My Cuddle Bug

There have been a lot of things that Clark and I have done to help Jessa with her bonding to us, but the best thing that we have done for her was to not sweat the sleep stuff. Clark and I decided before we even brought Jessa home that we would let her sleep where she slept best and not worry about trying to get her to sleep in her crib or sleep through the night.

Sure enough a few days after getting home she started hating her crib and only sleeping a few hours in it. So we moved her into our big bed. Now she sleeps in her crib for the first few hours and then moves to our bed with us. She even takes naps in our bed a lot of the time. She sleeps so much better there.

For the first few weeks after getting home, Tobin was having a hard time sleeping and so I slept in his bed with him. Clark would take care of Jessa through the night. Then after Tobin started doing better, I started taking care of Jessa. The most amazing thing happened - within two nights of cuddling she totally changed towards me. She started crawling over to me and wanting to cuddle. In the mornings we cuddle for sometimes a half an hour. It was so amazing to see her be the one to initiate the affection.

Babies are meant to sleep next to their mothers. History, biology, and child development tells us that. Just a few nights of sleeping next to me it was like the light went on and she realized that I was her mommy. I think that it helped that she probably slept next to her birth mom for the first 6 months of her life.

Now Clark and I fight over who gets to cuddle with her at night. The difference in her has been amazing and I am so thankful that Clark and I followed our hearts on this one and just did what was best for her. In a few years she will be sleeping in her own bed and I will miss the times that we snuggled all through the night.

Visit from the cousins

Two weeks ago we had Clark's parents, sister, and our two nieces out to visit for a few days. Clark's parents are teachers and it was their spring break. It was the first real visit with the cousins for Jessa. She did great with that many people in a small three bedroom apartment.

We tried to get some pictures of the cousins and the two siblings with Addie's good camera. Some turned out pretty good.


Jessa's whining face.

Grandpa Jeff and baby Lily sitting on the couch

Tobin and Maggie swinging.

Grandma Taltha and Jessa

Jessa let Aunt Addie hold her too

Lily and Jessa are only 9 months apart. This was the only time that Jessa noticed Lily at all.

The siblings. I think that this was one of the only pictures that both were smiling and looking up (well sort of).

Isn't that so cute! He likes to kiss her lately.

Tobin is trying to hug her and hold her, but it looks more like he is choking her

All of the cousins in the front yard. Four kids under four years old and we actually got a picture with all of them looking. Maggie (3), Tobin (2), Jessa (1), and Lily (5 months).

Tobin loves to play with ears.

I love this one.

New favorite thing to do at Grandma's house.

Back at our house, Grandpa Jeff was reading to Tobin and Maggie. We all had fun and Tobin was a little lonely after Maggie left (even though they fought the whole time over toys).

Life (Crying and Diapers)

Life has been fun, loud, crazy, and tiring for the four of us.

It has been a hard transition from one kid to two and with them being a year apart it makes it harder. There is a lot of crying around here. We have been home for almost 6 weeks and after a few weeks of hard transition things got better. Things were smooth sailing for two weeks or so.

Now things are rough again. Tobin is falling apart about everything and is always in my lap crying or in time out because he hit his sister. It feels like one of them is always crying or needs a diaper change.

Jessa has been in a bad mood and throws some big fits when she doesn't get her way. She also gets mad if Tobin sits on my lap or if I change his diaper. This is good because it means that she wants me and doesn't want me to spend time with anyone else (namely Tobin). She also wants to be held a lot and wants me to walk around and do interesting things.

On the good side, she is also starting to hug me and crawls over and lays her head on my knee. Oh, so cute.

Here are some happenings around here (besides all of the crying).

We try to play outside everyday and go on walks. The kids love the sandbox, but Jessa keeps trying to eat the sand.

It snowed for one day a few weeks ago. Tobin liked throwing snowballs at me with Daddy. Jessa looked odd because we had Clark's snow hat on her.

All ready to go out in the snow.

Uncle Ryan came to visit as well for a weekend. "Guy" is one of Tobin's best friends because he will play all day and do everything that Tobin says. What 2 year old doesn't like that. He would wake up yelling, "guy, guy, guy!" Poor Uncle Ryan was so tired after his weekend.

Baby girl loves her Daddy.

Tobin's favorite toy right now is the box that his new car seat came in. We have colored on the walls and cut some fun little windows.

Play dough is also something we do most everyday. Our days consist of doing different little things like go on walks, play dough, cars, trains, blocks, and so on.

Isn't she so cute! I managed to get her hair into an actual hair-do. She was asleep when I did it because otherwise she screams when I try to do her hair. This hair style seemed popular in Ethiopia because many of the little girls in the orphanage had the same little puffs.

Tobin loves to eat with "baby" and always asks me to put food on her tray for both of them to eat. Tobin's eating has doubled or even tripled since we came home from Ethiopia. Jessa suddenly decided to start eating and within a day refused all baby food and only wants table food. What a big girl.

Ethiopia (Part 5)

Alright here is the last set of pictures from Ethiopia. If you missed the other posts, please just scroll down.

Our hotel is the first one on the left there with the glass front. Clark and the baby sat outside a lot watching the cars and people go by on this road.
Clark's favorite part of Ethiopia. I don't drink coffee but I hear it was amazing.
The last day there Clark walked around and met some Ethiopians that ran a little shop. They were very friendly and let Clark take their pictures.


There were nice houses next to one room tin ones.

First bath with mommy and daddy.


One last look at the gates of Hannah's Hope. I thought that they were so beautiful.
Clark arranged with Almaz to be taken to the big church in Addis. It was St. Mary's day and half of the city showed up. A bunch of the parents went. One parent had to stay back at the hotel with their baby since we couldn't be seen out in public with them. AGCI is trying to keep a low profile in Ethiopia by not having us run around the city with our babies.

Thursday night our plane left at 10:30. I was pretty nervous about having a 1 year old that I had just met a few days before on a 17 hour flight. She did really well though and didn't cry at all. It was a miracle.

Sleeping was hard though and I didn't get more than a few hours. The seat between us for open though, so Fikrte got her own seat. We were sure glad to set down in Washington, DC.

Ethiopia (Part 4)

Our forth day in Ethiopia was our third day with Fikrte as her new parents. The sad baby slowly disappeared and by Wednesday morning and a smiling baby girl was put in her place. It was amazing. It was like because she mourned the loss of her former life she could slowly start to bond to us. She started crawling around and smiling for one of the first times.

We never took her back to the orphanage after that second time on Tuesday. I think that was why she continued to do better and better.

I spent the day in the hotel with Fikrte. Clark went to the meeting at Hannah's Hope with all of the other parents and babies. Fikrte's nannies were really sad that she didn't come back to say goodbye, but the director Almaz was okay with whatever was best for Fikrte.

I love this picture of her in her little "dog" bed that the hotel gave her. It was more comfortable than our bed, but she kept rolling out of it.

That evening we got traditional Ethiopian food, dance, and music. The dancing was amazing. All of the kids loved it and Fikrte just stared and stared.This is what Ethiopian food looks like and wow is it good. We have had some in Atlanta as well.
We were such a huge group with all of our Ethiopian babies!
We got to sit with one of our traveling families and their new 2 year old little boy. Wow, could that kid eat and he knew how to do it much better than any of us.

There was a lot of bottle feeding over that week. Tobin never would take a bottle so it was a bit new to us.
Our room was a total mess with our clothes and all of the things that we had bought.


Our whole group right before we left on Thursday evening for the airport.

I will do one more post with some more pictures of Ethiopia and the plane ride home. Clark and I loved Ethiopia so much and would love to live there. I am praying that someday we will get to.