13 Months Home (pics)... we're still up to things.

I guess it's time I just start updating you on things we've been up to without making you wait another month for more pictures, huh?  Do I still do monthly updates, now that it has been a year?  Well, at least it has helped keep me on a deadline to make sure blog world can follow our journey!

So, for your next very long post, here is the 13 months home update.  

I'll start with Gambo's FIRST Easter Egg hunt, and first Easter in America.

What a cutie he was!  We gave him a bucket to collect the eggs in, and he didn't know what to do with it.  He started collecting leaves in it!

After showing him that his job was to find the eggs, he did much better.

There were other kids there also egg hunting.  This picture says, "I better get this egg in my bucket before anyone sees!"

His next FIRST was to go watch the train!  Every morning we hear the train enter or leave the station, and this morning, I finally decided we should go watch it.

So we drove over to the station to watch one of the commuter trains take off, and wave good-bye to the passengers.

(Another FIRST below)

But, now, I must mention a big milestone for Gambo... we celebrated his 2nd birthday!!  

My little bitty Gambo, is now 2 years old!  We actually celebrated a little early this year, since we wanted to have him open presents and enjoy them before the movers packed them up.

I had just made a "You are Special" Plate at the paint a pottery store, and I got to use it for Gambo's special birthday cupcake.

Boy, did he like that cupcake!

One of his favorite birthday gifts this year was his very own toy vacuum cleaner!  He LOVES to vacuum.  He begs for me to vacuum everyday, and now he has his own.

He also got a toy lawnmower.  He doesn't only love watching his mama vacuum, he loves watching his dada mow the lawn!

One other big change, though I didn't get any pictures of it, was that we gave him his first Real haircut.  We wanted to wait until he was 2 to actually cut all of it down.  It was growing very uneven still, and we were looking forward to lower maintenance for our upcoming move.

Here's Gambo with shorter hair, still being just as silly:

We also love our everyday moments with him too, like when he brushes his teeth before bed.  

Oh, and he always wears a sleep cap at night, to help protect his hair.

Finally the time had come, and we watched all our belongings get packed up in big crates to be shipped (by ship!) overseas.

 Boxes and Boxes!

And it slowly emptied.

We then sat in our empty home, and pretending to pray for the picture prayed for our upcoming journey.  But we really were thankful for this house, even though we only lived in it for a year and a half!

Before saying good-bye to our house, we went out and harvested the only two peaches on our peach tree that survived the harsh winds this spring.

 Then we said Bye-Bye House,

And we headed off on Vacation!

Off to Colorado we went!

And Gambo got to play in the snow, and throw his FIRST snowball.

 

Then it was off to visit Granny and Grandpa

Gambo is taking a walk with Grandpa and his dada.

We are so thankful for our little man, and can't wait to start our new adventure with him!

Our Growing Boy

Proof of Gambo growing...

These are before and after pictures we took 6.5 months apart.  I love this little jumper, so I'm trying to get as much use out of it that I can.

He was swimming in it when we put it on him in Uganda

Now it barely fits him

I'm so happy he is gaining weight and getting taller!

Four Months Home! Pictures and Video

       Hello!  It seems like time has flown by.  (I am a few days late on posting this, but that's OK).  I feel like I have been with my son forever.  It's crazy to think it was only four months ago that we arrived home from Uganda!

Thankfully July has been a pretty down month for us.  We stayed at home and didn't stress about going out too much.  It has been really hot here (so excuse photos of my baby dressed only in a diaper.  I would normally dress him, but we are all sweating over here).  

So, if I could pick three themes for this last month it would be:

Walking, Plums, and Music!

       Gambo really started taking off on his walking.  He is so confident in walking now that he does it most of the time.  He is even starting to run a bit.

Here he's happy to be walking:

       So if June was the Grape Harvest (by the way we picked 37 POUNDS of grapes from our backyard)... then July is the Plum Harvest!

Our plum tree out back has been loaded down with plums that we were just waiting to ripen.  It's a good thing we started picking, because the tree was starting to sag

and was growing over our wall into the neighbor's yard.

First picking yielded 15 POUNDS of plums!

We probably have about 85 more pounds left on the tree.  Yikes!

Gambo's helping to wash the plums

I was never a plum fan before, but it turns out that these are pretty sweet!  And it makes a huge difference in the taste that they are homegrown.  

Gambo's version of "helping":

If you have any good plum recipes, send them my way!

      Lastly, Gambo really increased his music time and his proficiency.  He LOVES to play the guitar (and asks for it every day).  He LOVES to play the piano.

And he LOVES to drum.

We love watching him dance (and clap) along to music too.

Time for FIRSTS...

-This month Gambo got his first haircut, done by Mark!  He had a section of his hair that was not coming in well (or could have had a lot of breakage do to rubbing his head on the highchair or something), so he ended up with like a weird stripe around the back.  You can kind of see it in the plum washing picture:

So Mark decided to trim the bottom section that had grown, to match the middle, but he left the hair on top untouched.

-I worked on doing his first style with the little hair on top.  Not much of anything but a little twists up top.  (it doesn't hold very well though)

-He got 3 more teeth in the last month!  So, I guess this would be the first time to have four teeth? (had to fit it in with the theme!)

We are so thankful for how much he has grown.  He fits right in with our family, laughs with us, is silly like us, and loves us so much.  He has started sleeping through the night, so we are finally catching up on some sleep.  He's a great eater and has enjoyed pretty much everything we give him.  

We are approaching having had Gambo with us for 6 months (this is counting the time we spent with him in Uganda).   It's so exciting!  I'll post more when the big date is here.

We are looking forward to what is in store for us next month!

First Milestone... Three Months Home!

I would have liked to post more often, but I am thankful I have been able to at least put up an update every month. (Warning: lots of pictures in this post!)

So, we have now marked THREE MONTHS HOME! 

This is the first milestone to reach as we see how he changes after 3, 6, and 12+ months home.

So much has happened in the last month, and growth has been abundant!  Mark and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in June!  We are so thankful that after 9 wonderful years of marriage as a family a two, we have now celebrated it as a family of THREE!  We went cherry picking at a local orchard.

We found out that Gambo REALLY loves cherries!

He wanted to pick EVERY one.

Mark celebrated his first Father's Day too.

These two love each other so much!

We took our first out of state trip to Colorado to visit lots of family and friends.  He met his granny and grandpa.

He also met lots of aunts, uncles and cousins.

I attended a baby shower for my sister-in-law because she and my brother are having TWINS!

Back at home, we tried to endure the 108 degree weather by swimming with friends.

"I Heard It Through The Grape Vine"...  A nice blessing is that we bought a house with two grape vines out back.  (Just wanted to get that song stuck in your head!)

So after watching the vines grow and the bunches of grapes ripen,

We picked our first grape harvest of the year.

Holding back how much we cut, we still managed to get over nine pounds of grapes.

I just made a batch of homemade grape freezer jelly today.

And we still have at least that much still on the vines.

(We found out that Gambo really likes grapes too!)

Time For FIRSTS.....


This month Gambo got his FIRST tooth, debuting on top. (Yeah, our son is cool like that!)

(Okay, so it was two days before month 3, but close enough.)  He has since grown one on the bottom, and has the 2nd top one coming any day now.

He took his FIRST steps!  And now today was cruising for long stretches in the house (so much more control now!)

He also celebrated his FIRST Independence Day!

It is pretty sweet to see our little Ugandan in the United States now.

Fourth of July included barbecuing, swimming,

and swinging on the hammock.

We also kept him out WAY past his bedtime, so that he could see his FIRST fireworks.

Sleepy baby!

1st Fourth of July!

Cuteness...

In addition to the grapes, we are getting closer to harvesting a HUGE tree of plums!  A few were ripe, and we found out that Gambo LOVES plums too!

He couldn't keep his mouth off of them.

He loved to try out his (two) new teeth on them.

Gambo thought it would be a great idea to play with ALL of his toys tonight.

Then he started pulling even the bins down.

Ooops... he got caught!

(Sorry for the naked baby, he had just been outside playing with the hose and got all wet.)

And I have to post this pic of my cute little Ugandan drummer boy.

He loves to drum!

Oh, and he has also started a recent OBSESSION with the guitar.  He loves to hear us play and try to play himself.  He points at it every morning when we walk by it.  We have literally spent 2 hours with him just playing guitar, piano, and drums.  And that was just the morning jam session.  He wants to play again in the afternoon.  Ha!  I think we have a musician in our family!  (As a side note, I am getting a lot more practice at playing, since he wants to hear it everyday)


Home Study....

We just had our 3-month Post-Placement home study visit.  Our Home Study agency will write a report on how we are doing, and how Gambo is developing.  It was good to have the social worker over to show off our son, plus to be reminded of how far he has come.

We love the progress he has made, but we are still very careful to keep building that trust and bonding with him.  It has really been paying off, because now we receive some of the most sweet hugs ever!  I mean, he squeezes tightly... it's so adorable!  He is settling into a schedule, and it has helped him relax more.

He also has increased his understanding amazingly!  He knows so many more words we say, and he is even communicating very well using baby sign language.  We've tried to teach him a few words here and there, and I can tell it has made our day, especially meal times, much easier and calmer.

Blessed...

If any of you are waiting for your little one to come home... please let me say what I always valued from others...  THE WAIT IS SO WORTH IT!  Our son is one of the most amazing gifts we can ever receive.  He melts our hearts and makes us smile every day!  He is such a wonderful fit for our family, and we can't imagine life without him!