Catch up

Today is the 2 year anniversary of Elias' (or at that time, "Ashenafi Carrie Cook's") legal adoption in Ethiopia!  I think "two years already?" but in another sense it seems an entire lifetime ago.  I'm planning the April Ashenafi Adoption Anniversary BBQ tomorrow to commemmorate it.

It seems like Elias has grown up so much since my last blog.  I often identify things I want to post, but when it comes down to actually doing it, I'm just to busy or tired.  People often told me that having a child will make me feel young, but I've yet to experience that--just the opposite!  Come to think of it, those people tend to be childless, or have older kids which they had when they were very young themselves.  Anyway, he's grown a lot taller, to 38," although hasn't gained weight since perhaps November, so lost all remnants of babyfat.  Suddenly he's in all 2 or 3T clothes, and keeps growing out of his shoes.  It made a big difference in his appearance when I gave up on his beautiful curls and gave him his blisfully easy buzzcut.  These mealtime pictures were taken just 2 months apart:

Easter was fairly uneventful.  It was nice that the daffodils and other early signs of spring coincided so well this year.  Elias was not very enthusiastic about easter eggs.  We dyed about 2 dozen the night before.  At first it was hard to keep his attention, but he warmed up to it towards the end by firmly directing which dye an egg went into, and for how long.  Easter morning he pointedly refused to find or even investigate all the plastic eggs filled with candy which I "hid" around the house, despite my urging ("No egg, no egg, Mommy"), although later in the day he did drum up some enthusiasm for finding real eggs outside.  A highlight for him was after he'd found them all and I let him sit and smash a few.  

The most lasting impression was Elias' new-found love of chocolate.  The next morning he woke up, stumbled out of bed barely awake to meet me in the hallway, and rather than his normal "Good morning, Momma!" or "I awake now" he looked up at me with a hopeful "chocolate??"  Every day since then he regularly asks for chocolate--and gets some, too. Seems we haven't even dented the original stash.

Pottytraining has been slow, mainly because I haven't been pushing it.  I just discovered he much prefers using the "real" toilet rather than his expensive potty & baby urinal, so I predict more rapid progress now.  Yesterday was his first day of staying dry all day at daycare--yeah!