Elias' 1st HH Reunion

Elias had his first reunion with one of his buddies from Hannah's Hope. We had so much fun meeting Sunday and seeing Elyse again!! Elias and Elyse looked so cute together and had a BLAST! Sunday and I were asked at separate times by different people if they were twins. I guess compared to a bunch of other American kids the two little Ethiopian cuties do look alike :)

This is just before Elyse accidentally ran Elias over with the car

They played so well together!

Elyse kept laying down on Elias when I would take pictures. It was seriously

THE SWEETEST THING!

Pretty, Miss Elyse (who flirted and cuddled with Brian back in Ethiopia!)

I love this one! We are two blessed Mamas!

Unfortunately, they weren't about smiling at the same time.

I think it's LOVE!

13 Months

Elias is 13 months old! He is certainly becoming a little boy...and a really cute one at that! Elias loves to walk everywhere. He wants to get down and explore everything that is going on. He still loves to be outside and some of his favorite activities are swinging and playing in the pool.

Elias has started running this month. He now walks (and runs) with his arms down to his sides rather than up in the air like a monkey. His run is really the same pace as his walk but he leans forward and puts his head down, gets a big grin, and truly believes he is booking!

Elias now has 5 teeth. He has a healthy appetite but knows exactly what he wants and will accept nothing else (meaning last night he ate about 30 gold fish for dinner because he saw the box and we were able to sneak only about 5 pieces of chicken and 2 bites of rice in between).

A little BBQ flavored snack at the beach

His favorite word is "UP" which he faithfully says about 50 times a day. He wants "up" to be held, he wants "up" to be held by a different person, if he is being held he wants "up" (down), etc. He has also developed a strong love for reading. Elias discovered the bookshelf in his room and the fact that he can pull the books off. His latest trick is picking a book from the bookshelf, carrying it to the living room, putting it on the couch and saying "up" so he can be lifted onto the couch and whoever is closest can read him his book. At any one time we might have somewhere in the ballpark of 4 to 12 books on our living room floor.

After working for months on blowing kisses and barking like a dog, Elias is finally doing something that resembles both. When blowing kisses he puts a fist up to his mouth and puts it down. Not the best rendition I've seen but it's good enough for me. When Elias reads a book with a dog, when he sees a dog in person, or on rare occassion when I say "what does a doggy say?" he will respond with a (bahr, bahr). Yes I realize it's supposed to be something more like a "woof woof" but if you heard my pathetic dog bark that he is trying to copy you would give him a break too. At least it is a consistent sound if nothing really like a "woof woof."

Elias clapping

Elias has also discovered jumping and clapping. I expected the clapping at a much earlier time but it doesn't seem to really be his thing. I have caught him clapping occassionally but for the most part he would rather wave his hands up and down in his "Elias dance move" when he is excited about something. The jumping is just super cute. His feet never leave the ground but the knees bend and he really thinks he is jumping 3 feet high!

Elias is picking up some more words like "out" and "down" (dow), but nothing is quite as clear and favored as "up!"

Teeth brushing is his absolute favorite pasttime. He has 2 toothbrushes and his own tube of toothpaste. It is truly impossible for Brian or I to be in the bathroom without Elias clinging to the sink trying to lift himself up while making a "hah hah" begging sound to let us know he wants his toothbrush. As soon as he sees his toothbrush heading for his little hand he lights up! We started singing "brush your teeth, chu chu chu.... brush your teeth" and he's been chiming in on the "chu chu chu" part :)

We love you Elias!!!

a HUGE adoption milestone

On August 14th, our 5 year wedding anniversary, we reached a HUGE milestone in our adoption and life with Elias; we have been together as a family of 3 longer than we were apart!

Elias, the day we met our son, February 1, 2009 (6 and 1/2 months old)

Elias, home 6 and 1/2 months (12 and 1/2 months old)

Our 1st family photo

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy"

~Psalm 126:3

We love you baby boy and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Buh-Bye Helmet & my 200th post

Some of you may be wondering why there was an unusally large gap in my blogging. I've been working for a while now on the video of our first meeting with Elias. I'm really not great with editing video and it is exceptionally difficult when the job requires editing 4 hours of footage of your child crying, well screaming, into something that other people might actually want to see.

My goal was to have it up to celebrate hitting our 6th month mark. Well that came and went on August 1st. I decided not to blog about us being together as a family of 3 for 6 months until I posted the video, you know, motivation of sorts.

Then I decided I wouldn't blog about other random stuff until I got the video up. Now I'm at the point where I need to mess with transitions, etc. and that requires Brian's help. So, 10 days of no blogging and I figure I will just have to waste my 200th post on a random post instead of saving it for the video, as that might just never happen. Not that hitting the 200 mark is anything significant, it just means I have a lot to say about nothing.

Today is our 5 year anniversary! Brian and I have had a wonderful 5 years together. We decided when we were married that we wanted to wait 5 years before having kids. We made it 4 and 1/2. Although we had a great time together I sometimes wonder why we spent 4 and 1/2 years missing out on the joy we now experience day in and day out. I guess we just didn't know any better.

In other news, Elias is officially done with his helmet! Actually that happened about 2 weeks ago but, again, I was saving this 200th post for the video (sigh). There is definitely still room for improvement but we opted not to do a second helmet and are very pleased with the progress made in our 4 and 1/2 month experience.

These are the before and after pictures. I was actually pretty bummed when we got them because I don't feel they in any way do justice to the treatment. In this top photo you can see the "diagonal egg shaped head" I referred to in the first e-mail I sent home. The right is the "after" photo. As you can see the forehead made large amounts of progress and is completely symetrical now. There is still room for improvement on the back right side of the head but we are happy. Below that you can see the vast improvement made in his facial structure misalignment. In the before picture looking from left to right you can see how his face had a sloped look to it and in the after how everything is even.

This view is harder to notice but it also shows the progress made in the forehead as well as progress made in the strength of his neck muscles. The bottom set show progress made in the back flat part of his head. In the before picture you can see how the bottom part of his head was flat as a book. In the after you can see how it has filled out in a more typical head shape. This is the part of the progress where the pictures just don't do it justice.

This final set of pictures takes very close examination and oddly enough some of the before pictures look better because of how Elias was sitting. These show the correction of the ear misalignment (seen better in the bottom set) and also the correction of the back of the head flatness which has now filled out a lot.

The staff at Cranial Tech LOVED Elias. On our last adjustment visit the technician asked me, "when are you adopting your next child?" I was a little taken aback and she explained herself by saying international adoptees were their largest clientele (although I never saw any others in the countless appointments we had) and she couldn't wait until she would get to see us, meaning Elias, again.

some more summer fun

Uncle Alex decided it would be fun to put Elias' pool into the big pool. Uncle Israel thought it would be fun to swim underneath it.

Uncle Jake thought it would be fun to take a nap

Mimi thought it would be fun to give Elias a candy necklace to keep him busy while she cleaned.

Elias thought it would be fun to play in the sand, and eat it too!

Uncle Alemu thought it would be fun to put bubbles on Elias' head and then take pictures of it.

sink/bubble head photos courtesy of the aspiring photographer...Uncle Alemu, age 11

I think it's fun having all these people as my FAMILY!