March 2, 2008

Finally I am making time to create a new journal entry.  If you are one of our faithful readers, you may have noticed the lack on entries.  Sorry!  Life gets busy.  January flew by as we got back into the swing of things after the holidays.  I returned to work and Jason returned to being a full time daddy alone during the day.  We waited and prepared for Pat and Lucy’s visit (Jason’s folks) the month of February.  What a fun month!

Pat and Lucy arrived the beginning of February and left last week.  The boys enjoyed getting to know Grandma and Grandpa Jordan and learned all sorts of new things while they were here.  Here are some new things they learned from their grandparents:

• Pretending to nap, then fake snoring.

• Counting to three, then having a foot race across the room.

• Holding each other’s hands to dance.

• Holding each other’s hands to say Grace.

• How to point to their butts (Thanks, Pat!)

• How to steal the hearts of grandparents and make them want to travel halfway around the world to see them again J.

It was a great month and we were all sad to see them return home.  Jason celebrated his birthday when they were here.  We also went on a “real date” for Valentine’s Day.  We choose a little Spanish restaurant with flamenco dancers.  The sangria and paella were great and so was reminiscing about our summer in Spain, pre-babies.  In true parents-of-twins fashion, I told Pat and Lucy not to expect us until midnight.  We were so exhausted, we were home and in bed by 10:30pm!  Ahhh, nothing like little guys waking you up randomly throughout the night to suck out your last morsel of energy night after never ending night!  Lucy and I spent the last weekend they were here in Poland, shopping for more Polish pottery.  It was a fun but fast trip and the best part was we left all the boys behind, to do boy things….line playing Chess and watching Elmo.  I hear that there was some time kicking around balls at the park too.

March will not be so busy for us, so expect to see more videos and photos soon.  Until then, write soon and take good care.

Angelica

December 29th, 2007

Today marks the halfway period of my vacation from school.  So, you ask, "What have you accomplished?"  NOTHING!  I have played with the boys, cooked some great food, and rearranged the house.  That is about it.  What a perfect vacation!  

We celebrated Christmas at home in Germany this year, as a family of four. Santa brought a new push handle car and some fun trucks. We web-cammed with the relatives in Minnesota, Nebraska, and California.  We had a chance to celebrate Christmas "together" via the Internet.  The theme this Christmas for Andrew and Joseph was "the adoration of all things ELMO."  All the friends and family members sent gifts, and the boys opened them on the web-cam.  Not one Elmo gift was repeated!  Well done :) .  They even got light-up Elmo sneakers, which they stomp and dance around in EVERY TIME we put them on!  What a riot!

Jason is keeping busy with his Shaklee business, even more now that I am home to take care of the boys.  It is going great and I am so proud of his committment to the business.  We started Joe and Drew on some Shaklee vitamins and supplements this fall.  Unfortunately for them, I wanted to wait until they were older (over a year) to start them on the vitamins and immune builders. Since we have had them on the Shaklee supplements, they have been healthy and able to fight off colds.  Last year, every little cold would turn into a major event...bronchitis, ear infections, fevers.   They were prescribed steriods, antibiotics, and more.  It was awful.  They have had two little colds since starting the vitamins.  Both of which turned into a runny nose, little cough, and disappeared in a week or less, without so much as a fever or trip to the doctor!  Their bodies are strong and able to fight off more serious infections.  I feel so blessed that Jason convinced me to start the boys (and me) on the Shaklee supplements.  My only regret is that I was too skeptical last year to try it then.  Incidently, I have not had even a cold all fall.  This is a miracle seeing as how I work around twenty germ-carrying kids each day at school!

If only Shaklee had a magic formula for making babies sleep all night.  The boys are still not good sleepers, and one or the other often ends up in bed with us.  That is not too bad, if they come to bed and sleep.  Sometimes, they think that it is morning and they are ready to party at 3AM.  That is when the ugliness of twins begins.  They bounce around, get all worked up, then get MAD when we try to make them go back to sleep.  This often lasts for about 2 hours, then they pass out at about 5:00, for another two hours.  On vacation, this is no problem, but during the work week, it makes for a long day.  I am holding onto the hope that it is growth spurts or teething that keeps them up, but the longer it goes on, the more I fear that they will never both sleep all night.

During the day, Drew and Joe are as loving as they are mischievious.  They freely give kisses and hugs, blow kisses goodbye, and even give Eskimo kisses.  They hug and kiss everything they like, including books, clothes, and toys.  Right now, they even hug and kiss each other.  I am told that this will change so I should cherish it now.  They are climbing on things and have figured out how to team up to move large items (like chairs) to use to climb over and into things.  We have a homemade double decker baby gate around the spiral stairs, even that they have started to "scale the gate."  They are crafty!

We are looking forward to February when Jason's parents will arrive for a three week visit.  It will be great to have them here and Joe and Drew will love all the extra hugs and kisses.  Maybe Jason and I will even get out for a much needed "Date Night."  On Saturdays, we have a movie and homemade popcorn date night at home, after the boys go to bed.  It isn't getting out, but it is time together alone, which is cherished during the hectic week.  

I hope that you find some time this holiday season to be with your loved ones and some quiet time to yourself as well.

Love,

Angelica

December 7, 2007

Is it December already?  It feels like we just returned from our summer trip.  Joe and Drew are 19 months old now.  Yes, now instead of being “baby-sauruses” they are “Toddler-sauruses.”  The boys are growing by leaps and bounds and are learning new words everyday.  They are getting the English and Spanish jumbled together, calling a dog/perro a "pog".  Oh well.  It will straighten itself out sooner or later.  Just wait until they are 3 and we send them to German kindergarten.  That should truly mess them up!  

We put up Christmas lights around the banister last weekend, deciding that a tree would be too much work.  It is a pain to get up, but a bigger pain to monitor the climbing, we-think-everything-is-edible toddlers.  So, we are having lights with stockings hung over the rail, and presents in front of the rail, all out of reach of little guys.  Yippee!  They LOVE looking and pointing at the lights.  They are constantly running to turn off the overhead lights to see the Christmas ones better.  Then, they have this huge conversation of "twin-speak" about it.  None of which I understand, but I am sure they understand each other.  Their new thing is “blowing” the lights off like a candle.  They haven’t figured out that it is just mommy switching off the light at the right moment.  It is SOOOOO cute!  

This weekend we plan to go to one of the local outdoor Christmas markets, a German tradition.  They have beautiful light displays, decorations, cultural foods, drinks, and rides for the kids.  I think they are still too little for the rides though.  The boys will like the lights, sweet treats, and watching all the people.  That’s the part I like too.  We are hoping to get a good Christmas picture of the guys, weather and toddlers cooperating.  We will see.

I hope you have a nice weekend and find some time to enjoy friends and family during this always hectic time of year.

Love,

Angelica

November 3, 2007

Drew and Joe have been growing and changing every week it seems.  They are now wearing 2T or 3T clothes, depending on the outfits.  Their 18 month birthday is coming up on Monday.  To celebrate, they are getting more shots!  Yippee!  It will be interesting to see what they measure and weigh, since we haven't had that done for 6 months.  They are both starting to talk a TON!  Last week we heard them say:  "te quiero, Chau, pretty soon, there, dangerous, truck, police," and of course, "mama, dada, Drew, Joe" and others.   Now they are starting to repeat so we need to be very selective about OUR speech!

Last week was Halloween.  We went to the base to trick or treat since the Germans are just starting to celebrate this holiday.  We dressed the boys as beagles and Jason painted their faces a bit.  I bribed them to sit still by letting them hold the digital camera and watch 60 second clips of themselves. We were back at the house at about 7:30, but with changing the clocks in Europe last week, their little bodies were exhausted.  One could even go so far as to say "They were DOG Tired!"  They pretty much slept through taking off their make up, costumes, and a diaper change and putting PJ's on!  Poor guys!  

Check out the pictures on the photo album and the videos on "Baby News" if you haven't already.  They are doing some fun new things.  Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween too.

Love,

Angelica

August 16, 2007

We are back home!  Traveling internationally with two one-year-old boys was busy!  The little guys have become quite the jet setters.  Over the last eight weeks, we flew to Minneapolis to see Angelica's family, then drove to Omaha to visit Jason's side.  At the end of our time in Nebraska, we drove to Dubuque, Iowa for a family reunion of the Jordan's.  Including our little ones, there were 3 sets of twins there, all ages five and under!  (Do you think it runs in the family?!)  As if the road trips weren't enough, we added a flight to Vancouver, just for fun to see more of Angelica's family!  All in all, Joe and Drew (and their mom and dad too) did pretty well traveling this summer.

Here is my "Visa Commercial" about traveling this summer with twinfants:

• 2 bottles of water purchased on the other side of security  $5
• Getting through security and taking off 8 shoes - A pain in the neck!
• SUV rental for nearly 2 months $1,000 - Yikes!
• Plane tickets for a family of four (too much to list - Double yikes!)
• Tons of borrowed baby stuff from good friends - FREE (THANKS!)
• New suitcase to bring home all the cool outlet mall purchases, $60
• Bag full of Cheerios and 10 cent garage sale toys to keep babies busy on the plane - PRICELESS

I wish we could have seen more of you on our trip.  Time got short in the end, then the babies got quite ill.  They had fevers of 103-104, double ear infections and Bronchitis. We delayed our retun to Germany from Tuesday until Friday to make sure the antibiotics had time to work.  Fortunately, they are well on their way to healthy now.  They are happy to be home and have found a new way to use our furniture, as they are climbing like monkeys.

We will update the BABY NEWS section soon and add some pictures when we can.  As for now, we are just getting the babies' bodies adjusted to the time change and are finally back to sleeping at night.  More later!

Love,

Angelica and Jason

June 6, 2007

Unfortunately, there was a malfunction with our website and we have permanently lost all of the journal entries and baby news sections.  Even our photo albums have disappeared.  The website provider apologized to ALL of its customers, but said that the data is gone.  Ahhhh...technology.  It's great when it works, but frustrating when it doesn't.  We have our photos saved on our computers as well, but we decided to only upload new pictures since you all are "regular visitors" and have no need to see the old ones anymore!  I will be working to add new journals and pictures when I get the chance.

Most of you know that Jason has been out of town on business for the last four weeks.  Life as a single mom of twins is exhausting.  I have really gained a new respect for those military families with deployed spouses.  I thought 5 weeks was a long time.  I can't even imagine a 15 month deployment.  

Our good friend Carol has been watching the boys during the day while I work.  She has triplets that are in fourth grade and a kindergartner too.  Her husband, Eric, teaches 3rd grade with me.  I am so lucky to have someone that knows what more than one baby is like.  If she could handle her THREE, my two should be a piece of cake.  Thank God for good friends.  Jason comes home next week, shortly before our trip to the States to see most of YOU!

Hope to see you this summer!  Check the Baby News section soon for more fun stories about Joe and Drew!

Love,

Angelica