The Last Two

It's a somewhat drawn out story, and it is all nicely recorded in my journal-but for background sake. I will say, after Ellie was born, Mike and I felt as though we could be "finished" with the three kids that we had. We weren't in a rush really either way to make any final decisions.

I (and I'm sure Mike too) will never forget the Saturday night in January of 2006 when I said to Mike, "We need to have two more children. They are boys." I remember Mike was laying in bed reading, and he looked up at me and said, "Okay."

(This is a public blog and my parents and grandmother read this--so I'll decline writing the next part of his response...)

Of course the rest of the story is history.

Although I will add that throughout both of my pregnancies with Joshua and Drew, I doubted my own declaration. As with my pregnancy with Ellie, I opted not to "find out" what sex they were at my routine ultrasounds. I wanted two little boys so badly. I wanted my "spiritual experience" to be right. I had always wanted more boys than girls. I wanted two more boys.

I told my "spiritual experience" to my friend Lesley before I ever got pregnant with either. She is one of the most faith-filled people I know. She never doubted I would have boys and during each pregnancy she assured me she was sewing the "right color" blanket. (Although she never said which sex she was so sure about.) In a funny way, it was the thoughts of her sewing (hopefully boy) blankets that kept me going some days--especially during my labor with Joshua when the nurse told me she had read on my chart I was having a girl! (Long story...)

Lesley visited me in the hospital after each birth-proudly bringing me a boy blanket each time.

It has been over six years since my declaration of having two boys. Yet I think about it almost daily. Parenting Joshua and Drew, especially as they are the only ones home together all day is a different experience than I've had before. I've never had two of the same sex in a row-and it is a whole new experience. They are now at prime ages to really play together. They can play the same thing for much longer than any of  my other two children together would last playing. (There was only so much Tonka truck playing Megan tolerated with Luke, and not too much baby doll playing Luke would tolerate with Ellie, and only so much Hot Wheel playing Ellie would tolerate with Joshua...)

I love these two little boys.

Even though when together they think they have free reign over the kitchen pantry. And they dig dirt from the flowerbeds instead of from the sandbox. They leave Hot Wheels in all the wrong places. They favor pajamas more than clothes and they make more noise than the other three kids combined. Drew teases Joshua mercilessly and Joshua threatens Drew he's going to get a spank. They fight each other physically and they kiss each other to make-up. They each pick a thigh to sit on while reading a book on my lap. They sit next to each other on the couch and they hold hands in a parking lot.

I love Joshua and Drew.