Floyd Fest

Last weekend was our first camping trip with both kids. Adi is an old pro, but we weren't sure how Belay was gonna do. And they love it! We went to a music festival, floyd Fest, in the blue ridge mountains off the parkway in VA. It was our second year going and even better than the first.
The heat was bad, mainly due to the lack of shade and the camping was all on a slope, but everything else was perfect. Great music, headlined by the Levon Helm Band, beautiful mountains, lots of dancing and good friends.

We worried about if and how they were going to sleep.

 Yes, they slept. Yes, that is Belay under the stroller in the last photo, attemping to get him in some sort of shade.

Why is everyone shouting?

When fuzzy head falls into a pile of leaves and rolls around this is what happens.

My boys, looking less amused with my photography.

And my little tree hugger.

Dinner with a 1 and 2 year old

"Adi, turn around and eat your dinner!"

Adi replies" I just looking at something".

Me again " What are you looking at?" 

" Just that cute, big, huge mountain."

Adi says, referring to the mountain view from our kitchen window.

" I will climb and climb and climb and get to that mountain and twirl and twirl and turn into a princess and I'll get high heels and Belay will get princes shoes that are boots and he will turn into a princes."

"Okay Adi, but for now will you just eat your dinner?"

"Okay mommy, but I am a princess and I will go to ballet when I am 3!"

Adi always includes her brother in all her day dreams and stories of the adventures they go on.

 

A moment for my boy

Who is this little Ethiopian pretending he likes to read? Because I know it's not my son, my son has never sat in a chair and opened a book. My son has no time in his busy day of being a monster to sit and read.

A moment for my girl

Adi,
 Today you were difficult! From 3:30 am when you first woke up until 8:00 pm when I was begging you to go to bed, you were difficult. You tested my patients, you threw a marker at my nose, you made me insane today.
Now I know, when the going gets tough, I get crabby.  While I'm praying for a goodnight sleep for us all and a better day tomorrow I got to end tonight with the greatest joy a mother can have. As I brought you back to bed for the third time this evening, you turned to me and whisper (so as to not wake your brother) "will you rock with me?"So we rocked and within moments you were fast asleep in my arms, and I kept rocking for a long time. Holding my first baby girl in my arms while she sleeps is a joy I will never get enough of. I love you sweet Adi. Thank you for making me a stronger person every day.

Tucka Tucka

I'm finding myself with a few quiet moments as the kids and Andy are all still sleeping. Poor Adi seems to have a summer bug and is pretty run down with a fever.  This is the first sickness that our house has seen since getting home and healthy after Ethiopia. And the reason for that is...Andy is not in school, I am not in school or at the hospital, Adi is not in school! So the trick is, no socializing and we all stay healthy!!!

Aside from Adi being sick, my sweet babies couldn't be better. It has been over 2 months home now and I am seeing what I hoped to see a few months from now.  The way they have adjusted to each other can often bring me to tears.  Yesterday Belay (who still only says "hi" "mamma" and  "dada") leaned into Adi and gave her a huge lip puckered kiss right on the lips and I heard Adi whisper back to him "I love you too Bay." How did she know that that kiss meant "I love you?" I don't know, but she did.

While Belay only has a few words he still manages to communicate perfectly with us through nods, points and the different sounds he makes. Also him and Adi, and I hear this is common with twins, seem to have their own language. It stems from the babbles of Belay but Adi will talk right back to him and they both understand it.  The main vocabulary words consist of "tucka tucka."  One might say my 2 1/2 yr old with a vocabulary of thousands and who has spoken in full sentences for a year now is regressing now that she likes to say "tucka tucka " all time. We're hoping its a phase. And while we do at times worry about Belays language development, I think it must be common for young toddler adoptions. I guess we have a little while before we start panicking.  

Belay is just shy of 17 pounds. I have no idea the inches he has grown, but his feet and legs are pressed way up against the back of the seat in the car since he is still in the rear facing  infant "bucket" seat. They say to have your child in the upright front facing car seats they have to be 20 pounds but he is beginning to hate the car and what 16 month old with 9 teeth sits like an infant? So hopefully soon he will get his "big boy seat" like Adi's and car trips can become pleasant again, relatively speaking of course.

In other news, my first triathlon was yesterday. And I had to say "first" because there will be others!
 It was great, and my number one fans were all there. My mom and dad came to watch and they haven't seen me race since high school . I think it brought them right back to circa 1998.

a sneak peek

 ...at what we've been doing around here these days.

    
     Very soon I hope to post "after" photos of  the "mud pit" and back porch  

sweet days

                    It seems the dog days of summer have gotten the better of me, as I have been fairly absent in my updates on our sweet Belay and life as a family of four. We are living our days out in a dream pretty much! No on rushing off to work, days at a time of not getting in the car, BBQs with the neighbors, swimming pool play dates, and lots of work both inside and outside the house.
                Aside from the long hot summer days of learning to be parents of two, I've been filling the rest of my time studying for my nursing boards and training for my first triathlon.  Training could be more intense as I consistently choose to spend that extra hour in the morning drinking coffee and playing in the kids room with them. Studying could be more intense but I seem to be choosing to spend the extra hours at night after kids are in bed hanging out with Andy.
               Belay couldn't be doing better. Every day him and Adi play without fighting longer and longer. Today we even heard little giggles coming from the corner between the couches and under the side table to find them "hiding in the fort"  and attacking the cat together. They often conspire together and usually both end up in time out, but what else can you say for sibling bonding. Belay still loves his daddy more than any living, breathing, moving, thing in the world, but has been know to cry when I leave the house. He even runs across the room to snuggle in to my neck and give me a kiss smack on the lips to then immediately return to playing.

           Adi and her best friend Addi wearing their matching star floats

                   
          Belay and Adi with their cousins on 4th of July