January

I am still trying to catch up on my blogging. So, January... the new year brought Daniel's parents out for a visit. Melkamu was delighted to spend so much time with adoring grandparents, and Melke's nanny was probably happy to have a week off. This visit with Melkamu's grandparents included his first trip to the snow, which I posted about here.

Also in January, Melkamu's "re-adoption" in the state of Oregon was finalized!! Yippe! He received his Oregon birth certificate and his social security number and card. Mostly, this makes me jump for joy, because it's one more step closer to being done with annoying and redundant paperwork and expensive fees. But don't get too excited, we are not finished, there is still the certificate of citizenship. (Maybe I'll put this on the to do list for next month. I found the previously mentioned processes traumatic enough I needed to take a break.)

(If you notice duct tape on our child, just know it was medically recommended...
we're still battling mulluscum.)

Perhaps our son's biggest day in January was his baptism. I was quite nervous about this event for a multitude of reasons, but everything seemed to go smoothly. It was nice to celebrate our little guy with family and friends, and it was the first time I "officially" heard Melkamu's full name. We ended up not doing a court ceremony for Melke's re-adoption, so his baptism felt like a debut of his "final" name. He had his birth name - Melkamu B---, and then the name that was used after his adoption was official in Ethiopia. Which was his first name and then his daddies first and last name, as his middle and last name - Melkamu Daniel ---. I realize all this is very confusing if you haven't adopted from Ethiopia, but alas we have, Melkamu Essien ---. All of this to say, it was special to hear our son's name spoken out in an official manner for all to hear... Melkamu Essien ---.

Getting ready with Grandma Judy


Sitting with his Greats and Grandma Nuttbrock

Melkamu Essien


Hanging out with Seblee and Yarid, Melke's friends

Us

And Genna...

We were able to celebrate Ethiopian Christmas with the Ethiopian adoption community in our area. One night a large group of families met for dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant. The next night, Melke and I attended a Genna celebration hosted by a wonderful Ethiopian couple in the community. The celebration was complete with a prayer and blessing from an Ethiopian priest, and dancing from handsome, young Ethiopian men and women. They demonstrated music and dancing from different regions of Ethiopia. I was so busy running after my active boy, I didn't get many pictures.

His cute little Ethiopian shirt.

The boy LOVES music and LOVES to dance.
He insisted on dancing right in front of the booming speakers.

(If you wonder why I am posting about this two months late...it's in my effort to catch up.)

What...February Already!?!

I had planned to post a few pics from Christmas and Genna before January was over. Time just flies by so fast. I can't believe it's February today. Wait a second, It's MARCH Already!?!

I started this post, as you can tell, at the start of February, and now it's already the middle of March! Crazy... I have had a hard time sitting in front of the computer to blog, even just to throw a few pictures up. It's kinda like going to the gym, once you miss a few days and get out of the habit, it takes a great feat to get back into it.

The last few months have had lots of exciting activity and milestones to post about. I had wanted to post some pics of Christmas and when that never happened, I just got stuck, and then there was so much to blog about, I didn't know where to start.

So, maybe if I post some pictures from the holidays, my blog will start rolling again. My dear, far away friend is desperate to see some pictures of little Melke, so hopefully this will get me going and I won't disappoint her.

The holidays were tough for my little family, for lots of reasons... One being our whiny, clinging child. I always jump to adoption/bonding/grief issues whenever the little guys is out of sorts...although he has never really exhibited a great deal of issues related to the above and not really at all since the first few months we were home. Turns out he had a double ear infection. Every time this kid is unhappy and not his usual silly self, it turns out to be an ear infection. We've had an ear infection (by we, I mean Melke) for about every month we have been a family of three. The December ear infection landed us a referral to the pediatric ENT. Fortunately, his hearing is awesome and he was so cute during the hearing test. I had been wondering for weeks how they test the hearing of a young toddler...it was interesting. We decided to put off tubes for awhile, and thought we had made the right choice, as there was no ear infection in January. But, February and March have brought along the monthly ear infection and antibiotics.

Anyhoo...

Christmas Eve at my parents house, Melke got to meet his cousins Chloe and Kennedy for the first time. Kennedy and Melke (in this picture) were born three days apart.

Melkamu was not too keen on sitting still with his cousins.

Christmas morning at my sisters


Grandpa and Melke


Hmmm...Why didn't we take a picture of everyone? Grandma & Grandpa and Wayne and Gail are missing (for future reference).


Below: Melkamu and Kennedy seemed to enjoy chasing each other around our house.

Except here, where she is trying to strangle him (I also have experienced this urge, but only rarely).


Trying on shoes


And here, they are trying to escape. I don't blame them. This was about the fourth or fifth family holiday event we were at.


And below, I just think these pictures are cute!

First Snow Adventures

Melke was very interested in the snow up at Mt. Hood last weekend. We had the opportunity to go up on Friday and stay in Welches for two nights with Daniel's parents. Saturday, Daniel's mom watched Melke, while Daniel and I took a little hike and Daniel's dad downhill skied. Saturday afternoon, we dressed Melke in his snow suit and took him down a trail a little way. He stumbled around in the snow... fell alot, and did a little sledding. He really seemed to enjoy himself and watched closely the people with snow boards, show shoes, and skis. Interesting new stuff! Sunday morning we all went snow shoeing, with Daniel carrying Melke in the pack.

I love this little hat on Melke.

Melkamu and Daniel

Grandma Judy and Melkamu

Hang On!

Sunday snow shoeing wore out little Melkamu.

Judy, Jerry, Melke, Daniel, and Sarah

5 Months Home

This past Saturday, January 15th, marked 5 months since we came home with Melkamu. I realized while looking at some pictures yesterday, that I had taken a little series of Melke on Saturday morning sitting in a box. I thought this was weird because, back in November I took some pictures one morning to mark 3 months home. In these pictures Melke is sitting in a plastic bin. I guess the kid just likes to climb into boxes and bins.





At 5 months home, it is starting to set in just how hard this parenting thing is. I have heard Daniel say a few times recently that 'Raising a child is so tiring'. Yeah, I would agree with that. How do people raise 3, 4, 5 ,6+ kids? They obviously have more energy than we do! I have heard that you should wait until you've been home 6 months with an adopted child before you evaluate how things are going. At 5 months, I still think that everyone has transitioned and adjusted beautifully. Although we are tired, often, we are delighted in our brillant, super active boy!

Buddies

Melke and Kavi

Lots of toys, but the cardboard box and paper grocery sacks are all the rage.

Hanging Out

Melke thinks this is all fun and games, until Kavi actually sits on his lap...
then screaming ensues.

Kavi and Melke

Jumping and rolling around on the pillows.

Chasing each other through the house.

Melkamu and Kavi Mamush
Kavi wants to sit at the table, well then Melke insists he does too.

Kavi wants to play with a bib, well then so does Melkamu.

So cute.

Kavi saying goodnight to Melke.

We feel blessed to have met some wonderful people in our adoption journey, also adopting children from Ethiopia. We feel super fortunate to have some of those people living very close to us, and willing to visit with us often so our boys can play. Melke and Kavi have been getting together for play dates for several months now and for the past few months really seem to enjoy each others company. When Melke started walking in November, it seemed to move the boys onto the "same playing field" so to speak. I love seeing these beautiful boys chase each other around and hearing their screams of delight and giggles!

We were able to babysit Kavi on Saturday night. Although I chased the boys around with a camera, I didn't get many good pictures. I have a hard time getting a decent pic of my fast moving boy, let alone two fast moving boys, who never seemed to be looking in the same direction at the same time. Of course, when these two do something super cute...like hug or bump fists...I am never ready with the camera. Anyway, above are a few pictures of these budding playmates.

Sleeping Beauty

So sweet....



Oops! Woke him up...