Truck Lovin' Ty

In the beginning our only interaction with Ty was through the play of this little truck, and one other yellow car that made noise.  He would not look us in the eye and at first he would only allow brief peeks over at the toys we had brought along for the visit. Brian and I would spend hours just pushing the truck back and forth, every now and then we'd run it up his back and down his leg in a playful way.  His reaction wasn't what we had hoped..but we knew we were onto something when the first verbal sound he made was the sound of the truck. And that, as far as we know, began his love of all things with wheels!  The picture above was taken in Ethiopia, during our second trip which was when he came home with us forever. Since then he has been all about trucks and cars and of course his favorite movie is CARS.  He couldn't say Mater or Lightning McQueen but he could say 'KaChow!' and still uses it to identify McQueen.  I bet if you see us out, you'll find a truck, car or train in his tight grasp and they are not for sharing...consider yourself warned.  For us, toting a toy around is nothing new as K and M are always packing a bag with stuffed animals or games for the 2 minute drive to Kroger.  But this particular habit, the love he has for his 'truck' (he calls them all trucks) goes back to our bonding... and so we love it, embrace it and gladly participate!

This is his famous Wheaties van...he uses it to clear a path through the crumbs he's so evenly distributed about the coffee table.  BTW...those 'dings' in the table are really road 'ruts', and they were not near as bad before Ty joined us...all off roading vehicles have since been banned from the table and relocated to the nearby train table.

We had no idea how influential the CARS movie was going to be until we were forced to carry around this packet of tissue, just 'cause the CARS character was on it.  I don't even know who that is!  But he did!  No one was allowed to actually use the tissues, your nose was just gonna have to drip as far as he was concerned.  This was serious business.

This is a common parking garage for Ty's vehicles. Recently he's figured out how to make the ice come out and the trucks often find themselves in a hail storm.  Truly a little boys dream.

Opposite the hail storm is a molten crash.  Actually...this is my coffee.  Ty thought I could use a little extra zing and added his matchbox car.  A quick stir of the spoon, metal against metal and I fished out the die cast donation.

Here he is with his favorite remote controlled, KaChowing, reverse-forward-right, front fender mouth moving Lightning McQueen.  No the excitement didn't cause his hair to stand up... that's fresh shampoo'd hair.

What?  Didn't your convertible come with a Green Grape driver?

Lining them up, getting ready to go.  This combination gave him HOURS of play.  

Yes, that's a fresh pan of SpaghettiO's in tomato sauce with Meatballs and Tonka Truck.

And at the end of the day..you better believe... this little boy's KaChow is as happy as can be. 

One Year Post

Can it really be?  Have I not posted anything since January?  Well that just won't do!

I will cut myself some slack as it does feel like I'm in some whacked-out time warp game and I'm constantly losing time!  Lots has happened in the last 5 months..wonder if I can remember it all...I know the answer to that already..NO WAY!  But I'll do my best to catch up.. oh what fun we've had!

(Confession:  that last sentence is what I HOPE my children are thinking.  My own declarative statement goes something like:  What the *&$% just happened?)

Here is the first known pic of sweet boy Ty..as at  7 mos of age he was no doubt super sweet!

Sweet Boy Ty learned quickly the messy ways of his gender and hasn't bothered to look for alternatives.  He has changed so much in the first year home, it's amazing to consider!  Now we know that his obsessive ability to clean his plate, and then move on to ours, was really a product of his previous environment and his love for all things digestible.  Now days he will walk away from his plate after eating what he wants the most, and has been known to show off his great arm with chunks of chicken flying across the table.  Of course we encourage him to eat as we do his sisters, but we know the accomplishment this is..this new level of security for him and it just makes us glow inside.

For our one year celebration as a Fabulous Family of Five we celebrated at Goha, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant with our favorite Ethiopian family!  We dined on all of our favorites and then topped it off with an ice cream treat. The girls have adjusted well... they love their brother dearly as long as he's not using them as a mosh pit (which occurs often).  Brian loves coming home to 'big hugs' and already sees the soccer potential in his little guy.  And me, well I'm still trying to figure out what this boy business is all about...and hope that one day soon I can share it with the world!  Until then, I'll be on alert for trucks in the plants, toys in the toilet, dish soap on the floor, cat food in the to go containers, missing shoes, long distance charges, missing library book pages, Q tips in the nose, and flying chicken. 

This Grateful Heart is taking a beatin' and still lovin' life!

O