Lost Teeth

After losing tooth number five last week!

Elizabeth lost tooth number five one week ago, and tooth number six today!  Mommy helped number five come out, although it was barely hanging on.  Elizabeth may or may not have given the sixth tooth a little extra encouragement to come out during lunch.  ;-)  She was thrilled, and came off the bus today wearing a big smile and a tooth necklace.  Last week she told me that she hoped to lose the next one at school so she could earn the prized necklace.  There was a close call with the Tooth Fairy a little earlier this evening involving the exchange of said necklace for coins.  We'll see what she remembers in the morning.

When I Grow Up...

One of Elizabeth's writing assignments at school was choose something she might like to be when she grows up and to give her reason.  This is what she wrote on September 28th:

When I grow up I will work in an orphanage.  Thar [there] are lots of chigrin [children] in a orphanage.  You need food, watrr [water], lots of beds and clos [clothes].  I tiech [teach] English in the orphanage.

Her teacher wrote a comment at the top:

Elizabeth, you will take very good care of the children!  Super details!

I'm proud of my baby girl!  God, please keep her heart close to You!

Trick or Treat!

(Don't mind that they were ringing the doorbell when there is a bucket of candy by the door.  They were posing in front of our house. ;-))

It's the Baber kids!

Elizabeth the Pink Rock Star! 

Everything she wore was something already in our house except a $2 can of pink hair spray.

Josiah and Isaac: Diego and Baby Jaguar from Go, Diego, Go!

I did buy the shirt for Josiah, but it's one he can wear again.  We  had the vest, and we printed and added an iron-on patch.  I made Rescue Pack.

Isaac is wearing a costume that both Elizabeth and Josiah wore.  I love that they all got to wear it!

Rescue Pack!  My first real sewing project without adult supervision ;-)  I'm relieved with how it turned out.  I used a towel, figuring it'd be sturdy and cheap.  I forgot how thick it would be as I was finishing edges and such.  The face was made with printable iron-ons.  Josiah wanted to add a zipper after most of the bag was already put together, so it's not so pretty, but it works.  Josiah loves it and wants to play with it all the time.  That makes it worth it!

Snitching candy!

Josiah and Elizabeth were as excited about handing out candy to others as they were going around to get their own. :-D



We had a fun evening.  Now Mommy and Daddy need to assess the safety of the candy.  I have a feeling most of the chocolate is going to need to be confiscated.

More pictures

Some pics of the kids playing today :-) 

Isaac was given a tent with a tunnel for his birthday, and the kids have had a lot of fun with it.

Elizabeth in the tunnel

 Isaac looking out the door

 

Sometimes Daddy's just a big kid, too!

Daddy, Isaac, and Elizabeth in the tent.

Kisses!

Hmmm....

Three kids coming down the slide with scary glowing eyes

Some pictures from the week :-)

Sunday:  Trying to get pictures of the boys in their matching outfits.  They wore these for Easter, but they work well now, too. 

Isaac looks like such a big boy!

 Handsome Josiah

Our "trunk" for our church's Trunk N Treat.  Gotta find some use for the giant airplane pool float ;-)

Beautiful pink rock star!

Josiah and Isaac were there, but we didn't get picture of them until it was late and the lighting wasn't so good.

 Friday:  Elizabeth dressed up for her school costume parade--she didn't decide what to wear until she saw the headband at Target yesterday.  She is a snow fairy/princess.  Oops, I didn't even get pictures of the cool hair that made us late for school.

Isaac watching the parade.  He's Baby Jaguar to go with Josiah's Diego costume.

Stopped at Chick-fil-A for breakfast after watching the school parade.  Josiah's in partial costume.

Aren't God's creations amazing? 

He's ONE!

My Baby Baby turned one on Saturday.  I'm still trying to adjust to that fact.

Isaac is now about 22 lbs and over 30 1/2 inches tall. He has his front eight teeth and one molar fully in. The second half of his second molar and his third molar finally broke through yesterday.

He eats everything we eat, sometimes out-eating his siblings. Fruits seem to be his favorite foods. We had to stop nursing almost a month ago because of a medicine I was taking, but he adjusted well; we are finishing up some formula before switching to whole milk.

He is all boy and completely fits the nickname "Tank". At the same time, he is a great snuggler still, and loves to hug and pat stuffed animals, baby dolls, even blankets or clothes.  He is so curious, and wants to figure out how everything works.  His favorite way to move is on foot.  He's been walking pretty steadily for over a month.  And any thoughts of this one being our quiet one are now out the door.  He has added new words to his vocabulary:  uh-oh, up, baby, and an occasional hello.  This week he added the kissing sound when blowing kisses and started waving to everyone we passed in the store.

We celebrated Isaac's day at home with some family and a special friend!

Elizabeth used her Easy Bake oven to make Isaac his own special cake.

 

He enjoyed his new presents!  His favorite was a new play phone.  He just couldn't understand why Daddy kept taking his toys away and giving him another box or bag instead. :-)

The big kids decided to have a Mickey Mouse themed party.  So we cheated and used Oreos to make Mickey shapes on the cake.  I forgot to buy ingredients for the frosting, though, so Grandma ran to the store and then quickly decorated the cake as the party was starting. 

(If you read on Facebook about the cake drama, the cake turned out surprisingly fluffy and yummy!)

Isaac thought the cake was fun to smash, but he really enjoyed eating/wearing the Oreos. :-) 

 Praising God for the blessings this precious one brings to our family! 

We can't wait to see what God is going to do in his life!

Molars!

Isaac had been working for weeks on a molar.  It finally broke through last week, probably on Thursday, the 7th.  It was on the lower left side of his mouth.  I've been watching the lower right side, thinking that would be the next to come in.  Well, I was surprised this morning to feel his upper right molar had broken through the gum!  Hopefully, this explains the fever and miserable day he had yesterday!  I can feel one of the other molars pushing against his gum.  We'll see which comes in next.   Will they all arrive before his birthday?

Attracted

Each night during prayer time, we take turns saying positive things about one family member.  Tonight was Isaac's night.

Josiah:  I like that Isaac is attracted to his toys and to me.

Elizabeth:  Josiah, do you know what attracted means?

Josiah:  No

Elizabeth:  Attracted is when you see something, then you really look at it, and then you think it's SO cool!

Josiah the photographer

A sampling of Josiah's photography with his new camera:

We'll add some more of Josiah's photos soon.  His discovery of the timer setting made for some fun pics! :-)

Two Years!

We arrived home with our first son two years ago last week!  In honor of the day, Josiah received a Go, Diego, Go! digital camera (I'll share some of his pictures later :-)) and chose to go to Sakura for dinner.



He looks so grown up in this picture!

 What a blessing it has been to watch him learn and grow!  Josiah is 38 1/4 inches tall and 29 pounds in weight.  While that is definitely small for his age, he is finally on the growth charts!  :-)  He has grown 8 inches since coming home, 5 in the past year!  He's gained about 9 lbs., 4 of that in the last year. 

Josiah continues to progress with his development.  He can say the letters of the alphabet.  He can verbally spell his name, and recognizes those letters in written form.  He is working on recognizing the rest of the alphabet.  He counts to twelve on his own and can count to twenty with a little bit of support.  He knows the names of colors. 

Physically, Josiah is developing well.  He has abundant energy and uses it to run, tumble, jump, and continually move. His coordination is improving.   He is learning to ride a bicycle.  He has been learning about throwing and catching a ball.  It took us a while to find a left-handed glove in his size, but he is really enjoying playing catch with Daddy!

 Josiah is a great helper.  He is growing more and more to see Isaac as a friend.  He loves playing with Elizabeth, and is still a bit lost without her right now.  Josiah does get into his fair share of trouble.  We are really working on listening skills and thinking before acting.  He is more open about disagreeing with us and saying "no."  But while these acts can be frustrating, I really feel that it means he is comfortable with us and trusts us to love him no matter what. 

In one of his favorite places...Grandma's Mustang!

We celebrate Josiah being a part of our family; we are so blessed to have him!  We celebrate the bonding and growth over the past two years.  We celebrate that our family is forevermore part Ethiopian.  We also remember Josiah's Ethiopian family.  We remember that it is only through loss that Josiah is here.  We look forward to growing and learning together.