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