Baby Derby

G's new favorite home activity has swept the household. Baby Derby! Oliver and his dad came up with this one the other day when all of a sudden around the corner in a screeching turn came our little guy barreling across the living room floor in his Derby cart. He squeals and screams the faster they go.

Our son is going to be a daredevil. I can tell already. He loves to swing around, fall, be thrown up in the air...you name it. Anything that could result in him getting hurt and me doing the infamous quick inhale of air while clutching my chest he is into. I'm already terrified for him. I do admit however, I'm a big fan of Baby Derby.

A little High Five action before starting.

Ahhh...man. I hate it when that happens.

Looks like we need a pit stop repair.

Highchair Tears

Check out this angry, sad little face.

This sight is becoming a daily occurrence. We get this reaction lately when we are wrapping up meal time. Food has been a soothing factor for Gadisa since we met him, but really isn't it for any child this age?? On the other hand, I've read about adoptive children having issues with food. Gadisa just over eats. And then eats and eats some more. He's at a healthy weight now, but we are trying to come up with how to handle his angry cries for more food. When he screams, it's more like he's yelling at us for more food. We don't necessarily want to give him things when he's got this tone of crying/screaming with us and we know he's not hungry, he's just stocking up. It could be a reaction from his time in the orphanage and the association of hunger with food and the frequency or lack of when it was given. Or, it could be the toddler in him coming out to get what he wants when he wants it. Whatever the reason, this little man is pretty angry at his mama when he sees me going to wipe off his hands and face. Hopefully, this phase will wrap up soon. For now, we just calmly take him out of the high chair and walk around to calm him down and distract him with another activity. If you've got other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Thank You, 2010.

The clock is ticking to the end of the year and the beginning of something new. 2010 is so close to my heart. It brought us our son. It brought us the roller coaster journey of emotions that bringing us our son entailed. It was a year of personal journey as I juggled with who I was with just the two of us and then how I've transformed with the three of us. It was a year of decisions and the indecisiveness I always fight to come to a conclusion.

Here are my most memorable moments of 2010...

1. Seeing Gadisa's face light up and the biggest smile come across it the moment we looked at each other. I will never, ever, ever forget that sight and the emotions that flooded with it.

2. Watching my grandfather pass. I never saw him as often as I would have liked, but I am grateful to have been there when he moved on, surrounded by my extended familia. It was the way it was supposed to be.

3. A warm, summer evening giggling on a park bench in Rome with my husband and eating gelato. I knew when it was happening that I was in love with that moment.

4. Running through a downpour of rain with my oldest, closest friends after spending an evening enjoying them. I heart my friends!

5. The countless, slow summer days of sitting on the porch in my favorite rocking chair with my son swinging beside me completely happy with where I was.

I decided to extend my blogging experience to this new location. www.morningsparrow.com

Morning Sparrow is a new adventure of sharing for me. I wanted to expand beyond adoption blogging and well....just chat about whatever, whenever without having any topic boundaries.

I plan to still update this blog with all things Oliver Gadisa, adoption and our adventures, but with Morning Sparrow I hope to evolve into all sorts of things. It's really outside of my comfort level as I went back and forth on how much to share and why. Just starting this adoption blog was a big jump into letting walls down. I tend to be more private than blogging permits, but it's been good to just let it all flow out. In the end, writing is therapeutic for me and that won out all insecurities. So here I am. We'll see where it goes.

I hope the New Year brings you adventures, blissfulness and happiness galore. Happy New Year to you!

What a difference

Last year...last Christmas, I was anxiously awaiting a magical phone call from our adoption agency. I had a tiny glimmer of hope that they would surprise us on Xmas Day with THE phone call that we had a child. That call never came that day and I was disappointed.

This year, we spent the day with this little guy.

A long, slow, happy day with the 3 of us. Our first Christmas together. Our new tradition of spending Christmas day together in our house. We opened presents and sat around drinking coffee in our pajamas for most of the day. I feel overly grateful this Christmas. My family is together...happy and healthy. What a difference a year makes.

I hope all of you had a very relaxing, enjoyable Christmas with the ones that are the dearest to you. I hope you had a moment to stop, slow down and just be. Happy Holidays!

Swish, Swish, Swish

The other morning as I'm trying hard to get a few more minutes of sleep, I hear Josh get up and go into Ollie's room to get him up. I can hear through the baby monitor all this commotion as they greet each other for the day. Then, I keep hearing a "swish, swish" type sound. For the life of me, I can not figure out what that is. Swish, swish, swish....and then walks in G and Dad. Ta da! A super cheesy, 90's era Kansas University jumpsuit. I laughed and laughed. Perfect way to start a day! This outfit is courtesy of a summer garage sale item found by my sister. Too good to pass up. I need a matching one for Josh.

We celebrated the Hunt family Xmas this weekend. It was a costume Xmas and here is our little Jayhawk. I promise...he will get other options for costumes of his choosing as he gets older. ;)

I can't believe Christmas is this week! I'm looking forward to a very mello Christmas day with Gadisa. We decided to start our family tradition of spending Christmas day at our house instead of going out of town anywhere. We aren't going too overboard with his gifts, but we did have fun going shopping for him. Generally, we have the last 2 weeks of the year off from work off, but I'm still home with G for now on an extended maternity leave and Josh is working on some big festivals for the spring/summer already so he will be working as usual. I'm just thankful for the business so as long as I can steal Josh away for some 1/2 days I'm happy.

A big catch up

Hello, blog land. A big "oops" on my part for my lack of posting over the last month. I really have no excuse other than lack of creativity. It happens. So, let's get started!

HALLOWEEN...

G was an Ewok for Halloween this year. And let me just tell you, he was absolutely adorable!

THE BIG BIRTHDAY...

Oliver Gadisa Lyric turned 1 on November 10. We celebrated with a small family dinner at Nana's house and some sugar free homemade icing, which was a HUGE hit with him. I was both a little sad and extremely overjoyed to celebrate. My mind wandered to his birth mama and what she was going through a year ago that day. I can't believe he's now a toddler and milestones are coming fast. He's not walking yet, but will be so any moment. He has taken his first steps, however! He's testing us daily and thinks it's hilarious that we chase after him when he starts to go up the stairs or when he makes a mad crawling dash for the lamp cord. "No!" is just a laughing factor for him. Can't wait till the teenage years! ;)

BIG BOY...

And just because he's so darn cute...here is my little man, being all big sitting in the shopping cart. No more baby car seat for him. He loves sitting in the shopping cart and sitting in big boy highchairs at restaurants.

THANKSGIVING...

This year we have so much to be thankful for. G is in our lives. He's happy, he's healthy and he is oh-so funny. Most recently, we really were tested on how much family truly means to us. This past week we rushed down to Springfield, Mo when we got a call about Josh's dad having a heart attack. We spent all week there and feel so fortunate and blessed that his dad pulled through. Turns out his heart just stopped and he was 100% on his way out. We are thankful for technology that helped save his life. We are thankful his wife was there to help save his life. We are thankful for the wonderful care he is getting at the hospital. We are thankful more than words can describe that he is still with us today. We were told he had a 5% chance of surviving. No matter how busy we are in our daily lives, sometimes things are just out of our hands and when we loose control all we have is each other. Family, friends and the insanity and love that comes with it all. I feel blessed and full. :)

Here is just perfect

I still find it hard to believe we are in this chapter of our lives. I still can't believe little whines or giggles wake me in the morning. We waited a long time. We waited until we were ready and the universe waited until he was ready and somehow that all happened to be the perfect timing. I still can't believe we are his and he is ours. Four months later...I still have a hard time believing we are here.