SINCE I LAST POSTED...

Well, another 2 weeks have passed by very quickly. Why does time seem to get away from me these days?? Maybe it is this active little boy I spend most of day chasing after!??! BUT I so love chasing him. He is such an active little boy and we knew he would be from the minute he was placed in our arms. He was going up the all of the stairs within a month of coming home...big sign! He is already running and trying to hide from everyone. (we can usually still see him...but he "thinks" he is hiding)
School has started so the kids are gone all day. Em had transitioned much easier than we had ever thought. **Thanks so much for all of the prayers**I am certain they have helped. I forgot to turn the alarm on last night so I woke up at 602 this morning and rushed into her room and woke her up. She hopped right up...got dressed...did her hair...and all of the other things she needed to get done and was out the door by 630. She even ate a bowl of cereal. I am SO very proud of her!! Randy has it easier since he can drive himself. He doesn't have to leave the house until about 710. Em is already in her first class at that time...poor girl! Tifanie started her college courses this week. A few days a week I keep another little guy who is a few months older than Elijah. It is good for Elijah to interact with another little one AND he is learning to share his things.
Elijah had his 15 month check up this week and he is growing like a weed! He is already over 24lbs and almost 32 inches long. The pediatrician says he is advanced in his language skills. The funny thing is it came on all at once. The beginning of Aug he still wasn't really saying a whole lot of words but then almost over night I noticed him repeating words more and more. He has recently fallen head over heels in love with Blues Clues. He gets excited when it comes on and will sit for about 10 minutes straight without moving. He can even say Blue. (sounds more like bwoo) He also adores trucks more and more. I took him down the toy aisle at Target a few days ago and he got so excited when he say all of the trucks. He held is hands out and kept saying Uh huh...he wanted them ALL! Christmas should be pretty easy. :)
We are headed out of town this weekend. This will be our first weekend away from him. I have already told hubby if he cries we are just taking him with us! We will see how I do. I am sure he will do much better than Mommy will.
Hope you all have a wonderfully blessed weekend.
Tina

6 MONTHS/15 MONTHS...

On Aug. 14th we celebrated 6 months home with Elijah.
This was taken as soon as Almaz placed him in my arms. There were no tears (from him) and he just checked out my face and and looked like he was trying to figure out what was going on. You can see the startled look in those precious eyes. Poor little guy! And believe me he had no idea what he was in for. :) It is a good thing he fits right in to our crazy household! Don and I were talking yesterday and both of us think it feels like he has been here so much longer than just 6 months. We heard it would feel like this but I guess you just have to experience it to believe it.

AND...now at 15 months old TODAY...this is what our little guy is up to. He has now figured out how to dump everything out of his toy basket and climb in it to play. He is quite inventive at times and truly baffles us with what he can figure out.

This is Elijah's favorite chair. If anyone else is sitting in it he will climb up on a end table/ storage box and act as though he is counting (giving them til the count of 3 to get up) and then he jumps on them. He thinks he owns this place (and I guess he kind of does!)

We took a trip to Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago. I love the look on his face. Chuck E was standing not far away from him and he is watching him very closely making sure he doesn't get too close to him.

He had a lot of fun riding the rides and playing. His favorite was talking on the phone and going up and down the slide.

At 15 months Elijah is saying about 10-15 words. We have only added one sign that he can do and that is pray. We say pray to him and he folds his hands and will repeat "pay". It is pretty cute. In the last week I hear him repeating more and more words that I say to him. He gives the best hugs and kisses. Last night he climbed up on my lap and laid several kisses on me....I love the MMMWAHH sound he makes with each kiss. Today at lunch he kept grabbing Tifanie and giving her bear squeeze hugs around her neck. I think she said she would forgive him for not saying her name yet after that. "Sissy and Tifanie" are both really hard words to say but we are working on it. He says bubby and Emi and Mama (sometimes Mommy) and Dada but not Sissy yet. He has just started saying OWIE...so he will get hurt and yell it repeatedly and then laugh! Or he will hit you and say it.

We are getting ready to turn in his re-adoption paperwork so we are hoping to have that all out of the way very soon and will legally change his name from Bereket Donald to Elijah Simon Bereket.

We have a busy month coming up. Don and I are going to his Yearly Guard conference in a few weeks and that will be the first time he has stayed over night with Grandparents for the weekend. I hope he does well...and me too! Then the beginning of Sept we are taking a trip to St Louis to see the Ethiopian Director and his wife. I am SO looking forward to seeing them again. Then the end of Sept I am taking my parents back to St Louis to my cousin's wedding.

Busy Busy!!

I am going to try and be a better blogger. :)

Blessings~

Tina