Twuck-o-Tweeeeeeet!

Candy candy candy. We got a LOT of it tonight. And such a shame that Elias is allergic to chocolate. :-)

Our tradition is to take our two little friends from Somalia along with us for trick-or-treating. This was our fourth year, and maybe the best one yet!

We went to a few of our neighbor's houses where Elias would yell "TWUCK O TWEEEET" multiple times and then as soon as the candy dropped in his bucket he'd say "Let's go to another house!" Then drove to where a group of our friends from church were handing out candy. Along the way the kids were really quiet in the car, so I asked if they were tired. This was Elias' exact response...

Tired? Who's tired? We're not tired. We're HAAAAPPY!

Ha!

Elmo, Mermaid, and Princess Fiona

Sweet Pea Eli and Elmo

New Knee

Chase and Danielle, the Physical Therapist, decided that Elias is finally ready for a knee on his leg. This requires a lot more strength and skill and we've tried it once before a couple months ago for half a day and it just didn't go well. But lately Elias has been asking for a knee on his leg and we've been talking a lot about how it will be hard and he will fall sometimes, but that he is real strong now and we will help him. So he's been really psyched about getting this knee.

He's had the knee now for a couple of days. He's taken some pretty hard falls, but wipes those tears away and keeps on trying!

First Prayer

We sat down today for lunch and I asked Elias if he would like to pray. Surprisingly, he said yes! (Usually he says no). This was his sweet prayer:



Thank you Jesus for this food.

Thank you for my sandwhich.

Thank you for my new knee.

Thank you for my exercise.

Amen.



What an awesome sound it is to hear my son's prayer to Jesus!

Brown Like Me

Chase and I are hoping to start the adoption process again soon, but really don't have a timeline yet since we're in the process of moving out of state. Regardless, we've started to bring up the idea with Elias. When we ask him if he wants a brother or a sister, he always responds, "No. I want a new Levi." You see, Levi is his best little friend here and Elias just can't imagine having anyone other than Levi as a brother. So, a NEW Levi is what he wants. He must have been thinking about this a bit b/c this is what he told me the other day...

"Mom, I want a new Levi. I want another Levi. A brown Levi. Brown like me."

I was so touched by this on many levels. And it was interesting to me that he has this awareness already of his race. We talk a lot about his pretty brown skin. But the fact that he identified that he specifically wants a brown brother (or a brown Levi) was so sweet to me.

Here a picture of Elias and Levi:

Born to be a Rock Star

Elias loves to sing. He has tons of songs memorized -a product from many, many sleepless nights in the beginning when we sang him all the songs we know, over and over again. As soon as he gets in the car he starts requesting songs from CDs as if I am a DJ. I almost always comply with his requests, even if we hear the same song 10 times in one short car trip. His favorite song is Chris Tomlin's How Great is Our God. I just love that Elias has latched on to this song, because the words really testify to Elias' life and how awesome God is.

So anyway, we captured him on video the other night singing a few of his favorites. Well, it's a cross between singing and shouting. The image is a little dark, but I think you'll be able to hear quite clearly. :-) Oh, and check out his sweet air guitar.

Mopping

The other day Elias was rubbing his eyes for a long time. Finally, Chase asked him what he was doing.

Elias' response: "I'm mopping my eyeballs. "