My life is a comedy

The boys are dancing/thrusting their little bottoms to the music of their treehouse. Zeke now eats in a "special" way..the vaccuum way!

Best word yet!!!

Men....is reference to AMEN!!!!!
After we pray Taft says "Men"!!!!
I well up thinking of his little voice ending our prayers. Our biggest passion in life is for these young men to give their life Christ, and hearing him join me in prayer is a step in that direction in some silly way!

Meals

Howdy!
Our children are the greatest treasures we ever imagined God trusting us to raise, however, meal time is a night mare. Unfortunately, they need to eat 3 meals a day, which take over an hour a piece of pure misery. Lately I have stayed up all hours of the night preparing "toddler" recipes, adult food, breads, etc. Then, the food is not touched only spit out, thrown, smooshed to death. I am heart broken over the situation, and regularly meals and with all 3 of us crying. I want to enjoy meals together as a family, and a year later that has yet to happen. Our food therapist is having as much difficulty as I am, so she along with her boss are going to do further evaluations on Thursday. I am looking forward to that! The hardest part of our struggle is that it isn't something we can look past and work around. Yes Taft has a muscular disorder but we can progressively work on that, modify and adapt. On the other hand, you can not do that with eating, my boys need the nutrition and calories.(and not through a million Pediasures!!!!) Prayer would be great!

Ethiopia Unites Us

Today at church the boys are I are slowly makign our way back out to the parkign lot when a new family comments on how adroable they are and asks where they are from. Not to boast but the boys are like ROCK STARS everywhere we go. We once counted 16 people stopped and commented druign a Target trip for 2 items, yes 2 items! Therfroe, when people ask about them I try and keep it short. I smiled and said "They are from Ethiopia." I turn to gran Zeke's hand and make our way to the car. When the Dad said, "So is she". I look down and they have an Ethiopian daughter who is 3 years old. Needless to say..we couldn't stop talking. I hope they enjoyed church, since they were newcomers, and we can continue to develop a relationship. How exciting!

Seriously Guy, A Sippy Cup?

Howdy!
This evening the washing mashine was making a loud noise as it rotated but I dint think much of it. The boys were both standing at the front and screaming because throuh the window they could see their loveys spinning around. Of course they don't want their loveys washed, I thin they have a goal in mind of entering the Guiness book of world records for most bacteria per square inch with those nasty things. I closed the utility room door as a dirstraction and go on with the evebing. Then in moving the laundry to the druyer I see why they were so fussy and it isn't just washed loveys.....
They must a sneaked a FULL sippy cup into the washer before I started it. The noise was the sippy slammign around and now is full of butter/curds from being heated and tumbled for an entire cycle.
These two are a handful..what next?

Monumental Moments

Tyler and I both had separate monumental moments involving the boys this week:

Tyler's: Zeke can dribbled a soccer ball. Watch out World Cup! He can kick the ball and then run after to kick again across the entire house! Go Zeke!

Nikki's: After singing the Aggie War hymn over and over the boys know when and how to "WHOOP" at the proper time. Their little arms shoot up, pointer finger out and all! Taft even says "WOOF", close enough!

These two crack us up!!!

We went to the play ground today and a group of preschoolers happened to be there, bad planning Mommy! I set Zeke down and literally 5 girls followed him around, not saying a single thing, or touching him, just parading after him. The teacher said that the girls are all about babies these days. I turn around and a group of boys are handing Taft transformers. he doesn't know what those are and just keeps accepting his "new gifts". I decided that letting 4-5 year olds mess with the boys was a bad idea, so I put them into toddler swings on the swing set. Go figure, the kids now want to push the babies in the swings. Zeke was all about it, and Taft wanted to have nothing to do with them.

The boys are now really into hide and seek. One will run off and hide and then the other will follow after in search of him. They have a whole like 5 places total they hide( between the sofa and the wall in the den, by the washing machine, in their tent, etc). I adore just sitting back and watching them hide and find each other and then just roar with laughter. Life doesn't get better. One of my favorites was when Taft knew where Zeke went to he took a sippy cup with him and instead of popping around the door frame to find him, he hid behind the door and just wiggled the cup in the door opening. He knew Zeke would give himself up grabbing the cup! Clever little monster!

We joined a new "Vail only" stay and play group. We had a blast and met other Vail families, including one military family. Watching the kids interact with other children is shocking. I guess they have never spent a single day of their life alone, so social skills are just built into them. I see other kids act like mutes and hide their toys, while my kiddos try and hug everyone and share everything. Right now this is adorable, but when they are preschoolers boundaries might need to be set more.

Urgent care:
We couldn't get and appointment at the pediatrician so we spent several hours at Urgent care the other day. Upon leaving we had not a single RX. Taft has his little chemical burn 3 weeks after tape removal. His kinesiotape left a perfect imprint of every stretch of elastic across his belly. he has super sensitive skin, but we never assumed this sensitive. I have a real fear that we will be 20 taking his shirt off to work out at the Rec center at Texas A&M and he has a giant X across his abdomen 10 shades darker than the rest of his skin, and everyone stares. "Oh no big deal, just a chemical burn when my therapist would tape up my belly at 15 months, that never went away!"
Zeke on the other hand, doesn't have any sort of actual pox they could diagnose. Ye she has a few pox, but they think it is just an irritation of some kind.

Only a 3 year old

Today at the gym a little girl about 3 years old came up to me and was looking at Taft and I. She told..."My Daddy has a bald hair cut just like your baby, but my Daddy has a light face"!!!! Too silly to not share the innocence of that little goose!

Parenting Presentation Professional Pictures

The in-house photographer from church made our family a cd of photos he took during the presentation. Very similar to the ones I asked Ryan to take but thought others might enjoy.

Toddlers?

What makes a baby a toddler?

How about this.......
I turn around and the boys have helped each other onto these toy cubes in their room.
I call a friend for advice on little bumps on Zeke's belly and I turn around after 30 seconds of ringing and find:
1. Zeke pulled out all the 6 feet long bamboo from an arrangement in the living room.
2. Hear hysterical laughing and find Taft standing on the edge of the couch ready to jump to the coffee table...how did he get up there to begin with?

Tag Team
The other day I was in the living room picking up toys and watching the boys from the corner of my eye....
1. Taft opens the pantry.
2. Zeke grabs 2 fig newton type things, keeps one for himself and hands Taft one.
3. Mommy starts in the their direction saying "No, No"
4. The boys take off at 100mph for the den laughing.
5. Its like those 2 monsters planned it!!!

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was filled with amazingly sweet thoughts from people.

I was delivered a beautiful arrangement from my husband and boys. Plus received very kind cards from my parents, my in laws and my dear Laura. Then the biggest surprise at all...a giant vase was delivered full of tulips with the sweetest card EVER, all the way from Afghanistan. "Uncle" Tom surprised me. Then, on top of that I got the nicest card and bottle of my favorite wine from "Uncle" Ryan. What class act friends my hubby has! He can't be here to talk care of me on Mother's day, so his buddies step up to do so. We are blessed with such great people!

Best parts of the day are always the boys snuggling their little face up on my neck and Zeke blowing me kisses, while Taft says "WUBB WHUU" aka Love you!

Stories that warm my heart

Manly but not
Check out the picture of Zeke sporting his favorite tool belt and holding a bunch of manly tools, but don't forget to look at his head. Yes he is a manly man with a woman headband on that he loves!

Outgoing
A group of ladies at MOPS commented on how I must be one of the most outgoing people that have ever met. Hello, they must have never met my children Taft and Zeke! Boy those kids are outgoing!!! The ladies that watch them at the gym asked me if they ever "stop talking"?

Beggar
At the gym a toddler was in time out eating his crackers, and I am gathering our stuff and realize Zeke is standing next to the chair with his hands out making squeaking noises at him..basically begging for a cracker from Mr. Time out!

Tbone can stand
I know it seems little since he is 15 months old now, but he can push himself up to standing with out holding onto anything. The other day I was in the kitchen and turn around to him just standing watching me at the stove, not anywhere near the cabinets. I almost fainted, we are making progress! Check out the photo of him standing looking at his cow. The head got stuck under the door so no matter how hard he pulled the head wouldn't come underneath.

Cart
Zeke likes to use the push toy as a grocery cart. Notice his sippy cut in the handle. He puts toys in there and pushes them around like he is shopping.

Developmental Toys
We ordered a ton of developmental old school toys and when the shipment came in I am not sure who was more excited. Tbone is so obsessed with staking his nesting blocks and putting the colored shapes on the right pegs. Good choices Mommy!

The Dirty drain
For a month or so we have had a drain issue for the boys tub. Mommy the plumber fixed it, and I documented the event with my little helpers hanging over the edge watching me and handing me tools

First Goose egg

Today was my first day of the real mom fear to swell up in me when I wasn't right by my little guys. I was sitting in church and one of the nursery workers runs in and says they need me ASAP. I basically tore through the church interrupting the sermon. Zeke was being silly running(yes we have mastered the sprint) after Mark, a nursery volunteer who is our friend. He tripped over his new big boy shoes and went head first into the wall. He had a giant goose egg, and was hysterical. By giant I mean giant(this terrible photo doesn't do justice), 5 hours later and it has not gone down one bit! Fortunately our pediatrician is also a friend and member of our church. Therefore, I hunted down poor Tara and made her assess my little man. She believes he is fine and called later to check up. Now the egg is all black. I had fears of Tyler's most recent concussion and the non stop vomit that happened afterward. Which in turn made me remember how he was so concerned when he got the cat scan that he told the tech, "I am concerned, because I am gifted, gifted in thinking!" I love that hubby of mine.

The shoes that made Zeke crash and burn. I spent an arm and a leg on Stride Rites, and go figure he can take them off, so I got the punk converse and he can't get them off, but the thick sole must have made his trip.So sad!

Wild Man Jack or Zeke

We read a book regularly about wild man jack, I might need to rename it wild man Zeke. Not sure if 2.5 months with out a Daddy has gotten under all our skin or what, but we are losing our minds. For some reason the boys think it is hilarious for Mommy to scream and then they scream back and we all laugh. We might be nuts, yes, but boy do the kids love it!

First Ever Standardized Test

Yes in my former life I was a middle school teacher, so testing and more testing is 2nd nature in this house. The boys has their first real standardized test performed by their OT the other day, the Peabody fine motor. They were placed in seats and asked to perform a load of questions. Such as put 3 pegs into a row in the peg board. Teacher Mommy was in the background thinking.."What? Pegs and a pegboard? They have never seen anything like that in their life..ahh? An hour later and about 30 performance assessments later I met with the OT to discuss. And the results are...
My angels PASSED!!!!! They don't qualify for fine motor OT, unless we choose it and pay out of pocket. Taft was ranked at 15 months and he is 15 months old. Zeke ranked between 18-20 months, which he is 15, but gestationally just over 12, so doing great. Both my little men were so cooperative. The OT kept commenting on their perfect behavior and cooperation. Yes Ma'am, my children ROCK!!!! The boys even waved and gave kisses when the exam was over! Way to go Johnson Gang!

Parenting Presentation/Baby Dedication

We couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day!!! What better wasy to spend Mother's Day then dedicating your lives to raising your children to know and love the Lord! See our photos and video of our special day!

The last few days...

Sunday
Church was fabulous,we come and Mommy is hit like MACK truck by a stomach bug. I was so yuck I couldn't move but a foot at a time with out getting sick. At one point I was laying on the floor in the playroom with the kids playing on top of me half asleep. My dear Francine brought Gatorades to help cheer me up. My favorite part was getting sick while 2 babies held onto my sides doing things like flushing the toilet, unrolling the toilet paper, pulling up my shirt, etc. I have learned privacy No longer exist here!

Monday
Wake up at 4 to be gone by 5am for the big Zeke surgery. Uncle Ryan went with us to watch Tbone. We get all registered and checked into the hospital. Poor Zeke was so stressed he kept hiding inside my shirt, literally inside of it. Finally the anesthesiologist pulled my baby away. The doc said if t was just tubes he will come out to the waiting room in 15, if it ends up tubes and adenoids I will see his in 30 minutes. I go to hang out with Ryan and Tbone. True story: Ryan is on the floor and has Taft fenced in a corner using the chairs of the waiting room! We visit and I rock T to sleep, while Ryan and I chat. An hour goes by....1 HOUR!!!! Doctor comes out and obviously they did both. They used gas to knock him out for tubes, then feel adenoids and those need to come out. At that point they need to IV him. IT took 30 min to have the IV work successfully. His poor arms look like he fell into a cactus with all the pricks..poor goose! I race back to recovery where I can hear him yelling from yards away. I grab him and SILENCE!! The nurses are shocked and say he most know his Mama..well yes! For the remainder of the day he is glued to me and fussy..but doing so great and so brave! We attend class that evening for their baby dedication. We discuss how our children are blessings God has trusted us with to raise to know and serve the Lord...we are excited to have them dedicated on Mother's day at church!!!! Exciting time..photos and video to come!

Tuesday
After MOPS we go pick up the young man buying our car and head to the bank to sign off and receive payment. The loan officer had the wrong number to reach us, and go figure wasn't there. We drive to our house where we empty the car and let the buyer take the car anyway, even though we don't have a check in hand, he is trustworthy and already has insurance covering it. Then is the dentist appointment I described earlier where Taft exploded for Miss Jessica.

Wednesday
Doctors appointments super early for health but also for Ages and Stages. We filled out about 10 pages about each boy and tested his on a million skills. Zeke was at or above average in every single category for his Age, not adjusted, far ahead of his adjusted age for prematurity! Taft was borderline Average and Below Average for every category except Gross motor which he was bottom of the charts. He can't walk and every test included walking, so no surprise there. Therefore, developmentally our kids are doing AMAZING!!!!! Everyone was impressed. Health wise the visit was terrible: Tbone's recent explosions are caused by Rotavirus..perfect..last 2 weeks, just what we needed. Zeke's bad cough we have had checked out twice has now turned into Pneumonia. My poor little guys always have something going on. Afterward we go to several errands on base and then back to the bank, where we actually meet the loan officer and walk away with a GIANT check for selling the little car...PRAISE GOD! I had no idea how I was going to sell it alone, but He did all the work for us!Bye Cloud, you were so good for us!

Now life continues and we are hoping for thing to take a turn for the slow!!!! Daddy comes home to visit us on May 29th for a week, so we are now on the count down..24 days to go!!!!

Silly Squeaky

Body Builder:
If anyone has ever seen those extremely black body builders who smother themselves in baby oil..then you have seen Zeke in the bath. I crack up every night! The PT said he is VERY HIGH tone, meaning he is tiny, but every muscles literally bulges out of his skin. When he gets wet he looks like a magazine cover!

Feeding Bro:
Zeke has major food issues and has found his own resolution. When he doesn't want something he feeds it to Taft. He takes the food in his hand or on his fork and either leans over to, walks over to or calls Taft over to hand feed his unwanted food into his brother's mouth like a little bird. How adorable, and how annoying all at once. I turn my back and Taft has eaten for 2, because of course he will take the offering!

Taft's new do!

After much debate..Taft has a new hairstyle. That little goose has more hair than any human should. I loved his hair long, but he would get so hot and sweaty playing outside. I can't imagine 90 degree weather and wearing a wool ski cap, because I am sure that is what it feels like. He looks so grown up and handsome now! Zeke still sporting the Afro, his ringlets are so perfect that they just make little springs all over his head, and since it is very FINE, the heat doesn't bother him at all!

p.s. If you are taking a double take at the photo..yes he hoes have a little swirl part shaved into his head..can you say next NBA super star!!!!!

Yogurt and Food

For Christmas our Meme bought us a homemade yogurt incubator. Needless to say it is a blessing and a curse. Blessing: we love it! Curse: The boys make such a mess and little Zeke now wants all other food dipped in yogurt! As you all know food times are a huge deal at our house; hence the in home food therapy. Last night I attempted and failed with bread trial, but got the most hilarious video out of Zeke. The meal went from crying because no one would eat any of the 5 different dishes I handmade, to laughing at Zeke wearing his bread hat!!! I hope you get a kick out of him too!

Most Recently

A few silly stories to share:

Car:
We finally got the SUV scheduled for repair form the accident a month or more back. Here is the schedule of events that occur ed in our little nightmare.
1. Take care seats out of Tyler's car to use in the rental car. Drive to collision center and Uncle Ryan meets us to drop off car and help install car seats in the rental.
2. No rental waiting, they are sending shuttle which kids cant ride in.
3. We all drive to the rental place.
4. Wait 30 or more minutes for someone to see us.
5. Go to rent and realize license is missing, so they can't rent to me.
6. Drive back home and destroy house looking for license.
7. Laura comes over to drive a car back up.
8. Reinstall car seats in little car.
9. I drive SUV, Laura drives little car.
10. Leave the SUV and all ride back in little car.
11. Few days later Laura returns and we drive back up there and she drives one car back down here. Seems easy if each trip one way wasn't 30 miles, 60 round trip!!!! Ahh!
Regardless car is repaired from first and only accident ever, lets hope!

Shopping cart:
While our car was in the shop to be repaired from our car accident we had to use the little car..aka we can't bring the stroller anywhere. However, we must get groceries. Therefore one boy sits in the front with the cart cover and the other stands in the cart. Yikes! I am sure people wanted to video how insane it was with Zeke throwing things back out as I was putting them into the cart. I get up to the counter to pay need to tell the cashier, "yes I know most everything is destroyed, we did it, so charge us full price". As I say this I am unloading smashed bananas, opened lunchables, and........an avocado with a bit missing. Yes an entire bite! Tbone bit the avocado and ate it, skin and all! Gross!

Water leak:
Recently I noticed when the drip system goes off in the afternoon the yard starts collecting water. Several days later and the water not evaporating between days has caused Lake Johnson! Tyler calls the plumbing director from CE who shows up the next day to fix the leak. Unfortunately, the leak was under the driveway so required plenty of labor. Next thing i know Chuck, the plumber, 2 of my neighbors and Uncle Ryan are all helping while my little men throw goldfish and holler. Praise God for having such a great support system to show up and show our family love like that!

Ultrasound:
Taft has a HUGE belly. So huge every doctor has questioned what tests have been run to diagnose the abnormality. We scheduled an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. I assumed it was like all the ultrasounds I had when I was "pregnant" that lasted 5 minutes and are super relaxing. I guess that part of me forgot he is 1! They needed good views of every organ in his abdomen from all sides individually. Therefore, like 50 still images! He didn't want to sit still and I literally had to sit on the exam table with my legs holding his legs and arms holding his while he screamed. the only way to calm him was to sing some of his favorite songs. The tech felt so bad that next thing i know she is singing all of the songs right along with me to help calm Taft..how sweet! Results..he is Perfect, as expected!

Dentist:
I recently noticed that there was a change in my molar, so scheduled a non routine dental appointment. If course, they don't want to let my kids come back so our dear friend Jessica agreed to watch the kids in the waiting room with us, while I went to the exam. Nikki...filling popped out, replacement filled in right on the spot. Jessica..much different story! In the 30 min I was gone, all heck broke loose for her! I come out and she says "Sorry your baby is naked"! I look over and next to the stroller is Taft with only a diaper, sandals and his bright blue therapy bands strapped across his big belly...no clothes! She tells me, as she laughs hysterically, that as soon as I walk back he started tooting nasty and stiffening his legs, obviously making a big poop. She went out to the car to change him and the poop is pure liquid and was everywhere..up his back, down his tummy, etc! Poor thing just had to ball up his diaper and clothes and let his stay naked. Poor girlfriend of mine. As if my wild man hasn't been birth control enough for a few couples I am afraid he has done it again for poor Jessica and Kevin. Sorry Jess! We love you and hope you remember 99% of the time we are adorable and funny, only 1% of the time poopy and gross! Check out the post poop picture of his ride home. He must have been proud of that poop..look at that smile!

County Fair

Ashley and I had the guts to take a little trip to the county fair as well. The boys and us girls loved the whole visit. The boys loved looking at all the livestock at the stock show...well until they made noises! The animals were just fabulous to the boys and then would crow, bark, moo, chirp, baa..etc and then our boys would respond with an all out holler in fear. Final outcome..animals are great that are MUTE! We even took them through the petting Zoo where Zeke just looked gently and cried when they got near his face. Taft on the other hand just really wanted to pick the nose of each animal, and pull the llama hair so hard it jerked its head around to hiss at me! The boys also pet stingrays in an exhibit, and see other sadly caged animals such as sharks in like a 50 foot tank. There should be laws against that, along with the elephant rides they were giving. Final highlight..RIDES!!! The boys experienced their very first carnival rides. We were only allowed on 2....dumbo and the carousel. The boys both did great on Dumbo..confused yes, but seemed to enjoy it! The carousel was great for Taft, he held on and smiled like such a bog guy, but Zeke hated it, even in Mommy's lap! I love firsts, even if the first is a silly carnival ride!

Pool oh pool

Ashley and I got the guts up to take the kids to the Y pool, even thought they wouldn't let us use our cool canopy floats for the boys because the were not Coast Guard certified. Therefore, we had to hold one on the steps while I swim with one and then trade off. Wild Oh Wild.

Also, along with their water table the boys have a little crab spray pool that we tried out for the first time. Zeke was very timid, Taft just crawled in and out, then through the rocks, then table, etc. That boy is a little monster, seriously, no fear or restraints!

Easter

Wow..much to catch up on! At some point I am determined to get caught up so that I am writing about what is currently happening not backtracking so far.

Easter
We had a wonderful Easter celebrating our Savior who rose after dying from our sins. The most emotional Easter for me ever! The urgency and passion I have always had for my Lord changes dramatically when more than anything I want my boys to love Jesus and find salvation and grace in his death. Wow..too powerful for this brief blog. We had a great Easter egg hunt, wonderful worship service and lunch with Aunt Ashley before sending her off on her way back to TX. Yes the hunt was indoors..lame Mommy I know, but Taft can't walk and watching his bruise up his knees on the rocks outside would have broken my heart Easter morning, so to even the playing field this year the bunny hid our eggs inside mostly. Of course there was no candy in the eggs, just precious little stuffed toys. Like fake vegetables and soft stuffed tools. Greatest part is that they love wearing their new tool belt the tools hang on. The creepiest part is that their favorite toy is a fake little knife that came with the vegetables. Zeke puts it in his teeth and swing his head around..SCARY!!The bunny even left a special egg for Mommy and it just happened to come in a Tiffany's box! Thanks Daddy Bunny for the surprise!