Run or Walk Mama Walk

I was excited to participate in Adoption Mosaic's Run Mama Run event on Mother's Day. I am not a runner, but a walker and did the 5K walk with Daniel, Melke, my uncle, sister, and nieces. I recruited others to do the running - my brother-in-law and uncle. It was a family affair. It was fun. I enjoyed doing it, although it would have been nice to have a little more sunshine and a little less rain and mud. Melkamu looked awesome in his rain suit handed down from the neighbors. He and Daniel made it half way through the 5k before Melkamu wanted nothing more to do with the stroller and got out to walk.

Rain and mud doesn't stop us.

Uncle Lon and my sister and nieces - Thanks for walking with me.

Katie did the kids fun run and walked the whole 5k with us...she's tough.

Thanks brother-in-law Chris for running.

The Show Stopper in his rain gear, doing his part to participate in the walk.


Thanks for running Uncle Jerry.

Melkamu Update

Today we have been home nine months with Melkamu, which is just completely unbelievable. When I go back and look at pictures from when we first came home, I am surprised to see a baby. He is such a little boy now, although still my baby. He has moved to one nap over the last few months, instead of a morning and afternoon nap. He takes a long nap (very long, we hope) about noon everyday. He is saying a lot of words on a regular basis now: juice is our favorite, it's so cute when he says it, and bye, hi, eye, nose, ball, bike, back, b for basement, boo for book, rock, hot, hat, hide, and shoe (which sounds more like yooes). And our cat, Rio, who I call Riri. Melke is constantly looking for Riri and calling out his name. In fact every cat he sees is "riri". I'm sure I am forgetting something else he says. And sometimes he says a word once, like "elbow", perfectly clearly but then doesn't say it again. He has also started to show us over the past month or two, by patting his own little bottom, when his diaper is dirty and needs to be changed. I recently got out the little potty seat and put it in the bathroom and told him that's where you go poopoo. He likes to go in there and sit on it. One day it was kind of quiet and I found him in the bathroom sitting on his little potty and going poop. It was pretty cute, of course he was wearing pants and a diaper. I took his pants and diaper off so he could sit on it, but he wouldn't go anywhere near it with a naked bottom.

The Joys of Outside

Melkamu loves, loves to be outside. Over the past month, we have had a few nice stretches of more spring like weather. Daniel has finished the fence in the backyard and I started to get the garden beds ready to plant. Melkamu is ever so helpful, of course. I thought it would be fun to garden with a little boy, but fun isn't exactly the word. I had to pick out green bean seeds he poured out all over the newly planted lettuce seeds. My plant identification tags are constantly moved from one place to another by little hands. Trucks drive through newly planted seeds, and little toy garden tools unearth delicate lettuce that is just poking up through the dirt. And that is just the beginning. I have had to replant seeds a few times, as my starts get picked up and dumped out while they are trying to catch some sun, or handfuls of dirt are taken out of the little pots and thrown about with joy. We have enjoyed spending more time outside and really look forward to this summer. We hope Melkamu can spend a big part of his days outside in the yard, hopefully not sitting in the middle of the raised garden bed like he was the other day, but out enjoying the yard and the neighborhood. We are dreaming of summer, fresh veggies and fruit from the garden, and dirty little boy hands and feet that have been exploring the outdoors.

Always fascinated with what his daddy is doing.

Finished the backyard fence and moved onto a little fence in the front yard. One of the neighbors said, "Is this a Melke fence?" Yes, that is exactly what the front yard fence is. It's a contain Melke fence. Momma and daddy can actually work in the front yard fence and maybe even sit down and rest fence with no worrying about Melke in the street fence.

It's been a year,

a whole year, since we laid eyes on the face of our beautiful boy. I just can't believe that was a year ago. Some people in the adoption world call it the referralaversary, the anniversary of their referral. About this time a year ago we got a call that changed our lives forever and an e-mail that both broke our hearts and filled it with the most joy and excitement we had ever known.

Our favorite referral picture of M - Sooo beautiful and sweet

Sometimes at night I see this face in the Melkamu that I now know. For a long time it puzzled me, why rocking him at night reminded me of this picture. I eventually figured it out, I think. My little guy is always moving and talking and so expressive with his face. It's not until right before he falls asleep that I see this quiet, still, relaxed little face gazing up at me.

Melkamu with his daddy a few weeks ago, in front of one of our new trees.

19 Months...

...and full of spunk.

I didn't fully appreciate it until I was back home.

Although I was super excited about our vacation, I didn't fully realize just how exquisite it was until we were back home to the cool, gray, wet Northwest. We did have a great time, even with a sick kid, a visit to the ER, and antibiotics. We stayed in a little one room cabin up in the hills ( it was cheap), and it was the perfect space for Melkamu to gallop around. We were about 20 minutes or so from the beach, and took day adventures to different areas. Daniel and I took turns snorkeling and swimming, while Melkamu played in the sand and surf. We learned that there is no lounging on the beach, relaxing and reading a book, when you have a toddler. But, it wasn't until I got home and it was cold and rainy that it hit me, I just got to spend a week in Hawaii with sunshine and 80 degree weather! We are lucky for sure, and still have lots of airline awards to use up in the future.

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
  

• We have realized that parenting does not stop...ever...

This is our cute son 6 months and a few days after coming home.
Isn't he the cutest thing ever! We adore him!