Good eats

One of Daniel's biggest concerns, was having a picky eater in a child. So far so good, the kid eats just about anything we feed him...I hope it lasts. He loves bananas, watermelon, and sweet potatoes! And has also enjoyed salmon, peas, broccoli, zucchini, black beans, garbanzo beans, tomato, onion, chicken, potatoes, avocado, pears, cottage cheese, blueberries, raspberries. He is moving onto milk without a second thought.

We were pretty upset to find out he had "a severe ear infection and eye infection" when we were at his doctors appt on Saturday. Last Wednesday, we made a special appt to get him into the doctor sooner because he had been pulling on his ear and his eye was red. The doctor we saw did not diagnosis either of those things, so we think he has been suffering for a week and a half longer than needed. Now he is on a few antibiotics and hopefully on the mend.

Otherwise things are going pretty well, we are busy feeding this kid, napping him, and changing his diapers. Unfortunately, Daniel hasn't been feeling well. I hope he is on the mend as well.

Waking up is hard to do

When my boy is ready to wake up, he sits right up and starts smiling and babbling. I do not quite wake up so happy and ready to go, so I will do just about anything to lay down some more with my eyes closed. Grabbing a few things off the bedside table to entertain him is helpful, even if it means I have to endure bottles and alarm clocks banging into my head and/or my hair being styled by one year old fingers and drool...at least I am laying down and perhaps my eyes are even still shut.

These two pics are from last week, and all this fun was happening well before 6:00am!





I better go before he starts to tire of playing with the broom...breakfast time is here, eventhough it seems like it was just dinnertime!!!

One Year Old...Today!

Today Melke turns one year old! We wanted to have him home before his first birthday and indeed here he is...home safe and sound...upstairs napping as I type. When he wakes we will have a little cake and celebrate his birthday. I'll whisper something in his ear about his birth mama and what was happening one year ago today in a little home in Ethiopia.

Daniel is feeling under the weather, so we canceled having a few friends over. But with Daniel's parents in town, we will have a little birthday celebration with banana cupcakes and vanilla ice cream.

On Sunday, my family was in town. My niece, Ellie, celebrated her third birthday and shared her day with Melkamu. So he got to celebrate his birthday with the Nuttbrock's and Aldridge's. Here are some pictures from that event:
















A few days ago, Grandma and Grandpa Aaker got Melkamu a bike helmet for his first birthday. Now he is ready to ride in the bike trailer.

Home...

A few pictures of our home coming and being at home:

Settling in as a family of three

I have had several people tell me they checked the blog everyday while we were away...so sorry I did not get a chance to post. It was hard to even get a chance to check or send a quick e-mail. There was one computer at the guest house, and six families staying there on the same schedule. So everyone had about the same free time to use it. I just decided to not make using the computer a priority, although I wish I'd had the chance to share some of our experiences. There are tons of stories to tell.

Since we have been home, we had a good day and then a few bad days. Our happy smiley baby, got mad and was crying all the time, not eating and not sleeping. A trip to the doctor revealed he probably has a virus...hand foot mouth disease. Pretty common illness for kiddos and hopefully it will pass quickly. We all had a much better night last night and Melke is seeming better this morning...even though it's only 8:30am, we've been up since 4am, and he's had some happy playtime this morning.

As Daniel is heating up lunch for him and I, yes, lunch at 8:35am and the baby is napping, I am going to try to get a few pictures posted here.

Meeting Melkamu...we had a sick baby when we got to Ethiopia. He had just been in the hospital with a pneumonia. He was not feeling well the first few days we got to meet with him in the care center. I was a bit sad they had to shave his head while he was hospitalized.





Daniel putting him in his bed, at the end of our visit.

The child care center in Addis with the hotel next door


About town and with our very awesome driver for an afternoon:

Amsterdam

I had the best chocolate tart is the organic food market when we got into Amsterdam on Saturday. It was most delicious. Saturday after getting into the city, we wandered all around. Yesterday (Sunday), we again walked all over town and went on a canal boat ride/tour and to Anne Frank House. Today we plan to rent bicycles and ride to the Van Gogh Museum and perhaps another art museum. I am tired...tired...tired. I am hoping I get over this jet lag. I always have it and struggle for a few days...or several days. Tomorrow we leave for Ethiopia and should get to Addis Tuesday night. Then we will have a few days to get acquainted with the city and people before we start working with Holt and meeting our little guy on Friday. I hope to be adjusted to the time zone then and feeling more like myself and less like a zombie.

Conversation...

...with the crazy neighbor:

"Well, where isssss this baby?"

"The capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa."

"Who HAADDD this baby?"

"You mean who birthed him....a woman in Ethiopia."

"How old is she?"

"Ummm....in her early thirties I guess."

"Well, I want to know why you didn't use the Boys and Girls Society like our neighbor the lawyer? They have a vvverrryy nice boy."

"You mean so and so (I'll leave out names)...because we wanted to adopt internationally."

Insert VERY skeptical look....


It dawned on me a few minutes later after she was gone...I think, she thinks we have some dark, scary secret and people would only adopt internationally if they couldn't adopt domestically.

Some people are very strange, but I am sure she thinks the same about me!!