The sound of Tate

So, here is my first attempt at uploading video. Now I have to learn how to edit before I can upload some more. This is one of Tate's stories. I think he had it in for the animals from the beginning.

Favorites from September

Tate and I took our first trip alone in September to see Grandma and Grandpa Staveness. Tate hung out at my uncle's farm for an afternoon and was mesmerized by the tractors. He liked baby cows until one mooed at him.

Mom thinks she looks like a dork in these pictures, but I think they are the best ever and it's my blog, so I'm posting them :-)

From an evening hike where Tate met a toad. He succeeded in grabbing it, then dropping it down dad's back where it, thankfully, avoided being smushed.
Tate thinks he's funny.
I bought a bike helmet for Tate so we could ride together. I laughed hysterically the first time I put it on him. It is nearly as wide as his shoulders, but hey, it makes his butt look small.
Blowing raspberries continues to be Tate's favorite thing to do all it takes is a little suggestion to get him going. Last week we took him to an IU soccer game. The trombones set Tate off on a raspberry streak. I think he's destined to be a brass player - alas.

Tate turned 1! . . . He also turned 13 months :-)

Tate's first birthday came quite quickly. They sure do sneak up on you when you start at 8 months. We had a party at our apartment and Tate received the traditional dose of sugar, gifts, and attention. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the flaming cake coming toward him.

He also got some great gifts and filled up his toy box. He loves reading books. His favorite is Dinosaur Roar, which starts out with a bang. He likes doing a little baby roar, but it just comes out as a throaty 'daaaaaaa.' He also likes kissing the green dinosaur - I don't know.

Tate wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole evening and was pretty chill for all of it. I think the highlight for him was just getting to crawl around in the grass.

Growing, growing

Tate has put on 5 pounds in the last three months and is having a blast standing up. He's also pretty excited about learning to walk. He frequently stands up at the coffee table and gives speeches about "da da." There are loads of facial expressions that go with it, but I haven't a clue what he's talking about.

Life has gone and become quite busy, thus the lack of posts, but here are some pictures to keep it interesting.

This toy always puts him in a good mood. This is actually a face of sheer delight.

Why has life gotten busy? . . . Something about house hunting in a town an hour away, new baby, and church planting. So, keep us in your prayers.

Tate is a joy and his first birthday is quickly approaching. It goes by fast when you start at 8 months!

Family Tour

We just returned from a whirlwind tour to meet a lot o' family, thus the lack of posting. We started out in Sawyer, Michigan at the Taylor family reunion. The Taylor family is . . . um . . . large, and we were curious to see how Tate would handle it. He was a perfect traveler, sleeping in the car and at night and at nap time, and met so many people, he nailed down his waving technique. He also learned to clap his hands, which he now does anytime he is bored or wants to impress someone. Here he is with a picture of Grandma with the Great-grandchildren who were present on Friday. He is over on the far right.

Tate also experienced the beach for the first time in his life. He was a trooper about it, even when a large wave knocked him over in the sand. He lay there and looked like he was thinking, "hmmm...that was a new experience."
At one point he was so covered in sand that he looked like a giant cinnamon-sugar doughnut, but we unfortunately did not have the camera.
Tate did great with most adults. The exception being with Grandma Taylor's live-in helper, Tsige. She is an Ethiopian young woman and we told her to speak Amharic to Tate to see what he would do. He flipped out. He screamed, panicked, and searched the room for me. It was rather sad. I guess he is not at all interested in changing languages again. After a brief afternoon visit with a couple of college roommates, we headed over to Pardeeville, Wisconsin to meet my clan.

Farms are great places for kids and Tate found lots to entertain himself with. We visited my uncle's farm, where my aunts, cousins, and grandparents still work.

My grandparent's house is rather romantic to me, mostly because I have no part in taking care of it. My grandfather was born in this house and has lived here ever since.
Since retiring, my Dad has taken over the old grainery as a shop. He recently made some improvements and named it "Redneck Workshop."
Grandma and Grandpa are having fun with Tate. He even convinced them to put on bathing suits and jump in our neighbor's pool.
Joseph got some quality bonding time with the boy, which they both enjoyed.
We set Tate in the lake the first night we were home. Grandma held on to a little rope and he swam like a fish.
We also took a trip to the Madison zoo, where Tate had the most fun touching the glass on the tiger cage. The tiger walked right in front of him several times and he just watched it pace back and forth. For meeting over 125 people in one week, Tate's doing really, really well. He is even getting his top teeth, which he barely lets us know about. Tonight we're leaving him with Aunt Michal for a few hours so Mommy and Daddy can go on their first date since we brought him home. Yippeee!

This boy is great and we love him more and more all the time. I'm beginning to be sad about how much he's growing up already! He made his first climb up steps at my parents' house!

9 months old in June

Man, time has flown by and Tate has been home almost two months. A LOT has happened in those two months and he is making fast progress in catching up. When we picked him up in Ethiopia he could barely roll over, could not sit up on his own, did not cry (just made a stressed out scrunched up face), had no teeth, and didn't know his legs were good for anything. In the last two months we've seen massive progress.

He now is crying (or saying "oh gee") when he's sad, has two teeth, can and does eat most anything he's given, crawls, laughs, giggles, waves, blows raspberries with his lips, loves splashing in the water (this he also had to learn), laughs when we make fun of him, and about a million other wonderful things.

In the month of June, his Grandma and Grandpa came down from Wisconsin twice to see him. He loved the extra attention.

The sound that goes with this face is pretty awesome. It's him blowing raspberries and he can and does do it for minutes at a time. It's his favorite thing and he'll challenge anyone to a raspberry blowing duel. He always wins.
The first time I put Tate in water, he just sat there. The first few weeks were filled with experiences like that - everything was new and he was taking it all in. He quickly learned what to do though and now loves the water. He still hasn't learned that trying to crawl in the tub isn't a good idea. This is one of my favorite pictures. He's such a ham.

This is Grandpa Staveness and Ed. I tried to get Tate to smile, but my dad said, "What you don't want any pictures of him crying? Take the picture while he's crying!" I love dad. I also love this picture.
Yeah, so the playground wasn't such a happy time for Tate :-)

Today

I'm taking a wee break from blogging about our trip just to post these very cute pictures from our first hike together today. We went out to Green's Bluff just outside of Bloomington. It was a bit muddy, but Tate had fun making squishy sounds while I sludged through it. He clearly had fun and I am SO happy for a boy who loves being outside and is particularly fond of leaves.

He's been getting better and better. His nasty cough is gone, and last night he slept through the night! YIPPPEEEE!!!!! Thus, the energy to hike today, despite the hot, humid weather. I gave him this HUGE leaf and it just put him right to sleep :-)

No Parasites!!!

We are happy to report that we have the internet, so you all can finally read about our trip and that Tate is parasite free!!! We took him to the doctor the first week we were home and he checked out fine. Yippeeee! I was gearing up and bracing myself for some awful diapers, but was pleasantly surprised by them in Ethiopia (I know that is a strange thing to say, but I was) and was very relieved to not have to deal with parasites, or ring worm, or scabies, or lice, or any number of things lots of adopted babies have.

I think you just get what you don't expect. All the nannies said Mamush slept REALLY well and laughed when I asked if he cried when they put him to bed, so we were expecting we'd still get to sleep. Upon returning home, though, Mamush decided he just wanted to stay awake all the time and cry so we'd hold him, which we didn't mind in theory, but by the 8th time in one night we were getting a bit tired of it. He reverted back to newborn schedule, wanting to be fed every couple of hours, so we had a rough week and a half. But, for the last three nights he's just been waking up once or twice!! It's amazing how great 6 hours can feel!

Being a Father

Imagine this:

You are in Ethiopia and you've had your son for less than a day, and you think he might have a fever and be acting weird (but you don't really know because you've just met him), and the other parents at the embassy say that it looked like a large spit-up that got all over you, not throw-up; but then he hasn't eaten since the morning and you're back in the room at the guest house trying to get him to take a bottle but he's completely limp and not eating very much. So you try some of the mush instead. No dice. He starts to spit up--another big one, so you dash for the bathroom.

And standing over the sink, looking at your son in the mirror, you see the continuing flow of spit-up running over your arm into the sink change color and consistency. Yellow. Smooth. It's bile. And then, with his whole body completely limp, and his head resting awkwardly on your arm, he looks in your eyes and your son starts dry-heaving.

And adding to the surreal quality of the situation, he's not crying. He hasn't all day.

You think, "We need a doctor."

And then you think, "We're in Africa."

Staring helplessly into the mirror you call to your wife and ask her to get some paper towel or toilet paper. She helpfully points out that there is toilet paper right next to you as she comes in and tears some off for you.

And you're thinking, "I can't handle this!" so you hand him to your wife and, in order to keep from breaking down, you go to the kitchen sink and start washing the clothes your wife was just working on. A few minutes later you find her in the bedroom taking his temperature, and as you walk up you see it register 101.4.

You don't need your wife to tell you that is really high, but she does anyway. You look at your son, and you can see the sweat all over his head. His eyes are glazed over. You wonder whether he will live.

And how long you are going to be in Ethiopia with him in the hospital? And will your insurance cover the costs?

Convinced you need a doctor, your wife confirms it by asking if you had heard that one of the other adoptive fathers was a doctor. Yes you had. You're miles ahead of her.

As you pray for your son and for strength, you attempt to prepare yourself to go ask for help. Chances are slim that you can announce this to your wife without sobbing, and so you delay, practicing the words in your head. You know full well that the first person who Speke to you outside of the room is not going to be prepared for a complete breakdown from you, but you doubt it can be helped. So you figure you better communicate in as few words as possible. You consider trying to say the words, "My son needs help." before you become completely unintelligible. Frankly, you probably won't make it past "My son..."

Your wife announces that she's going to go ask somebody how much baby Advil to give him since they don't put dosage amounts for under 2 years old. As she leaves you think, "It's baby Advil. It's for babies! They don't tell you how much to use?!"

When your wife returns she tells you that his temperature is actually only 99 according to a "better" thermometer. She gives him some Advil, and you lie down on the couch with your son sweating on your chest. You put a damp towel on his head and you pray.

Half an hour later he wakes up and he's fine. He drinks some water. He drinks some milk. He keeps them down.

Congratulations. Your eight month old has survived a low-grade fever.

As you thank God for his answer to your prayers, you realize what it means to be a father. You thank God for your son, and you give him back to God.

Introducing Joseph Tate Bayly VII

"Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord, or can show forth all His praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, who practice righteousness at all times." ~Psalm 106

He's ours!!! We got a call this morning that we passed court, 100% passed! Woooohooooo!!!!!!!! Now we can finally post pictures of our new son. I think he's the best looking boy ever. The first two are our referral pictures.


The next ones are the pictures the Whipple family took for us last month. They took a care package over to him and sent us some pictures back. Thank you Whipples!! It was a crazy time and all the babies were a bit freaked out.


These are the most recent pictures from his April update that we received last week.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for praying for us these many months and specifically over this weekend. This is a great way to start the week!!!

We should hear in the next few days if they'll be ready for us to come the end of May. If so, we'll fly out on this Saturday and travel around the country for a week before heading to Addis to pick him up!