Can You Believe It Has Been 6 Weeks?

As of today, we have been a family for 6 whole weeks. Somedays this feels like the most natural thing in the world. Somedays we feel like we are in over our heads. But 6 weeks. How crazy is that?! It is flying by! Tomorrow (if I remember) I will post on some of the changes we have seen in the boys since day 1. For now though, my usual jabber.

So, in my spare time (and I may have said this before), I am an avid "blogstalker" - meaning that I like to keep up with other friend's blogs to see how their lives are going, especially those families who have adopted. I have often been perplexed when families return home from Colombia and then all of the sudden they stop posting as much. Well now I know why... There really isn't that much going on, at least there isn't that much going on with La Familia Eisenberger. We pretty much do the same thing day in and day out...Although, I still feel like I am not getting anything done - very odd indeed.

Here is a synopsis of our daily routine:
9:00 AM (on a good day for Mama) - we get up, eat breakfast, change clothes and brush teeth. The boys are usually up before this, but it takes me a while to get out of bed, get the dogs fed and outside, then I have to make breakfast. Meanwhile, the boys are usually causing a ruckus in their room.
10:00 AM - playtime begins (this is also known as fight time, cry time, all around drive Mama up the wall in anyway we can time). Sometimes we go out - like to Target or to visit Troy.
1:00 PM - "Va a come?" "Yes it is finally time to eat." "Mama, los perros?" "They are outside." This is usually followed by a round of questions repeated in turn by each boy, including "what's this?" while we point to everything on the table, in the room, on the porch, etc... And we ALWAYS discuss the state of the dogs (are they sick, are they hot, will they bite us).
2:30 PM - The twins take a nap, Samuel hangs out in the guest room with some books and some toys and I take a break.
4:30ish PM - Wake up and watch some TV
5:00 PM - Papa comes home. The boys get very excited. Samuel squeals everytime he hears the door open. It is really sweet. Then there is the adorable round of "Hola Papa"s.
6:00 PM - We usually eat dinner.
7:00 PM - Every other night is bath night. On non-bath nights we usually take them out to the park or for a walk to wear them out.
8:00 PM - Bedtime.

And then we do it all again the next day. Once school/work starts, this will all change, but for now, this is what we are doing. And this is why the posts are fewer and farther in between. It just seems like we don't have as much excitement now that we are home, and I don't want to bore you all with the drama of Luis pegging Samuel in the head with a "weeble" or the woes of trying to figure out how I am going to get my first post-placement report done in 6 weeks without having an adoption agency. We are very glad to be back to real life, but sadly real life is a little bit more mundane than our "pressure-cooker, hotel life" in Colombia. I do have more pictures though!

Some wonderful friends brought the boys a Tonka Dumptruck and in about 10 minutes I learned the reason why my mom and my grandparents ALWAYS bought me, my sister and my cousin (who is one year older than me) the exact same toys at Christmas. The "camioneta" as the boys call it is now in a hidden location and only comes out for rationed periods of time (as in the order you finish your breakfast is the order you get to play with the truck for 20 minutes each, after that it is a free-for-all). Needless to say, the truck and the blocks from Nana and Pop Pop are a match made in heaven, especially for Luis who spent his entire 20 minutes perfectly placing each and every block on the stack (note the tongue sticking out for concentration).

Oh, and a side story... I am one step ahead of the boys and they think that I am so stupid. I knew I needed to clean a bit today so the boys would be on their own in the loft/now playroom. I also knew that Samuel knew that I was keeping toys, including the truck in the guest room closet, so I moved it to a more secure location. He totally got busted today for going into that closet. He brought out another toy that was in there, but when I asked him if he went in there to look for the truck, he admitted he had. I will never give away my new location!

The alternative to the truck is the weeble firetruck. The same rules do not apply to this one, it is simply another toy to play with while you wait your turn. There is a whole toy box full of stuff to play with while they are waiting their turn... No problem right?

Not if you are Samuel. He was not happy that his turn with the truck was over and that the same rules did not apply to the firetruck.

He continued to pout even harder when I told him that he needed to pick one of their hundred other toys to play with. The problem is that he ALWAYS wants what Daniel has...no matter what it is. He will even go so far as to try to trick Daniel into giving it to him by offering him something else. He can be kind of ruthless and has totally figured out how to outwit both of his brothers. Future Survivor player?

We finally took them to Moe's. OK, we finally took ME to Moe's! Yay! They were sort of confused by their tacos and burrito (Samuel only), but they worked it out. Next time, quesadillas all around!

Samuel begged us to get him a burrito, and then he was so perplexed by it. I don't think he expected it to be so big and he wasn't quite sure of how to eat it. He ended up eating all of his chips and then squeezing all the guts out of his tortilla and eating it with a fork.

Daniel empty his tortilla too. I am not sure if actually ate anything but chips. He was covered in cheese.

This is where I put them to get my housework done. Just kidding, they totally locked themselves in their when our friend Andrea stopped by to drop off a meal for us. They thought it was hilarious.

Anything can be a toy, even sitting in a basket.

Our pastor, Mark, his wife Tara, and their three sons, Walker, Liam and Stephen, also stopped by to meet the boys. Mark and Tara were missionaries in Ecuador so their Spanish is amazing and the kids warmed up to them in no time. The fact that they brought books helped too! Mark read The Hungry Catipillar, in Spanish of course. I don't think Daniel could have been any closer if he were the hungry catipillar, but at least they are kind of, sort of, almost getting the hang of being read to.