Update on Josiah!!!

It's hard to believe, but Josiah is FIVE!!! 

I missed doing a post for his birthday, but he turned five on May 8. 

AND in less than two months, we'll celebrate Josiah being home with us for three years!!! 

   Josiah just had his five-year-old check-up. Yeah, I was behind on that, too.  He's now almost 34 1/2  pounds and 40 1/2 inches tall. On growth charts he's progressed to about 5% for both height and weight. 

At this visit, the doctor heard a heart murmur for the first time.  We actually got into the pediatric cardiologist's office two days later.  Josiah was a rock star during the EKG and very involved sonogram of his heart.  They found that he has a "very impressive innocent murmur".  They did find an abnormality in his aortic valve, but that is not causing any problems now.  It's something we'll keep checking as he grows.

Josiah has boundless energy, it seems.  He is constantly running, jumping, climbing.  He's really enjoyed taking gymnastics classes the past few months.  He's started asking about ice skating again, so we'll be looking into that once the local rink puts down ice again.

We are going to wait to have Josiah start Kindergarten.  He is doing well learning numbers, letters, and all of those types of things.  But, especially since he has not attended any kind of school yet, we want to give him another year to grown and mature before sending him to full day Kindergarten.  He will be attending a transitional kindergarten class half-days at a local pre-school. 

Josiah's personality shines though more and more.  One of the children's helpers at church always tells me that he is so full of joy.  Much of the time he is.  However, I think maybe "full of life" is a better way to express it.  He very often has a huge smile across his face, but he has very passionate emotions on all sides.  He's a full-speed-ahead kind of guy.  He's a chatterbox and so curious about everything!  He still stays very close to Elizabeth when she is home and does not like to play on his own.  But he is becoming more and more of a leader and helper with Isaac.  He's affectionate and wants to be close.  He has a much better understanding this time about a new baby joining our family.  He's surprised me by rubbing my belly and talking to the baby frequently.

We've heard a lot of new questions and thoughts the past several months.  Josiah has started asking why he's the only one in our family who has brown skin.  He's said he wants to match the rest of the family.  Even though there wasn't really any information we haven't discussed, watching a DVD of his Ethiopian family brought dying and heaven to the forefront of his thoughts.   Prayerfully, we do our best to answer his questions and acknowledge his feelings.  We are so blessed to have him, just the way God made him, as part of our family.

We are looking forward to see how God is going to use Josiah to impact this world!

Elizabeth is 7!!!

Our Beautiful Girl turned SEVEN on March 24th!  We're so proud of the young lady she is becoming.  She is a great big sister and a thoughtful friend.  She is trustworthy and hard-working.  Sometimes it's hard to remember she is only seven.  She knows how to have fun, though, too :-)

We tried to keep her birthday celebration pretty low key.  She chose a family trip to a local indoor water park instead of big presents and a party with friends.  Saturday, we drove over and spent over six hours playing in the slides and pools.  She surprised me by going down the big tube slides over and over.  (Unfortunately, trying to keep up with everyone, Mommy didn't get any pictures :-( )  Even though we were only about an hour away, we decided to make it a mini-vacation.  We spent the night at a hotel.  We had a late check-out, so after breakfast we spent some time in the pool.  We went to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, stopped for ice cream, and headed home.

This weekend, we added another part to the celebration.  After two years of waiting and set-backs, Elizabeth had her hair cut to donate.  Of course, she had to have it done by our friend Gareth.  Knowing he wanted to start shaping her hair right away, Gareth used a razor to cut off the braids.  It took a little bit of time, but her smile was priceless when she held the first braid.  It was funny to hear her gasp of surprise when she was turned around and saw the length for the first time, too.  She loved her sassy new do, and was happy to be a diva for the afternoon. :-) 

We love you, Baby Girl!  We are so excited to see God working in your life already, and can't wait to see the adventures you will have following Him!

Holy Moly...

...it's already the middle of February!!!

I figure the best way to get back into blogging is to start with pictures.  These are from mid-December during my attempts to take a  Christmas card picture :-)

We ended up using crops of these three individual pictures:

Steak and Potato Soup

Today is Ethiopian Christmas!!! 

I had a couple pounds of stew beef to use, so I thought it would be great to make Siga Wat  or another Ethiopian dish.  However, I didn't plan ahead, so I didn't have all the ingredients I needed.  So...I made steak and potato soup.  I couldn't find a recipe online that I liked, so I threw together what I could remember from our regular baked potato soup--well, based on what we had in the house.  We all thought it came out pretty well.  So I'm posting it so I remember what went into it.

2.3 lbs. Stew beef.  (It was a lot of meat for the recipe.  1.5 or even just 1 lb. would probably be plenty.)
2.5 lbs. cubed potatoes.  We had red-skinned yellow potatoes
4 cups (one carton) broth
dehydrated minced onions --yeah, it's what I had on hand
2 Tbsp. McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning*
8 oz. cream cheese

Pan-sear the outside of the beef, just to seal in the flavor.  To the crock-pot add beef, potatoes, broth, seasonings, and sprinkle onions across the top of the broth.  (Sorry, I didn't measure how much I used.)  Stir together.  Cover.  I cooked on high for about 4 hours then reduced to low for about two.  About half an hour before ready to eat, smash some of the potatoes in the crock-pot.  Add cream cheese and stir occasionally until melted.

Yum!

*Contains: COARSE SALT, SPICES (INCLUDING BLACK PEPPER, AND RED PEPPER), GARLIC, SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR, AND EXTRACTIVES OF PAPRIKA

Snow Days

Yesterday and today have been snow days.  We got maybe three inches of snow yesterday, but it came down pretty quickly in the beginning.  I felt kind of bad.  We never made it out to play in the snow yesterday.  David was home, but he put in a full day of work and took two finals for his classes.  I just didn't have the energy to take the three kids outside while it was 20 degrees and below.  We did finally get our Christmas tree decorated.  Elizabeth and Josiah were very excited to go through our huge tote of ornaments and see which ones they recognized.  I think Josiah was a bit disappointed that he didn't have as many ornaments as Elizabeth.  Isaac got in on the action, trying to put ornaments on the tree.  Unfortunately, I was just trying to manage chaos, so I didn't get any pictures.  Elizabeth made some cards and wrapped presents for her school teachers.  We started working on some pipe cleaner and bead ornaments, and we still need to complete those.

Today, Elizabeth was disappointed that school was closed again.  It would have been her last day before Christmas break, so she missed her party and giving presents to her teachers.  But she and Josiah have been doing a good job playing.  We made it outside today!  Elizabeth, Josiah, and I went out while Isaac was napping.  It was helpful that the temperature was up to almost 40 degrees.  :-)  We haven't managed to get a good sled yet, so the kids tried sledding on a cardboard box.  It was pretty funny.  At some point, Josiah just decided it was easier to go down on his bottom.

Notice the pink mittens?  Guess we still need to get him new snow gloves, too :-)

Wipe out!

I think we're going to need to go to the store in a bit.  We're low on a lot of foods, and we still have a few gifts we need to pick up for this weekend.  Tomorrow, we'll celebrate Christmas a little bit early with some of David's family. 

Happy Snow Day! :-)

Christmas Ornaments

Warning:  Grandma Baber and A.J. don't read this post...at least not until after Christmas :-)

Each year we try to get the kids ornaments to add to the tree.  This year, Elizabeth and Josiah decided they wanted to make their own.  I had found a Shrinky Dink kit a few weeks ago and thought that would make some neat ornaments.  The kids were intrigued!  Josiah quickly decided he wanted a Rescue Pack ornament--big surprise, right? ;-)  Elizabeth took a little more time to choose, but decided she wanted to make a star.  We chose a few other patterns to make as gifts.

I printed out the images we needed to trace.  I traced the Rescue Pack onto the plastic for Josiah and then he colored it.

Elizabeth traced her star shape onto the plastic and then colored it in.  She said she chose a Christmas star and wanted to hang it near the top of the tree because as star is what pointed the Wise Men to Jesus.  She decided to add words to her star, so I had her use marker to write the words on a piece of paper.  Then we flipped the paper over, and she could trace the words backward on her plastic. 

The kids chose a candy cane shape as a gift for Grandma Baber and a Mario for cousin A.J.  I traced the images.  Both kids colored the candy cane.  Elizabeth colored the Mario as Josiah was working on another gift for A.J.  Then into the toaster oven they went.  I forgot how quickly it works and how much they shrink!

Both Josiah and Elizabeth did a great job!  I like the idea of making a yearly tradition out of making their ornaments.  (We do still have to figure out what to make for Isaac this year!)

I don't deserve these kids

Today was one of those days.  It was a bad mommy day.  I was grumpy.  I had no reason to be grumpy.  But all I did was snip at the kids a l l  d a y  l o n g.  Elizabeth, after getting up and ready on her own, came in this morning wearing a pair of pants she knows she is not supposed to wear to school.  The first words out of my mouth let her know just how displeased I was with her choice.  And the day just seemed to go downhill from there.  Isaac spilled milk all over the kitchen.  Josiah made the choice to clean it up without even asking for help.  Instead of telling him how proud I was, I complained at him for his excessive use of paper towels.  Even though I was telling myself how mean I was being to my kids, it didn't change the negative words coming out of my mouth. 

So, instead of letting the kids choose where to have dinner, I  decided my rough day meant I deserved to have my choice.  HA!  The kids weren't happy, and they complained for a moment, but they came into the restaurant and were angels.  They had been promised playtime at the mall, and instead they were stuck in seats at a sit down restaurant.  They sat well and used their manners.  They did a fabulous job eating.  As the group at the next table was leaving, they gushed about our kids--everything from how cute they all are to how well-behaved they were.  I didn't need them to tell me those things, but it was reinforcement of how very blessed I am to be able to parent these three.  And how very blessed I am that they are amazing, despite me parenting them.

Thank you, God, for these blessings...and for reminders from others that they truly are blessings!

13

On November 23rd, Isaac celebrated turning 13 months old by getting his 13th tooth!  His first eye tooth popped in.  (His fourth molar came through sometime while I was recovering.)

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!