Moving-Take Two...and 6 months

First of all, thanks for all the helpful hints for the blog!

Secondly, without going into the long version, we have pushed our moving date back until mid-January.  I'm so thankful to have a few more weeks to get some things done!

As we near our 6 month mark of having Josiah home, I continue to be amazed and humbled by how God has blessed our family. Josiah officially turned 18 months on December 6th. 

Here are a few updates: (Sorry about the horrible picture quality. Pics were taken from phone. Turns out, it's hard to get a clear picture with a constantly moving toddler!)

When Josiah joined our family he was barely crawling- now he is running and climbing all over the place! He continues to by playful, smiley, and his babbles are starting to turn into words. He surprised me a couple weeks ago by starting to sing along with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Part of Jon and I's bedtime routine has become us sharing all the things we love about Josiah and the hilarious things he did that day.

Josiah discovering the art of stepping on toys to get where you want.

Another exciting change that has happened as we hit our half-year mark is that Josiah is starting to sleep much better! Josiah came to us experiencing extreme change and loss, a different time zone,  and on an every 4 hours bottle schedule.  Add in the four ear infections, plus teething (we have a late teether!), and the confusion of me going back to work. So after camping out in his room, co-sleeping and more co-sleeping, and all sorts of sleeping tricks that parents can come up with, in the past month, we have been able to start (the key word here is start) to experience joy of sleeping through the night again! 

Nothing better than an afternoon nap with a great cuddler!

People are curious how are attachment/bonding is going. Without getting into too much detail, Jon and I are thankful with how things are going in our family. For example, when we look back at pictures from Ethiopia and remember how Josiah had a hard time maintaining eye contact, compared the warm and friendly little guy who is okay looking at us with his big beautiful brown eyes and we praise God for this! This is just one example of how we have seen growth in our relationship. That being said, we still have  some concerns and are being careful to intentionally do everything we can to continue to foster his attachment to our family. Adoption has taught me so much about attachment/bonding/loss/trauma/etc, and it has created an awe by how God has created families to meet these needs. 

One of the funny quirks about Josiah is he loves to "swiffer" and sweep. Swiffering has become one of Josiah's daily routine as he can easily get it out of our closet. He spends great lengths of time going from one room to another, making sure to get underneath the couch, bed, and other hard to reach places.

 Josiah actually started out scared of the sweeper. Then he decided he liked it as long as I was holding him. Now, he wants to do it all himself! As a reward for his good behavior last night, I let him sweep the kitchen. He seriously did a great job...even picking up some of the things he had thrown on the floor and putting them away in drawers. Sadly, I'm sure by the time he is actually old enough to perform these tasks as "chores", they will have lost their appeal. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and MERRY CHRISTMAS!