Wednesday, November 23, 2011

OH MY!


A few weeks ago, I visited my niece Lilee's preschool classroom.... she was student of the week and requested that Theo and I visit and read a story to her class. I was super-duper excited and I decided to read E is for Ethiopia and share a popcorn snack.... We had a good time, Lilee was excited to share her new cousin with her friends and I educated the class on Ethiopia.... I focused on the coffee ceremony in Ethiopia.... which includes popcorn......Fast forward to yesterday... I was again with Lilee and my sister in law visiting the grade school for the Thanksgiving program.... a preschool mom was also at the program and came up to say hello and inquire about my little cutie.... my sister in law was explaining Theo and mentioned that he visited the pre-school class... the mom immediately said....Well, now I get it .... hmmmm... what do you 'get' exactly? we asked in unison.... Well you see my daughter came home from school one day and said.... mom I know where babies come from, I was a little concerned and then she told me babies are from Ethiopia....

It is a good thing I teach high school....


Thursday, November 17, 2011

A Week at the Beach

Many new experiences and lots of firsts....
first tooth, blowing kisses, crawling on hands and knees,
and pulling up to standing....
It was a busy week!






Tuesday, November 8, 2011

10 months....

It is hard to believe my sweet boy is ten months old….

He is more discerning these days… it is safe to say he knows his mama….

I am amazed by the gains he has made in the past 7 weeks……

My gifted child figured out this week how to remove the safety covers from the outlets…. I thought this was just a rare one-time event, alas, he is a master and has exhibited his mad skills in many different places…..

I guess it is safe to say his fine motor skills are just fine.

We had fun times this week…. Ault Park, Children’s Museum, & the Zoo. The best animal at the zoo was the giraffe, the merry-go-round giraffe…. Lilee was super excited to share her favorite place at the zoo with cousin Theo….

We ended the week with a two & a half hour flight to visit Grammy & Re in Florida….

My veteran flyer was a rock star…. and quite the entertainer-



Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween

Halloween was filled with treats for Theo...
He received his Certificate of Citizenship,
he dressed in festive holiday wear & he tried his first Lollipop....

But when we pulled out the costume, he was a scared little lion....

Another Fun First
Swinging in the park with his cousins....
Georgia was quite satisfied to push Theo in the swing
in return she received some fabulous belly laughs...
Clearly the swing is a winner.

Friday, October 28, 2011

5 weeks

....5 weeks home....
This week we were blessed by an amazing celebration
hosted by Grammy's friends
Theo received so many special things ....

The best part?
Boxes, Tissue Paper, and Tape!


As we approach Halloween....

My favorite little monster.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Peek A Boo



This week we mastered the art of Peek A Boo.....
Happy One Month


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Three Weeks



I can hardly believe I have been home with Theo for 3 weeks….
Some of his favorite things….Soccer games, well truth be told he really just likes to be outside, feel the grass or sit in the stroller…but usually I am watching or coaching soccer while Theo enjoys his surroundings…

He also loves ….

The Exersaucer (thanks Olson family)

The Johnny Jumper (thanks Nancy & Frank)

Sophie the Giraffe (a baby addiction… I am not kidding!)

Bathtime

Balls, balls and more balls

This week we visited The International Adoption Center at Children’s Hospital We are so very fortunate to have this center in Cincinnati….The doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and everyone in between are fantastic… even the nurse who took 6 vials of blood (not such fun times) was talented enough to get it in one stick, and both Theo and I were grateful. Theo’s Aunt Katie was nice enough to distract us for a portion of our 5 hour appointment. We also appreciated Lynn who stopped by and brought new toys just in the knick of time! It is pretty great to have friends and family who work at Children’s Hospital! Theo seems to be adjusting quite well….He responds to his name and he always seems to know where mommy is…He has accepted the car seat which is a new experience for this 9 month old.

Cousin Cara was Theo’s first babysitter this week…

quite appropriate since I was Cara’s first sitter 22 years ago :)

I seem to be more popular these days…Lots of fun times with family and friends...I truly have one of the happiest kids….He was appropriately named Gemechu which means Happy in Amharic….


I am enjoying settling in to my new role: Mom.....
and this new US citizen is handling everything in stride.