You Are a Bad, Bad Blogger!

Yeah, I pretty much know that I'm slacking. I'd love to say that I'll do better, but who knows if that's true or not. I'll try to do better. I always said that I wouldn't be one of those people who got her kid home then disappeared from the cyber-world!

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Here are some highlights:

Visiting the deer and other animals at the Maine Wildlife Park

Building sand castles
Playing in the yard with enormous beach balls that Nana likes to buy
Learning how to roller skate

Pushing Avery on the swings

Taking Daddy and Papa to a Red Sox game and to Addis Red Sea for Father's Day

Things continue to go well here in the Engelhardt household. We're as busy as ever, and spending as much time outdoors as we can. (I say 'as we can' because Maine has had considerably more rainy days than sunny days this summer.)

Great Weekend

Earlier this year, we met some AWESOME people. Dan ran into the woman one day in the local grocery store. She asked if Petros was from Ethiopia, and explained that she and her husband were in the adoption process. Several months later, a friend of the family asked if we could connect via Facebook with a friend who was adopting from Ethiopia. Turned out to be the same people. This couple is super adorable, and happen to live in our same small town. What are the odds, right?! If you don't know them already, go meet Lisa and Nate, and follow along their journey as they wait for their sibling pair from Ethiopia!

Last week, Lisa invited our family to have lunch with her new friend Zewdu, who moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia, several years ago. Zewdu welcomed us in to her home, where she and her family had prepared a traditional Ethiopian meal (complete with Coffee Ceremony and all!!) for us. This was definitely the best Ethiopian food we've ever had. The Coffee Ceremony was amazing. Three cups of amazingly good coffee were served after her daughter roasted the beans on top of a faux grass rug for the occasion. I loved listening to the ladies banter in Amharic and Tigrinya over how to best carry out the ceremony. We all ate quite a bit. (One certain little boy ate so much that his belly hurt, and he fell asleep in the living room!)

All in all, it was the most wonderful Saturday I could imagine. We are so thankful to Lisa and Nate for inviting us to share the experience.

On Sunday, we headed to the Old Port Festival for some live music, shopping and all kinds of activities for the kids. Petros' favorite thing was this big bungee trampoline thing. He was going super high, and before we knew it, the entire crowd was cheering for him. They were encouraging him to jump higher and to do flips. As you can see, he was happy to oblige!

After a little encouragement, he had his picture taken with Curious George.
We ended the evening with a cookout at Dan's Aunt and Uncle's house. As you can see, Petros loved hanging out with their Great Dane.

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One Year Ago Today

We got the best phone call in the whole wide world. I wrote about it here. Later, when I could actually think somewhat clearly, I wrote more about it here. After the call, I opened my e-mail to see these pictures:

The most handsome boy in the whole world-my son.

Happy Birthday, Petros!!!

It's hard to believe that our little boy turns 4 today! We did most of our celebrating yesterday with our extended family. Petros was excited for everyone to come over and celebrate. We had a special day today with just the 3 of us.

We were recently looking at video of Petros from when he had only been home for a few weeks. It's so hard to belive that the little boy in the baby swing, telling Papa in his barely audible voice with that cute little accent, "want more" and exclaimed, "swimming!" when Nana asked him what he was doing in the swing is the same little man who now rules our household!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETROS!!!

Why I Love Almost-4-Year-Olds

Maybe I can sneak just one bite of ice cream.....

And another.....

She'll never know.....

BUSTED!!!

We're Having a Visit Tonight!

From the Tooth Fairy!!

Do you have $20?

Go here. Now. Obviously this is a cause pretty close to our hearts. Really. This is less than a dinner out. Less than a pair of jeans. Less than a couple of drinks. Please consider donating and becoming part of Team Ethiopia. Since most of my Ethio adoptive families have already done this, I'm reaching out to my non-adoptive family and friends. Make sure to follow her links exactly to properly allocate the funds. Thanks!