Going on an Adventure.

Hey its Noah here just wanted to let everyone know whats up. Last week my Uncle Frank came to see me and hang out for a couple days. I was totally off schedule but its all good.We went to see some big firetrucks in Baltimore. I wish I could have climbed on them.I had to wear my Ethiopian shirt and hat cuz its cool .We took Uncle Frankie out for EP(Ethiopian food). He liked it alot and I even ate some this time. I did pretty good scooping up tibs with my injera. After Uncle Frank left on Saturday we went over to my buddy Jake's house for dinner. It was to hot to play in his super cool playhouse so we'll do that again in cooler weather but we had a pool party .

Tomorrow Mommy and I are going on an airplane to TN. Check out my cool new backpack for the trip. I'm stylin right? I'm very excited because mom says we get to see alot of my buddies from Hannah's Hope. That's where I lived in Ethiopia for 4 months while I waited for momma & daddy to come and get me. We will stay in TN for a couple days and then head to Texas to my buddie Finny's house . I hear he has a pool so I can't wait to hang out with him. I"m gonna miss Dad and I"m sure momma will to but it will be fun to hang with all our AGCI family.

Oh and i'm sure there will be lots of pictures when we get back August 13th.

Crazy adoption conversation.

Yesterday Sean and I both needed haircuts. This means that we have to go one at a time while the other person keeps Noah busy. I let Sean go first and I sat and gave Noah a lolly pop. While I'm waiting the other girls were discussing who gets the next customer and the girl with purple bangs and a bazillion piercings says oh I do..great. Now I'm sitting watching the door praying that someone comes in before Sean's haircut is done so that this girl doesn't cut my hair...because let me just say I'm paranoid about haircuts and if you hair looks crazy then I'm not sure i want you near mine. So yeah nobody comes in apparently God wants me to trust this girl with my hair because after you already said it doesn't matter who cuts it you can't nicely say anyone but the purple hair girl. So Sean is done I hand off Tamirat and go to sit down..I'm all settled in the seat and the conversation starts a little something like this.
Purple hair girl - Is that your son you were holding
me- yes
phg- oh he's adopted
me- yes
phg- I'm adopted to that's how i knew
Ummm what you knew he was adopted not because he's brown and his parents are white but because you are also adopted?? I'm sorry nobody told me my child had a sensor in him that could detect other adopted people.
OK so I didn't say that part i think i muttered "oh cool" or something like that because i was baffled.
We then go on and start talking about names. She asked his Ethiopian name and then asked what name we gave him so I told her Noah. Her response to this ...are you ready for it....OK here it goes she said " Was that because you had to travel to get him?
Again my jaw dropped and my mind was spinning. I have no idea what the name Noah has to do with going to Ethiopia to get our son and if anyone has a clue please explain it to me.. I"m pretty sure we took a plane not an ark. Finally the haircut was over and I thought OK let me get Noah we can pay and leave all insane comments are over. So I'm standing there holding Tamirat when she comes over and starts touching his head and then rubs his arm and announces to everyone what soft skin he has..meanwhile Noah is curling into me to get away and I'm ready to just smack this girl and then run for the door.

Emotional.

So today I got rather emotional and I'm not really sure why. I sat down to rock Noah before nap and as I held him and rocked him the tears started to flow. He sat up and gave me a sweet kiss and then laid his head back down and the tears kept coming. I had no idea what started them but in that moment I thought about the first time I held him and the last time his birth mom held him and I was overwhelmed with how much I love him and how blessed I am. He sat up and wanted to go in his crib and I almost hated to put him down. It was one of those times when I wished he would fall asleep in my arms because I just wanted to hold him and not let go. Maybe his birth mom is thinking about him today and crying for her baby boy. Perhaps our hearts are connected by the love we share for this precious child and I was feeling her pain. Whatever the reason its real, its raw, its emotion , its love and it didn't take shared DNA to create it.

Noah at 2.

18 month checkup - 30.2lbs , 30 1/2 inches long
2 year old checkup- 31.2lbs. 34 1/2 inches long
At 2 years old it is becoming clear to me that not only is Noah Tamirat not a baby but he's also not my chunky toddler. He starting to look long and lean like he did in the very first pictures we saw of him. Right now he is very much the typical 2 year old. All those things we started doing at 16-17 months old so that they would become habit such as cleaning up toys, and putting clothes in the hamper are now becoming a battle to the point that sometimes he loses a toy for the next day because he wouldn't clean up at night. Noah has gone to bed without dinner because he chose not to sit properly at the table and eat nicely. He's testing and pushing, learning and growing. As much as it drives me nuts on some days I embrace this stage of his life. And in ways I envy him because who among us doesn't some times wish we could just throw a fit because we can't do what we want or because things aren't working the way we wish they would. We all have the skills to better cope with things so we don't throw those tantrums and some day Noah T will have those skills to. As parents we just need to help him learn a better way. No "terrible" two's here. Its just another stage of life that will go by all to fast and we will wonder when he stopped being two.
Noah's language skills are really starting to develop and if you compare him to kids that are his age he might be behind but if you set his age back 10 months then I'm sure he would be right on track.
We love you beautiful Noah Tamirat and can't wait to explore the rest of the two's with you.

4th of July

On the 4Th of July we decided to take Noah Tamirat to Busch Gardens to meet Elmo and as a special treat to have dinner with Elmo and his friends. Here are some highlight pictures of the day.The entrance to Sesame Street. Noah's first "big ride". He's been on a carousel before but this was his first amusement park trip.Second big ride.Water fun.And of course one of the highlights..meeting "la la". Noah actually said Elmo for the 1st time and switched back and forth between that and la la all day depending on his excitement level.
Dinner with Elmo & Friends was a HUGE hit. We don't have as many pictures of the day as we may have liked but it was fun to see it all without a camara blocking things. The joy and wonder in his eyes is something i'll never forget. It was a very long day (left the house at 6am got home at 2am) and we were so proud of our boy all day for handling the heat, waiting in line, disrupted sleep and nap etc etc. Noah really was a champ and did far better then we expected. A great day of family fun for his first amusement park visit.