed for their health and their sense of attachment to each other.  I prayed that they would not lack for attention, even if the attention had to be supernatural because earthly attention was not possible in a busy orphanage with lots of small ones.

And slowly I started to bond with them, I guess.  Because when the boys were given to me, both asleep since they arrived late at night/early in the morning 2am on November 20th, I think I really did breathe out in relief that NOW I could do something physical on earth for them instead of just pray.  But in the time that passed I think I took ownership of them, my affection was set upon them. 

I fell in love.

And so, when asked how I feel about them, whether I feel like they are MINE now.  I think what happened is that since I met them that first time I had to place them in God's hands.  That's what I did because I believe in God and I was helpless to really do anything more than pray and work my butt off to try and get the adoption to go through.  And in doing that I was taking ownership of them in the only way I could from that distance.  I chose to think about them.  To pray every night. I didn't know a thing about how Zeke likes to giggle and lay on his tummy.  Or how Amani will yell at you the ENTIRE time you're feeding him because he really is just THAT hungry.  So now, I know them but I already decided to love them.  It's like when you're physically pregnant.  You can't HELP but notice that your belly is growing and you don't KNOW this little person inside of you but you can't help but start to think about them and take ownership of them. I think by praying for them and starting to treat them as my responsibility since February it was just like welcoming my kids home instead of starting a relationship.

I think they feel it too.