A Boy and His Dog

(i'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been months since i last blogged and just start again today.)

Levi loves Rudy. He spends much of his day chasing Rudy with his toys, laughing hysterically as he goes. He often gets in trouble...and by often I mean every single day...for feeding Rudy his food from his high chair. And lately, he tries to cuddle with him on his doggie bed. It's pretty cute. I am super thankful that Rudy is a patient dog. There have been many times that he could have snapped at Levi or bitten him. But he never does...he just lays there and takes it...or when he's had enough, he walks away. We are working with Levi on being gentle. But that's a work in progress. He has grabbed Rudy by the throat. Poked his eyes out. And as I type this he is hitting petting him on the back. At this point their friendship is fairly one-sided and I'm certain that Levi thinks they are better friends than Rudy does. I'm also certain that as Levi grows, so will their friendship!

one!!

so I'm behind, but this cute little guy just turned one on June 6!!

We had been in Tulsa for Jason's cousin's wedding reception, so since Levi's birthday was the next day, we just did a small family party at Jason's parents. It was really about the cake!! He tore into and was pretty funny to watch. I don't really think too much cake actually made its way into his mouth. At one point, he was taking it by the fistful and shoving it down his leg. We spent Monday, his actual birthday, at home reading and playing and doing what Levi's loves best. 

At one year old, Levi loves to read books. Really, he likes to listen to mommy read them while he is busy playing with toys or pulling more books off of the shelves. His favorite thing to do is to put small objects in and out of buckets, bowls, or whatever else is close by. He is pretty content to sit and play by himself. Sometimes I just sit back and watch and an amazed at his problem solving skills. He also has a pretty good attention span for a baby. He LOVES Rudy. He thinks that Rudy is funny no matter what is going on. Its of course, super fun to throw food down to Rudy during lunch and dinner, resulting in Rudy being put outside for mealtime. Levi also likes to clap his hands and wave bye-bye. He usually acts shy after he does it...but also seems proud of himself. His crawling like a champ and will walk anytime you give him the chance. He cruises around furniture and uses his little walker toy to go up and down the hall. I would say he loves to eat...but he can be pretty picky. One day he may like bread and the next act like its the most disgusting thing he's ever had in his mouth. 

We just got home from his one year check up. He weighs 18 pounds and 14 ounces!!! Thats 4 pounds more than when he came home. He's also 28 inches long and I forgot what his head is...but its in the 50th percentile. He's finally on the charts at 5% for height and weight. The doc said everything looks good and he's a happy, healthy boy! 

We love him to pieces and can't imagine our life without him. I often times think of his birth mom and wonder if she thinks about him. I'm so thankful for her and thankful that she had the courage to give him up. We are forever grateful to her. Levi brings us so much joy. We continue to pray that we will be good and wise parents and train him up in the way of the Lord. 

enjoy the rest of the pictures from his first birthday!

wordless wednesday

catching up

a lot has happened since the last post. we are now living in oklahoma and jason is no longer in the army. he has decided to part ways with the military and entered the business world. he is now working for state farm and after one week on the job, is happy and feels like he made the right decision. it was hard to leave ft. bliss because i've made so many wonderful friends there. the army family is like nothing else in this world. so it was hard to say good-bye to the friends and hard to say good-bye to the army. but, i am looking forward to this next chapter in our lives. levi is still a happy baby. he has entered full-blown attachment to mom phase. which is good. its great, actually. there are times when i wish that he wasn't so attached to me...like when i really just want to eat my dinner and someone is offering to hold him. but, i think its a good sign and very healthy. speaking of healthy, i took him to the doctor last week...and he now weighs 16.9 pounds!! he's growing and has a big appetite. we have pretty much skipped baby food. it only lasted for about 4 weeks and then he became not interested. he would rather have the real deal and he would prefer to feed himself. he's still such a sweet boy. most of the time you can find him babbling to himself and smiling all day. the move and transition has been hard, but he has done well. we've been at a hotel, at our new house, or at both grandma's houses since leaving el paso. and he has only slept in his crib at home 3 nights in the last two weeks. he has his moments...but really,  you can't blame him. we are currently in st. louis visiting my family. i'm enjoying my time here, but ready to get back home, finish unpacking and get settled into our new routine. Levi met my parents and siblings yesterday and was a big hit! everyone loves him!! hopefully, once we get settled back in at home i'll be able to blog more. here are a few pictures of the last few weeks!

levi...10 months old. march 6, 2011

levi's baptism. april 10, 2011

the new house

at cattleman's steakhouse in texas

let's be honest...

at this point i don't remember much of day 4 & 5. i had typed out lengthy, detailed emails to family and friends for both days, but the internet cut out when i was ready to hit send and for some reason the email didn't save to my drafts. so, i gave up. i do know that we went to the orphanage both days. thursday we had to pick up levi's passport and visa. and since the nannies are there different days, i wanted them to all have the chance to tell levi bye. and i wanted the chance to tell them thank you for taking such good care of my baby boy. i cried both days as we were leaving. jason made fun of me. but what's new? :) we did take danny out to lunch on friday at Top View. i highly recommend this restaurant if you're ever in Addis. we ate there twice. really good food with a really good view. 

with our favorite nanny

with our second favorite nanny

lunch with Danny, Levi slept the whole time!

the view from Top View

the staff at the orphanage

side note: i am a blog stalker. i usually stalk silently, meaning i read blogs and never "follow" and never comment. however, i did find a blog and emailed the girl because i thought her agency used my agency and was hoping for a chance at more pictures of Levi when she traveled for court. come to find out, her agency uses a different agency now, but we stayed in contact...and ended up having the same embassy appointments. we met at the airport in DC and saw each other at the embassy and then hung out at the airport in Addis before boarding our flight. it was such a treat to meet a blog friend and make that connection. (shout out to Lesli!!) 

anyway, back to our flight. it went as well as could be expected. levi did sleep. and he slept for a while in the bassinet, but really he preferred to be held. all in all the flight was 17 hours...with a pit stop in rome for fuel. it was pretty miserable. my entire body hurt. i was hungry. and tired from not sleeping. but we made it. our good friend nick picked us up in DC and took us back to their house for a nice hot breakfast and a wonderful visit. can i just say how much i love the Fiore's. it was nice to wash my face, change my clothes, and let Levi crawl around on the floor before heading back to the airport for two more flights. 

the next two flights went well. levi slept almost the entire second flight and stayed asleep until we boarded our final flight. that flight was miserable. levi was cranky. we were in the back. the flight attendant was cranky. levi pee'd on us. but, we made it. and were welcomed home by many friends. more on that tomorrow. this is long enough. :)

Day 3

Hi! We had a fun night...Levi was up several times. I'm not sure what the deal was but we are very tired today. He woke up for his normal nighttime bottle and then woke up around 2. He woke up around 4 also, and it was much harder to get him to go back to sleep. I had to stand
and rock him. Every time I tried to sit on the bed he would cry. I am longing for the glider at home in the nursery!! He woke once more at 5 and finally fell asleep on mommy...and we all slept until 7:30.

Some very generous friends gave us money to use while we were here to help out where needed. Jason and I thought it best that I stay here at the guest house this morning while he and Danny, our driver did the shopping. It worked out very well. Jason left around 9 and I gave Levi a bath. The owner of the guest house gave us a baby bathtub last night...which is MUCH better than using the little bity sink we have in our bathroom. He LOVED his bath. He smiled and laughed and wiggled the whole time. After his bath, I fed him some cereal and fruit, which
he chowed down. We are determined to make him a fat baby!! The whole staff at the guest house tells us he is not strong. :) They tell us everyday that he will be better once we get him to America! After eating, Levi and I went downstairs to hang out while they cleaned our
room. Fun fact...while changing Levi's diaper in the middle of the night, our bed (on my side) became soaked with pee. YAY!!! I slept the rest of the night on top of the covers. :) The guest house has a living room and so we hung out there and chatted with a german family. They are very nice. At one point they told their 3 year old son that our baby is now a Texas boy...which is appropriate because his outfit today had a tractor on it! Once the room was clean, we went back upstairs and both us took a big nap! We woke up right before Jason and Danny got back. We went to lunch at a great restaurant with an awesome view of Addis...but of course we left our camera at the guest house. Ethiopians LOVE their babies. One of the waiters took Levi from us so that we could eat. I've learned that its typical...the staff always hold him for us at the guest house during dinner. After lunch, we stopped by the store to get a few more things for the orphanage. We were able to buy several things off the list that the staff at Hope gave us. They are sooooo grateful. They told our driver that we are awesome people...and they said to thank our friends very much. You know who you are...so thank you!!! One of the things on their list was a vacuum, but it came without the hose. Jason and Danny went back to
get it while Levi stayed and hung out with the other babies. It has been much colder than we anticipated and has rained on and off everyday. We are now back at the guest house. We are hanging out in the room until dinner, and then I'm sure its early to bed for this tired family!!

Overall Levi has been a super great baby. I'm amazed at how calm he is and easy going. I'm so thankful for that. He is almost crawling...he kind of does an inch worm thing which is adorable. And I'm amazed at what a great daddy Jason is. He is helpful (except the time when Levi woke up at 4 and 5) which is ok...he needs his sleep too. He has changed every poopy diaper so far. And lights up when Levi smiles at him. I love watching them together. :)

Tomorrow we will pick up Levi's passport and visa. Carrie pointed out that I should have said the last biggest hurdle will be the 30 hour trip home. She was right!! I am dreading that first flight. 17.5 hours will be awful. For all three of us.

Thanks for the prayers and we're looking forward to seeing everyone soon! I heard about a little airport party...we are excited to see you all!! :)

much love,
Lindsay

Day 2

So, first things first, there is an issue with our embassy date. please pray now that it will get resolved. A guy from our agency showed up at the guest house this morning to tell me that they took our payment to the embassy and the embassy said we weren't scheduled for today and that they never sent the email. Luckily, they've already called the director in St. Louis, and he has already emailed the proof. We plan on showing up at the embassy anyway, so pray that it gets resolved quickly.

In other news, we had a great night last night. We ate dinner and then went back upstairs and fed Levi some baby food, which he ate like a champ. We got him ready for bed and he fell asleep so easily. He did finally cry yesterday...but its the sweetest little cry you've ever heard. It was soft and sweet and he was frustrated. The nurse at the orphanage wrote his current schedule down for me and it said that they put the babies to bed at 6:30 and then they get a bottle at 10:30. He went to bed around 7:30 and woke up around 11, took a bottle, and went right back to sleep. He woke up around 6:30 this morning, happy as he could be. He is sick...so pray that he gets better. The owner of the guest house suggested we take him to a doctor before we leave. I am going to talk the nurse today. He is congested, has a little cough, and a runny nose. But, all the babies were that way yesterday at the orphanage. He was only getting 2 bottles a day at the orphanage, so we've changed that. He's still the same size as when we were here in January. But, he can put weight on his little legs now!! We gave him a bottle this morning, went to breakfast, then went back up to the room. He had a lovely poopy diaper, which Jason changed because I was gagging. Rookie mom...give me a break. We got the new diaper on, and then he pooped again. He is now sleeping. I don't think he feels well and other parents have warned me that they sense a huge change and are sometimes just this way. But, overall, he's very happy and content. Jason and I both slept well last night. We went to bed right after Levi. I got up with him at 11 and did the bottle, but went right back to sleep. I did wake up around 2 and had trouble falling back asleep. But, all in all, it was a great night. We love just staring at him, listening to his sweet baby sounds, and admiring what a precious gift God has given us. I think its safe to say we're obsessed. :)

I will try to email again tonight to let you know how the embassy turned out. I'm not super worried at this point because we have the email proving that we have a date.

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. 
***
update:
Hey! We cleared the Embassy!!! We arrived early at the embassy and our agency had already cleared things up. We were interviewed and then he said, congrats! We will pick up his passport and visa Thursday morning. We are so relieved. :) We had a great day. We took our agency rep out to lunch after the Embassy appointment and then spent some time at Hope. Jason is in dire need of diet coke, and after we left Hope, we spent an hour driving around trying to find "coca cola light" but did not find it. We came back, fed Levi and then ate dinner. We are the only americans at our guest house this time and we are enjoying talking with the germans. Jason is giving Levi a bottle and then we're all off to bed. Levi got a good nap this morning, but then never really napped this afternoon. You would think he would be fussy...but not one cry. He's such a good baby!!

Thanks for praying. The last hurdle is to actually get the passport
and visa in our hands. We are looking forward to getting home and
getting settled.

ready to head to the embassy appointment

 a series of pictures capturing Levi's personality: