Tuesday, January 29, 2008

#3

Hi - I have been bad at posting lately, just busy I guess.

Little Tarik is not so little anymore actually. According to the scientific 'hold him and get on a scale, then hop on the scale by myself' method, he weighs 21.4 pounds). We will have an official weight tomorrow after his 9 month checkup.
He definitely out weighs his 2007 cousins and I am fairly certain he outweighs any of my other kiddos at 9 months. The only contender is Katie, so I need to dig out her baby book to double check.

He FINALLY has his 3rd tooth. I think (but am too lazy to check) that he got his first and second teeth in late October - like his second week at daycare after I went back to work. So, it has been 3 months and I kept thinking it should be anytime. I found out tonight when I heard him grinding his teeth. He kept doing it and I had to try to distract him with toys to chew on. What a little trooper, he doesn't seem bothered by it all.

Tarik is close to crawling, but at this point it is mostly getting on his hands and knees, then rocking for awhile - excitedly eyeing the toy in front of him, then going backwards and eventually getting stuck under a chair. Poor baby. But he doesn't seem to mind. He is also close to pulling himself up. If I stand him up against the couch or in his crib, he loves it and can hang out for awhile.
It is just so fun to watch him grow. He is a sweet little baby and just makes me giggle when we play. Oh yeah, he also waves - bye or hi - now! (sheesh, it has been obviously been awhile since I posted!)

Updates for the other 3... same old, same old. Not quite as many changes when you are older than 1, I guess. Annalise is still not potty-trained, but she is almost 3 (can you believe it?!??) and I have convinced her that 3 years olds HAVE to use the potty. So, we will see how that goes.

Katie and Jack are both having a good year in school. We have conferences in a couple weeks, so I guess we will know for sure then. ;) They can be huge helps for me with Tarik in the mornings, when we have the daily time crunch. They still love to feed him, or hold him for me when I need a minute. Nothing makes me happier than when I am watching Jack smiling and talking to Tarik and I can see the total love in his heart. He is a wonderful brother. And Katie is a great little momma to Tarik. She wants to help with it all, except the poppy diapers. Annalise is like Jack too - she baby-talks to Tarik and he eats it up - smiling and babbling back at her.

Ahhhhhh, life is great!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Thursday, January 17, 2008

42-20

Okay I know this is a little late but I have been somewhat busy basking in the glow of a glorious win by the Pack last Saturday. They are now one game away from the Super Bowl, and thanks to the Cowboys, that game is in Lambeau against the New Jersey Giants. We were all decked out for the game and I just thought I would share a couple pics, minutes after the game.

We are headed to Chicago this weekend to visit one of Jen's sisters. It's her birthday and her husband is at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Quick plug, Adam had a great movie review podcast called Filmspotting. Click the link below or you can catch him on NPR. I am not sure of the times or which markets for sure but you may want to look in your local listings. Or you can just subscribe to Filmspotting on iTunes. Okay enough of the free publicity.

So we are coming home Sunday, hopefully in time to see the game, but just in case, we are all bringing our Packer gear to wear in the car ride home. To all you nonPacker fans out there, it's not too late, join us. To the rest GO PACK!!!!

Filmspotting


Monday, January 07, 2008

Next Big Step - Late news

Last Thursday, January 3rd, Gary, Tariku, and I went to court ("isn't court a bad thing " asked Katie - not this time, angel!). We had Tarik's Re-adoption, or Adoption Finalization hearing. Our new friend Jeremy represented us and briefed us on what would happen and what we needed to do. (I didn't realized we would actually be sworn in...)

My dad came over bright and early to get Katie and Jack off to school and watch Annalise. Heck no, we weren't taking them! Oh yes, it would be nice, but I am sure they would have behaved in such a way that the judge might have had a second thought about whether we could handle 4 kids! As we walked out the door, Jack asked "what if the judge said no, that we couldn't keep him". I assured him it wouldn't happen and then when we got there, Jeremy assured me that it couldn't happen either. (unless I started talking crazy up on the stand - luckily I was able to keep my cool!)

The hearing wasn't very long, but I basically went through the whole process from deciding to adopt to being here with Tarik today. Gary was second and got to just agree that everything I said was true. Tarik was a doll and happily tapped his plastic toy against the table the whole time.

So, we are nearly done. The Proof of Ciitzenship or Naturalization is our last step that we starting right now. Oh, except the next 18 years of post-placement reports that are due to Ethiopia. Gotta get that on the calendar...

Here is a pic of us with the judge (sorry Jeremy - you are blog-worthy, but I have my eyes closed in the pic!)

Lilypie Date is set Ticker