Update after update

We have too many crazy things to share so I promise to be brief with each:

Easter Egg dying party: The kids did great watching and dropping eggs of course! They had plenty of fun with their little buddies, and Mommy got a dozen adorable eggs out of the deal!

Licking: Zeke is all about the licking again. He was like this at 6 months and for some reason the quirk is back. He will smash his face into the tray of his high chair and lick the entire things back and forth, he still loves for me to lick his forehead and here is where it gets weird...when I am all sweaty from the gym he wants to lick my sweaty arms and legs, plus when i stick my tongue out like I am going to lick his forehead to be silly he grabs my face with both hands and pulls me toward his face with his tongue out...ahhh..he wants to lick my tongue..GROSS!!!!

Therapy: Food therapy is continuing..making strides no..but tiny steps, MAYBE? Physical therapy makes Tbone angry sometimes, its his way or the highway. He still has his little blue angel wings and giant X across his tummy reapplied with the elastic tape each week. Poor Guy! We are hoping Miss Mandy, the food therapist, will also be our OT for Tbone? Next week we have a Peabody? analysis to see where the kiddos stand with fine and gross motorskills over all.

Gym: When I drop the kids off at the gym watch area I always like to spy and see how they are doing. Today my heart melted! A little boy was gathering up all the legos and piling them behind him, typical hoarder kid style! When one of my kids would try and take one he would make a growling sound. Zeke figured out that he just wanted all the legos for himself so he went around the room finding legos and bringing them back to the kid knowing it would make him happy. The kid would snatch them away and add to his pile, and Zeke would happily go get more, what a gem! He might not be biologically Tyler's kiddo, but that heart is so Daddy's! Then later I came to get them and they were put in walkers to have a snack. The teacher poured Cheerios on the little walker tray. Tbone was shoveling them in as fast as possible. Zeke of course won't eat like a "notrmal" kid so he found a little 2 or 3 year old and was hand feeding his snack into the kids mouth! HAHA!!!


Palm Sunday Picnic: Wjhat a treasure to spend a beautiful afternoon grilling and jumping on bounce houses with our church family, yeah in my dream world. I get there, park a mile away, finally find a shady spot by friends and get the kids out to eat. Tbone starts crawling toward the cars in the parking lot and Zeke takes off running toward bounce houses. Ahhh..panick..so I call Ryan who meets us there! Our church family is great, but they all are dealing with their own kiddos. Ryan and I could tag team pretty good. We ate giant burgers, bounced in a house, went on blow up slides, played in water, helf baby goats, etc! Wjhat a blast, after I brought in my wing man!!!

Rocks: We live in their desert so our yard is full of rocks, literally! Other than the landscaping all we have is rock. For some reason Tbone loves to crawl/walk through it. I need shoes on just to chase after him..tough cookie!

What a lover!!!

Zeke is the most kind hearted child on earth. I couldn't help but share how sweet he can be to his best friend and brother. Whenever I hand him two treats, 2 cups, 2 anything he immediately walks over to share with his buddy. Then I can usually tell him to go get their loveys and he will go in their room, pull them through the crib slats of each bed and bring the correct one to his brother and keep his for himself. We have always prayed for our children to serve God and others first...and at 15 months he is already showing that!!!!

We are growing!!!!

I promise to post pictures/videos and updates when I have a second to breathe. But until then we have an announcement...we are growing....!!!! I know most kids grow, but as you know growing and developing is literally a miracle in the Johnson house given our little bumps in the road lately. We are so thrilled I could shout it from the roof tops!! We have never had numbers this high.
Tbone is of course in the 100th percentile for head circumference, no surprise there, but jumped to the 32% for weight and 45% for height!!!!!!!
Zekey is 39% for head, 13% for height and 5% for weight!!! Yes those numbers are still tiny, but last month weight was 0%!!!
We are so excited for our little men to be catching up. The doctor also referred Taft to an occupational therapist for his low tone situation. Yes we already see a physical therapist for his muscular disorder but the low tone has caused his tongue to be hanging out all the time. He looks adorable and thinks it is so funny, but long term he needs to hold his chin up and keep that sucker in his mouth. therefore, we will now add an additional therapist to the other 2. The boys doctor is waiting until 18 months to send them onto a speech therapist as well. Since they heard Amharic for the first 8 months of their life and then had hearing issues with before and after tubes we knew there might be a speech delay, but she is holding off until 18 months to see progress. Plus, really what can a speech therapist do with a kiddo that small, and I agree!
More to come....

'Twin" talks

Howdy!
I assume everyone has seen the twin talking babies since they seem to be everywhere from a little YouTube video, to a huge Internet sensation. After seeing them I decided to film mine. Not only do ours have the sweet little twin language that only they know and understand, but they are so affectionate to each other. I love how they babble and then hug, babble and then touch face, babble and then lay their head in the others lap. I apologize for the weird angle and snotty noses, this was filmed totally spontaneously. My little monsters just might be the sweetest thing. Confirms over and over daily how perfectly God placed them together. I can't even imagine if the orphanage has split them up, they are a pair for life.

Double the trouble, double the love!

You know you are a mom when...

Howdy!
Basically daily I have these little moments that were never part of my former self and I think the phrase "you know you are a mom when..."and fill it in with who knows what that given moment. Today was too funny not too share.
I bought the boys these carrot cake muffin cookie things. I feed them a piece and then the walk/crawl away to play, then return to my lap and sign "more" for another bite then go off to play again. Then after 10 minutes or so I look down and see little black droppings, to the Texas in me they look like deer poop. Then I realize the kids are eating the bites and spitting out the raisins, how could I forget they hate raisins. So what else does a mom do, but pick up the chewed up raisins right off the floor and eat them!

Pre-kid Nikki would have gagged at that story, Post-kid Nikki says "yeah why not!"

Wow how motherhood changes you!

Tunnel and Tent

Yesterday the boys got one of their Easter treats in the mail..a tent with tunnel! Well I was so excited to see their reaction and let them play in it, that it went from Easter present to an April 5th present! I took a short video of the kids getting introduced to their new toy. MOPS...yesterday was also our first day of MOPS. I had a blast meeting tons of other Christian mothers, hearing guest speaker, bible study, great breakfast, discussion groups, won a door prize, met other "twin" moms and Ethiopia moms as well, precious craft, BUT I got back to pick up my men from MOPPETS and they were not happy. First of all, that was the first time they have been away from me for 3 hours at a time. Also, the volunteer didn't find their pediasures so only put water in their sippys, Taft had snot down to his chin and Zeke was asleep in the corner with all the other kids running around. The precious volunteers did their best, but my little guys are work. Therefore, we are going to give it another shot, and hope my little MOPPETS do better this time around next week.

Food therapy...Mandy came and gave us tons of tips, but also news that we are going to need intense therapy until they will eat like big boys. Of course Zeke picked up a cantaloupe piece with a fork and ate it for her...WHAT? cantaloupe???? How many times have we tried that and ended with tears and cantaloupe in Mommy's face! Mandy was impressed with all the crazy tricks e have tried and that my little men eat wild salmon and asparagus and totally non "kid foods"..well they are my kids what else would they be eating? I am excited to have her around often and blessed that she is able to drive to her our house for lunch or breakfast regularly.

Cute stories...

Taft: The other day at dinner Zeke continually threw everything on the floor in order to keep his tray "clean" like he likes it. Therefore, I said "No Zekey No" and look over and Taft is shaking his pointer finger saying "No Zekey No" like I was. Where did he get that shaking teacher finger, I must do that subconsciously?

Zeke: He loves to noozle me and now will walk over and grab my thighs and look up and shake his little nose. By that he means noozle..as in bend down and rub our noses together so we can noozle Mommy. Plus he loves his big boy shoes (0nes with out the suede soles for learning walker). He has a new pair of toddle stride rites that sound kind of like tap shoes on our hardwood floor. He ran laps this morning back and forth, then bends down to touch the shoes, and then run again. His face says it all, "These shoes are AMAZING!!!!!"

HELP WANTED: Seriously if you can help please email or comment! 1. How do you prevent kids from rubbing food in their hair while they eat? I tried everything..keeping hands busy, shower caps, non "messy" food. I can only wash their hair 1-2 times a week (weird Afro hair rules!) and when roast beef bits are rubbed in along with sunflower seed butter, it becomes a health hazard. Meal time with children who get food therapy is hard enough with out gross food smeared in their little AFRO!

We are JOHNSONS!!!

Howdy! Today we had our FINAL court hearing and the judge granted us a united family of four. The boys officially have First middle and last names!Tyler and I are legally parents of our precious angels! All the drama surrounding the readoption in the U.S. is beyond frustrating and ridiculous so I will spare you the chaos...i just want you to celebrate with our complete family! Photos: Zeke is too tired to even eat??? Taft is a little aviator stud! When taking out the diaper genie bag I found a surprise. A race car was in the twisted diaper sack. How did that get in there? The greatest concern for poor Taft...he kept pointing at his car then looking at me...very confused! The boys enjoy outside naked time..they don't even mind crawling through the rocks..tough kids! Court pics: The court sign, the boys ready for the big day with our entire file box full of documentation and evidence for our case, plus the three of us with the judge after the verdict. Videos: One of each goober. Taft playing peekaboo with the curtains..hmm...not sure I like him pulling on those with a 20 pound rod 10 feet in the air???? Zeke likes when I jiggle his jaw like a ventriloquist dummy..silly baby!

Wild Days

My little guys are so silly. First off, they behave like pretty wild students during art time at home. Look how they go crazy slamming the table and tossing markers. For a moment I thought I was back in a middle school classroom. Also, Zeke is RIDICULOUSLY ADDICTED to music! This video is so silly, how he keeps pushing the button the the weeble tree house until it gets to a little jingle he enjoys and then he starts get jiggy with it! He knows what he wants..some good tunes!