One year ago.

A year ago today my blog post was a flurry of excitement. Our offical Dec # was 7. Unoffically on this day were knew we were #5 and most likely #3. Oh how we prayed that we would see our sweet boy's face by christmas. My house had minimal christmas decorations and I didn't even want to bother celebrating I was tired of being without a child for the holidays I just needed to be a mom.

Today I sit here with my sweet boy snuggled in his crib napping, snow falling outside my window, the house is decorated and I can't wait until christmas day. This christmas I am a mom money is tight this year but we will squeeze every penny to make it a great 1st christmas for Noah. What is on my christmas list? Nothing i have the best gift ever and can't wait to see him open his presents.

This afternoon after nap and lunch we will bundle up and go experience his first snow. Noah Tamirat we love you so much and life is so much better with you in it.

Christmas is coming.

Last year I was in total scrooge mood and wanted Nothing to do with Christmas. We did put up our tree but that was about it for decorations. I was sad that another Christmas was going by without us being a "family". This year I'm so excited for Christmas because we have our sweet boy and I just want to make this the best 1st Christmas ever for him. Here are a few pictures of Christmas so far.Noah in his Reindeer chair. A hug for the reindeer.
This ornament was purchased and hung on our tree last year. We care do you? Noah's 1st Christmas. Yes we know that technically its his second Christmas but they don't do Christmas in Ethiopia like we do so we are choosing to celebrate this as his first and he will just be a year behind on his ornaments.Look mommy I found Mickey Mouse.

Noah's First Thankgiving.

We were very blessed this year to have good friends invite us to share thanksgiving with them when they heard we wouldn't be traveling to be with family. Noah did lots of eating and definitly enjoyed his first thanksgiving. Thank you Monica, John, Cathy and Cayla we had a great day. And Noah thanks all your diggies (doggies ) to for running and playing with him. Now on to some holiday cuteness..We just got a new camara so now my blog posts will contain more of what everyone loves. Thanksgiving cuteness.

Here mom take my cup.

Digging for Blocks.

Ahh time for the feast.

Noah seriously enjoys his food.

We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and took time to remember how blessed we all are.

A visit with Santa.

Today Noah had his first visit with Santa. We saw one in the mall on Saturday and he waved and blew kisses but we didn't stop to visit. Today Sean was home from work and decided we should take Noah Tamirat for his 1st picture with the big man. He did great walked right up to Santa and touched him after waving and blowing kisses. And then the jolly not so fat guy went to pick him up and little man decided that wasn't cool and he turned and ran back to daddy. Sean and I weren't planning on having a family photo with Santa but Noah was not going to sit on his lap. Boy its been a long time since I sat next to Santa. Enjoy our family photo. We came home to eat a nice dinner of pot roast that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. Noah Tamirat was so happy to have daddy home all day he's going to enjoy this week of daddy on vacation.

My awesome boy.

I find myself constantly in awe of Noah Tamirat. Each new thing he learns to do, how he just does things that we didn't know he could do I just watch in amazement as this little boy learns and grows and does new things everyday. When Noah came home my parents bought him a ring stacking toy but all he wanted to do was bang the rings on things and throw them around the room so along with some other toys the ring stacker got put away after several attempts to teach him the right way to use it. At 10 months old he didn't know how to "play" with toys. Today after a diaper change he grabbed the ring stacker off the shelf in his bedroom and carried it to the living room. I sat with him on the floor and dumped all the rings off and handed him the 1st one intending to reshow him what to do with them..well my son taught me something. For the next half hour he sat there and put the rings on and took them back off without needing any help from me. As if he has always known how to do this or had been doing it for months. He didn't always put them on in the proper order but thats ok. In the last couple months he has really started to "play" with toys in the way they were intended and I couldn't be more proud.
Other new tricks including wiping his face, helping put toys away, putting his dirty clothes in the hamper and helping turn lights off and on. My little boy is getting more independent and becoming my little helper. I'm so blessed to have this awesome little boy that calls me mommom.

Adoption is on peoples radar..

So Saturday night Sean and I went out to do some Christmas shopping with Noah. We stopped at 5 guys for dinner and while Sean was getting the food I got us a table and put little man in a high chair. Not surprisingly the strap on the chair was broken and Noah was getting hungry (momma ran out of puffs in the diaper bag ..a big nono) so he was a little fussy and squirming around. An older lady that worked there was out cleaning tables and came over to talk to him . She was asking if he was unhappy in the chair at which point I explained that no he was just hungry and not patient about waiting for food. She asked how old he was to which i replied 16 months old At this point she asked if he had been with us since birth? I wasn't sure I heard her correctly so I asked her what and she came around to the side of the table I was on and asked if he had been with us long. To which I replied no he has only been with us 6 months he came home from Ethiopia at 10 months old. At this point she got a huge smile on her face and asked if we had gone over there to get him. I explained that we did indeed go to bring him home and stayed for 4 days and that it was a wonderful experience. She asked how he was doing since coming home and said that she loves to watch "Adoption Story" and see families traveling over seas and bring their little ones home.
I'm going to admit here that I just naturally thought people seeing me with Noah would assume that my husband must be black..how AWESOME that this woman's first thought went to adoption. How cool that shows like "adoption story" can bring a greater understanding and awareness to people. Not to mention that show is what put us in touch with AGCI ( the agency we used to bring Noah home).
November is National Adoption month so spread the word and do your part to help the worlds orphans.

A playdate.

You may remember back in the summer Noah would have playdates at the baseball games with his "buddy" Jake. Well yesterday we got these two cuties togeather again. Jake and his mom came over to visit and see how the boys did togeather with actual toys involved. With two only children the sharing takes some work and Jake needs to prepare for daycare. Here are some pictures of the "fun" Hey Noah that chair looks comfy.

What do you see outside Noah?

Two little cuties.

Poor Jake. Noah didn't want to share his chair.

Overall I think it went ok. The typical toy snatching happened but everyone survived. We hope Jake will come and play again soon.