A Slice of Life: February 15th, 2011

It's now March 15th, we have been home with our sweet Melkamu for 7 months...7 months! That is unbelievable to me. I wanted to post on Tuesday, February 15th - which was a big milestone - 6 months home with our lovely son. Obviously this post didn't happen, so I'll reflect on that day now. Talking about that day, kinda gives a picture of how we were feeling at 6 months home and at 7 months home.

The day of our 6 month anniversary home with Melkamu is also the day we left on a vacation to Hawaii. And while we adore our sweet, cute little boy, we were a bit nervous to fly with him...6 hours on a flight with a super active toddler...hmmm, could be interesting. Well indeed it was!

Our flight was scheduled to leave on Tuesday afternoon. Monday Melkamu felt a little warm to me, but he wasn't complaining and was acting normal. I was a bit concerned as we were traveling the next day, but he seemed okay. Monday night, the boy who usually sleeps all night long, was up 3 or more times crying and unhappy. He ended up in our bed tossing, turning and restless and up early, like at five in the morning. We got about 3 hours of sleep that night. But Melke, ate breakfast and ran around all morning playing as usual. We proudly watched our resilient son up to his usual antics and decided to continue with our trip plans. In the airport, Melke excitedly walked and ran around the airport doing his favorite things - waving at people and saying "hi". He couldn't have been happier, as he was surrounded by wheeled objects (suitcases) to push and pull and marvel at other passerby's wheeled suitcases. So exciting!! Daniel and I took turns following him around the hall and gate area and smiled at each other as our son did all kinds of cute things.

Our first flight was short and Melke was thoroughly entertained. Again in another airport, surrounded by people and exciting new things, he engaged others and waved and said "hi" and played with his toys. We got the usual smiles and "he's so cute" comments that this boy brings everywhere he goes. We ate dinner in the airport, and then he threw up all over the place minutes before we had to get on our second and longer flight. Maybe he just ate too fast or choked on a bite of food. We scramble to clean him up and get on the plane. We are seated in a row of three seats, with a woman near the window and then Daniel and I with Melke on our laps. Before we take off he throws up again. Starting to panic, I wonder if there is any way we can get off the plane, but I try to remain calm. Ever try to catch toddler vomit in a plastic grocery sack? On a very crowded plane? Well, it doesn't work so well. After about the third time of being spit up on, I no longer worried about my only jeans and fleece having vomit on them. We worked hard to keep vomit from our seat neighbor, and at least we were successful in that. We reeked of vomit...I could hardly stand the smell. Poor seat neighbors... We spent six hours, trying to hold and comfort a restlessly sleeping little guy, who would wake every so often to throw up. You can imagine our excitement at the start of our vacation! We weren't smiling at each other anymore.

Of course, like every time we fly, after we were off the plane, people who apparently were seated around us, said, "He is such a good traveler! He did so good!" - Ummm, were you sitting near us? It was a nightmare! But in the baggage claim, Melke must have been feeling better and was his usual excited self, busily waving to people and saying hello. Again, bringing lots of smiles our way.

At 6 and 7 Months Home:

We are proud parents

We think we have absolutely the cutest son ever

Melke is continuing to grow fast

M is super social (but appropriately so, staying close to his mama and dada and taking time to warm up to people)

Melkamu is a usually happy guy, we love his laugh and giggle

M is super busy and active all day long

We feel like a family of three

Melkamu is very attentive of his environment - notices everything

We love Melkamu

M is well attached to us

We can't believe M is our son, how did we get so lucky

We love being parents to this guy

M brings us so much joy and love

This is reality, really - warm and fuzzy and beautiful, but there's another reality too:

Parenting is really, really hard

Melkamu does not sit still

Melkamu does not stop making noise

Our efforts to be gentle, affirming parents is pushed to it's limits

We lose our patience

Sometime we yell...at our super sweet little boy (isn't that HORRIBLE)

I don't like waking up in the night and/or early in the morning - it makes me angry sometimes

M is going through a stage were he throws himself to the ground and yells and kicks (this can be amusing, but mostly it's annoying)

M has more energy than both of us combined, times two

We get tired - sometimes when I get off work Daniel throws on his jacket and runs out of the house, sometimes when Daniel comes home after being away for a little while I run away and hide