thanksgiving cooking lesson

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voltron hands

and MORE DANCING of course!!!!!!!

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dino romp and roar

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some recent photos from my phone

this first picture is from this past weekend -- we went to the Morro Bay Harbor Festival and well, someone had A LOT of fun!!!!

big lou LOVES to eat now (which is progress since it used to be quite a battle to get him to eat more than one spoonfull of anything). . . he is weighing in at 27 lbs. our own chunka-lunka-love
training to be a lion tamer -- starting off with the most patient, sweet dog on earth. . .
boy loves his cheerios. do all kids like cheerios??? cheerios can literally solve any problem with this child. . .

tape, tongs, and a brush

i don't write much on this blog because i know that what everyone really wants are pictures and videos. but tonight i just had to write this post about big lou's favorite toys today. he is currently in the kitchen, on the floor, involved in some elaborate complex plot to move and hide 3 items: a roll of blue masking tape, a pair of bbq tongs, and my hairbrush. he is babbling away and who knows what he's thinking. it made me very very happy.

doggie heaven and hell

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five years baby!!!!!!

4 months

yesterday was 4 months since we met this little dude. . .

and look at him now!!! dance party on the couch all day long!!!

a backflip, a wink, and a strut

no babies were harmed filming this video

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walking!!!!

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can you say mommy?

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Brown Bear Stands Up!!!!!!!!

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ethiopian flashback

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alamo square photo shoot!!!

here are some photos from our picnic in the park this past weekend. . . when we first met this little guy he really didn't have many facial expressions. but look at him now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

big lou gets his groove on and finds his sock

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where's your head?

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memorial day picnic (inside because when it is cold and windy in SF it is no day for a picnic outside)

happy birthday little man!!!!!!

yesterday was our little man's first birthday!!! we are so grateful to have him home to celebrate! here are some pictures from the day:

having a first birthday in our family means starting new traditions like as soon as you wake up, you have to wear a crazy hat your mother made for you!!!!

he is not so sure about the balloons. . .
the local grandparents and some traveling kiwis came over for another new tradition for us: birthday pancake breakfast!!! . . . they brought some gifts too. the birthday boy LOVES his new trash truck!!!
then we went to the marin headlands. . . he slept through it all which was fine because we forgot the camera! thank goodness for camera phones!
then he got his BIG gift. . . a national parks passport. his first stamp: San Francisco Maritime Park! we toured the famous Balclutha ship, the hercules tugboat, and the eureka ferryboat
he seemed to like the boats and didn't complain too much when he was in the stroller (this is some serious progress folks -- he would much rather be held or crawling on the ground than be in his stroller!!)
next it was time for another new tradition-- mom 'playing' her trumpet while dad sang along. it was hilarious. the birthday boy was very concerned that something was wrong with me :) hahahaha. i'm sure he was wondering where the sick cow was hiding!
we also had a doggie sleepover -- here is boozoo guarding the new toys
and dad picked out a special puzzle. . .
it was a fantastic day!

California Academy of Sciences

we had our first trip to the california academy of sciences this past friday. we had a blast!!!

checking out the tank full of native californian fish

he LOVED the penguins . . .
and the penguins loved him back

giggles on the swing

hopefully you can hear his giggles over my annoying mwahing sounds

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first trip to the park!

teg LOVED the swing and would giggle for each time back and forth


not a bad view from the park, huh???

Teg's new skills . . .

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more video: tegster on the move!!!

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teg video time -- a little bit of snorting and almost some barf

our first family self portrait

finding teg -- photos from our trip to ethiopia

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our cozy life in addis ababa

Our Stuff!!! Seriously! How did we fit all this into 2 suitcases!!! Well, the good thing about having one small closet is that when you 'lose' something, you know exactly where to start digging :)

Also, notice the TV? we turned it on once (the night before we met Teg) to watch some soccer. . . but the funny thing is that all the TVs are connected to the same channel changer (this is not a technical term) so when the folks in the main family room change the channel, the channel on your TV changes too!!! it was kind of interesting for about 5 minutes :)


Sleeping areas. . . i think we were all tired enough to sleep outside in the driveway, so where we slept exactly wasn't nearly as important as the sleeping part.



dining area. . . i think i am wearing this outfit in 90% of the photos. anyway, this is where we would take turns eating. the food was AWESOME!!!!! the really exciting part about mealtime was that this table liked to spontaneously tilt. . .


when it was raining, we played here on the floor . . .

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THANK GOODNESS for this garden at the guesthouse. . . if it wasn't raining (which it was a lot) we were out here kicking the soccer ball and smelling the flowers (well, Teg's version of smelling flowers is to yank them off and squish them -- sorry guesthouse gardener!!!)

picture of the day

this was a game we played while we waited (and waited and waited) to get on our plane in addis. . . this particular game was called 'look at me, i'm wearing my plastic shorts on my head'

HOME!!!!!!

Tegarrific!

Well, it's official! We got his Ethiopian passport today with his US Visa inside it! We also got an enormous packet of paperwork sealed in an envelope that cannot be opened until he gets to customs in San Francisco, but it's official! So we're outta here on Sunday, overnight briefly in Dubai (6 hours at the airport hotel) then the 16 hour marathon flight back over the north pole to home.

Teg is about 18-20 pds, and is wearing 12-18 month clothes, 18 is the safer bet. He's got a big ol' belly and is thankfully not lactose intolerant.

See you all soon!

(via Adam)

Tegasaurus Roar!

Today we got the official court documents that show that the adoption
was successful, got a copy of his birth certificate with us listed as
parents and a copy of his ethiopian passport with us listed as
parents.
Tomorrow we go to the US embassy to be interviewed to get his visa,
which we will pick up on friday.

We also got to drive to the top of Mt. Entopo, with Teg asleep the
whole way up, where he pooped, and we then drove back down.

We've been eating lots of ethiopian food, though Teg is on a strict
diet of oats and formula.

We're steady rollin through all his different outfits, we'll have tons
pf pics and video when we get back.

Tegatronic!

Teg slept through the night, only waking up once for his bottle. He's been much much more energetic and interactive today. He's crawling now and goes from hyperactive to ready for a nap very quickly. We found out today that he was born on May 28th. So, he's about in the age range that we thought and he'll have a birthday coming up soon. he's very curious and can almost pull himself up to standing. All of his motor skills are great, he responds when he sees food, makes great eye contact, loves to interact with us and over all seems to be in great shape.

The power is out pretty frequently here or we'd have e-mailed more.

Probably just going to lay low with him at the hotel for most of the week, today's outing was a litle overwhewlming for him. On the upside, alicia and I got to have a traditional ethiopian coffee ceremony, and for dinner at the hotel tonight they had a traditional lamb bbq.

We are hoping to go to Mt Entoto and the Ethiopian museum this week. we'll see how it goes...

(Via Adam)

Got Him!

We just brought him back about an hour and a half ago. he's asleep now, he's a real snore monster. just as beautiful as he is in all the pictures and totally loves to play. He pretty much insists on being held, put him down for a second and he starts to cry.

We'll try to send pictures at some point, not sure if we can from here.


(via Adam)

In Addis

We got into Addis this morning and the city is gorgeous, much greener than we expected. It's also calmer and quieter than we'd anticipated. The guest house is great, there are several other families staying here and they make great ethiopian food. we got a chance to walk around town a little this afternoon and got some pictures.

the big news is that we'll get to get Teg tomorrow morning, a day earlier than expected, so we have to really start to read the baby book now!! hahahaha.

(via Adam)

Volcano Gods

it looks like the volcano gods have ruled in favor of us getting to Africa today

we are leaving for the airport in 8 minutes

can you hear us cheering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like seriously, you might be able to hear us!!! we are so freaking excited AND we happen to be loud people (so we've been told)

WOOHOO

Teg dude, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hang in there buddy! only a few more days!!!

wish us luck!!!!! this is gonna be one fun trip!!!!

cheers!

trip stats

we aren't convinced that we will be able to get on the internet and update this blog while we are in ethiopia. so in case we can't blog, this is what we think we'll be doing on our trip:

15 apr -- get on plane for 16 hours and fly to dubai
16 apr -- arrive in dubai and spend the night in a hotel (hopefully one with a pool!!!)
17 apr -- fly to addis ababa, ethiopia -- go to our guest house and explore the city
18 apr -- check out markets, food, and find coffee of course!!! and get ready for Teg!! maybe make some practice bottles
19 apr -- TEG DAY!! wake up and go to the transition home to meet Teg!!!!!! spend the day at the orphanage. Teg comes back with us and we spend our first night as a family of three
20 - 21 apr -- doctor's appointments, running around to complete confusing paperwork, and who knows what else. most importantly, we'll be doing it all with our little dude
22 apr -- interview at the US embassy. this takes all day and the goal is to get Teg a visa to come to the US
23 - 24 apr -- explore ethiopia!!!!
25 apr -- get on plane and fly to dubai and stay in hotel again
26 apr -- land in san francisco!!!!!!!!!!!!

una semana

as i write this, it is almost 9am on a monday morning in addis ababa, ethiopia. in exactly one week we will be meeting this little man:




i'm so excited that i can hardly sleep or function normally right now (meaning, much less normal than my usual abnormal). we are running around like crazy trying to figure out what we need to do to be ready for this kid. but really, it doesn't matter if we are ready or not because he is coming home soon!!!!!

we have no idea what size clothes he wears. we have no idea what kind of formula he likes. we have no idea what his favorite toys are. we have no idea if he likes music. we do know that he is good at throwing things (in the above picture he is in the beginning stages of launching a baby doll) . . .

the point is, we are really really REALLY ready to meet this little dude and actually find out how far he can throw :)

Tegasaurus (NEW AND IMPROVED)

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operation "get Teg" is ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just talked with our adoption agency and we are confirmed for our april 22 embassy date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! earth day embassy date!!!

so next thursday (april 15) we fly out of san francisco to dubai. spend the night in dubai. fly to addis ababa and get there on saturday morning/afternoon. . . then we hang out and explore for the weekend. on monday morning we will go to the transition home/orphanage and meet Teg. . . april 19th will be the official TEG DAY!!!!!!!! so THAT should pretty much just ROCK OUR WORLD!!!! then we spend the next couple of days filling out confusing paperwork (which we are pretty good at by now), going through various government offices and doctor's appointments, spending time with the other kids at the orphanage, AND OF COURSE playing with and loving on our TEG!!!!!!!!

we fly out of addis on sunday, spend the night in dubai, and arrive in san francisco at 1:30 pm on monday april 26!

Teg will be home a couple of weeks before his first Bay to Breakers race (http://www.ingbaytobreakers.com/) !!!!!! any costume ideas??? we were thinking he should go as a Tegasaurus!!!!!!

yay yay yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ochonwaffles . . . take 2

hello out there and thanks for coming to check in on us and our adventures in international adoption. i have deleted all previous posts and am starting this whole ochonwaffles shindig over. . . hoping for a different outcome than last time. this is a huge leap for me because i have been super reluctant to share information, especially on a public forum like this blog. but today i realized that it is definitely time to get this back up and running so that i can update folks on what is happening and where we are with everything. . . so here goes

we accepted a referral for a baby boy on martin luther king day (jan. 18) -- since this blog is public, we will refer to our little dude as Teg

we passed court in ethiopia on the same day my nephew was born!!! (mar. 5) -- passing court means that Teg is legally our son and this is a HUGE HURDLE and worth some serious celebrating and carrying on. so WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!

the next step in the process is for our agency to get the necessary paperwork together (new birth certificate, passport, adoption decree, etc.) and submit it all to the US embassy in Addis Ababa. because Teg is an Ethiopian citizen, the US embassy has to give him a visa to travel to the US. once we get Teg home, we will go through a re-adoption process which will make him a US citizen.

so right now, we are waiting to hear that all our paperwork has been submitted to the US embassy. . . then the US embassy will give us an interview date. when we get this interview date we will be able to book our plane tickets and travel to Ethiopia to finally get Teg!!!!!!!!!!

right now, we have a TENTATIVE embassy date for April 22. let me EMPHASIZE that this date is tentative and only a prediction from our agency. it is ultimately up to the embassy to assign us a date.

next week we will find out if we can travel for this date or if we need to wait some more. . . lots of waiting with international adoption.

so in the mean time, i'm going to try to post something often with fun pictures and that sort of thing. we also plan to use this blog as a way to keep in touch while we are in Ethiopia so folks can follow along as we navigate what will most likely be a hilarious trip, including a 17 hour plane ride with a baby we just met -- so PLEASE leave a comment below/or email us if you are interested in following. we will probably be making the blog private when we leave for Ethiopia and that way we can send you the password to the blog. . .

and many of you have asked about our registry -- we are registered on amazon (www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/ref=gno_listpop_br) under our fantastically difficult to spell last name: KIYVYRA

cheers!