Baptized

Our children were baptized yesterday in their Ethiopian outfits. They looked so cute. But in all the rush to get to church on time and excitment of the day, I didn't take any pictures. By the time I realized that, there was already food on Haven's dress.
I'll have to clean the outfits and stage a picture:).
We do feel so blessed to have found our church. They have been so supportative of us throughout the whole adoption process. Our children are very lucky to have such a wonderful support group in their life. Thank you to everyone.

Alec's words

Alec now says up and lifts his arms up. He now has a vocabulary of ten words. He says hi, mama, dada, sit, stay, up, one, two, no no and baba(bottle). He is now screeching at the top of his lungs in glee and also in disgust when Haven tries to take a toy from him. He is getting more adventurist, which means he is getting into more trouble.
He loves to close doors and try to get things out of the bottom shelf of the fridge.
He will be one on Dec 15th, hard to believe he has come so far in such a short period of time.
His appetite has improved and he is eating solids better. But don't give him something that has too much texture or you will be sorry. He is a wretcher and will make himself throw up. Appetizing I know.
I was putting pictures together for our Christmas card of our gotcha photo and a current photo of Haven and Alec. Alec has changed so much in the 10 weeks he has been home. His face and body has filled out. He has gone from barely sitting up, to crawling, talking, pulling himself up and now walking holding onto things. Amazing.
He loves to be pushed on this pooh scooter we were given. His feet don't touch the ground but that doesn't stop him:)

Play date

Jill, Marquez, and Nyah came over to play. Jill and I were suppose to work on our re-adoption paperwork, but we chatted instead. It is so fun to see how the other children from Toukoul have grown and find out what they have learned to do. Jill's oldest Marquez is such a sweet guy and is so good with the babies. Haven loves him.
Poor Haven had a hard time sharing her toys with Nyah and Alec, but she enjoyed them being there. She cried when they left.
Last night Haven added 3 new words to her vocabulary; apple, applesauce and bubbles.
She is so amazing. She loves books she asks all day long to have books read. She will sit down and look at the books for a long time. That really is the only thing that keeps her attention for a long period of time.
Alec loves all the toys, really doesn't have a favorite thing. He loves music and showed off his rhythm to Jill and Marquez:)
I had to choose photos for the first post adoption report. It was harder than I thought to pick my favorites, so many cute ones to choose from.
Here are some pictures from our play date.

New Words

Haven's new words this week are stinky, thank you, kitty and all done. Her vocabulary is exploding. She is so funny when I ask if she can say this word, she smiles and shakes her head yes, but doesn't always say it. Got to keep me guessing.
I noticed yesterday she is cutting four teeth at once. Her upper last molars and pre-molars. No wonder she has been a little whiny & grumpy.

Alec is starting to walk

Our sweet Alec is 11 months old now. He has been pulling up for a few months Recently he started walking holding on to our hands. Yesterday he walked on his own holding on to the coffee table. I'm so excited for him. He has come so far since we came home. He was even walking 1/2 way around the couch holding on to the couch last night. He has gotten so animated and active the last month. He is starting to pick up new words. Of course only Mommy can understand what he is saying. The cutest thing he does is count 1, 2 and put his finger up. He loves it when you do it back to him.
Soon he will be walking on his own and become even more annoying to his big sister:)

Haven is a challenge

Haven is a challenge. She is a sweet, smart girl that has a great sense of humor. But she is also very stubborn and a little defiant. I swear this girl is 2 not 20 months. There is a daily battle of wills with her and she spends a good amount of time in her time out chair. The two biggest issues I have with Haven is her jealousy of Alec and she is not able to keep her hands from touching things she knows she is not allowed to touch. She will tell me no touch and then try to unplug a lamp or something. We changed out the outlet covers so if she gets the plugs off she can't touch the live socket, but she is the type of child that would figure out if she moved it the right way she could. She is very smart and has very good dexterity and that adds to the issue. I find myself getting frustrated with her and I don't like that I feel that way. Every day I tell myself you will have more patience with her...some days are better than others. I know she is testing the waters and feels comfortable with us now... but I must admit the child that didn't challenge me every second of the day was easier to deal with.
She is extremely jealous of Alec. If he is playing with anything she thinks of as hers she comes unglued and starts hitting him. She can be very sweet and kiss him and give him hugs. She tries to help hold the bottle for him. Yesterday she got put to bed at 6:30pm because she was hitting him over the head because he crawled over to her favorite toy and started playing with it. This was after an afternoon of meltdowns and tantrums. I know this is normal behavior but give me a break.
I met with our pastor yesterday to discuss their baptisms and she threw a major temper tantrum because she didn't want to give the pencil back. I know every Mom has been through this, but it was embarrassing!! Thank goodness my Pastor is a Mom and Grandma to young children she helped scoop her up and get her in the car for me because I had Alec too. Ok I'm done venting. Thanks for listening, this stay at home Mom thing is so much harder than I thought it would be. I enjoy being with them, but some days she wears me out.

Two Months

Hard to believe our babies have been home with us for two months. When I look at them, they have changed so much and it seems so long ago..but it has only been two months. How my life has changed. New pictures to enjoy.

Things to document

Alec now weighs 18# yes!!! Last night he actually slept 6 hours. I hope that is a trend that continues. He is now playing peekaboo, loves itsy bitsy spider. Alec loves the Wiggles. He just claps and cries out in glee to the music and sways his body to the beat. He is pulling up and he will take a few steps holding on to our hands. He now eats in his highchair (that is a big accomplishment, he hated it before). Hard to tell what his favorite toy is, he plays with everything including plastic containers. He loves to bang toys and get a beat going. He crawls to the hallway, where the sound echos. He is going through a Mama phase and wants to be held all the time only by me. He says Mama, Dada, Hi, and no no. He now does the sign for eat. He will lift his shirt up and then make a razberry sound asking to have it done to him. He is just adorable. I so enjoy him. Even the late night feedings. I think about his birth mother a lot. How she must have felt giving this amazing child up for his benefit and trying to save his life (he was very sick with pneumonia when he was abandoned). I think could I do something so selfless for this little guy... I don't know.

Haven's vocabulary is exploding. Here are the words she says as of today; Mama, Mommy, Dada, baby, Alec, doggie, gentile, bye bye, hi, hello, up, down, please (we are working on thank you), hot, one, two, sit, ouch, eat, shoes, beep beep, brown bear, push, me, and her latest word is yummy. Wow that is 25 words. She is so curious of everything and wants to help me do every little thing. She loves books. Can't get enough and will also sit down and read Brown Bear what do you see to herself. So cute to hear her little voice say brown bear. She is trying to dress herself now. Gets a little confused and puts shirts on her legs and then gets angry it won't pull up. She is starting to be nicer to Alec. She still wallops him, but will kiss him afterwards. She loves to figure out how things work and how to make it happen. She knows how to buckle the belt on the high chair, knows how her carseat harness works, but can't do it herself yet. She loves her singing dog toy (that I don't like thanks alot Aunt Patty). She likes to give kisses and hugs to us and the dogs. I was told by the lady who runs the nursery at church if she is 19 months she is a genius. I think she is older than the birthdate we have. She has such strong problem solving skills for someone 19 months. I think she is 2. She is a challenge. She is in time out numerous times during the day for not doing what she was asked or hitting on Alec. She does sit in time out very well and hugs and kisses after she is out and then does what she is asked, like pick up the toy she threw.
Bed time has gotten much better and now it is a game to see how many kisses she can get out of Naing and I. Naing builds a tent with the quilt and they say goodnight that way every night. She loves that. There is still a little bit of a fuss, or whining but not like it was when we first came home.
How they have changed in just 7 weeks. Amazing! I am grateful every day for their presence in our lives. I just hope I can be a good mother for them.

Mini Reunion

Saturday we went out to lunch with four other families who have all adopted children from Toukoul. There were 10 adults and 8 babies under two at the Laurelwood Pub. Fun had by all comparing notes and seeing every ones children and how they have changed since our last encounter. Haven loved the chicken tenders and applesauce. She was the last one eating at the table, ate every bite.

Everyone was amazed by her ability to handle her spoon. She is very coordinated. After lunch was done, we lined the babies us in their high chairs for pictures. Sorry our camera doesn't have a panoramic view. Here they are split up into 2 pictures. So cute!