FIVE

A look back through the past five years with Mr. Man .....

Happy birthday, love!

First Pig Tails (Kinda)

18 Months

Ellie Tsion is 18 months old! When her pediatrician handed me her "toddler" packet I honestly thought she gave me the wrong one; I mean, I didn't realize we had a toddler! I still was envisioning Ellie as my baby.

Ellie continues to grow and thrive each day. She is walking and running much more steadily and talking up a storm! When we are at home she is just about the loudest thing you've ever heard - squealing and yelling and telling us all about everything! Most people don't believe us because out in public or in new situations, she is quite shy and almost whispers. But, ask friends and family who chat with us on the phone and they'll tell you they can hear Ms. Ell chattering away in the background. That or she'll steal the phone away and talk FOR-EV-ER. Her favorite phone buddy is Pop right now; I think he is THRILLED to finally have a little one to chat with him each day when he calls since Garrett hasn't ever been much of a phone talker.

Some of our favorite Ellie phrases right now are:

"Up-uh" = up

"Dow-nuh" = down

"AAAAA" = any live animal (go figure!)

"Ah-duh" = all done

"Heh-puh" = help

Of course there are all of the other slew of words but those are the ones we hear most often and the loudest!

Ellie is very much into playing whatever her big brother is playing. She also LOVES to be read books or will sit still and look through piles and piles of books on her own. Oh, and don't forget the numerous babies - our sweet girl definitely has a nurturing, mothering side to her! It's amazing how differently little boys and girls play.

We continue to be in awe of Ellie's transition and growth since arriving home three and a half months ago. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined what we were missing until we met and fell in love with our sweet, sweet girl.

EthiopiaKids.com

Head on over to this site that our friend, D, created. It's a wonderful site/forum for adoptive parents (from any agency, any state/country) to go to for all sorts of information about Ethiopian adoptions.

Go check it out!

Another Friend of Ellie's Coming Home!

Today our friends found out that they had a successful court date in Ethiopia making their daughter, Maya Sitota, officially a part of their family! We are thrilled for them - go check out their blog and see some pictures of beautiful Maya!

Martial Arts Man

Garrett started taking Martial Arts this week, and he LOVES it! I was very hesitant to enroll him but finally found a place that is a wonderful fit for G-man. The academy he goes to focuses on self-discipline not only in class but at home, school, etc. Garrett loved his first class so much that he cried when it was over - big crocodile, sad tears. Thank goodness he can go three times per week (only 30 minutes each)!

Name Game

This little post is mainly so that I will remember....

It has taken no time at all to come up with a wide variety of nicknames for our sweet girl. Here are a few that you might hear called out in our home:

Ellie Belly

Ellie Tsion

Belly Girl

Tsion-y

Baby Girl

Elis-a-beth (Kenny is not a big fan of this nickname; I toyed around with named her Elisabeth and calling her Ellie for short but he just couldn't see how that worked.)

Kramer (When she rips out her bow or wakes up the middle part of her hair stands straight up like Kramer's did on Seinfeld. Cracks. Us. Up.)

Ellie Tsion Kramer Wade (This is Garrett's creation)

Bells

Bellsy

Ells-a-bells

Ell

Ells

Tsiony-Baloney