awww man

 Maybe there still need to be posts about how and what the kids are up to. Maybe all the cute pictures are just me being lazy? Maybe we need to remember the good with the bad? So, in honor of it being the Christmas season I will write about the good and the bad.(I'm not really sure how it actually relates to Christmas but it seemed to fit the bill of the season. Maybe it can be like the song "he knows if you've been bad or good...") And I know we've been singing that song to a few wee ones in the last few days.

I don't know if its the age, the moon, the rain, the season or, most likely, gramma, cookie and juice withdraw. Whatever it is, we have had two wild ones the past few days. Is it normal while with gramma to consume unlimited cookies and gallons of apple cider, to have an endless stack of books being read out loud at all times, to run around like a banshee hours past bedtime?  With our grammas it is.

But, back on the homestead it doesn't fly.  Not that reading isn't a wonderful thing to do with Adi, but I cannot sit and read her 15 books without pause to even catch my breath.  And well the juice and cookie speak for themselves, right?

In the midst of timeouts, 21 month old and almost 3 year old  plotting on how to take over the house, stage diving from the coffee table, near stitches, and near broken feet we managed to put up a Christmas tree, decorate it, and throw the rotting gourds onto the front porch.

In the blur of regaining life after the thanksgiving coma a little voice has been singing sweetly for all to hear ...

 sung to the tune of Frère Jacque
"Bells are ringing,  bells are ringing
Christmas is here, Christmas is here
Happy birthday Jesus,  Happy birthday Jesus
Awww Man, awww Man"

I'm just guessing here but I'm thinking that last verse is supposed to sound more like Amen.


I am also guessing, although it has not yet been confirmed, that this may be her Christmas play song at school.

Alright I was not going to add a photo but how can I leave these out?

Helping daddy put the angel on top

Papa love

Anyone think its possible for Belay to not smile for a picture? cause I don't.

a girl who is very serious about tree decorating

very special guests

A few of Adi and Belay's Aunts came for a North Carolina visit.  Due to the nature of my family, globe trotting is nothing new. A family that lives down the street, what does that mean? We grew up moving every few years. New towns, new cities, new states, new countries. Nope, not military; academia. 

As adults,  my sisters and I did what we know best. We moved. Spread from coast to coast with dabs in the middle, this crew attempts yearly gathers of all, but that rarely happens. Now, we take what we can get and enjoy time with whom ever can get where ever. 

This trip we were blessed with Auntie Chrissy all the way from L.A

We got this city girl into the country.
The day began a bit eerie, but we soaked up every bit of country anyways, hoping for enough left over to ship back to sunny L.A

Mary came down from Maryland.She is hiding there behind Belay.


                                           


We soaked in fall.

For a family who is spread far and wide my kids are lucky to have this time to spend with there Aunts. And they sure did live up to there names.

We got a little extra time with Mary. What a day we had!
I made us, what I thought was at the time, picture worth MBLT's (BLT with a twist of mozzeralla). In hindsight maybe they were not so picture worthy, but oh so yummy. Same goes for those "latte's" I made.

We played. We made Aunt Mary run errands with us, go to the park with us, play outside with us, go to the grocery store with us. I bet she had never had such a fun vacation.

She even participated in post bath, pre bedtime,  princesses song dance party complete with flashing, glowing ghost light necklaces. She even taught Adi a new move, which was practiced night after night long after Mary left.

these last photos are from my not smart phone camera

But the moment that Mary won her place in Adi's heart was when she agreed to read books to her. After she did a little work on the computer. Mary may have thought that Adi would have forgotten about the promise. Mary now knows that Adi never ever forgets anything, just like her mama:)
Adi waited and waited so patiently.  It was totally worth the wait. 

I just have to add one thing....

The other day after getting off the phone with Mary, (who is waiting patiently to become a mommy) I had this conversation with Adi 

ME: one day Mary is going to have a baby too. 

ADI: (with a little worried look in her eyes) " But not me right?"

ME:  " No, a different baby, not you. He/she will be tiny, like your dolls"

ADI: " Oh, and can she be brown and white like me and Belay?"

ME : "Maybe Adi, maybe she/he will be brown and white, but he/she may be pink too"

ADI: "I'd like her to be pink the best"

disclosure: Adi put it upon herself to deem Mary's baby whom may or may not exist yet a girl.

Crusin'

We did it.

We left the kids and went on a cruise.It was our first time crusin...can you tell?

 We acted classy and fancy and like Sea Captains.

 We went in honor of our friends Kristie and Rob to celebrate there wedding.

 We tried and tried to get a swoon worthy couple picture of us...

 

 It never happened. Are you sick of looking at us yet?

Then how about his couple? We got lots of swoony pictures of them...best friends FO EVA!!

And this couple, much cuter than the last one.

What a good looking crew huh?

Andy got to walk down the aisle, again.

We had a blast, but at the expense of a little heart ache. There were 2 little buggaboos weighing heavy on our minds. It was 4.5 days and 2.5 days too long to be away. They got to spend a wonderful amount of time with their beloved cousins and Ama, to whom we are forever grateful for. Andy and I got to spend a wonderful amount of time with our friends at their wedding.  But when it was all said and done, we just prefer to spend a wonderful amount of time with our kids.

Remember when vacation meant days of lingering over coffee late into the morning with nothing but the view ahead to think about? Well those days are long gone. Sure, we can linger all we want but our minds are always on these kids and sometimes it seems easier just to stay put right were we are.

Back in the homeland, one crabby patty woke up on the wrong side of the crib this morning and fed his cereal to the dogs and the other one crawled into our bed singing giberish at an unsightly hour and covered make believe boo boo's with every band-aid in the house all before 7 am....glad to be home but maybe I need another vacation?

Halloween

I slipped a few Halloween pictures into the last post, but here is the gist of how it all went down.

Adi was a "flower fairy princess"

Cousin Padgers was also a "flower fairy princess". 

Padgers coined the term and Adi fell for it right away. 

Halloween evening came and while we were trying to assemble all the kids into what was supposed to resemble 2 flower fairy princesses, 1 "deluxe" Ariel complete with bright red hair, and 1 Peter Pan  not to be confused with Robin Hood, a switch happened.

Adi  had been swooning over Padme's dress for weeks now.

Padme suddenly wanted nothing to do with her dress. 

Adi, seeing the beautiful original flower fairy princess dress just laying, unwanted on the floor, jumped at her chance with it.

Padgers, eyed the other most beautiful dress in the world and we had 2 beautiful Flower fairy princesses.

Both with smiles on there faces.

One lady asked Adi what she was dressed as and she promptly replied "Padme".

Post switch

Can you see her wanting eyes in the background?

Still happy with her version of the dress

Belay, seemed to know what to do right away. He marched right up to the first house with bucket held high. Do they celebrate halloween in Ethiopia? Cause this kids has done this before.
Last night we had our social worked come over for our 6 month post placement visit and when she knocked on the door, Belay opened it with bucket held high yelling "ich er eat " (trick or treat).  The poor lady, she came empty handed and little man had no intention of letting her in without a treat.

 Adi ate purple cupcakes. Does it get any better? Not if you are 2.9 years old and your favwit color is purple and your favwit food is cupcakes.

We carved a pumpkin. Adi was less than thrilled with the processes. But the end result was worth it, what with those triangle eyes and everything. Especially when you are 2.9 years old and your favwit shape is a triangle.

Belay is thrilled by everything.

These pictures beg the question " are you putting one dread in your sons hair?"

All in all it was FUN! I sure am happy its over. Halloween wore me out.

Is there something slightly condescending in Adi's face?Or os she just being the great big sis that she is?

6 month as a family

Today marks the 6 month period of meeting Belay and becoming a forever family. In 6 months he has gained probably close to 4 pounds(I'm not entirely sure) and maybe 3 or 4 inches in height. He went from being a baby whom we cradled while feeding him a bottle, to a running, eating everything, has all my teeth kid, within weeks of being home.  He has been home with us longer than he was in the orphanage and in 2 months we will have had him home as long as his "Africa Mom" (as we call her in our house) had him. Tomorrow is our 6 month post placement home visit and November is Nation adoption month! Its another big month in our home.

Belay Andrew, you have changed the lives of 3 people. No, you've changed the lives of 17 and counting people (all you cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and the list goes on and on and on). We all love you so much.  We have all been opened to a new world of what adoption means, of the beauty of Africa and Ethiopia and Addis Ababa.  Although, when I look at you all I see is my son, my little boy who was always supposed to be my family.  Your exotic brown almond eyes and those gleaming white teeth don't strike me as exotic anymore. I forget that you and I don't share the same DNA and when I see pictures of you and your sister together I forget that all families don't look like ours. Belay, our little number one, our first, our boy above all others, we love you.