a few things

Well, our laptop died the other day and will not be resurrected. Bummer. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the goings on...


Last weekend I attended a bridal shower for the 'other' future Peterson daughter-in-law with Becky, our mom-in-law. We had a good time, and it was especially nice to meet some of Jodi's aunts and cousins. Here is Jodi looking pretty in pink - two months until the big day!

Here is a picture we like of Matea with Brandon. Matea loves it when people play the piano, and she was having fun "playing" with Brandon. At least, we think she was. :)
We went to the State Fair on Tuesday - here is a picture of Matea with Grandma and Grandpa Peterson. I still need to get some good pictures of her with Grandma and Grandpa Flavin - those'll be soon, I'm sure.

Gary knew we were at the Fair so he called us to see if we wanted to meet up for coffee on our way home. We stopped at a Caribou and hung out for an hour or so - Matea loved the Wild Berry Smoothie (I hated it). Of course we didn't get a picture with Gary. Oops, sorry bro. This is for all you Caribou lovers out there....It really is a pain to use Aaron's work computer to do this, so hopefully we will have a new laptop up and running in the next couple weeks. Later!

Trip South

It took me a bit longer, but here are the pictures from our trip 3.5 hours south of Addis Ababa. Several of the photos were taken out of a window of a moving car, thus the bad quality. The huts that you'll see are typical homes for people in this region.

Photos from around Addis Ababa

Here are some pictures that give you a general idea of what life in the city is like. I am missing a few important photos...somehow we didn't get any pictures of the hundreds of goats that were for sale alone the streets, and these photos also don't depict how dirty the city is (as in trash everywhere). Hopefully these photos will give you a feel for the city. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of our trip to Hosanna-and I'm planning on giving some more thoughts on our trip soon too.

this n that

This is from Matea's first stroller ride.

First of all, I have to say that I am SO THANKFUL for digital cameras. Kids move so fast that it is impossible to get a good picture! We have yet to consistently be able to capture a smile on Matea's face. :)

Things are going pretty good for us. We have had a few really rough afternoons, but overall the transition home has been much easier than we anticipated. It was really nice to have each set of grandparents around for a few days.

We are introducing more and more foods to Matea and she really seems to love her vegetables. I'll have to try to get a photo of the face she makes when we feed her unsweetened applesauce - it is hilarious! We think we're going to have to more to more textured foods really soon, and finger foods are definitely on the horizon. She is very interested in how we eat and she will grab the spoon and try to put it in her mouth.

We had our first week at church today - Matea is a blabbermouth and would not be quiet so Aaron had to take her out for most of the service. She'll be hitting the nursery before too long. I guess the girl just has a lot to say! She has gotten more and more vocal every day and today was the first time we heard her laugh with her voice, not just the funny grunting laugh that we've heard thus far. That has been fun.

We also think she may be getting teeth soon. She is constantly drooling and gnaws on things and rubs whatever she can get on her gums. We'll see.

Anyway, that's the latest update for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures - we've been having fun trying different things out with the camera. I'll get some photos up soon if Matea with other people. :)

pictures

Home

We're home.
Things are going well so far - we're working on getting back on the right time zone and figuring things out. Matea woke up at 1:30 our first night back, and 4:00 last night. Maybe tomorrow she'll be back to sleeping at least until 6! We're trying to figure out the whole what to feed a 7 month old thing. We've got a lot of learning to do! Matea is so sweet when she wakes up from naps and in the morning, it's fun. Here are a few pics from coming home.

Last Update

It's Jen, for one last time. Aaron sent their final update before the leave to come back home! Here is what he said...

One last update before we leave. Matea had another great night of sleep - 7:30 until about 6:45 (when we woke her up). She took a full bottle this morning which is great and is eating rice cereal really well too. We figured out some stuff with holding her - she really likes to see everything going on around her, so if we have her just sitting on our laps facing outward she's fine with that. Note to self for the plane ride ;) Otherwise, not a ton to report. Katie and Matea are both napping right now - prepping for the big trip home.

Just one more day till they get back!!