Birthdays and Board games

Curt here:

Today was another lazy day.  Since it is my birthday, I slept in a little longer.  The dudes came in to tell me that breakfast was ready, and we had some tasty eggs and pears that Jocelyn had prepared.  It was overcast today so we spent most of it inside.  The problem with that is that these are 2 happy brothers with a lot of energy, and they can start bouncing off the walls.  These boys have essentially only had each other for years, so they are very close.  They love to wrestle and tickle each other.  Sometimes their horseplay can get a little rough, and one of them will call out to us that the other one hurt them (although they are right back to rough-housing as soon as they are satisfied that they have tattled sufficiently.).  Although Isaac is younger and a bit smaller, he seems to dominate many of these sessions.  A couple of times we had to separate them for awhile with each of us taking one of them into separate rooms for a little 'time in'.  Finally, I broke down and wrestled with them for a long time to wear them out.  We watched Monsters Inc. to pass some time.  As soon as the opening credits were rolling, they were showering me with "Mike Wazowski's!"  I love it when we watch movies on the computer.  Their laughter is infectious, and it is priceless having these two little cherubs laying on each of your shoulders enjoying just being with you.

It is fun to see how alike they are in some respects, but how different they are in others.  Eli, being the elder, is a bit taller than Isaac, but I think he is small for his age at this point.  He has a 'stockier build'.  His favorite drink is milk, and every now and then when he drinks a glass he flexes his biceps, like the picture on the milk bottle, to show us how strong he is getting.  Den recently gave him a gift of one of those spring devices that you squeeze to improve your grip.  He carries that thing around constantly and is always showing us how he is working out his forearms.  I see some P90x in his future.  Last night they had finished their bath, and Isaac was running around being cute before bed.  Eli always takes longer to get ready, and he was not out of the bathroom yet.  After about another 10 minutes, Jocelyn checked on him.  He came out and indicated that he was lying stretched out in the bottom of the bathtub with the water all drained out.  He was excited to tell her that he was measuring himself, and he has gotten taller in the last few weeks!

Another gift that Den brought for them is a simple board game.  It has a race track, and you roll a single die to move your pieces around the track to the finish line.  There are various spots where you lose a turn if you land in a pit stop, and there are areas where you can't pass each other etc.  There is no strategy involved, but they love it.  Well, in addition to a lack of training on what parts of certain foods you do not eat (see previous), they apparently have not been properly trained in the art of rolling dice.  In the orphanage we played a lot of Uno with them, but I do not recall seeing any games with dice.  Anyway, it was CUTE watching them roll this little die that is included with the game.  Eli (our strongman), would put the die in between both hands and shake it as hard as he could (I mean face all tensed up and turning red), and then he would turn his hand down and literally spike that puppy into the floor.  Isaac would simply shake it in one hand and then throw it across the room before running to find out what number chance had given him.  After several (slow) games played in this manner, and having retrieved the die multiple times from beneath the chair or couch, I finally had to instruct them on the 'civilized' way to roll dice.

To end the day, we walked down to Goodini pizza.  Ben and Angela told us about this place.  The pizza is more American style and was quite good.  The boys had their usual sausage and cheese, and Anya, Joc and I had the 'Mexican pizza' that was pepperoni-ish with some peppers that they called jalapeños and tomatoes.  The peppers actually had some kick, so it was nice to have something a little spicy for a change.  Can't get any mexican food here.  All in all, it was a wonderful Birthday, and certainly one I will never forget.  We have now made it through the weekend and are looking forward to this week and our court date (finally).  Please keep up the prayers that all will go smoothly Thursday at 0900.