Away from home...and missing it

First of all, our short camping trip over the weekend went very well. It's amazing how well Mikias takes to the outdoors. Once we got him to sleep, we simply put him in his stroller and he slept the entire time we were sitting around the campfire. He even did a great job sleeping in the pack-and-play in the tent too. Of course he did wake up a few times during the night but that has become normal for us. One thing I do know is that we need a little bit larger tent...there wasn't a lot of room to spare. We went camping with some of my friends from high school in honor of Rich's 30th birthday (sorry that I had to mention that, Rich). They all have kids now too and it was cool to see them all interact with each other. We actually got a really good picture of the kids that I'll have to post later on. The reason I can't do it now is....

I'm on a trip for work right now and not at home with my family. I'm in Phoenix and will be driving around the Southwest US for the next 1-1/2 weeks testing vehicles in hot weather...yipee. This really kind of stinks. Actually, the work is very interesting and I do enjoy it, but right now I'd much rather be home. It was crazy how much harder it was for me to leave for the airport Monday morning when I knew that I was leaving Mikias. In the back of my mind I'm thinking that maybe he won't recognize me when I return or that I'll miss some real big milestone while I'm gone. I already know he'll have more teeth when I get back. I also feel bad about having Joanna completely take on Mikias 24/7. It definitely makes it a little easier when there are two of us around. I guess the good thing is that this is the only work trip I'll likely have this year. I had four trips last year.

On track

The last few days we've been able to turn the corner (hopefully) with Mikais' sleeping schedule. The past three nights he's been able to go through the night without us having to feed him. This is definitely some good progress. Of course, we're still getting up to sooth him a few times a night but it hasn't been too bad.

On Saturday we took Mikias to get blood drawn for some tests that were recommended by our pediatrician and the adoption agency. We thought we'd be in and out pretty quickly but it turned out to be a bit more of an ordeal than we were expecting. The nurse that was drawing his blood had a difficult time locating a good vein to use. She tried digging at his left arm with the needle for a couple minutes before giving up and moving on to the other arm. This was very hard to watch since Mikias was screaming at the top of his lungs the entire time. Luckily there was a bit more sucess with the other arm. Hopefully we won't have to do that again any time soon. It was 10 times worse than watching him get his shots.

We also had a lot of Joanna's family over on Saturday to celebrate her mom's birthday. It was fun having everyone over. We're still in the honeymoon phase where people don't mind driving all the way out to our house to see us. This will probably wear out fairly soon and we'll have to take the Mikias show on the road.

Today we set up our tent in the backyard in preparation for next weekend's camping trip. We wanted to see if we could fit the pack-and-play and our sleeping bags. It looks like it will work! I can't wait to see how the boy likes camping.

A lot of firsts

I realize that it has been way too long since Joanna and I have posted anything on here. I often look at all of our postings from a month ago and think that there is no way that any given day now will ever compare to all of our experiences in Ethiopia. I guess maybe that's why I've been absent from this blog for a few weeks. But, the reality is that our life has definitely been interesting lately. There are so many new things that have become part of our everyday lives. Late-night feedings, changing diapers, play time, naps, and walks around the neighborhood are the norm now. I guess that means we're parents!
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It has been so great introducing Mikias to so many of our family members and friends. We've had a lot of visitors in the past few weeks and Mikias is really great with handling all these new faces. It's been especially neat to see other children interact with him. We are so grateful for all the people that have stopped by our house or called to check up on us. Actually, during the first couple weeks we were home these little visits or conversations were the best. They gave Joanna and I a little bit of time to chat with people and discuss our trip...and (to be honest) gave us a chance to take a breath while someone else held Mikias for a few minutes.

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It's funny how even the most mundane everyday tasks seemed to have a little more excitement to them. For instance the "first time we took Mikias to church" or "the first time we took Mikias grocery shopping" or "the first time we took Mikias through the car wash". Also, we've taken him to a wedding and we've got our first camping trip planned in a couple weeks. It's kind of like we're introducing Mikias to our lives. He's always so good and takes all the new experiences in stride.

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Overall, everything is going great. Our routine is much more manageable. We're getting slightly more sleep. Mikias is healthy and happy...and growing quickly. We're all having a lot of fun.

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