Tsegay and Almaz

The CHI in-country representative for Ethiopia was able to come visit Arizona with his wife.  They did a wonderful job caring for our little guys in Ethiopia, staying with Ezra at the hospital, worrying about them, making sure they received the best care possible.  We absolute adore Tsegay and his wife Almaz and were so glad they were able to see the boys again.  We went to a gathering last night of other CHI families and had a great time meeting new families and seeing old friends.  We only took two pictures!

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Noah just stared at Almaz.  I have no idea what Ezra is distracted by in the pictures, but he did give them plenty of smiles.

10 months!

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I cannot believe Noah and Ezra are 10 months old. We have known their faces for 7 months and held them in our arms for 3 months. It is amazing how much they have grown since we first laid eyes on them and even more amazing how their personalities are really starting to shine.

Ezra is very independent, giggly, and pretty easy going. If he gets upset, or bonks his head, he only needs a little consoling, and he’s back to wanting to play. Standing up in the tub is a new issue. I guess he figures what better place to try and crawl and walk than in a few inches of water.

Noah is super snuggly, loving, and talkative. Lots of DADADADAs all day long. He needs a lot of attention, and will get fussy if he feels you are not watching his every move. This has started to improve over the last few weeks, but it’s still tough to multitask with him, but that’s okay because his snuggling is so sweet.

Ezra is getting around fairly well now. He goes all over the living room, luckily he can’t get anywhere else on his own yet, as soon as he hits the tile he starts spinning his wheels. We have caught Noah crawling in his crib, but outside of that he could care less about moving, he would much rather be in mommy’s lap.

Noah finally started to laugh out loud this month, usually just Ezra can get him to do it, apparently we aren’t as funny as his brother.

They can both stand for short periods of time hanging on to something and longer if it is one of us holding them up. Ezra is trying to pull-up on stuff but has not managed to do it yet.

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They both now give hugs and Noah gives kisses by licking your cheek, he learned that from Taffi.

They both still love to eat and are gaining weight nicely. Ezra really likes cereal and puffs, Noah is more of a fruit eater. Noah seriously loves apple juice, Ezra could care less for any liquid besides formula, I think he will be my milk drinker.

They also love to play with their cousin Abby.

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A couple more months and the three of them are really going to be tearing up the place!

Labor Day Weekend

I must say it was so nice having a three day weekend.  Having an extra day of daddy help was just what I needed!  We had time for some fun activities plus plenty of relaxing and even a few chores.

We ran our first 5k as a family.

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Daddy and the boys at the start

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Sprinting at the finish

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I finished my first 5k!

Then off to the Grandparents’ house for breakfast.

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Our first wagon ride!

On Sunday we went back to Grandma and Grandpa’s for lunch and playing with Abby.

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Swimming

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Bubbles

After lunch was nap-time and chore time.

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Carter helping Matt put together shelves for the playroom

Monday was full of playing, chores, and reading.

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Wrestling!

9 months!

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Wow I cannot believe another month has passed by already.  Time is flying by.

They are changing so much and their personalities are coming out more every day.  Ezra laughs at everything, he is super giggly and ticklish.  Noah makes tons of different faces which always get a laugh out of mommy and daddy.  They have a favorite saying, “dadadadada.”  Yep all day long every day “dadadada,” hopefully momma comes soon!

Ezra is seriously considering crawling but isn’t quite there yet.  He rolls around quite a bit.  Noah just sits there and watches him.  We know Noah can move and rollover, because that is all he does in his sleep, but for the waking hours he is very sedentary.  They both now love the jumper and love to watch each other jump!

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One of their favorite activities is playing banging the piano.  Seriously they love it!  It almost always helps when they are cranky.

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They also love playing in the water, doesn’t matter if it is the pool or in the bathtub it is so much fun.

They eat a ton!  If you can’t tell by the above pictures, they are filling out nicely.  😉  Currently they are working on finger foods.  They have each gotten a couple pieces to their months, but most of them end up in the dogs’ tummies!

9 month check-up

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The boys turn 9 months later this week, so we went to the doctor for their check-up today.  She was very impressed with how much they have grown and changed in the past 7 weeks.  She thought they were attaching nicely and were very healthy.  She was very happy to see how much Ezra has caught up with Noah in the weight department.  They didn’t have any shots today.  The doctor wanted to give them the one for pneumonia but they were all out.  Lucky boys.  🙂

Current stats – Noah weighs 18 pounds 2 ounces, somewhere around 25 inches long (I didn’t write down either of their heights, sorry) he was in the 25th percentile in weight and 5th in height and head circumference.  Ezra weights 17 pounds 6 ounces, somewhere around 23 inches long, he was in the 10th percentile for weight and 5th for height and head circumference.

It's over!

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Hey guess what?  I have INSURANCE!!!

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Yep that’s right, we were finally approved for insurance.  In fact, we received a letter of apology saying that both boys should have been covered with no medical underwriting!  What does that mean?  It means we get to submit all our receipts from the time period we weren’t covered!  We are so happy that we have insurance and are very hopeful that we will get our money back.  Of course, I will only truly believe it when I see the check.  🙂

I can take pictures again!

When we went to Ethiopia we some how “lost” both camera chargers and a sd card. Matt replaced his camera charger right away, but forgot to order mine (I am a little scared of all the buttons on Matt’s camera, I am a point and shoot kind of girl). The battery finally died and he ordered one with priority shipping from Ebay, expecting it to be here in a couple of days, not realizing it was coming all the way from Israel! Well my charger finally arrived yesterday morning and I was able to take pictures again. Here are some pics from our afternoon:
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Someone got up early from his nap so I made him help with folding and stuffing his diapers
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Ezra taking his second super long nap of the day!
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Sharing our favorite toy
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Big smile for Dad!
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Trying teething biscuits
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Noah thought it was quite yummy!
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Ezra preferred the highchair.