Growing up!!!!

Rafael continues to keep us on our toes!! He is changing everyday and is growing up so fast. He now says "mom, dad, nan, look, ball, hi, and bye". He loves to blow kisses and to say bye when someone leaves the house. Too cute!! He loves to talk to my mom on the telephone although the only words you can recognize are hi and bye. He just learned to jump this weekend and he now likes to hop all over the house. I was hanging out the clothes on the clothesline this morning and I heard him banging on the window yelling out "mom" to the top of his lungs. He is such a cutie. He goes up to Sid, our dog, and puckers his lips for Sid to kiss him but just as Sid is about to kiss him, he runs away laughing. He's a real joker.

He attends a play group with several other kids his age. He loves this group as they sing songs and he loves doing the actions especially to "head and shoulders, knees and toes" and to "if you're happy and you know it". He chases all the other kids around during playtime and he is sharing so much better. He now will only get up with me when we are out. He used to go to others to get up but now he knows to come to mama.

He sleeps well although he has started to get up at 6:00am. He still goes to bed at 8:00pm so I'm not quite sure why he's decided to start getting up earlier. He usually sleeps thru the night. Over the past 4-5 nights we can now lay him in his crib after reading his books and giving him a quick rock, and he will go to sleep on his own. Before we would have to rock him and rock him until he went to sleep and then put him in the crib. He naps for 2 hours everyday at around 11am.

He eats just about anything and everything but his favorites would be yogurt and fruit. He could eat that for breakfast, dinner and supper!! He'll now feed himself with his fork and he can use his spoon if the food is thick or sticky but he wouldn't be able to feed himself soup or anything like that. He mainly drinks from his sippy cup but loves to drink from a juice box.

I just did a photo book of our trip to the Philippines and we were so happy with how it turned out. Rafael will love looking at it, especially as he gets older. I wanted to do a regular scrapbook but it takes sooo much time and makes such a mess that I cheated and did the photobook online. I really should get back into my scrapbooking soon because we have tons of photos of Rafael since he's come home. I can't believe that we have almost been home for 3 months!!

There has been lots of good news lately!! Another family from Canada, the De Boers, are leaving soon to go pick up their three daughters from Dorcas House, where Rafael is from. Rafael's roommate Peter, also from Dorcas House, just had his medical last week and hopefully he will soon be home in Australia. Hopefully all the families who are still waiting to be matched, especially those who have waited over 30 months, will soon be matched with their children. I know how long and hard the wait can be. But it is soooo worth it in the end!!

Eating outside for the first time this year. Yummy bbq!!

Enjoying his cousin Max's birthday party.

He LOVED the chocolate cake and even wanted a second piece!