updates

Belay

                                                    
   At almost 15 months, or almost 18 months depending on which birthday we go by you are just shy of 18 pounds, according to our bathroom scale whose accuracy is questionable(on the heavy side, of course.) You began walking within a few weeks of getting home in May. You run and climb on everything.  However, your favorite past time is to jump as high as you can on Adi's bed and then leap onto the floor landing on your tush as hard as you can. Then you laugh and laugh and do it all over again.              

                                         


Every hour of so you come looking for a good snuggle which must always turn into a wrestling session.
You are filled with laughter. Although we rarely hear it because you laugh silently. Its the funniest thing to see you head thrown back and your mouth wide open, but no sound coming out.
Speaking of sound, or lack of sound, you are finally learning some words. Up until about a week ago you only knew "Mama, Dad, Hi, and Uh oh "
This week you learned "cheers, Nack (snack), all gone, all done, nose, dog, wha (water), here (as in 'take this from me I don't want it anymore') sho (shoes),cheese (but only when your picture is being taken.) You are a huge ham.  When a camera comes out  you stop what you're doing and strike a pose for at least a min or two, long enough to capture 5 or 20 pictures.
You have 10 teeth and at least 2 trying to come through.

                                                
 You LOVE shoes. I can't say enough about it.You LOVE shoes.
Favorite foods: Bananas, raisins, yogurt ,& graham crackers. You could live on those things alone, but you pretty much love everything, and if you don't love we know it.
You dance, you clap, you foot stomp.You won't watch TV, although I have tried to convince you otherwise. You don't love to read, but you love your trucks.
We have to stop and watch any and every larger vehicle that we see, including an retiree van parked outside the YMCA. You have an amazing arm, and aren't fond of the no throwing in the house rule. You are all boy!

                                                                
You still love your Dad, but Mom is growing on you. Adi is your best friend. You really don't like being left out. If Adi and Mom or Dad leave you home with the other parent, your little lip starts to quiver and the tears flow.
Tonight, after dinner, you grabbed Adi's princess crown and ran as fast as you could away from her. You must have been eyeing it for a while. She ran as fast as she could after it and tackled you and took it back and placed it back on her head, where it belonged. At that moment I knew you two were meant to be siblings.

                                                            

Adi. Oh where to start.

                                                         
You are 2 1/2 and seem to know everything. You still love to read, you would read books all day. You love fashion. I often find you snuggled up with a skirt or a dress under your arm when I come to tuck you in at night.  You change clothes all day long. You only wear skirts and dresses and lately you have taken it to a new level and only wear skirts made from tulle. Purple is your favorite color and you have discovered night gowns, or sleeping gowns as you call it. Dora the Explorer is your favorite show. You still love your princesses but not like Dora.

                                                  
Instead of using "loud" (at least I think that's what you mean) you use the word "lousy." I have no idea where you learned it. But it cracks me up because you are usually referring to one of Belay's trucks making a "lousy noise" ...."Mommy, whats making that lousy noise?You think its that truck being lousy"
"Yes Adi, those truck are lousy, we should leave them at grammas house next time."

                                                         

You tell us long, detailed stories all the time.  If you don't know the answer to something you just reply with "yup". For example..."Adi do you know what that guy's name is?"   "Yup, uhu" ..." so what is it?" ..."yup"...and this continues on and on.

You told your Mem (gramma)this morning that tomorrow you where going to drive to her house, but me and Belay were staying home. And the other night you told me you were driving to a restaurant to have dinner with all your friends. You made sure I knew that YOU were the one doing the driving.  At least you knew that your friends had to sit in the back seat.
You are mastering the ladders, monkey bars and all the climbing thingys at the park, working hard on the tricycle and love "big girl"swings.

                                                          

You still love to eat, although it does seem to be calming down a little. Cereal and Mac & Cheese are by far your favorite. Oh and how could I have almost forgotten about your hat. You have a pink baseball cap that you wear every single day and the other night even asked to sleep in it. I told you it would be fine if you slept in it, at that moment I saw a love in your eye that I swear I've never seen before.  I am secretly very excited about this hat thing, because it makes me feel like there still a chance.  A chance that you give up the tulle skirts and purple dresses for a tee shirt and jeans.  I remember wanting to sleep in my favorite hat. 

You go to preschool 2 mornings a week, although I think you really would like to go everyday. Its only for a few hours but you cry when its time to go home.There has been no preschool all summer but you start up again soon, in a week and a half (not that I'm counting) I hope you are excited about it as you used to be. I love you guys!!!

                                                          

Moving on up to bigger and better

Today I am relieved!
I passed the NCLEX (nursing boards to offically become and RN) It was tough and all consuming while I studied for them all summer. After the distraction of the adoption and being in Africa during my last week of classes, I felt an extra stress on passing this test. It has been a long road getting here, but I am glad I did it and now I can MOVE ON. I can think about anything I want now, not just test questions. And I can hang out with my kids, not shoe them away while I study.
 Now, on to job hunting for the perfect 15 hr a week job!!!

The Crowning Glory of Andy

Nope. It's not being the father to these 2 goofballs. Instead...

It happened. The moment Andy has been waiting for for 2 1/2 years. During a slight disagreement between hubby and I this afternoon, Adi and her sweet 2 year old insight, came running in the room yelling "Mom, don't be mean to MY daddy!" She listened to the story and took sides. She choose Daddy's side. Good riddance to all those night nursing her or the 15 hours of labor or the 40 1/2 weeks in my belly.

Wedding day in the Big Easy

I am going to post a happy anniversary Andy post today because on Aug 11, our 4th anniversary, we will be in NEW ORLEANS! Yup, Andy surprised me with a quick jaunt to the Big Easy.  It will be quick, but oh so worth it. Kids will be with Mem and Apa (my parents) and our neighbor is house sitting the furry guys and we will be FREE for 2 1/2 days. We have only left the kids for about a 12 hour overnight so this is a big deal.
Andy, I'll save the internet world from having to hear me talk about how much I love you. But I do, and Happy Wedding day +4 years.

Kids room finally got a makeover

  After long deliberation, the kids room finally got painted. We were going for a nice earthy orange.But this blue green turned out great. Its peaceful and still fun, feminine and boyish enough.We still need to finish the trim but it's a start.I also tried to get the room cleaned up before I took the pictures, but the little monsters where doing their best to pull out every toy while I was snapping away.

 

 

Adi's bed.

On the wall I hung 8 little cork board squares so as she grows and her obsessions change (like the color purple,butterflies, and Dora) So she can decorate as she pleases. I suppose one day there may be pictures of rockstars and movie stars pinned there.           

  

I had been looking for a sweet mobile or something to hang over her bed, similar to the one we got Belay in the markets in ET. But I could not find a single thing I liked, so I made one. Its pretty basic, a stick with purple ribbon wrapped around it and pretty butterflies (bought at Micheal's) hanging from fishing                                                                                                                                             

 Belays bed. 

This painting of the baby elephant is titled "He reminded me of my two year old in so many ways..."By Lea Bell . Well said. We have had this painting for a while, long before we had kids. Once Adi was born we put it in her room, but it feel like it finally found a home over Belay's crib.

The "Dancing Africans" Mobile (as I like to call it) was one of the few precious items  brought home from the markets in Addis Ababa.

 

His shelf seems to have turned into a parking garage for all the trucks

 

This photograph of Belay was made from his referral photo. It was the only picture we had of him for a few months. It will always be close to our hearts.

 

And Adi's eye's from about the same age.

 

 "play area"

(Really it's just a lot of books )

                        This painting is an original by artist Sara Faulkner.

Humility and Selflessness

I was reminded, after spending time with a friend who recently had a new baby, about the selflessness and humility it takes to be a parent.  Priorities no longer include how many hours at the office I logged  and how much bigger my pay check will be because of it, the rat race of getting ahead in my career no longer matters, what new resturants we've been to or how many parties we've thrown are a mute point, and lazy saturdays of watching movies in bed are a thing of the far far past. It was so easy to say pre kids that we could only "afford" so many or that having a kid would make getting a career that much harder.  And while these facts are very much a reality in my life, I would not change a single thing about it. 
To write about oneself being selfless seems to be somewhat of an oxymoron yet it is one of the only ways to describe parenting.  You are giving all of yourself to another being.  Whether it is something you as a parent strives for or not, you are undoubtable doing so in even the smallest of ways on a daily basis.  From the early months of waking to feed your baby, whether you are able to physically provide the food from your breast or not, to the toddler years of wearing bananas on your work shirt and having a purse full of diapers and sippy cups instead of ...well what else would one carry in a purse?
You are giving all of yourself to your child. You are being selfless, even when you spend a night out with your girlfriends, because you are most likely thinking, worrying, longing for you children.

To write about being humbled is another thing. I am not sure that all parents are humbled in their everyday.  I think that some, while still giving their all to their kids and being as selfless as the next parent, still find ways to keep their pride. Whether they wake hours before their kids to "maintain" their pre child looks(maybe its a 10 mile run, maybe its a shower and clean ironed clothes), or work late into the night after the little ones are in bed to "maintain" their career and stay at the top, these parents are still holding onto their pride. I find it admirable that there are parents out there that are capable of surmounting these, in my mind, unattainable tasks.  They still get to win races, have careers, get raises and promotions.  But for those of us who instead have taken the other path, to be humbled day in and day out, are living in such a way that only a parent can understand and even desire of themselves.  Until last night, I am not sure I wanted to be humbled this way.  I still wanted and tried to win races and dreamed of a career. While I do hope these things still happen, I have come to terms that they will come in due time.

I feel my humility everyday when my fellow graduate from nursing school ask me where I am working and I reply that my priorities lie with my babies and I am hoping to find someone flexible enough to understand that and still be willing to give me a chance and hire me.  When we think about the economy and the housing market and see so many family and friends snatching up amazing deals on incredible, gorgeous houses and knowing that our growing family is growing right out of our little bungalow, we are humbled.  We are choosing instead to work less hours and spend more hours together.  While I would love so much to move into a spacious, roomy house, and often day dream about it, instead I choose to not work full time in order to cook lunch for my babies everyday and be home when they go to bed. And we are humble in our wonderfully, cute bungalow where we are lucky enough to live.

When all is said and done, I still choose life with kids. I am rejoicing in the joy they bring me every single day. To watch them grown and learn is truly a miracle of life. There is no other way to describe it. To hear Belay work on one word for days and the suddenly he masters it and doesn't stop repeating that word over and over again, is a gift. Watching Adi turn into a little girl who carries on full conversations and makes us laugh so hard has been the highlight of my summer.