A Visit with Santa

We visited Santa yesterday. We have found a place that is never busy (there was one person in front of us in line) and the picture with Santa is free. Can't beat that, especially when you don't know how an almost two year old will react to Santa. Dave brought him to Santa and I was in charge of the camera this year. Owen did not cry at all. He just sat there and looked at Santa. By the end he was smiling and liked the fact that Santa gave him a candy cane.

Tree Cutting

It was that time of year again. When we travel up to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. Owen is now in the transition period of that he is old enough to walk, but slowly and clumsily in the mountain terrain and he is too heavy to carry, but it goes much faster. So, we went back and forth on walking and carrying. We did end up visiting two sites to look for a tree. The first one was too rocky and didn't have the ideal Christmas trees. So we got in the car and traveled back toward the entrance a bit and tried again. We were able to get a great tree, it is tall and skinny. Perfect for our house.



Owen thought that it was pretty neat that a tree was in our house. He wanted to touch it a lot, so we're going to have to watch him. We decorated the tree Sunday evening and Owen "helped" by trying to take off ornaments.

Owen's new bed

Last night we made the big move of putting Owen in his big boy bed. We've been prepping him for a little bit by purchasing a mattress and having him play in his new room and go on his bed. I think he was a bit confused because even though we did his same routine, it was in a different room and there wasn't a chair or crib. Instead of reading in his rocking chair, I read to him on his bed. When storytime was over, I turned off the light and crawled into bed with him. We laid there for a bit and I talked to him about his new room and then said good night. We heard him playing and talking for about an hour, then he began to cry. Dave went up and laid with him for about five minutes and then we heard nothing more. He was still sleeping when we went in this morning, so I've attached that picture.

We were originally going to have him sleep in his bed at night and his crib for naps, but he did such a good job that we decided to try nap time in his bed today. We heard him for about 45 minutes talking and playing and then he went to sleep. Tonight we heard him for about 30 minutes. We really can't believe how smooth a transition it has been, but when he ran to his bed after brushing his teeth we saw that as a sign that he liked his bed.

Halloween

Owen helped us carve pumpkins. He liked the goo and the fact that we carved out triangles. This year he really wanted to touch the pumpkin when the candle was lit, even though he knew it was hot. For Halloween night we put Owen in a leopard costume and he was very cute. Owen stayed in his costume for 3 and 1/2 hours. We went Trick or Treating to a couple of houses. We started at our next door neighbor who we know and actually went inside their house. Owen played with the little boy's toys for a while, so at one point we thought that he may think that Trick or Treating meant that he went inside someone's house and played with their toys. Fortunately this didn't happen. We went to a couple more houses where he did say "Trick or Treat". One of the houses was like ours so it had steps going up to the front door. As we were walking up them, Owen kept saying "Trick or Treat" over and over again, so I think he got it. We then came home and passed out candy with Owen's help. Our neighbor that we first went to came to our house and they came in for a while. It was a lot of fun.

First Snow of the Season

If you don't live in Colorado, you really can't appreciate our weather. Yesterday's high in Denver was 80 degrees. Today it is in the 30's and snowing! At this point we received about 4-5 inches and it is still snowing. The forecast has us in the upper 60's by Tuesday and the 70's by Wednesday. Owen really enjoyed the snow this time and really liked eating it. Doesn't he look like the little boy from A Christmas Story?

Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the Pumpkin Festival today at Chatfield. We put Owen in his Halloween costume and he went around the festival in a wagon. We went back to the pumpkin patch first to pick our pumpkins. Owen had a good time walking around touching all of the pumpkins. He tried to pick up several, but was only successful with small ones and gourds. We then had Owen go to the petting zoo and he is definitely not afraid of animals. He was trying to hug all of them like he hugs Bailey. At one point he wedged himself between two rather large sheep. Can you believe that he kept his costume on the entire time?! However, as soon as we got in the car, he took of the hat! We'll be carving our pumpkins in a couple of weeks.

Playing the Piano

Owen enjoys playing the piano and wants to play it everyday. I have to leave the keyboard open because if he wants to play and the keyboard is closed he tries to open it himself which has almost led to pinched fingers. Below is a picture of Owen having his baby play the piano.

Upcoming NBA Player

I think Owen may be ready for the NBA. He jumps about an inch off the ground and is able to throw the ball. Maybe in a few more years . . .

New Bedroom Set

We purchased a new bedroom set for Owen. I can't believe he will be two in three months! We will be transitioning Owen to his new bed as late as our referral or if he decides that he can crawl out of his crib before then. The bedroom set barely fits his room since it is connected to a Jack and Jill bath, therefore having two doors. He likes to jump on the bed and pull out the drawers of his dresser. We'll see how he transitions.

Our New Little Wonder

We are currently in the process of our second adoption. We are requesting an infant girl and hope to have a referral by the end of the year or early next year. So when we finally travel, it will be about two years since we last went to Ethiopia. We think Owen will be excited because he loves kids. In partial preparation for our new edition, I found a doll that my grandparents gave to me a long time ago. Owen loves to hold her while he is watching Elmo. In the picture below, Owen has that look because he's annoyed that I was interrupting Elmo.

New blog and stuff

We decided to change to a free blog, so make sure to save this address. We received Owen's passport in the mail on Monday! The new ones are very fancy. This may not be exciting to most, but those who have adopted know what a relief it is. We had to send in his Permanent Resident card that we just recently found to verify that he is a US citizen and we were a bit nervous sending this off since we need it back for Owen's Certificate of Citizenship. We got his passport and resident card and now we are only waiting for the letter from USCIS stating that we need to send in his resident card to receive the COC. The COC will be the FINAL piece of paperwork for Owen (besides the yearly update to Ethiopia).
Owen is now 20 months old and LOVES Elmo. He has Elmo shoes, 2 dolls, a couple of books, a video, and he watches Elmo on You Tube (Elmo and Chris Rock and Elmo and Andrea Bocelli).
Below is a picture of Owen and Bailey. Owen loves Bailey and Bailey is tolerant of Owen.

The referral of Owen

Here is an old post from our previous blog. This tells the story of the day we received our referral for Owen. It's hard to beleive this was 15 months ago.

On Wednesday night February 15, 2006, Megan and I were watching the Olympics, specifically freestyle moguls.

The day before we had received word from our agency assisting with the Ethiopian portion of the adoption that our dossier looked great and that we have been officially added to the wait list and a huge weight was lifted with the relief that the major paperwork was done. When we started the process many months earlier the wait time for a referral was listed at 0-2 months. A few days earlier we had received the February newsletter that listed the referral time at 0-4 months. Many people waiting for referrals had requested girls or siblings and some had already been waiting two months for their referral. While we knew the referral of a boy would be quicker we wanted to set a realistic time frame so we wouldn’t start getting to anxious. One month seemed reasonable.

On the morning of the 15th somebody on the message board of the agency’s website had listed out those people she knew to be waiting and asked if she had missed anybody that they to added their names. After seeing a list of about 15-18 people I noticed that none of them were currently waiting for the referral of a boy. Now trying to keep with the previously decided upon month, I tried not to think much of this. That lasted about two minutes before I decided I needed to call Megan and share with her the news. About this time I started to think, maybe any night now Peggy will call with the referral. Peggy was our social worker that conducted the three home studies and she would be the one to deliver the good news when the time came. I needed to settle down I was setting myself up for a completely unnecessary disappointment every night.

When I got home from work that day, the adoption is all Megan and I could talk about, that in and of its self is not that unusual, but we just kept talking about how there might not really be any people waiting before us in line to receive a referral. I didn’t really let Megan know that I was starting to think maybe it could even happen tonight or tomorrow. I called my sister to wish her happy birthday and we talked about her pregnancy, she is due on March 20th and the adoption process some, with me giving her the same month or so until a referral story. While I was on the phone the door bell rang and the first thing I thought was, “is it Peggy with the referral.” Okay, so I wasn’t doing very well with the whole lets try not to obsess over the referral thing. Well if you are thinking the doorbell is what I have been leading up to you would be wrong. It was just the delivery of a book I had ordered from Amazon.

After dinner we settled down into the family room and Megan started grading papers while I sat back and watched the Olympics. This was the perfect distraction, Megan could spend her time trying to decipher 7th grade handwriting while I sat and listened to the placid sounds of Bob Costas. At about 7:45 the phone wrung, Megan looked over and saw that the caller ID showed Peggy’s name. We both just looked at each other for a second, before I picked up the phone.
“Hi Dave, its Peggy, how are you?”
“I’m doing well, how are you?”
“Good, do you have a moment?”
“Yes”
“Is Megan around?”
At this time I started to shake (even more then usual). I had a pretty good idea what this was about.
“Yes she’s here”
“Can she pick up another phone?
Now this is a reasonable question to ask of just about anybody who owns his or her own home in 21st century America. But keep in mind we do have a dog that is just under two. Bailey several months earlier, apparently over the frustration of not having the opposable thumbs necessary to dial a phone decided to eat the phone. So we only have the one phone.
“Um, I can’t believe this but we don’t have another phone. Maybe we can put you on speakerphone. Wait, no the phone that had that option is the one that broke.”
“Just have her tell you.” Megan says
“Megan said its okay to just tell me.”
“Okay, well we have a referral for the two of you. It’s a baby boy born on January 12.”
Both Megan and I have a smile ear to ear as I look over to confirm with Megan the news. Megan then hands me paper to start writing down what she is telling me.
“His name is Joseph.”
I believe the call went on for another minute or two with both Megan and I relatively speechless. We set up a time on Saturday for us to meet and get all of Joseph’s information and the one picture they had.

After I hung up both Megan and I just looked at each other and started mumbling something along the lines of it’s happened, this is it, and we have a son. Both of us looked down at the paper on the coffee table that just said Jan. 12, Joseph and Boy. With that paper, a few tears in our eyes we hugged and we had become parents.
Editor's Note - Later Megan and Dave saw that the babies name was Yoseph not Joseph, although the social worker was saying Joseph.