grace led in life

We loved coming home to familiar faces! Thank you for coming to our home-coming, family and friends! (More photos to come :)

Sweet "welcome home" signs made by family!

Welcome home little Bugga Boo :)

This past week and a half has been a complete blur. In some ways we feel like we just stepped off the plane, and in others, like we've been home forever. It has been so wonderful to be in our home...in our comfort zone with Zeke, but it has been very challenging as well. Jet lag has been the "friend" that never leaves and has worn out it's welcome! We are slowly getting over it, but it has been rough! We have faced many challenges and joys since getting home. Each day has been a guessing game on how Zeke will react and handle the day, so it has been quite the physical and emotional rollercoaster. We are completely blessed to have our Bugga Boo home! We have had such a fun and crazy time getting to know Zeke...Here are some qualities about him:

• He loves to laugh! We see MANY smiles and hear MANY giggles in a day!
• He is quite the spitfire and intense little fella. :)
• He loves Cheerios...if he sees the big yellow Cheerio box, we will hear about it! :) 
• He mainly talks in "goose" (making a honking noise in question form and pointing to everything...he wants to learn about everything)
• He LOVES to learn and learns quickly! He watches our every move and tries to imitate them
• He is teething...all over his mouth! (OH MAN...ROUGH!)
• He really loves to eat. (we are working on helping him through some food issues...he screams when eating time is done - even though he is full to the point of spitting up his food - breaks your heart)
• He LIKES sitting in his high chair seat!
• He is a picky eater now that he has tried different foods.
• He needs very soft or broken down foods for his cleft palate, but eats those foods like a champ!
• He loves his pink little towel blankie for sleeping
• He loves reading books, or I should say having mama or dada read to him! He has developed the habit of grabbing books, sitting in a arm chair his size, and "honking" at us to read to him :) Favorite books right now: I Love You Stinky Face, Go Dog Go, The Going To Bed Book, Guess How Much I Love You, Sheep in a Jeep, Moo, Baa, La La La...honestly, the list could go on :)
• He does not like to drink...anything...but we conquered, last night, us pouring liquid in his mouth which he then drinks. (He really does not have "sucking" ability with his cleft palate...so drinking has been rough. We have tried so many different cups, lids, and drinks. Tupperware sippy cups are about the best! :)
• He is very detailed oriented, loves to see how things work, loves to watch Justin "fix" or put things together with tools (yes...this has already happened a few times this week), finds any thing out of the ordinary and wants to know what it is and how it works (for instance: he found a feather that fell out of a pillow and was determined to ask us what is was and what it could do...so we spent quite some time blowing the feather through the air and chasing it around :) LOVE that he loves to learn! 
• He LOVES Taylor our cat, She loves to have distance between herself and Zeke ;) Zeke yells very excitedly when he sees Taylor "Mouw Mouw"!
• He naps like a champ! We HAVE to wake him...or he would sleep all day (again, jet lag culprit)
• He loves his cousins here in WA. Cannot wait to introduce him to the rest of his cousins in MN someday!
• He loves to point at our family wall of photos in our living room and we talk through every family members names. very cute!
• He is very stubborn and can easily become frustrated when something doesn't go the way he wants...we will again hear about it! :)
• Bed time has been very rough. He usually goes down well...but we have dealt with multiple differing issues during the night. Sometimes it is just him not wanting to sleep, but wanting to play (AGAIN, thank you jet lag) but other times he has been dealing with bad dreams and, what we think, is grieving. It is heart breaking, and have to admit, frustrating at times. We are slowly making strides with this...once jet lag is completely gone, teething is over, and he becomes more and more comfortable here, we know he will sleep wonderfully. Just have to give him time and love through it!
• He was used to sleeping in a room of kiddos, so, with noise...we have a fan going and noise machine of "summer night" sounds in his room (so J and I hear crickets and bullfrogs through the baby monitor! haha!)
• Zeke LOVES bath time!
• Zeke specs: 28 1/2 inches tall. size 4 shoes. 22.2 lbs. A solid kiddo, but 12 month clothes are the best fit on him...but still a bit long in the arms and legs :) little peanut :)

We were so very blessed to have some family be able to come to our "coming home" and what a huge blessing that it was Christmas time! SO SPECIAL! After recovering for a couple of days, and feeling like Zeke was very comfortable with us... we were able to celebrate Christmas with family here at our home. Zeke was a little timid in meeting family at first, but quickly became comfortable with them!

First Christmas!

First Christmas gift: We got him a toy cell phone in China :)

Loves any ball (soccer, basketball, football...etc.) Zeke received an awesome airplane flyer he can ride around...he has loved this! Thanks family for the gift!

Family {love}

Cousins {love}

Playing with the soccer ball with Papa



Grandpa & Grandma Miller (Molly's parents)

Great - Grandma JoAnn (Molly's Grandma)

learning how to open gifts :)

FOOD! :)

Christmas Stockings! Grandma Shirley made Justin's and Zeke's!

Thanks, Becca for decorating our tree for us while we were in China...so fun to come home to!