Happy Halloween

We love October 31st. That means November 1 is the next day.

Zeke Speak

So, my former Mizzou professor who still works with me on political coverage called the house yesterday. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to discuss election night. Zeke was with me when I answered the phone. I had the cordless with me but switched to the other phone when the batteries died. Zeke picked up the cordless and started talking into the phone...and I thought I heard him say HELLO! When Brad got home, I gave Zeke the phone and Brad agreed that it sounded like he was saying hello!!!! I tried again this morning...sure enough, a two syllable "word" that sounds a lot like hello. This is so exciting!! He came to us saying ma-ma and da-da and he has directed those words at us in the proper context so we think he understands. But this is the first time he's said a new word since we've had him. Praise the Lord for Zeke's mad language skillz!!

Walking Man!

Zeke must have wanted to show off for the PAT educator who came to our house this morning. He was walking all over the place! Once again, she was very impressed with his skills. I had him do his "fishing" trick for her (thanks TT and Big Daddy!) and she nearly fell over!! In fact, she said she was going to buy the set that includes this little fishing rod and use it as a "game" for other babies!!

Since he's doing so well with his motor skills, I'm working really hard on his language. She said not to worry that he isn't repeating all these words yet. She said the fact that he says Ma-Ma and Da-Da is right on target for his age and he's saying those very well and directs them at us. She also reminded me that he's only heard English for 6 weeks!! That's not very long!!

On a completely unrelated note...I am looking for some book recommendations. I am muddling through The History of Love. It's not bad but it's not great either. I think I've convinced Brad to read the Time Traveler's Wife. It's a great but somewhat challenging book (I was slow to "get" the mechanics of reading about a time traveler). I'm in line to get American Wife from the library. I only want to read that because I heard an interesting interview with the author. What are you reading right now? Here are my picks if you're looking for something good:
*The Alchemist (I think this book is life-changing!)
*The Secret Life of Bees (yes! read the book before you see the movie!)
*The Red Tent (a fictional re-telling of Dinah's story from the Old Testament by a Jewish author)
*Ahab's Wife (beautiful prose)
*Duma Key (the best Stephen King I've read in a long time...set in the Florida Keys, it has a Priates of the Carribean flavor! I'll be re-reading this in the spring.)
*The Memory Keeper's Daughter (a story about a father's wrong decision that became a blessing for another woman)

Zeke is an official Belote!

Zeke's name has now been legally changed and he's officially a Belote!! YAY!!!! It was so exciting to go into the family court room yesterday, answer several questions from the judge and then have him congratulate us on our adoption. Besides the name change, we also had the judge recognize our foreign adoption, clearing the way for us to get Zeke a birth certificate from the state. We had a photo taken with the judge afterwards. He was so nice and helpful and seemed genuinely happy for us. I'm sure he enjoys presiding over cases like ours when most of his work consists of dealing with juvenile offenders. We told Zeke this was the last time we wanted to take him to "juvy hall." Hahaha! There were two other little boys who went ahead of us who were being adopted. One was two years old and the other boy was probably 3 or 4. They were both so cute!

Yesterday was a big day. Zeke had his 12 month check-up at the doctor and his first round of vaccines. He did very well and was definitely a big boy, quickly recovering after the shots. He was a little fussy thru the afternoon...probably due to the shots and being confined so much yesterday by the necessary events of the day. Per the doc's orders, we gave him infant tylenol and it seemed to help tremendously.

We have our second visit this morning with the Parents As Teachers educator. She's a very nice lady who is impressed with Zeke's development. Zeke surprised me today by taking off walking across the house. He sometimes does this--initiates a long walk but most of the time, Daddy and Mommy have to encourage him to walk. He prefers to crawl only because it's so much quicker. But I think he's getting more and more comfortable with walking.

That's it for now! We do have photos to post...sorry to be so slow about it. I'll try to post the photos from our court date later today.

And about voting for Zeke...

You actually have to pay to cast a vote (boo!) so that's why I have been slow in posting this...but Zeke is in the running for most beautiful baby in the Ozarks. Of course, he holds the number one spot for us but if you would like to learn more about his candidacy, click here.

Tomorrow is a Big Day!

Tomorrow is our court appearance where the judge will recognize Zeke's adoption and will make his new name legal. It will be very exciting and I hope Zeke does well in front of the judge. We'll let you know and we'll have photos to post!!

Happy Birthday (and one day) to Brad!

Brad's birthday was yesterday. We celebrated over the weekend and Zeke and I had lunch with him yesterday. Brad's dad (aka Big Daddy) also had a birthday recently and we wish him many more!


Here are some photos from our recent outing to Spooktacular. Kids are encouraged to dress up. Zeke went as FDR.

Proofs

Here's a taste of some of the professional pictures we had done on Zeke's 1st birthday:

Vote ZEKE!!

If you're tired of all the junk on TV about the political candidates, we've got an election opportunity for you! Starting tomorrow, you can vote online for ZEKE as the cutest baby in the Ozarks! We think he's just the hands down winner but it is based on actual votes, not on mommy's and daddy's opinion!! We'll be posting a link tomorrow to the site so you can vote. More details to follow!

Photos from TT and Big Daddy's Visit

(And don't forget to scroll down for some Zeke Birthday photos!!)


Showing off his mad monkey skillz for Big Daddy

Zeke loves TT!


At the airport with TT and Big Daddy

Birthday Photos!!

Happy Birthday, Zeke!!

Yesterday was Zeke's actual birthday...today, we're having his little party. I was hanging balloons up today and he was enthralled. He LOVES balloons. It's been a wonderful, busy few days with TT and Big Daddy in town. Zeke clearly loves them and is having a lot of fun with them. I can't wait for my parents (Missy's parents) to meet Zeke. More to come on the birthday weekend!!

Zeke and Mom Monkey Around

We're Here!

Sorry for the absence of posts lately. It's been busy. Zeke has another little cold and we went to the doc yesterday to get some meds. We're also still cleaning up the house, a process that never seems to end! Zeke will meet his first set of grandparents tomorrow and he's very excited! We've been talking to him about TT and Big Daddy coming for a visit. I'm hoping the other set of grandparents, Lolo and Grandpa Ron will be coming out for Thanksgiving. OH! Zeke is going to be photographed today for an article in the local newspaper about kids' Halloween costumes. He'll be dressed as a bee. Yay!!

Recent Happenings

Zeke hates pants. He's very wiley when we try to put his pants on. So, Brad decided to tease Zeke by pulling his pants WAY up once he finally got them on. Zeke thought this was funny and silly.

Zeke doesn't like to wear a bib. He is a MESSY eater so it's really not optional. He's getting used to it...slowly.

Scroll down if you missed the orphanage photos of Zeke. You can see the progression of photos we got during our wait.

Zeke Orphanage Photos

For those who never got to see the photos that helped us fall in love with our boy...
They're in order: January, February, March, June, September. The top photo (the Keebler Elf attire) was the FIRST photo we ever saw of him...he was 3 and a half months old.

Before and After

Many of you never got to see any of Zeke's orphanage photos that we got via email from our agency. We were asked not to post these until after the adoption. I'll post some more in the coming days but this is one we received the day we left for Vietnam. It broke my heart because his expression is so pitiful. For comparison, I've also included a photo I took today. What a difference a month makes, huh?

Zeke and his tongue

Zeke does virtually everything with his tongue sticking out. It's so cute.




Random Little Buddy photo...because he's still awfully cute. We can't ever capture the elusive Pierre Clovis on film...

Goin' Courtin'

We found out that Zeke's court date is set: October 29th. This is the day when a local judge will formally recognize his foreign adoption, approve his name change, and clear the way for us to get a Missouri-issued birth certificate. We're very happy about this! Some have asked if Zeke is a US citizen. The answer is yes. A federal law passed several years ago allows internationally-adopted children who enter the US on a certain type of visa to be recognized as US citizens immediately. Pretty cool. We're excited to get his name changed. It was pretty funny last week to see the pediatric nurse come into the waiting room with a puzzled look on her face. I knew she had Zeke's chart. But it had his Vietnamese name on there: Dung (pronounced like "Zoom" but she didn't know that). I figured she didn't want to come into the waiting room and yell, "DUNG!" Anyway, she went back into the office and came out and approached us directly and before she could say anything, I said, "Are you looking for baby Hoang?" She smiled, visibly relieved and said yes. I told her how to pronounce his Vietnamese name and she said, "Yeah, I never would've guessed that." By the way, Zeke's Vietnamese name has the coolest meaning: Dung Anh=brave and smart. Brave and smart...that's our baby!!

VIDEO! Walking Z-man (And don't forget to check out the new bathtime photos!)

Bathtime!!

Dad was in charge of bathtime tonight.

Halloween-y Baby

At WalMart and Target, I found some cheap, adorable Halloween accoutrement for Zeke. Pumpkin socks, trick or treat onesie, "I love my mummy" onesie, etc. Barb got Zeke a darling set of ghost PJs that he's wearing tonight. Here's a sampling:

Zeke at Home-New Photos and Video!

I thought you'd enjoy some photos and a short video from this past week. You can see that meals are fun and messy. Bedtime and naptime are still challenging. We have limited his napping during the day to 2 hours and we try to get the two hour nap done in the early afternoon. Anyway, we're all settling in just fine despite the sleep issues.

Today was a busy day. We went for a hike at the Nature Center, visited Republic's Pumpkin Days, and toured a local farm (Rutledge-Wilson). Zeke got to see some roosters up close (I couldn't resist asking, "Do the chickens have large talons?"). It was a great day to be out and enjoying the weather. Trav and Grandpa Ron, he LOVES being outside so he's ready for some nature walks in northeast Tennessee!

(For Trav and anyone else who was wondering...Zeke had a chest x-ray to see if his lungs were clear...it was a routine check and all was well...in fact, all his tests came back fine and he has a clean bill of health!)

Paging Dr. Zeke

So, Zeke had his first US doctor's visit today. He was a good sport and Dr. Vo says he looks great. She ended the visit by giving him some animal crackers. He REALLY gobbled those up. The best news? He's gained 1.3 pounds since LAST WEEK! Wonderful! I guess getting him going on food-food is paying off. Dr. Vo ordered a whole pile of blood work and asked if we wanted to do it today. I said sure. We were out and close to the hospital. So, we get to the lab and they have to draw blood. To his credit, Zeke didn't squirm too much but he had a complete crying fit. He was sweating and heaving. My heart just ached to see him so hysterical. He quickly recovered when the blood draw was over. I immediately gave him a bottle and that helped him calm down. Dr. Vo also wanted a chest x-ray. I thought the x-ray would be a piece of cake after the blood draw. Oh no. He had a fit in the x-ray room too but again, he didn't squirm and was compliant so the techs were able to do their work. The x-ray tech gave him 2 stickers afterward and he liked that. But he was so worn out that he fell asleep on the ride home. Poor baby. At least all that is done and behind us now.

More Homecoming Pics

These great photos come courtesy of Misty (unless otherwise noted)...Thanks, Misty!!!

Jill, Misty, Laura and Greg

Bob Barker was leaving Springfield as Zeke arrived. This town's too small for the both of them!

The Adoption Support Group!!

Laura gets some Zeke love!

John had Zeke cackling outside the airport!!

Greg and Zeke...just hanging out.

Misty and Zeke get acquainted. (Photo by Greg)

Carol tells Zeke how cute he is! (Photo by Greg)

Ready for the car seat?!?!