ONE YEAR!!!!!

Can you believe that it has been one year since we first laid eyes on our sons. I have started an entry with memories from that trip and I will try to post it this week. For now here is a summary of the amazing growth in our sons.

Yared

Has grown 5 inches and gained 11 pounds. He was in the 3% for height and is now in the 60%. He was in the 32% for weight and is now in the 68%. He went from wearing a size 2T to wearing size 4/5. He is fluent in English and excelling in school. He is such a happy sweet kid. He always was but there were definitely a lot more melt downs at the beginning. He has to be the friendliest boy ever and loves to meet new friends. He will talk to anyone, feels deeply for others, and loves a good laugh.

This is a picture taken almost a year ago. Yared is wearing jeans and shoes that Nati now wears.

What a handsome kid!! We are so proud of him and how well he has handled such a HUGE adjustment.

Nati

Nati has grown 6 inches and gained 10 pounds. He is now only two inches shorter than Yared was last year. He was not on the growth charts for height last year and is now in the 20%. In weight he was in the 31% and is now in the 58%. He was wearing a size 9-12 months and is now in size 2T. He is fluent in NSL (Nati sign language) and is rapidly learning new verbal words. He is a bundle of mischief and fun who still loves to snuggle with Mommy. These two pictures really show the change in his personality from a shy clingy baby to a running bouncing 2 year old.

Last year.

Now

I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike.

Sunday was beautiful here and as Yared had been asking all morning to ride his bike we took a family ride up to the school nearby. We strapped "Hoppe" to his bike.

Hoppe is the class pet who comes home with the kids and has adventures that are written down in his journal by the parents and then returns home to share said adventures with the class. This is Hoppe in his Birthday Party Pirate getup.

Since Hoppe was going for a ride, Nati felt that Bear should go for a ride too.

On the way to the school, Yared was super slow and kept falling over. I was pushing Nati on his bike and had a hard time keeping them both going. By the time we came home an hour later, I had to run to keep up with Ben and Yared and he only fell over once.

Ben gave the boys rides on his handle bars. Yared was a bit scared but Nati thought it was great.

One of many wipe outs but NO tears. He was a real trouper.
Messing around with shutter speed.

Just messing around.

Pirate Party for Yared

Yesterday was Yared's very first Birthday party. The poor little guy waited a LONG time for this day as our gotcha day was the day before his 4th Birthday. We didn't know this at the time and it was such a crazy time for all of us that it wouldn't have been a good time for a party. We made sure this Birthday was a BIG deal. He was so appreciative. He kept telling us thank you.

Friday night we recruited our friend Kathryn to come help me with being creative. I was her nanny 8 years ago and she will always hold a special spot in my heart. She has turned into a great pre-teen and we always have fun when she comes to spend the night.

Here is our Birthday cake we made together.
Pirate attire was handed out as prizes for games.

We played pirate tag.. Nati was it here and was getting some Daddy help.
Pirate brothers.

I think he liked the cake... look at that smile.
Getting the canon candles.

We had a treasure hunt to find the candy bags hidden in a treasure chest.

We waited to open presents until we got home. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES this boat our friends gave him.

We got him a big boy bike that he also really liked.

His first ride.

Last Post Placement Visit

Today we had our last social worker visit. Ethiopia requires a one year meeting. Isn't it amazing that it has been one year? Well actually it has been 360 days but close enough. I am going to try and record some of our feelings and experiences of this time last year over the next few days but for now here pictures taken within an hour of meeting our beautiful, amazing, wonderful sons!!

First family shot.

Yared giving Daddy his first hug.

Meeting Nati.

First two word sentence!!

Last year when we took the boys for the Doctors physicals we were asked one of the stupidest questions ever.

They said, "Is Nati speaking any words?"

We reply, "Only Ma"

They ask, "Is he putting two words together in a sentence?"

We reply, "He only knows one word." At this point Ben and I exchange glances that say "Are we sure we want this person examining our child."

Anyways.. that was almost a year ago now. Nati has struggled a lot with his words, but NOT with communication. This child is ingenious how he has managed to get his point across, express his emotions and even tell on Yared. Well today he said his first clear two words sentence and I am so proud, of the sentence and the content.

"Mo choc-cha" - translation.. More chocolate. Ahhh so he was just waiting until he had something important to say!!!

time to take up photography again

One thing I have discovered about my beautiful brown children is that I need a better flash to capture them. Winter indoor pictures are difficult to catch their gorgeousness. But spring is here!!! I have been going crazy with the camera. I did not touch up these pictures at all so you can see food and boogers all over their faces. But you know what? That is how they often look. It is part of our life:).

Ben got to start wearing his camis again, much to his joy. Nati found the hat and was marching around the house today. I didn't capture what I was wanting too but he is still adorable.

Yared posing with is new gardening gloves. Many of these poses are action shots of his new warrior pose!

Need a smile? Here you go

Nati and I on one of our adventures while Yared is at preschool.

Me and the cool girls

Ok so today I had a GREAT treat. Two of my classmates from RVA - my boarding school in Africa - and myself met up for lunch. One lives nearby but with our chaotic lives we have only managed to have lunch once. The other lives about two hours away and was in town to visit her sister. We met at a local Ethiopian restaurant. I was really looking forward to meeting up with them and having Ethi food. The food was lousy but the company was wonderful.

These two particular girls came to RVA in 8th grade, I had been there since 1st. I was NOT what you would call the cool kid at all. My best friend was much more popular and a bit of a bully to the rest of the class so I made it through not taking abuse, but I was not cool. These two girls came and I remember thinking they were so cool. They were pretty, they knew how to dress, they knew how to act and even the boys in grades above us liked them. They were cool but they were also nice so even though we were never close in high school I had only good memories of them. In contrast I remember myself as this walking skinny dork with a huge amount of unruly hair and the capacity to say the wrong thing all the time and then not be able to say anything when you needed to say something. But as we sat there reminiscing I realized yet again that jr. high and high school is not so much about what others think of you but rather what you THINK others think of you. These two lovely ladies were telling me of their personal struggles at school and I honestly thought they floated through life untouched because of their coolness.

We sat and talked for three hours. It flew by. It wasn't all RVA talk, but of how we had changed in the 20 years since RVA. Our 20 year reunion was supposed to be this summer. Not enough people signed up so it got cancelled. However a few had already bought tickets. I actually decided to go after it got cancelled. Even if three or four show up it will be a nice chance to catch up with other people who have lived a life similar to mine. I would not change my life with anyone but I do wish I could have learned some of life's lessons a simpler way. I look forward to our non-reunion reunion this summer and more good conversations with old friends.