6 months home!

Its so hard to believe that it has been six months home.  I'm more thankful than I can express that this precious boy is my son.  I was thinking the other day what life would be like without him.  At first I thought I can't even imagine, but honestly I can...

Sleeping late...oh how I miss you.
No toys on the floor...my feet would be happy.
No timeouts, no pouting, no tears...silence is golden.

But what I would be missing...
Mommy wake up, its time to wake up and kisses lots and lots of kisses first thing in the morning.
Mecinas (cars) everywhere and the joy in his face when he's playing.
The happiness that he brings.
I can imagine my life without him but I don't want to ever have to live it without him again.

On to the facts...
We still use some Amharic words...
Mecina...Cars
Shintet...Potty
Kaka...Poop
Behuala...Later
Nege...Tomorrow
Na...Come

I hope that we will continue to use these words the rest of our days...and I figure that means I need to continue to use them in our home.

6 months ago I couldn't imagine how much better things would be.  Those first weeks I cried every day.  It was just hard, to go from being this single lady with 2 cats and a dog, being my only responsiblity to having the little boy who was totally dependent on me.  This boy who we couldn't communicate through words, this boy whose life had been flip turned upside down.

He learned to show me what he needed, he'd grab your hand and guide you to what he wanted.  Now when I ask him what he wants, he says" I show you."

When we first came home I would ask him if he needed to shintet and then would help him go, now he heads for the potty all on his own.  Doesn't need me at all.  He has also started brushing his teeth "by himself".  (I do a little follow up on this).

We co-slept for the first 5 months of him being home, we started the transition into him sleeping by himself in early February and hopefully I'll be in my own bed by the end of March.  He's doing great.  Sleeps the entire night now without waking up.  The first week or so he would wake up, and I would get off the twin mattress on the floor next to his bed and comfort him and he'd go back to sleep, but that only lasted about a week before he was able to self-comfort and fall asleep on his own.

This past Friday night was the first time I let someone else put him to bed.  My mom and dad had the honor and he did great.  He slept the entire night, woke up about 5:45am (which is way earlier than he usually does), and looked out the window to make sure my car was in the driveway.  It was so sweet.  He then crawled into bed and went back to sleep for another hour or so.  I'm so glad that he's in my life. 

We've had some great times over these last 6 months...
visited the zoo with different friends.
played at the McW@ne Center.
been to 5 birthday partys.
flew on an airplane to visit a family we traveled to Ethiopia with to each bring home our sons.
played at the park, he loves the slide.

So that's the last 6 months in a nutshell.

These are pictures from our labor day weekend, our second weekend home. 

And these are from this past weekend. He's gotten so big.  But he's wearing the same wolfpack shirt in the pictures that he was wearing in the last picture.