This was the first picture we saw of Maleia Mekdes. She was 3 months old.

November 3, 2008- Gotcha Day!

Maleia's crib was on the far left with the pink bedding.

Saying good-bye to where Maleia had spent the last 4 /12 months.  

Fast forward a year!
Here are all the kiddos making a cake to celebrate Maleia's "Gotcha Day" tonight!

I guess you can say she helped!

Ellie frosting the cake for her sister.

The finished product! We used M&M's to spell out "Gotcha" because they are Maleia's favorite kind of candy. It's been hot here so our "h" and "a" were sliding! 

Celebrating at Disneyland on one of Maleia's favorite rides!

 

I think she's really trying to read her sign!

 

This would have to be one of my favorite pictures.  

 

  Blow!

 

She finally gets to eat her cake!

 

Maleia will receive an Ethiopian gift each year on her "Gotcha Day." This dress is her first one! Originally we were going to do it on her birthday, but it seems to be a little more special to receive it on this day.  

 

We ended the evening with some dancing to some Ahmaric music!

 

Ellie is gooooooooooood!

Happy to be dancing in Mommy's arms!

 

God brought these three together to be siblings, to protect one another, to love on another, and to be friends with each other. As each day passes and I see them growing closer, my heart jumps for joy. I feel blessed.

    Where does the time go? I blink and another month goes by! Maleia is 19 months old and is PURE joy. She is sooooooooo smart and incredibly verbal! She is already putting sentences together. Her favorites are "No like that!" and "I love you!" Yesterday she said, "Come on (took my hand), Boz..tv...couch...family room." She tattles too! Ellie and Calen are still surprised that when I come around the corner knowing exactly what happened. It's like a little bird told me! She doesn't have a problem communicating her wishes or feelings!  

   Maleia is interested in EVERYTHING. If her brother and sister want to do it, then she is right behind them. It amazes me that I can already explain things to her. When we were at a carnival she wanted to go on a ride with Calen. We waited in line with him, but once we got near the front I told her that she was too little, but that she could choose another ride. No tantrum. No endless pointing at the ride or grunting. She watched Calen go on the ride and then told me "Jump." She wanted to do the jump house.  

   Her personality is just fun. That's the only way to describe it. She loves to be silly. She loves to dance, paint, swing, play in the sand, use stamps. play with playdoh, and read books. She is content to be an observer and when she feels comfortable she is able to jump right in with the other kids.  

   Maleia is a good eater, but doesn't really want to eat anything until late morning. We still are using the bottle because that snuggle and eye contact time is so wonderful. We'll be working on some sleeping issues in a few weeks. Right now she starts off in her crib and then wakes up around 2:00 AM to snuggle and go back to sleep in our bed. Brendan and I have now been extremely sleep deprived for a year. Hee.  

   Halloween was wonderful with her. Last year we were on a plane on October 31st. I remember being so incredibly emotional. All of the feelings were overwhelming. It was so strange to be so scared, so joyful, so anxious, so sad all at the same time. Now, here she is...we went to the pumpkin patch half a dozen times and partied like only Cosgroves can. :)  

   

Checking out every piece of candy.

With Grandma

 

Halloween night

My two fairies and my pirate!!

I was a bit teary today. Maleia is taking the exact class that I did with Calen not too long ago. I remember talking to people telling them that we were adopting a baby. Amazing. It was overwhelming seeing her experience everything for the first time. She was clingy at first, then would get daring, then would cling again. By the middle of class she was exploring everything with wide eyed wonder. She's come so far. I got choked up all over again looking over at Ellie and Calen watching us. Their whole world has changed and they have been such amazing siblings to Maleia. They adore her and she adores them. In all the craziness and stresses of life, I know one thing to be true....God is good!

 

Maleia is so precious.  9 months ago today I held her in my arms.  It felt so right, so normal.  I still remember seeing her for the first time.  She looked at us as if to say, "Oh, you're finally here."  She let us pick her right up without a fuss and seemed to know that she was going with us.  Truly Amazing.  She is now almost 26 pounds.  Ellie and Calen are both 36 pounds so she may just catch up sooner rather than later!  Maleia really gets a kick out of herself and thankfully her big brother and sister find humor in her antics most of the time!  These pictures were taken at Mount Hermon when I was attempting to get a picture of all three.  I wanted the kids on the ground, but Maleia kept sitting on them. 

This is so funny.

The one decent picture that caught Maleia on the ground before jumping on her brother and sister again.

Love you more than words~

I'm finally catching up on what has been happening in the life of Miss Maleia! At 16 months old I can attempt to describe her as sensitive, content, silly, smart, energetic, independent, athletic (she kicks soccer balls around and throws really well), and this little one knows exactly what she wants and will let you know it! We are so blessed to have her in our family. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for this wonderful child, that He protected her, and brought her to us. I do think about her birth mom at random times throughout the day. I have a feeling that she thinks of Maleia often as well. I try not to be sad about it because I know that God has a plan for each of His children. This was the plan for Maleia and He is going to do amazing things in her life! I can't wait to see more of the plan unfold!

She is a true joy and brings a smile to anyone who meets her! Maleia is talking! Her little voice is mousy, sometimes almost a breathy whisper. She is able to repeat most words. When she really wants something or doesn't like something she will let you know with her loud voice, "Mama!" "Juice!" and her favorite, "No!" Her receptive language astounds me. Such a smart smart girl. She wants to do everything her big brother and sister do. They adore her and love to tell everybody that she's from Ethiopia. My biggest worry in adopting a child was how she was going to transition into our family. It has been a beautifully loving process that can only be described as natural. I know, weird word, but it really has been very natural for all of us to blend and become a new family. Thank you God.

We go to the doctor this week as we are still catching up on all of her immunizations. I can't wait to see how tall she is and how much she weighs now. She is growing, growing, growing. Maleia likes protein, carbs, milk, and juice! This kid loves meat. She'll eat meatballs like candy. I have found it very interesting when watching Maleia that she usually finds one person in a group of people (sometimes it's me, sometimes it's not) that she focuses on. She'll want that person to hold her and talk to her. If that person isn't giving her enough attention she'll kind of flirt for it, grab their hand, or just push her way into their legs or arms. If the person isn't me then it's usually someone she sees regularly like my mom, sister, or friend. Attachment issues are, of course, what comes to mind. When we are at home she follows me everywhere if she hasn't already insisted on me holding her. She actually says, "Hold me!" I know that quite a few of you who read this blog have also adopted so I'd love any of your input on this one.

Maleia loves books, puzzles, ball toys, dolls, and anything with music! She is very easy to entertain and sometimes gets into "play mode" where she just moves around our family room playing with each toy. Her choice would always be to play with a family member, but it's nice to see that she enjoys playing by herself too. Sleeping is still a bit rocky. I'm very uncomfortable letting my kids cry it out and will definitely not do that with Maleia. After a bunch of reading I came up with a plan that seemed reasonable, gradual, and still comforting. We moved her into Ellie's room which they will share. I spent a week in Ellie's bed and moved Ellie to mine while we were transitioning Maleia to her crib from the pack-n-play next to my bed. The first 2 days I did exactly as I had always done since leaving Hannah's Hope. I got up, offered her a bottle, and held her until she fell back asleep. The following 4 days we worked on not using the bottle. She would wake up, I would hold her for a minute and then put her down in her crib awake. She was REALLY mad about this at first. My goal is for her to begin to self soothe. It's been a few weeks now. Both girls are in the same bedroom. Maleia still wakes up several times a night. I go in and she wants to hold my hand to fall back asleep. I don't hold her or give her a bottle. So....we are making progress. The next step is removing my hands from the equation! Leaning over the crib is tiring! I am ready for a full nights sleep and so is Brendan!

Some of my favorite things Maleia does are: *jump on anybody who lays down on a floor *every once in awhile she'll come up behind me and latch onto my back. *giggle (she loves to be tickled and chased) *she smiles when she toots. She thinks she's so funny. *she loves being naked. *she can't help herself when she hears music. She just HAS to move and groove! *she backs into my lap when she wants to read a book. *she stops at the steps into our family room and says, "Help!" *she is able to get anyone to smile at her. She seeks out people for this! Love, love, love this precious little one!

Here are a few pictures from this summer so far! We've had Cousin Camp, went to Mount Hermon for Family Camp up in the beautiful redwoods, spent a ton of time in the pool, frequented the beach, spent time with family and friends, learned at Discovery Science Center, played at the OC Fair, spent a week in Palm Springs, and celebrated quite a few birthdays!

Happy 4th of July my little Ethiopian American princess!

She turned 14 months on the 21st, but it's been so busy around here that I haven't caught up on this blog!  Maleia is active, opinionated, determined, smart, and funny.  She enjoys just about everything, but is still figuring out if the water is her enemy.  We're hoping that she will embrace the water as we splish and splash this summer!  She has fit right into her role as the little sister.  She wants anything that Ellie and Calen have.  She follows them around and copies them.  She is still sleeping in the pack-n-play next to our bed and sometimes ends up cuddled next to us in the early morning hours.  It's time to sleep train and get her into her crib, but I don't know if  I'm ready for that!  She loves beans, meat, pasta, and yogurt.  She'll sample fruit, but doesn't devour it.  Vegetables are the hardest thing to get her to eat.  So far sweet potatoes are her favorite.  She never really took to any other baby food.  Ahhhh well.

   We had our first shoe experience at Stride Rite.  I've never been able to convince myself that tiny shoes were worth that much money.  Maleia has been on her feet since about 10/11 months and is ALL over the place now.  I always felt like I was squeezing her little feet into tiny shoes even though I measured her and the shoe was the right size.   I have kept all of Ellie's gently used shoes and planned on Maleia using them!   I decided to bite the bullet and just get her one pair of shoes that fit her well.  So, $45 dollars later (yep, $45) we walked out with a tiny pair of 5 1/2 extra wide sandals.  Yes, extra wide!  Her feet aren't actually wide, but the height from the bottom of her foot over the top is tall.  Armed with new information I went to Target and Payless to search for a more reasonable priced shoe.  Voila.  Found a pair at Payless for a third of the price!  They carry wide shoes.  I'll go back to Stride Rite when we have to do tennis shoes, but for now we're wearing sandals! 

Oh, Maleia is talking a lot more!  She says, Mama, Dada, Grandad, Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, hat, nose, op (open), no (crystal clear), up, ball, ba ba (bubbles), hep (help), hello, hi, bye bye, more, nigh night (night night), Ba (BOZ), and there may be a few more that I'm forgetting!  She loves to wave and blow kisses.  We love this precious little girl!!!

Can you tell I enjoy dressing her?  She's so gorgeous. 

Ellie was making Maleia laugh while Lam (Mom's Clubber) snapped this picture.  Thanks Lam!

I love that the kids play so well together.  I wish I could capture all that sweetness!

Too funny.  Maleia isn't a fan of the grass.  She lifts up anything that touches it!  I think we wore Calen out.  :) 

Snuggle time with Daddy.  I think he's loving it!!

One of the gang.  There she is chewing on a crayon.  Hee.

Memorial Day!

Brendan's cousin took this picture we took of the kids at Easter and made a watercolor from it.  Take a look.  It's gorgeous!  Thank you Cindy!

 

Family