Tagged!!

Wow! We've been tagged and Mom's been too busy, tired, and cranky to post. So, we're taking over and responding to all our good buddies: fellow twins Brayden and Arianna, and Sophia and Mia. We're supposed to list ten random facts about ourselves. Here goes:

We are identical, so we do have a few things in common.

Like:
1) There is nothing funnier than pushing your brother and watching him fall down. Nothing.

2) We LOVE Hi-5. It was our favorite show in Guatemala and it is our favorite show at home. If you don't know about Hi-5, you should tell your Mom's to go find out about it. We've seen a lot of you dance and know you would just LOVE it!

3) Mom says we are the best eaters evah! For breakfast, we EACH eat 1 1/2 fried eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, a slice of cheese and a small orange. For lunch, we EACH eat a CAN of Lucky's Chicken and Dumplings and some more fruit. All day long, we beg Momma for apples, "noranges," Nanananananaa's, prech-els (pretzels), pock-orn (pop-corn). And for dinner, we eat whatever the family is eating like steak, salmon, lasagna, asparagus. We LOVE food!

4) We are both FEARLESS! Our brothers play with us on the trampoline, we do somersaults without using our hands (this always freaks Mom out), we jump off of ANYTHING, no matter how high it is and we always land on our feet. We also climb on anything, like the kitchen counter, the dining room table...

5) We actually never learned to walk, at 11 months we went from crawling to running. Mom knew she was in trouble when she saw a picture of our foster mother, and she looked very, very frazzled!!

Differences (as told by Logan)
6) Farts make me giggle. I repeat the fart sound "pfffttt" and point to my butt or to whoever's butt made the funny sound. My brother takes the more scientific approach to farts, his eyebrows go up and he immediately begins researching where the noise came from. He will lift me up to look at my butt - which I'm pointing to anyway cuz I made the fart!

7) I LOVE balls, especially basketball. I can shoot, dribble and catch. I can also throw a baseball in the air and hit it myself. My big brother Evan is really impressed! He and I play ball all the time! Austin LOVES cars! He's always playing with his trucks, cars and making "vroom, vroom" noises. When we go for walks, he's always slowing us down because he inspects every car along the way - the tires, the wheels, the doors....Momma says he's going to grow up and worship Mason who's studying to be a mechanic.

Differences (as told by Austin)
8) I'm a boob man. Well, actually a cleavage man. I love to shove my hand down anyone and everyone's chest. Sometimes, little girls shriek and run from me when I do it, but I think the older ladies find it charming. My brothers do not like it when I look for their boo-boos. They say it hurts when I tweak them. And although Logan is interested in boobs, he's really very strange. He's an ear man. This has the whole family baffled. Whenever anyone picks him up, he immediately grabs ahold of their ears. He will rub them. He will poke his fingers in them. He tugs at them. He pulls them. But he still does it. When Daddy and Logan take naps together, Daddy will let Logan rub his ears until he falls asleep.

9) I have a dimple on my left cheek. It's adorable. Logan has a million dollar smile. It's adorable, too.

Oops - Mom's up, we'll let her finish the last one...
10) Momma is proud to report that both boys fell asleep last night AND tonight in under ten minutes of putting them down!! Yay! However, we have had to put them in non-matching pajamas 'cuz they're doing some switcheroos through the night and we can't tell who's who in who's bed!!

Okay, our turn to tag some more friends.
1,2 and 3) Cassie, Krista and Reese at http://bobbi-partyoffive.blogspot.com/
4) Eli at http://journeytoeli.blogspot.com/
5, 6 and 7) John, Gracie and Luke at http://isabellafamilylife.blogspot.com/
8 and 9) Emerson and Mira at http://journeytoeli.blogspot.com/
10) Sam at http://guat-mama.blogspot.com/

Sleep deprived!!

Tonight is Night 5 of Nighttime Separation. All in all, things are going well. Much better than either of us had anticipated. The boys go to their room each night, relatively on their own. They seem to understand that that is where night-night takes place now.

Austin goes down like a champ! Minimal fussing. And last night, he didn't wake up until 4am.

Logan. Well, Logan and I are dueling it out. I don't know who's winning. Neither of us are sleeping much, but he's not back in our bed. So, hard to tell. I am determined to "win." I can't tell you how many times I have "layed' him down. But we are making progress. The initial putting down takes about 45 minutes. Not bad. But then, he wakes up like every 30 minutes! Again, we've only had three nights. So, I'm not discouraged (yet).

Mommy just doesn't have much of a brain to blog right now. I've been tagged and I'll get to that this weekend, that will be fun. And I have more Easter pictures, a lot more actually, but I'll just post a few.

Thanks for all of the support. I'm still missing my nighttime pals, but we now have morning snuggly time and I'm finding just as much enjoyment in that. It tears my heart apart when Logan reaches for me, saying "peez, mommy, peeeeeeez!" with big ole gigantic tears rollin' down his face, but I just keep chanting, "Please, God help them go night-night. Please, God, guide me and help me use good judgement." And, not surpringsly, it works!

Last night, Gary said, "We should have done this six months ago." I said, "No. No. I wouldn't have given up one night with them. Maybe, maybe we could have done it a week earlier, but other than that, our timing was perfect."

In other news, the boys have been decked out to the MAX! in their first two spring outfits of the season and I've been too exhausted to snap any pictures! Just visualize 100% adorableness with big ole bags under their eyes and a cranky mom in tow. ;-)

Wish me luck, off to night 5. Here are a few more Easter pictures (out of order, though, blogger is not letting me move them around, ugh!) and I'll be back to commenting on other blogs soon!!

(And THANKS, Nonnie for the nap today!)

Austin eating his first Peeps! Yum!
Lovin' on Chubby!
Looking for Easter eggs at Nonnie's.

Family pic in front of our church. We started off the day at the Sunrise service. So, everyone's a wee bit tired.The youth put it on every year and Mason and Evan did a great job, as always. Logan checking out his Easter basket.
Mason with his Easter basket! He's SO excited!
And Evan eyeing his!

The End of an Era!

I didn't know it, but tonight was the end of an Era.

For the first time (EVER!), my babies are asleep in their cribs. Well, their toddler beds. We just converted them today. There was lots of excitement when we showed them to Austin and Logan. We made a big deal out going night-night in them, and Evan even showed them "how" you sleep in it. So tonight at bedtime we just decided to go ahead and try to get them to sleep in their own beds, in their own room.

You see, Austin and Logan slept in a makeshift sleep area next to their foster parents. Then, on our extended pick-up trip (and at 4 different hotels), I either had them in the bed with me or in a twin bed next to ours.

So, when we came home, we put a twin mattress next to our bed for them. It started out with them sleeping "down there" until they started getting really scared in the middle of the night. Hence, ever since about mid-summer, we've all just been co-sleeping.

sigh

Until tonight. They're in their cribs. Poor Mommy. I miss them already. After not having them with me for so long, it sure was nice going to sleep and rubbing a soft, tiny little hand or foot. Or feeling one of them throw his arm or leg around me in the middle of the night. And when they cried or called out. I was right there. Instantly. No doubt, Gary and I both enjoyed meeting their needs - being there for them. Knowing that our presence gave them comfort.

sigh

Why the change? For them, really. It's time. They need to learn to fall asleep on their own, they need their own space.

We are fast approaching two years old. And we'll need to start potty training sometime. Which means we'll need to cut out the naptime and the nighttime bottles, too.

It's time to start "change."

At this point, I know my boys feel safe and secure. I know they feel loved. Bringing them home at 14 months old did present itself some different challenges. We did and have done what we considered best for our children. And we'll continue making good decisions that benefit and promote their healthy emotional well-being.

Letting go is hard.

sigh

Special Message....

Hold up the signs, boys!
(In the plan, they were going to share the "Nonnie". What was I thinkin'!!)Grand finale.....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NONNIE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Happy Easter!

"Put your flowers on the cross, boys..."

But they smell SO good Mommy!

The Easter bunny brought lots of pop-pops!