Sibling Love

We had a visit with our social worker today for our first post-adoption report for Mae.  At the end she asked us one of those best/worst questions: What is the best thing about having Mae home, and what has been the most difficult?  The first part was easy - well, not really because there are so many.  K gave the best answer: Seeing Mae and Yabi together.  I'll second that.  These two are the cutest ever.  Sometimes I catch them holding hands between their carseats in the backseat.

Yabi constantly asks, "Can I play with baby?"  (I don't know why he asks - it's not like I'm going to say no...)  Unfortunately for Mae, "playing with baby," usually means getting in her face and yelling, "HI BABY!"  But Mae doesn't seem to mind.  In fact, she usually gives him a big toothy grin in response.

Not surprisingly, when our social worker repeated the second part of the question, K and I both fell silent.  Thinking.  What is the most difficult part?  I mean, sure, it's hard to get Yabi quiet when Mae is sleeping, and it's doubly hard to get out the door in the mornings, and maybe K and I desperately need a night out...But that all pales in comparison to the first part of the question.  One look at our babies together - in the bath, in the car, playing with their toys on the floor - and all of that sort of disappears.

(And don't worry, I haven't gone all sunshine and rainbows on you.  Someday I'll tell you WHY it takes us two hours to get out the door for a Target trip.  But today, I'm feeling the love.)

Welcoming Party

I finally have pictures from the day we returned home with Mae!  It was almost two months ago, and it already seems like forever ago.  When I look at these pictures, I see intense joy in our faces, except for poor Mae, who looks confused and exhausted.  She was such a trooper during travel.  After our first experience bringing home baby Yabi, this time was a dream.  (Yabi did not do so well on the flight, and we were both confused and scared New Parents, so it was not our favorite part of the trip.) 

Coming home this time was so amazing because we missed our Yabi so much.  Seeing him run and fly into his dad's arms was one of the best moments ever.

I remember just searching for Yabi here - I could not wait to see him. 

Best Hug Ever

I love Dad's face in this picture.  Pure joy.  (And that's Yabi behind the flowers :)

 

 

 

I love this because that is exactly how I remember this moment  - everything around us was a blur, and in the center of it all- sweet baby girl.

Oh, I'd been waiting for that smooch!

First hug.  *sigh*

We're Home

Famiversary

Three years ago today, we landed in Ethiopia and were lucky enough to meet our son just two hours later.  We were allowed to walk right into the baby room at 9:30 pm and meet Yabi.  Our son.  With the biggest brown eyes you ever did see.  It was such a blur - they handed Yabi to us, we ooohed and ahhhed, he smiled, we smiled, he ate, we smiled, he fell asleep, we... stared.

My sweet son sleeps with his eyes open and the first time we saw this, well, we were totally freaked out.  We waved our arms in front of him.  We giggled.  We marveled.  We wheeled his crib right up next to our bed and I fell asleep holding his baby hand.

This year, Yabi is beginning to understand what his special day is all about.  Every year we have celebrated that first moment of meeting, of becoming Family.  This year, after seeing us off to Ethiopia and welcoming home his baby sister, he is starting to "get it."  He was also pretty excited about having a Day that was all his own.  He woke up early this morning and said, "Mom?  My day!"  Maybe it was the Spiderman Web Slinger he was anticipating, but I'm going to pretend he was just excited to celebrate the day we met.  (Yes, I know I'm delusional.)

  Trying to figure out the Web-Slinger

And that, my friends, is what Spiderman's web looks like.  I am stuck wondering who cleans up after Spiderman.

After a fun morning of web-slinging, we were off to Monkey Joe's - which is one of those giant bouncy house places.  It's 800 degrees here with 1000% humidity, so an indoor activity was definitely the way to go.  Yabi's friends came too and it was good times all around. 

Yabi is a big fan of the giant slide. 

Mae hung out.

After that, it was home for some Monkey-Joe-induced naps and a bit of clean-up (Spiderman's webs were still covering every available inch of our family room).  We had asked Yabi what he wanted to do for dinner on his Day and he chose tacos and ice cream.  I'd love to say he chose Ethiopian food, but he's 3.  I'm just happy we didn't end up at McDonald's.

Tacos

Ice Cream

We ended the night playing with his new Spiderman (a second surprise), dressed as Spiderman (Yabi only, we didn't put on our costumes), and watching Spiderman.  You could say Yabi is a bit obsessed with Spiderman.

At bedtime, we did our nightly ritual of My Favorite Part of the Day was....  Yabi's favorite parts (he usually has two or three) were meeting Monkey Joe and ice cream.  Sounds like a good day to me.  

Welcome... or Welcome Back

So... we've moved.  It may have seemed like a spur of the moment decision, but it's one I've been thinking about for a while now - so I just did it.  I apologize to the followers of our first blog, but it was easier for me this way.  Like a band-aid.

If you're new to our blog - welcome!  I'll tell you a bit about us.  Yabi is 3 1/2 years old and is pure spirit and fire.  He's hilarious, exhausting, outgoing, imaginative, exhausting, a lot of fun, and oh, exhausting.  But, I'm pretty sure all three year-olds make their parents want to crawl slowly to their beds at the end of the night.  It's just a three year-old thing, right?  

Actually, he looks exhausted in this picture.  A rare moment.

We met Yabi in Ethiopia when he was 5 1/2 months old.  It was, and remains, one of the best moments of my life.  I'm pretty sure it ranks up there on his dad's list too.  And right up there with it - is meeting our second child, Mae, this past June - again in Ethiopia.

We kind of feel like the luckiest people in the world to have two amazing children from a country that we love and respect so much.  That being said, we're 99.9% positive that we're finished.  Time will tell, but we're pretty content with things as they are.

Does it get better than this?  Not for me.

Summertime

**this post has been moved from our old blog**

Just some pictures of our summer so far....

Getting ready for her first pool party.

Yabi at the pool party. I always said I wouldn't let my kids wear these things - I want them to learn to swim the right way. But the kid wants to be in the pool ALL DAY, so I caved. Either that or be in holding him up for HOURS.

And besides, look at how cute his tiny bum is in his turtle suit. Cracks me up.

He floats!

Mae does not float. But she does love the pool.

Yabi got his mohawk professionally done. He loves it. And James was nice enough to do it for him. We love James.

Mae had her first beer at the EKC picnic. Nooo, not really. She likes to put her achey teeth on cold things - she grabbed her dad's beer and of course I took a picture.

We had pictures taken at the mall. Dreadful experience, but I wanted to surprise Dad with some pictures for his new office. I can't wait to have our family pictures taken with our photographer. OUTSIDE. (Yabi does not do well in a studio.) But we did get a few (literally three) good ones.

Awww.

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Summertime

Just some pictures of our summer so far....

Getting ready for her first pool party.

Micah at the pool party. I always said I wouldn't let my kids wear these things - I want them to learn to swim the right way. But the kid wants to be in the pool ALL DAY, so I caved. Either that or be in holding him up for HOURS.

And besides, look at how cute his tiny bum is in his turtle suit. Cracks me up.

He floats!

Lia does not float. But she does love the pool.

Micah got his mohawk professionally done. He loves it. And James was nice enough to do it for him. We love James.

Lia had her first beer at the EKC picnic. Nooo, not really. She likes to put her achey teeth on cold things - she grabbed her dad's beer and of course I took a picture.

We had pictures taken at the mall. Dreadful experience, but I wanted to surprise Kevin with some pictures for his new office. I can't wait to have our family pictures taken with our photographer. OUTSIDE. (Micah does not do well in a studio.) But we did get a few (literally three) good ones.

Awww.

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!