Family Updates

Let's start with Jonah and Leila.
They are 19 months old and they are still learning words, but I don't think they are advanced as other kids their age. They understand most everything we say, but when it comes to speaking words, they only know a few. The doc said he would have liked them to know at least 10 words by 18 months old. Here are the words they know:

Leila
Mommy, Dada, Baby, Bah (Ball), Dah (Dog), Mimi (she yells that if she wants something), Na Na(Jonah), Uh-oh

Jonah
Mama, Dada, Beby (Baby), Bah(Ball), Dah (Dog), Cah(Car), Yaya(Leila), Uh-oh

They know all of their body parts. When we ask them "Where's Leila and Jonah's feet?" They pick up their feet and point to it. They know about 10 body parts. They can also point out anything we ask them when reading a book. "Where's the duck?" "Where's the shoes?"

Also, we keep the diapers in our hall closet and they were never able to open it to help get diapers because the handle is too high, so we put a wide wall hook at their reach and now they are able to open the door! We say, "Jonah, go get a diaper please!" and he runs to the closet and opens it by himself,
opens the drawer with diapers, gets one or sometimes 10 (lol) and

closes the drawer, closes the closet,

and brings it back to us. What good babies!

I love how we have routine with our babies. They know to get diapers in the morning before we eat. Then when I change them, they go sit down at their table while I make their breakfast.
Once evening hits, right when Jason walks in the door they litterally GASP and with a huge smile on their face and get so excited and hug Daddy. We'll have dinner and say, "Okay, say prayers." And we will all hold hands and Jonah and Leila will reach out for each other and hold each other's hand.. Jason will pray and after we are done, we clap. It started out as Jason and I would clap for the babies doing a good job praying, and now, they do it too, even before we clap, because they think it's just a part of our prayers! lol it's very cute!

Before bed, either Jason or I will brush the babies' teeth and say, "Okay, go give Daddy/Mommy kisses." And they will run out to us with an intent goal on giving us a kiss because that is what we do every night. We give them a kiss and hug and they grab their blanky and monkey/Pooh bear and go lay down in their beds. It's cute how they kiss us so routinely at night because during the day, it's not as easy to just ask for a kiss and get it!

I love these kids. As adorable as they are, they are equally terrorizing. Everything they touch ends up unfolded, on the floor, torn up, out of the drawer, or thrown everywhere. Our home constantly needs work! It's really tough.. being a mother. I would say the toughest part is not physically, but emotionally and mentally. I am mentally stressed out most of my days because of how much I have to discipline these kids and teach them right from wrong.

Jason is getting ready to go on a field exercise for 2 weeks. It'll be interesting how we (me and th babies) get along during that time! I won't have Jason's help like I do every day. He relieves me of stress every day and gives me the little break I need to just lock myself in my room at the end of the day and just have quiet! At least this will prepare us a little bit for what's to come when he gets deployed.

He's also starting school soon. He changed his schools and major. He'll be getting his degree in Religious Studies with a minor in Youth Ministry.

I'm still hanging in here. I'm starting school again.. should be soon until I start back up. I'm still loving going to church and PWOC and building relationships with awesome women. I'm dealing with my own issues with staying at home all the time. It definitely takes a strong woman to take on this job and I'm trying to get through each day. I know that God has something in store for me soon.. something that will help me and keep me sane!

Other than that, we're hoping to take a trip in the next few months... somewhere!! We'll see :)