Little Bookworm

Eli LOVES books. In fact, we could venture to say it is a bit of an obsession for him. His second word (after mama!) was book and he just can't get enough books. We could pull down every book on his bookshelf and he still would not be satisfied! We went to the library the other day so Jason could pick something up and I thought Eli was going to just explode with excitement! He immediately found the plastic bin of board books, grabbed three, and then proceeded to run up and down the book aisles saying "book, book, book, book, book, book." It was very funny and cute, but we had to find some major distraction to put the books back in order to prevent a meltdown. Good thing daddy's wallet has fun velcro! His other favorite things? Throwing himself on Porter's dog bed and pushing his lawnmower around the house.

This is how Jason found Eli when the house got quiet. Yep, it is never good when it gets quiet at our house! Eli parked himself on Porter's bed with his lawnmower and starting pulling books off the shelf! He was very proud of himself!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...life is GOOD!! Hmmm...I just noticed he only has one shoe on! Ha!!

Making Connections

This weekend we ventured to Indianapolis to attend our adoption agency's annual picnic/reunion. It was so great to finally meet in person so many of the families and staff that journeyed with us through our process and provided so much incredible support. Eli seemed to enjoy seeing the other kids and running around the park. We also got to meet several of our blogger pals and their adorable kiddos. Even though we were there for several hours, it still was not enough time to catch up and chat with fellow families!

Here we are with our adoption coordinator, Kathy. She shared many sad and many happy tears with us over the months! It was wonderful to finally meet her in person.


We were so happy to see some our friends we met on our first visit trip! We all received our referrals within days of each other and then spent a day in Antigua together in August 2007. At that time, all of our little ones were itty bitty. It was so fun to see how much they have grown! The only one missing is Amy and her daughter, Gianna. We expect to see her next year! Pictured below with us are Jenney, Jim, and baby Leo and Patty, Mike, and baby Emmakate.

Eli and Leo posing for the paparazzi.

Little boy hugs.

"Come on, Eli. Trouble is this way."

Emmakate and Eli's turn to pose together. Aren't they adorable?!?!

Finally meeting Sandy and baby Izzy! We also got to see a glimpse of Sandy's other adorable kiddos while they were running around with their new flutes!

Let's add Gretchen and Gillian to the mix!
Gretchen and Jayden.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo with Karen and her daughter. We met them both on our visit trip in December. It was so much fun taking Eli to the zoo. He is still too little to fully appreciate everything, but he was certainly intrigued by all of the animals. I think he liked the aquarium the most. There is a shark petting area and Eli wanted to jump right in! He loves animals!

Feeding the giraffe.

Karen and Sara.
Eli and Sara trying to cool off in the shade. Actually, Eli was greeting everyone who was walking out of the restroom with a huge smile and big wave. Too funny!

Baby Shower and Welcome Home Party!

On June 14th, we had our baby shower and welcome home party!! My sister was the hostess with the mostess and the party was just perfect!! She waited a long time to throw this party for us! It was everything I could have asked for and more. We were surrounded by so much love and support throughout our journey to Eli so it was such a joy to finally be able to introduce little pea to many of his aunts, cousins, and friends. Eli clung to his momma for about the first 10 minutes of the party and then he was ready to introduce himself to everyone! I think he thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of the kids and getting many long awaited hugs and kisses.

Thank you, Shelly and mom, for such an amazing day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Readoption Day!!

We had Eli's Ohio readoption hearing on Friday and he is now legally Eli Oscar! Ohio already recognized his adoption, but we had to go through this process in order to get his name changed to Eli. We will receive his new Ohio birth certificate in about 6 weeks. After the judged announced that it was "official," Eli started clapping. His timing could not have been more perfect! The judge even gave Eli is own mini gavel.

We celebrated Friday evening at our city's annual "Boogie on Broadway." This boy LOVES to dance and he can really bust-a-move! He was not shy and charmed the crowd with his dance moves.




We got together with family yesterday for a little BBQ. Eli swimming with his cousins.
The coolwhip king.

Eli and papaw.

Hugs from Aunt Shelly.

Peek-a-boo

Kissing the coneflower!

Kisses, kisses, and more kisses

I can't believe it is already July! Where is the summer going??? Oh, I remember oh so clearly when I just wanted time to fly and I knew there would come a day when I would want time to slooooooooow down. It's hard to believe that Eli has been home for almost 2 months already! And, the last week has been full of so many surprises as well as some new challenges!

First of all, we are THRILLED to report that Eli has been sleeping through the night in his crib for almost 2 weeks now. He goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and we don't hear much of a peep from him until morning. If he wakes up, he puts himself right back to sleep. Amazing!! The flip side of that? Well, now he will not nap for longer than 30 minutes. Sigh....it is so strange! He wakes up crying and is sooooooo tired, but he will not go back to sleep. Lucky for us, Eli is such a sweet boy, even when he is dog tired. He is like a little energizer bunny.

One thing that may be contributing to his lack of napping is he has been learning so much new stuff lately! It is incredible and so much fun to teach and watch him learn new skills. The highlight of our week is Eli started giving us kisses!! Oh WOW!!! WE LOVE IT!!! It is the sweetest thing and just makes our hearts melt. He is very generous with his kisses, too! Overall, it seems like he has really opened up this past week in a whole new way. He is so loving and affectionate and seems so much more comfortable not only at home, but also with friends and family. For probably the first 5-6 weeks home (in addition to our time in Guatemala), Eli was very clingy with me and would scream whenever I left the room. That has pretty much disappeared. Now, he freely explores and plays while coming back to "check-in" with us and give lots of hugs. Then he is off again! Busy, busy, busy. He is so much fun and the joy of our lives. We are madly in love with this sweet, crazy, loveydovey boy!! Here are some pics from this week:

Pool party! I think Eli was more interested in drinking the water than playing in it!

Getting splashed by daddy. He LOVES the water, especially on his face!

Helping to plant flowers (yes, we are a little late in the game!). You can't really see it in the pic, but he had dirt ALL through his hair. He carried that clump of dirt around for quite awhile.

Checking out the flowers.

Yes! DIRT!!!!

KISSES!!!!!!!! Awwwwwwwwww!!!!!!

First Road Trip

Eli went on his first long road trip this past weekend. We went to Pennsylvania to visit Jason's family. He handled the 6 hour car ride very well! We had a busy weekend introducing little pea to his family!

Four generations! Clockwise: Jason's dad, Eli, Jason, Jason's grandfather, and his grandmother





We celebrated the 4th of July with a cookout in the rain at Jason's sister's house.

Eli didn't mind the drizzle. He was quite content playing with the big trucks and getting muddy.

Jason playing football with his nephews

Hangin' with Uncle Noah.

Eli and Oma!!
Eli and Aunt Misty
Eli and his crazy cousins!! They were very excited to meet little pea!
On the way home...catching up on some reading.

Talking to his peeps.