First Month at Home

Wow, how time flies... It has been 3 weeks since we last posted.  We have been home for almost a month now.

Eli is settling in very well.  Other than a recurring ear infection, he is healthy.  We have been seriously lagging behind in finding him a doctor, but hope to remedy that shortly.  He has visited 3 doctors already, and has been great for them.

Sleeping has been a bit difficult as he seems to feel that we have gone away when he wakes up and we are not in his room.  One of us has slept in his room virtually every night so far, and it seems to calm him a bit when he wakes up and looks around.

Eli loves his grandparents.  He has spent lots of time (relative, I suppose, to how much time he really has spent with anyone other than us) with his grandparents.  He loves to play Duplo/Mega Blocks at Grandma and Grandpa Dycks.  He loves to play with a wide variety of toys at Grandma and Grandma Dueck's (especially the little monkeys in a barrel - who knew that could be so much fun).

Eli has also done a bunch of activities, in our first month home.  He has visited the Zoo, the park (a couple of times), swimming at the Y, attended a cousins baseball game and going out to my parents country yard.  He has also visited our workplaces, and our church.  Eli has also had an outing with a dear friend and her 3 children (2 adopted from Ethiopia), and who have been anxiously awaiting his arrival for quite a while now.

Getting up close with the animals

Eli was enthralled with the Caimans (in the alligator family)

The obligatory picture with the polar bear bank at the zoo.

Taking a break from gardening at Grandma and Grandpa Dueck's

First visit to St. Vital Park

The playground at the park.

The first time Eli enjoyed the swing.

Eli has learned that Daddy isn't always home, as I've had a few days where I've been gone for most of the day to take care of some items, including this week when I was in a 4 day golf tournament just north of the city.  He is very excited when one of us has been gone for a period of time, and returns.  He runs to us, and always wants to hug us, and be held for a period of time afterwards.

Eli is making the most of the sign language which Hilary has been teaching him.  He can sign "Please", "More", "Water", "Thank You", "Eat", "Garbage" and a few more.  He can say many words, albeit pronouncing them incorrectly on occasion.  Some of the words that he now says are: Mama, Daddy, Namna (Grandma), and Nampta (Grandpa), Pease (Please), Deet (Zeke), Come (usually used together with Deet, "Deet Come"), Poop, A Dam (Down - working on getting this almost 4 letter word converted to Down, but it is a long process :)), Up, Bekest (Breakfast) and a few more.

Eli and Zeke are getting along quite well.  Although, I'm not sure whether Zeke is all that thrilled that he has lost the priority attention position, he probably does like the fact that he gets a few more walks out of the deal.  If the either of the 2 are a bit cranky, or antsy, one of us will usually take them both for a walk, and this sometimes happens 3 or 4 times a day.  Zeke will often come up into Eli's room when we are getting ready to put him to bed, and will lie at the foot of the bed.  I think these two will be very good friends in the future.

Getting comfortable with each other

Zeke and Eli snuggling in for nap time.

As we move into August, we are hoping to take a little vacation to visit some more cousins, and try a couple of camping trips.  We can't wait to experience all of these things as a family of 3 (4 if you include our dear Zeke in the mix).

It has been a whirlwind month, but we are feeling more and more comfortable daily with our new roles and responsibilities.

Thank you everyone who has been supporting us, and praying for us as we make this transition.

June 29 - July 6, 2013 - The First Week at Home

So you're all probably wondering where we're staying...  I'm not that ambitious to actually keep this updated on daily basis, so we'll work on trying to keep it updated on a weekly basis from now on.

We had a great first week at home.  We were incredibly blessed by a group of our friends here, who had arranged to keep us fed as we transitioned home.

We had rotisserie chicken, KFC chicken, Hamburgers, pizza, chicken burgers, soup and buns, pulled pork, ethiopian food, Lasagna, and more.  It was an awesome week of food, and we thank all of you once again who contributed.

Even though we are in a process of cocooning, and ensuring that Eli is attaching well to us, we felt that we needed to get out and spend some time outside the home.  As a result, we had a busy week of connecting with some family and some friends, and introducing Eli.  Eli has been showing some real good signs of attaching to us here.  He loves both sets of grandparents already, and really enjoyed spending some time in the pool with Grandpa Dueck.

He met most of the friends that showed up with food, and learned that he may have to start sharing with friends when certain little friends closer to his age showed up to have a look at his stash of toys.  Speaking of toys, we were happily surprised when another adoptive momma and her dear daughter showed up during the week with some toys for Eli to play with. He has really enjoyed those toys, R, and I'm sure you'll see many a picture in the future with familiar toys :).

We went on a little excursion to visit our dear dog, Zeke, who is still being looked after by our friends R&P and their 4 boys.  Eli was a little unsure of Zeke, but as we played and visited with P and the boys, it seems that he warmed up to him just a little bit.  It will take some adjustment, but we think that it is almost time to introduce Zeke and Eli in our house.  This will happen this week.

On Friday morning, the 3 of us went strawberry picking.  We met many friends and even a family member who had been unable to meet Eli until now.  Eli got his first golf cart ride.  He thoroughly enjoyed himself and it was great to show him off again to others, and we got lots of freshly picked strawberry's.

Finally, this afternoon, we went to watch our nephew Z in a baseball tournament.  Eli was happy, and content most of the day, and was able to meet his cousins again, and get to know them a bit more.  It was an exciting baseball game, and he was tuckered out by the time we went to bed this evening.

We learned this week, just how positive our transition has been for Eli.  He has been so very happy, and has traveled so well.  We are blessed to have Eli in our lives.

One of the rare times Eli has fallen asleep in his car seat.

Thanks ASI.  We appreciate our "family" of co-workers

Exploring a new toy from Grandma and Grandpa

Mom and Dad, this water is coooooold!

Thanks to all of our friends who contributed to our meals.
They were all delicious!  Thanks everyone!