General Updates

Well I have been busy since my last post. Between school (I am working on my Doctorate), work, 2 kids, 4 pets, and a husband life is constantly going. But life is still wonderful with our two girls and we wouldn't trade our crazy life for the world.

we have had Delylah for 5 1/2 weeks (I am counting the time I spent her in Ethiopia). She has grown tremendously in the short time she has been ours. She also turned 8 months old on Saturday. In this short time she went from not being able to do very much to completely rolling over, crawling backwards and sideways (we are working on going forward), sitting up completely by herself, and today she began clapping her hands. I think these are huge milestones in such a short time. I think she just need love and attention to get her thriving. I am just amazed at how quickly she is catching on. I think part of her catching on is because she watches everything so intently. Her and Lennah are such opposites. She likes to watch life and learn where Lennah wants to experience life to learn. I love how they are so different. She is also doing great in the nursery at church; they have not wanted to give her back when we go to pick her up and she is doing great on Mondays at my friend Jenn's house.

Lennah is still doing fairly well as a big sister. She has her moments where she snatches Delylah's toys and then others when she is willing to share. She has also wanted to be a little mommy and she will take Delylah's diapers and diaper her babies since she watches me change Delylah's diapers. Lennah is still working on the potty training here and there. Sometimes she will use the potty once or twice a day others she will bring us diapers to put on her. Go figure. She is still under 22 months so we are not pushing the issue.

In the meantime here are some pics of our beautiful girls. We are truly blessed.

Back to work

I love this one

Sisters

A messy eater

Give me the camera so I can cover it with baby food for fun

Maybe trying to crawl???

I love my thumb

Today was a sad day unfortunately I had to return to work. Obviously I was not thrilled. I was so excited when I got home and got to see my girls. I did not realize how attached Delylah is to me already because when I got home my dad had her in the baby einstein and she just starting getting all excited and screeching for me to come get her.

As for the last few days- Delylah has her first ear infection which was probably developing when we got home because she has had a cough for over two weeks and a runny nose. Hopefully this does not become a reoccuring problem like it had for Lennah last year.

Delylah has been slowly working on eating off the spoon and is apparently a picky eater. She does not do well with spoon feedings unless she likes what we are feeding her. However, no matter what she makes a mess. Tonight I discovered that pears are big hit. She has also done well with sweet potatoes. It is just so funny how the chubby baby is picky and Lennah has eaten everything from day one and is a petite kid. Go figure.

Yesterday we had a playdate with my friend Jenn and her kids. Her little girl Allie is the same age as Delylah which is great because on Mondays she has offered to watch the girls while my dad has his weekly Pastors lunch. She also has three boys that are older than Lennah but they just love her because she roughs around with them like the little tom boy she can be. I think it will be a great experience for the girls to have a weekly group of kids that they will be around. I am also extremely greatful that she has offered to do this for us.

Today was a fun day. I took Lennah to breakfast to Chikfila for a little Mommy and Lennah bonding time and then took her to get her nails polished. Yes! She is a little young but I want to spend some time alone with her just so she knows we did not push her aside for her new baby sister. Although when we got in the car she pointed at Delylah's seat and said baby. It is funny in how in the 2 1/2 weeks we have been home she knows Delylah belongs with us.

I talked today with another family who is waiting to bring home her daughter. She had a lot of questions for me about Ethiopia and my experience and I had to be honest with her and tell her about how I was so depressed leaving the orphanage because I wanted to take all the children with me. I know I have tried to make an impact on the lives of orphans but I feel that I am not doing enough because no matter how many children we adopt or when we make a donation to a cause for orphans it does not change the fact that there are millions more waiting for homes. Just talking to this family makes me think about this and how I really wish I could do more to help. Sorry to depress anyone out there.

Updates

This has been a crazy week. Obviously our weekend was bad because of Lennah getting her stitches but Wednesday night my mom went into the hospital. She is out now but everyone was very worried because she went in because of a racing heart. Everything turned out fine and right now the doctor did not find anything so that is wonderful news. But of course my mom is worried that there is something more wrong. For the most part if one would ask my opinion it is probably stress and if you know my mom most would agree. We will know more in about two weeks when she visits the cardiologist.

On Wednesday prior to my mom's rush to the ER I took the girls to meet Anna and Charlie at the Zoo. Anna also adopted her little boy Charlie through our agency and he too was Delylah's cribmate. Delylah lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw him like she totally remembered him. Lennah loved the zoo. Thank goodness because our visit to the Georgia aquarium the week before turned out to be a waste of money. I think Lennah was more interested in the zoo because we work a lot on her animals and what sounds they make so it was something that she instantly recognized. She seemed to love the giraffes. As for Delylah she was just happy to be around Charlie (Mamush). I am sure she will take more interest in the animals when she gets a little bigger.

That has been the past few days in a nutshell. Because of mom's visit to the hospital and her recouping from a heart cath we had to move Delylah's welcome home party until later this month.

Chaos

Big Ba and Delylah

Grandma and Delylah

Lennah's Boo Boo

Lennah is reverting back into the high chair

Just Too Cute

Lennah before dance class

This is my favorite

Mommy and her beautiful girls

Our very diverse family

Well it has been a few days since my last post that is because things have been kind of crazy around here. Saturday we decided to visit some friends who have not seen Delylah yet. We are having a fun day and of course things can easily go sour when a toddler is around. Lennah was standing near the stairs; of course my instinct was to yell to get away from them and what happens next, Lennah backed up and went down two stairs. This would not have been bad but she was near the wall of the stairs and she turned getting her eye brow straight into the wood on the edge. We rushed her to the ER because she was bleeding pretty badly and she wound up getting 6 stitches. This is not even the bad part. They have her some medicine that is supposed to calm you down while in very rare cases this medicine can have the opposite affect and you guessed it Lennah is one of those rare cases. Out of nowhere she starts literally beating Keith and I up. She freaked out and the medicine made her crazy (sorry as to describe my daughter as crazy) she was scratching, kicking, hitting. It was awful and the only thing we could do was wait out the effects of the medicine. This was definitely not an enjoyable Saturday. We are still getting over all the trauma.

Today Lennah started dance class. She took 2 classes over the summer and due to miscommunication she missed out on several of them so it was like her starting all over again. She looked so cute in her little leotard. She enjoys running around and dancing with the other kids and today she made a new friend and when she left class they hugged goodbye.

Essentially, life with two little ones is not as bad as most would like to think. Today was my first day without Keith home and I survived taking care of the girls just fine. I managed to cook dinner, bathe both kids, and get them down for bed without having a mommy meltdown.

Enjoy all the photos and I got my portraits emailed to me today so I am posting our professional pics as well. Of course I had to have new ones done as soon as Delylah got home.