Koumpounophobia

Noah loves hats, gloves, masks, antlers, bunny ears, socks that he wears on his hands as gloves... you get the idea. One thing Noah does not like, buttons. And it turns out, it's a real phobia! At first he wouldn't wear shirts with buttons on them. We thought it was a phase but it's been several months now and it's only gotten worse. Not only will he not wear shirts with buttons but if someone else is wearing buttons he won't go near them. I brought out my button box and apparently he is fine with loose buttons, it's only buttons on clothes that bother him. Now buttons has come to signify anything he doesn't like. He recently asked me to turn off a song on the car radio because he didn't like it and it "had buttons in it."


You know, of all the odd crazy things that I could and probably will experience raising children, I can live with a phobia of buttons. It just makes Noah that much more unique.

Hepatitis, Malaria and Typhoid, Oh My!

If you can't read the invitation it's because it's in Vietnamese... for a wedding in Vietnam... which Pete is going to. He's going with his mom who is related to the bride and is close friends with the family of the groom. His mom hasn't been back to Vietnam since she moved here over 35 years ago so it's going to be quite an experience for both them. They will be gone for three weeks (no, that is not typo) to attend the wedding and to travel throughout the country visiting family. Pete doesn't speak Vietnamese but he has traveled a lot and he can sleep anywhere and is willing to eat anything. He leaves right after Easter so for now he is busy getting ready which includes visiting the travel doctor and getting shots and taking pills. They also bought a water purifier so hopefully they can avoid any illnesses while they are there and just enjoy this once in a lifetime trip.

Apparently the wedding is at 4 a.m. (still not a typo). Apparently that is the hour at which one gets married in Vietnam. We finally bought a new camera and we also bought a camcorder so that Pete can capture all of the amazing sites.

To Change or Not to Change

That has been the question. For a few months now we have been unhappy with some of the changes at Noah's preschool. Not we need to pull him out to immediately unhappy, but more that it just wasn't the right fit for our family anymore. However, I was still hesitant to move him because of so much uncertainty in the coming months. My job isn't exactly stable at the moment and we are hoping to receive a referral sooner rather than later which means two trips to Ethiopia. On top of that was not wanting to have to deal with weeks of dropping him off crying as he adjusted to the change. Finally, we decided to go ahead and move him. We don't know what the future holds so we have to go off of the information we have today. Well, I'm happy to report that we made the right decision! We went for a short visit before his first day and he hasn't cried once at drop off. In fact he's run in each day with a smile on his face. His new preschool just recently opened so he's one of the first students in the program. On his first day they did a planting project that related to a story they had read. The second day he came home with this freezer strawberry jam he had made. Most important is that he is happy and we feel so much better about where he is spending his time away from us.


We are also thankful that Nick loves his Extended Day Program that he attends in the afternoons after kindergarten. Below is a picture he painted there. He said they had a video with someone demonstrating how to paint this picture and the teacher would play a little and then pause while the kids did each section. Do they have that for adults because I want to try!?

Rollercoaster Ride

We knew that international adoption would be filled with lots of uncertainties. Our first challenge happened almost immediately when we decided on adopting from Vietnam only to find out that the program likely would, and eventually did, close to US adoptions.


Well today we just had another major twist. We just got an email from our agency that the Ethiopian government now requires that parents travel to Addis Ababa (the capitol of Ethiopia) for the court hearing that approves the adoption. That means that instead of travelling to Ethiopia once we will be travelling twice.

Still waiting for more information but until then, the rollercoaster ride continues!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

My hair before. This picture was taken on a ladies night out in San Francisco by my friend Kate when our friend Megan was down visiting from Portland.

My hair after. On Monday I cut off over nine inches of my hair to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. My hair will be combined with other donations to create wigs for patients who have lost their hair. I have been growing it for over two years so it feels very weird to have such short hair but the great thing about hair is it will all grow back.

(Kate, hope you don't mind that I borrowed the before picture from your blog :)

A New Cousin!

Pete's brother John and our sister-in-law Tammy had their second baby girl yesterday and today Pete and I were able to go meet our new niece, Sofia. We were lucky to have the chance to hold her and to be there when big sister Sami (3) met little sister Sofia for the first time.

Sami and Noah were actually born on the same day about an hour and a half apart. I can't help but wonder how far apart in age cousin Sofia and our daughter will be? For today though we are just thankful that Sofia has arrived safely and that everyone is doing well. Any day where you get to hold a baby is a good day in my book!

Easter Lights

I took this picture while Noah and I were waiting for Pete to get back from his bike ride with our friend Jeremy. And yes, those are Christmas lights still up as of today, March 1. I commented to Pete that maybe we should just call them Easter lights to which he responded that they really aren't that hard to take down. Hint received.