August 16, 2008

So, I’ve received a couple emails suggesting that in ADDITION to being overwhelmingly interested in how my family and I fought with each other across Ethiopia, they are hoping for an update on how we are all adjusting since being home. I concur. Here’s a brief battle station update.

Siyum is eating like a CHAMP. It’s almost like when you feed a goldfish, how you must actually ration the food because the goldfish will just eat and eat and eat until they explode. It is not unlike feeding a Siyum. The child can eat. It’s fabulous, we do a little protein dance with every morsel knowing all the goodness that’s being ingested into his cute little self. GIANT PUBLIC THANK YOU to Tarah, Superwoman Extraordinaire, who brought us over Injera and Wot the other day and was able to send Siyum to cloud nine for a good 3 days while he INHALED every scrumptious bite of the familiar Ethiopian dish. It was a wonderful gift. Three cheers for Tarah.

Siyum is sleeping like a champ as well, typically 14 hours a night. NO JOKE. But Jamie? How is it even possible to sleep for 14 hours straight? Oh. Oh, it’s entirely possible. Plus a nap on top of THAT. I think he might be growing? We could be wrong. Thoughts on this?

Siyum ADORES his sister DeeDee. They are two peas in a pod and crack each other up hourly. It’s been a smorgasbord of giggles around this place. Giggles and poop. The other morning, Delaney climbed into Siyum’s crib as he was waking up at ELEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING (ah, sweet victory) and the two of them laid in the crib together laughing and playing games for a good solid hour before they made any attempt to start the day. They were perfectly happy laying there giggling with their stankmouth morning breath all up in each other’s faces. It was really quite cute.

Siyum’s health is surprisingly fabulous. NO GIARDIA! Woohoo! We were ALL prepared to go to battle with worms and gross things in his poop and are blissfully happy with just the regular kid turds he ejects. Who knew we’d be so happy about poop. His bloodwork indicates he is low on vitamin D and Iron, which is no surprise and should be remedied over time with our friends, The Flintstones. All in all, the boy is a wonder.

Emotion-wise, he’s freakishly good. The only time he has cried has been when he woke up the first couple nights and thought he was alone in the room, when he fell off the toilet and when the nurse brought out the needles. All three experiences left PERMANENT deep scars on my heart, poor little dude. It’s the saddest thing because he tries SO HARD not to cry, he only quietly lets it out as a whimper but the tears just stream down his face. Like a knife through my heart, man, it’s rough.

Cute-wise, he is still really really really cute.

And so there’s the update on Little Man. The update on US: We are exhausted and often leave the house without diapers and wipes, we’ve been on vacation from diaper land for so long, it’s funny and a little crappy (no pun intended) to be back.

Mike is working a lot and loves telling people he is a MALE Nurse. Or Murse.

And I am working quite a bit as well, leaving us to do the work-schedule-balance-dance everyday. It’s worked out pretty well, one of us is always with the kids. Plural. Kids.

Good news is that I love my new job. And that’s a wrap! Ethiopia Trip Day 3 coming soon! More train wreck of a family vacation coming your way!

August 8, 2008

We FINALLY made it back, clawing our way through the door frame of our home by our fingernails 4 days ago. But we made it. No thanks to Susan Parr Travel. We’ll get into that in a bit.

But the funniest, strangest thing happened. Siyum? That boy? He is an ACTUAL BOY. Actually actual. Actually.

I know, right? Who expected THAT?!

When we pulled into the care center and stepped out of the van I thought to myself “That little boy running at us looks an awfully lot like those photos we have of an imaginary child named Siyum. How bizarre!” And before I knew it, the little imaginary boy was in my arms and hugging my neck. I could feel that he was there in my arms but just to make sure, I looked over at Mike and was about to ask,”Hey the face on my shoulder…is it really HIS face on my shoulder?” but judging from the tears in Mike’s eyes, I started putting two and two together and realized all at once that this was the imaginary boy that had actually been a REAL boy that whole time and this was us meeting him. Quick I am.

Photo of Mike first holding him:

And Siyum, later, in pink pajamas:

I think what I’m going to do is do a post for every day we were there with a couple pictures from each day. And I’m excited to do that because I want to remember each day we were there, all the beautiful country we saw and all the amazing people we met. So saddle up! Two weeks of traveling with my INSANE family across Ethiopia to pick up our 2.5 year old son is all about to be documented “Battle Station Style” on the blawg.

Thanks to many of you for checking in with me. I’m apologizing in advance for a slowdown in email responses over the next few weeks. But your emails are very much appreciated and I can’t wait to share with everyone our experience.

Stay tuned.

Jamie. The one with two kids.