Happy Halloween Eve!

Fall

Our Beauty Shop

Parade!

Last weekend we went to our first parade as a family of four with our buddies.  S did really well, although I think he was little overwhelmed between all the sirens, cars, band, then trying to remember to run for candy.  We crossed the street and walked half a block when it was over to watch it again (gotta love really short parades in small towns) and it seemed like he was back to his usual chatty, inquisitive self.

O just chilled with his drinking buddies. 

Firsts

Rollie Pollie O can now wave and say "bye bye" in what sounds like a deep old man voice and can push himself on the spiderman car.  He also has a wonderful physical therapist coming to the house 6 times a month.  The first few visits have been really great and she has given us lots of ideas on how to help O work on his gross motor skills.  Oh.. I almost forgot to mention what O may be the most proud of... pulling up on the toilet and sticking his hand in.  :[  Great.

Big Man S has grown out of a pair of shoes, recognized his first cartoon character on his underwear (Yo Gabba Gabba!), and displayed some killer three-year-old defiance when he looked me straight in the eye and then hocked a loogie on the carpet after I told him to share a book with little bro. 
He also started repeating "I love you". (I lub you!)

Together we have had our first meal from Chik-Fil-A, actually our first meal from any restaurant.  (That one was for you, anonymouse.  Your babies taste better than ours.)  Our first parade, first picnic, and first (and probably last) time we are forced to sit in pumpkins for pictures. 

October, you have been good to us!

Our Little Pumpkin

Testing...

We've been trying out some new turkey day recipes.  Pumpkin roll-out cookies, as it turns out, are a huge bust. 

Too Cool

S has to puff up his cheeks a little to keep on the sunglasses and it makes the perfect cool guy face.

Fall

To Our Favorite USPS Employee

"Wait until November to meet you, grandma?  Ack!  I'll find a way to make it happen sooner!"

One Month!

Hooray!  Or as S says, “Goolay!”  Tomorrow is our one-month-home-iversary.   To celebrate we dined on some Ethiopian fare for dinner. 

To back-track, about two or three days ago, we contacted a family on Craigslist that was selling a mini-van.  When we got there, we found out that the man selling the van was from Uganda, and had lived in Ethiopia for 11 years with his Ethiopian wife and family.  It was such a blessing to meet them!  He spoke in Amharic to S, who as usual, completely clammed up.  We did not love the van, but loved that God orchestrated our meeting.  He told us that his wife makes injera every day and that they would die without it.  Later, we asked if we could buy some injera from his wife, and they happily agreed.

Papa and the boys went to pick up the injera this afternoon, and I stayed home to make Doro Wat (spicy chicken stew), Shiro (kinda ends up like refried beans, but spicy and made from powdered peas), and some lentils.  Just as I was finishing up, I could hear the car pull in the garage.  S-Man ran in yelling, “Mama!  Injera!” over and over again.  His face was shining with excitement as he sampled some from the bag. 

After that, it was pretty anti-climatic.  Despite toning down the spices in the recipes, it was all still too spicy for S-Man and me.  S did not gobble up the injera like we had expected, either.  He picked at a couple of pieces, drained his milk and declared, “baca!” (done).  Lil’O has never had injera before and promptly threw his on the floor.  No real surprise there, as that is what he does every night at dinner.  J

In the end, S ate another food we often had while staying at the hotel in Addis, a cliff bar.  J

Halloween's Coming!

Some awesome fabric is waiting to be turned into something marvelous!

Collegiate Series

Can you guess which one is our favorite?

Wheeee!

Photo Shoot!

Mimi and Momo took some pictures of our family of four.  Hats off to my photography friends, because it is hard work making sure there is no one picking his nose or eating a leaf (both things actually occurring).  I, like every mom before me, already ruined my three-year-old on smiling for the camera.  We learned the Amharic word for "smile" and used it waaay too much.  It has lost all meaning now.   

And the photo shoot is over. 

We tried to get some pictures of the grandkids with Mimi and Momo, but it is safe to say they had enough.  Or maybe we weren't as good of photographers.

And last but not least, my favorite.

Mimi and Momo

To wrap off birthday week Mimi and Momo came for a visit.  S-Man and Lil’O loved, loved, loved having them here.  (I think Mimi and Momo were pretty smitten, too!)

 "Take off your shoes and stay a while, Momo!"

This one cracks me up.  :)

 This is what the hubs and I saw after we put S to bed.  Oh, the wearing-out power of kids. 

Oops... better run!  Everyone is up from nap time.  Stay tuned for day two with Mimi and Momo...

Three and One, Oh What Fun!

We got to open some presents that evening.  Thanks to our families for helping us celebrate, even when we are far apart! 

 O-man got in on the action too, and opened some presents for a belated first birthday celebration.  Here he is demonstrating the proper method of reading books.  :)

Day Two of Birthday Fun

Nothing better than opening some presents from grandma and grandpa in your pajamas.

 It's been amazing to see him start to pick up so many English words.  He immediately shouted "monkey" when he saw his stuffed animal, and started to tell us all the animals he knew in his book.  He did point to the hippo and say "dog" however, so we are definitely still learning!

He was also really in love with his new dark green shorts.  He was telling us all about how they were the same color as Papa's work pants and was pumped to wear them later in the day. 

Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Birthday Buzz!

Yay for celebrating our families first third birthday! It may take a few posts to document all our merriment, because it was waaaay fun.   

Let's start off with our birthday boy enjoying some cake. 

On to the first birthday present of the week.... a vacuum!  You better believe he was thrilled!

I was thrilled to find out it actually has suction.  The middle area of the living room will never need to vacuumed by an adult again. 

 Thanks J!  You have got to be the best babysitter we know. 

"Bedtime?? I want more cake!!"