Toddlers for Sale- Two for the price of one!

Happy Friday!  Amen?  Amen!
It's been a bit since I've updated on the happenings of Goodview Court.  My obsession with Job has not yet subsided, but it has to level out at some point- I mean there's a lot more Bible to learn from right?  While I figure out where the Lord's arm reaches out next (hint hint... Isaiah), I'll fill you in on what's going on with the Helmer family.

Charles just turned five. Yikes.  As if that didn't make us feel old enough, this last week was the 10 year anniversary of our meeting/dating/falling madly in love.  To celebrate twin-parent style, we had a date night in.  We listened to music from 2005, and watched a movie that came out the summer of 2005.  The change in fashion and even quality of cinema brought us face to face with just how long 10 years is- no matter how fast it goes.  Also, we started a small fire on our dining table at 0900 hours. No thanks to my pathetic sloth-like reaction, the flames were eventually contained and nothing was lost in the fire.  Point goes to Andy and his cat-like reflexes.

So...the twins have officially become, difficult.  From day one of learning we would have twins all we heard about was how hard it would be.  When the twins were born early, we weren't sure what our version of normal would be if they survived, so we were in the 'do whatever it takes to get by' mode for the first several months.  Once the boys were settled at home we slid into a safe, careful routine with monitors and never taking them out of the house.  When the boys became mobile and playful, my parents got us the infamous 'kennel' and containment saved our butts for another few months.  Throughout these stages, aside from the frightening difficulties of the first few months, I think both Andy and I would've told people that twins really weren't as taxing as we were expecting.  God let us get good and comfortable with our parenting skills, and then He graciously allowed Luke and Sawyer to turn 18 months old.  Just like that, everything changed. 

Meet 18 month old Lucas Andrew.  Luke is delightfully chubby and drools unendingly.  His soaking wet shirt rarely covers the bottom of his belly- but as he was born at 2 pounds, we see no issue with calling that impressive.  Luke has never chewed a bite of food in his life and his fecal matter only comes out in one size- gargantuan.  Luke has the very bluest eyes that you've ever seen, and he enjoys the outdoors with a baseball cap full of cheerios, but only from the center of a perfectly spread out blanket on the grass.  He sees no logic in leaving the safety and comfort of his blanket.  He has as much fun eating cheerios out of a hat as Sawyer does rolling down a grass hill in his diaper and running through a sprinkler.
With every cell in his wet, chubby little body Luke despises grass, but he's slowly coming around one 'reach in the grass to get a cheerio that flung off the blanket' at a time.  We take a lot of walks with the jogging stroller, and without fail Sawyer will sit up on the edge of the seat and look at the world passing by---not Luke.  Luke will slowly sink lower and lower in his seatbelt until only his head and neck are on the seat of the stroller and the rest of him is sprawled awkwardly on the floor of it- all because he's too lazy to scoot himself up a little when he starts to slip.  He'll just dangle with a completely straight face until the walk is over.  People worry when they pass us and see him lying in the stroller like he's high on the reefer.  Luke is a snuggler and is perfectly content in anyone's arms, but finds himself rather ticked off if you try and blow a gum bubble in his vicinity.  He concerns himself often with the goings-on of his twin brother Saywer.  Luke doesn't care for sharing toys, but he'll put a wet cheerio in your mouth anytime you're close enough for him to jab one in.  His favorite new chore is to speed-waddle the rolled up wet diapers to the garbage and then clap for himself when he tosses them in.  Luke is forever his daddy's boy, and his hands go right in his mouth to stifle an involuntary giggle every time Andy comes in the door or around the corner.  It's precious.  Luke is still working through when to emotionally react to something.  Timing is tough for him.  Anytime Sawyer is being reprimanded, Luke tends to take it personally and still completely breaks down when Sawyer is being put in timeout.  We still have to console and remind him he's not in trouble this time and he doesn't have to cry on Sawyer's behalf.  Meanwhile, Sawyer stares through our souls and plans his next disobedient act the entire time he's being scolded and disciplined.  No tears necessary with a sympathetic twin like Luke.  Once in a while when Luke is eating, we swear he remembers something sad from earlier in the day and he'll go from just fine and dandy to alligator tears for no reason, sad quivering lip and all.  Luke is a joy, and if he were on his own life would be way too easy...that would be why God gave us a little Baby B.

Meet 18 month old Sawyer Rodney.  Sawyer is straight muscle and scar- not an ounce of chub anywhere on his little self.  His long hair flies all over the place as he bounces around the house and his brown eyes are piercing.  Sawyer's favorite words are 'diaper' and 'touch,' and 'Bo.'  I'm convinced Sawyer can run at least 28 miles an hour and there's nothing he can't climb.  His perfect afternoon would be to sit in one of his toy-boxes and throw miniature tractors at everyone that walked by.  Sawyer isn't  your typical naughty toddler in the sense of throwing a tantrum or having an attitude- but Sawyer is naughty.  He gets into everything he shouldn't, he can take apart a dust buster in 8 seconds flat, and he listens and obeys selectively at best.  We've recently been introduced to an unsolvable problem- Sawyer can climb out of his crib AND open his bedroom door.  This wouldn't be too big an issue if Soy was closer to 2- but an 18 month old Sawyer with selective hearing and obeying at best is nowhere near ready for a toddler bed.  Sawyer is not very good at obeying and it appears he has a very short memory along with a giant lack of interest in being disciplined.  We have the stairs gated off, but other than that he has access to far too many dangers to let him roam around.  If we try and keep him in the crib however, he'll keep climbing out and it's a four foot fall to hard wood floor below.  Sleep is already difficult to come by, but not knowing where Sawyer is keeps me crouched down Gollum-style peeking through the cracked open door in my nighty at all hours, and I'm starting to go crazy with this paranoia.  If anyone has a solution to our unsolvable problem, don't hold out.  This is a cry for help. 

Charlie is, as always, an amazing big brother and helper.  He tells us when the boys prematurely get up from timeout, and scolds them when they grab the remotes.  I heard him tell Sawyer once that Jesus loves Luke more because Luke doesn't throw his cheerios on the floor.  We're always working on spiritual encouragement on Goodview Ct.  We had him answer a set of 50 questions on his 5th Birthday and recorded his answers.  The questions ranged from, "What makes you laugh" and "Who is in heaven" to "What kind of superpower would you want."  When asked what his favorite number was, his answer was 86505050.  Seems cute, but that actually is his favorite number.   He writes it on everything, including his bedroom wall, and he sings it around the house to the tune of his favorite song, Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again."

By the grace of God, all of the children God has put us in charge of are alive and well- and though our sanity is barely hanging by a thread we continue to lean on His strength.  At our busiest moments, and when we're missing our previous life with its freedoms and fun, we glance back to November 13th 2013 and can't help but be thankful for God's grace in the lives of our little preemies.  I'll try and update again soon, thanks for reading you lovely little readers you!  Sooooooooo tired.