Family Visit

Sabrina's parents and older sister (and family) came to visit for a week. We had a great time, and the kids had a blast. They were here for Easter, and so we had a picnic in the park and even had an egg hunt and snowball fight. (stuffed snowballs) The boys played really well with their cousins, and Alemitu played really well with Aunt Tina. She talks nonstop about Aunt Tina now. She pretends to call her on the phone, asks me if we can go to her house, asks me if I am talking to her on the phone, asks if she is in the airplane in the sky, etc. Aunt Tina, Aunt Tina, Aunt Tina.

Here are some highlights from their visit:

We went to a spring training game, but it was really hot sitting in the stands. So Grandpa started a baseball game with the kids in the cool, grassy area.

Alemitu's first "big kid" ride.

She LOVED it!

Alemitu's second "big kid" ride. (She is sitting with Grandpa.)

She HATED IT! Look closely to see her crying into grandpa's chest. Unfortunately, this ride goes twice -- so she had to go again. After that, she was done with big kid rides. Done.

 

The boys LOVE going to Castle n Coasters with my dad. You can see why! I think he likes to take them just as much!

 

Everyone else was done riding roller coasters except for Wes. He told me he was brave enough to go by himself so I walked him up there and away he went. He was so proud of himself, and I was so proud of him.

Kissing cousins. They kiss and hug .. all of the time. Seriously. All. The. Time. (At least they aren't blood related???)

Alemitu is learning to give judgmental, questioning looks from her other cousin Chloe.

Fun in the Jeep with the hard top off.

Alemitu and Uncle "Feeeel" (Phil)

Lots of playground time.

Hiking on the White Tank Mountains.

I'm the Princess!!

Alemitu and I jetted off to Texas for a long weekend to visit my sister and her family. We had a great time even though we only left the house twice, and that was just to go ride the carousel at the mall down the street. My sister and I are perfectly comfortable staying in our pajamas all day and just letting the kids play while we catch up. Plus, it was really cold outside. Each day we'd sit on the couch while we talked and researched on our laptops. I was obsessing, I mean "researching", information about a house we had just got into contract with -- and then we canceled it that weekend -- and then we put an offer on another house I had never seen that weekend too. It was crazy, and I ended up electronically signing an offer on another house that I had never seen on the flight home. Jenna found the house, Adam saw the house, and then we made an offer on the house -- all within 12 hours of it getting on the market, and even with asking over the listing price, we still didn't get it. In addition to obsessing over finding me a house, Jenna was also "researching" her upcoming Disney vacation. I think we drove Zach crazy, but it was the perfect weekend!

Riding the "round and round and up and down"

Alemitu and Chloe had a great time too. Sometimes they would graciously include Baby Levi (as Allie refers to him) in their fun. Both girls are very strong willed and like to be in charge, but they carry it out so differently. Alemitu is loud. Very loud. I didn't realize until that weekend exactly how loud she actually is. Chloe is extremely quiet. You have to concentrate to hear her, but she is just as strong willed -- just quietly. I call her "silent sneaky". Both girls ended up standing in the corner a few times, but overall they played together really well. I had brought Chloe some sour gummy worms to win over her affection. It worked. She would quietly walk up to me, sometimes climb in my lap, and just stare at me. Gummy worm time. :-) She got tired of doing all that work after a while and then just started sneaking into my room and getting them out of my purse. BUT, she still wanted me to hold her at times -- and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Dr. Pepper sitting next to me that I'd always let her drink out of.

Picking Flowers

There was one incident over who was the princess. Alemitu is so into princesses right now. Everything is about the Disney princesses. She shared her passion with Chloe that weekend. One evening at dinner Chloe very quietly said she was a princess. That did not sit well with Alemitu. Alemitu immediately, and loudly, announced that she was the princess, not Chloe. They went back and forth. We explained that there are two princesses -- Princess Alemitu and Princess Chloe. After saying that a few times, Alemitu calmed down and accepted it (or so we thought). Later that evening when the girls were getting ready for bed, Alemitu asked if she could go give Chloe a hug goodnight. Of course, sweet child. She went into Chloe's bedroom and gave her a sweet hug and kiss. What a perfect angel child I have raised. As we were walking out of Chloe's room, Alemitu stopped at the door, spun around, and loudly declared "I THE PRINCESS!" And then she turned back around and walked to her room. Oh dear. 

It was the perfect weekend, and I thought I'd be okay saying goodbye because I will see Jenna again soon. However when we said goodbye, Alemitu starting crying really, really hard. All weekend she wanted her daddy and brothers. We had to talk to them several times a day. But she was so sad to leave Chloe. She just kept crying and saying that she wanted to stay with Chloe. Of course Jenna and I both lost it at that moment. Chloe just quietly stood there staring at Alemitu, probably freaked out over Alemitu's extreme reaction, but I know her heart was hurting too. It just killed me to see Alemitu so upset over leaving Chloe. I'm glad we'll get to see them again soon.

 

That weekend, Alemitu also began declaring that she is not "baby" "honey" "sweetie" etc., she is "Alemitu". Every time we would call her something else, she would declare that she is Alemitu. Since we've been home (I'm writing this blog 2 months after our trip), Alemitu has a script that she repeats word for word about 10 times a day (because we haven't broke our habit yet). It is "I not a baby. Levi baby. I Alemitu."She even repeated it to her teacher at school who translated that to mean that I was having another baby. Um, no. Jenna says that Alemitu's world will turn upside down next month when she see Levi and sees that he isn't really a baby anymore. I'm more interested in seeing how both girls share grandma. Although favorite Aunt Tina will be there too, so I think we'll be okay. (Let's not kid ourselves, Jenna and I rank far below Energetic, Never Stopping, Aunt Tina when it comes to favorite aunts. And Allie talks about Tina every day. So it will be just fine.)

Alemitu trying to hold Baby Levi

In a vertical tunnel, trapped by Uncle Zachy

Happy 2 Year Anniversary

I can't believe it has been 2 years since we first saw this beautiful face:

1/22/11: ..."One of the nannies brought in Allie. We were expecting her to cry -- everyone was. She didn't. She stared us down. She went right to me and then she kept looking at Adam and his camera. She reached out to grab the camera. Then she grabbed Adam's hand and held on tight."...

And two years since we were forever blessed by the strength of this man:

1/25/11: "...He wants her to know how much he loves her, and that he hopes we love her just as much...." 

 And two years since we had to say goodbye:

1/26/11: ..."When it was time, I gave her back to the nannies and I tried to wave bye and explain to them that I wasn't coming back. The nannies didn't speak English, but they understood when they saw my eyes well up with tears. I just quickly handed her over, waved goodbye, and turned around and walked away. I walked to the balcony where Adam was standing and he went to give me a hug. I said, "Please do not touch me. I will fall apart." He understood and we left the transition home quickly as all I could think about was just putting one foot in front of the other and not falling down on the ground with tears. She was my daughter...."

 And two years since she came home:

Taken a few days after we became a family.

Taken at Alemitu's 1st adoption anniversary

 

Taken at Alemitu's 2nd adoption anniversary

While at times, January 2011 seems like yesterday. There are other times that I feel as though Alemitu has been with us forever. She is full of love and life, and she brings such happiness to our family. Also such craziness to our family. Such silliness to our family. Such love to our family. Such attitude to our family. And such NOISE to our family. I wouldn't trade a single piece of her personality. She is beautiful, inside and out. 

I wouldn't trade a single tear shed over her. A single bit of anxiety felt through the process. A single bit of fear. Or a single dollar spent. Our journey had its ups and down, and it was full of emotion along the way, but that was the journey we needed to take to get to where we are today. And the journey has just begun. I never want to get complacent. I fought hard for her 2 years ago, and I fight hard for her everyday. I fight hard for my family. Adam and I made a vow to that little girl that we will never stop fighting for her. The same vow we made to our boys as we fought for them in the NICU. And we won't stop. We will never let complacency or selfishness get in the way of fighting for her. I never want to have to say that kind of goodbye again. I never want my child to ever know the feeling that comes with parents who have stopped fighting. I never want Alemitu's grandfather to ever feel pain with thoughts or worries that we may stop fighting. 

I never want to forget each and every moment, and each and every miracle, and each every prayer said through the journey we took to bring Alemitu Tagese home. She lights up our lives. She is my daughter, and I cannot wait to watch her grow into a beautiful woman. Our journey wasn't to save her. Alemitu saved us.

Winter Fun

I can't believe it is spring already. We had a great winter. Here are some pictures:

1.  We adopted a dog . . . 

Our old dog Clementine has no interest in playing with the boys. She is 12 years old and sleeps all day long. The boys have taken an interest into dogs, and so we decided it was time to get them their own dog. Adam and I were both hesitant about this. I specifically said I didn't want a dog younger than six months; one that would be large; and one that was a light color (new brown couch at home). Well, we bought a 9 week old puppy, that will be very large, and will have long, thick white fur. Yep, I'm a sucker.

The boys have really enjoyed their dog . . . "Scooby" . . . a girl. They play with Scooby a lot, and Allie is enjoying her more and more too. She LOVED Scooby at first and then HATED Scooby. Now she wants to be around Scooby all of the time, but still starts to get upset if Scooby is hyper and running around.

Our old dog is doing okay too. She loved having Scooby at home, but now she gets annoyed on occasion - especially since Scooby has already doubled in size. Clementine still doesn't want her personal time though, she prefers to have her eyes on Scooby at all times. This timing was perfect because a week after we brought Scooby home we found out that Clementine has cancer. The good news is that it is slow growing, but it is still cancer. Some days I love Scooby, and some days I think "what have I done?" I guess this is Karma for when Adam surprised me with a cat for my birthday -- and never asked my parents' permission. At the time, I couldn't understand why my mom wouldn't just fall in love with the amazing new kitty. Yep, karma.

Alemitu pretending to be a dog at the vet.

2. Sickness continued in our house through February. Wes got so sick in January that I couldn't even leave the house. Trust me, I tried. I tried to bribe him with a trip to Toys R' Us, but nothing could get him to move off of the couch. Unfortunately Adam was out of town that week and our refrigerator broke down and all the food was bad. We drank soda and ordered pizza twice, and then a great friend brought us a chicken nugget tray and gallon of lemonade. She even offered to go to the grocery for me, but Wes was finally on the mend. I was definitely overwhelmed those 3 days, but I learned (after getting lectured by a few friends) that I need to work on asking for help sometimes.
As for Allie, she gets sick in style . . .

This was taken 5 minutes later.

3.  The boys started riding the bus to and from school. In kindergarten, riding the bus wasn't worth it. It would take us longer to walk to the neighborhood gate to wait for the bus than it was for me to just drive to the school. Plus we liked to ride bikes. Okay, I'll admit it -- I couldn't imagine my poor, helpless, confused, scared little boys on a big, bad bus. In 1st grade, we got a variance to keep our kids in the same school, and so we had to drive 10 minutes to/from school. No bus options. And now in 2nd grade, I have run out of excuses. The boys were curious about riding, and I couldn't think of a single reason why they couldn't. So, I hesitantly said yes. And now I wonder why the heck I didn't do this sooner. Having the kids ride the bus is awesome! No more showing up to school and fighting the new pick-up system. I . . . I mean the boys, love it!

On Thursdays, the boys stay late for a drawing class, so I still pick them up on those days. One afternoon, I went out to start my Jeep to run a few errands before picking them up. My Jeep wouldn't start. Dead battery. Adam was on a shoot and couldn't be reached. My sister and brother-in-law were selfish and moved away from me so they can't be here to rescue me at my beck and call. And, I hate asking for help so I didn't even call the friends and clients that live within a mile of me and would not hesitate to help me out. So... it was time to try out the golf cart. I didn't know how much battery remained, but I gave it a shot. I drove to the store, to the post office, and to my work. It started slowing down on the way to school. Crap. I picked up the boys and they told me they would just push it if it died. I explained that there is no way they can push this thing. Well sure enough it died about .5 miles from home. And sure enough those boys were determined to push the golf cart. And they did. I was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my cheeks. For a while, I even sat in it as they pushed me (their idea). Cars were driving by us and staring as a mother is laughing while her young children push her in a golf cart. We came home so sweaty, but we had the best time ever.

4.  It snowed! One day we had a freak winter storm and it actually snowed in Scottsdale. This is a picture taken by Adam's office.

 5. Grandma came to visit for a few days in February. My mom said we were "on the way" to her business trip in San Francisco. (And my other sister, in Texas, was "on the way home".) I'm not complaining though, we love these little visits. I am so very lucky to get to see my family as much as I do. We went to the park a few times, and we also went hiking on a new trail. And as always, the boys "kicked her butt" at Wii games. It was a great weekend. The kids always look forward to these visits, and it is so hard to say goodbye. Alemitu really has a hard time with it and will usually start crying. It breaks my heart.

6.  Alemitu has learned that she can get out of her bed and play while she is supposed to be napping. If she hears us coming, she'll run back in bed and pretend she is asleep. One night we could hear her playing with toys in her bed. (Her bed is usually filled with toys under the covers.) She kept playing with this electronic telephone. After about 10 minutes, Adam went in there, and she immediately tried to hide. He said, "Allie, you need to go to bed." She kept trying to hide, but was looking back over at him. He said, "Were you talking on your phone?" She said, "Gamma call me daddy." It's all gamma's fault.

Like I said, we had a great January and February. March gets even crazier with a lot of changes . . . but I'll post about all of that soon. :-)

This Is What We Are Up Against

This is what we are up against. Alemitu is 25 pounds of attitude. We love it, and we are absolutely terrified of it. She makes our lives interesting, and I couldn't imagine having her in our lives without the attitude . . . but I am so terrified of what's to come.

Alemitu never misses a beat. She is so quick to pick up on things, and she has no problem shaking that finger at you and letting you know who is in charge and how things are going to work. (I blame her brothers because they give her anything she wants.) Recently, she has taken a break from finger shaking and decided to start staring us down. When she doesn't like what you have to say, she will slowly begin to cross her arms, lower her head, look up at you with her eyes, and glare. She will stand that way for the longest time. It is so hard not to laugh.

She began doing it a few times each day so I kept my camera handy in hopes of getting a picture. The one above was after I told her it was time for bed. Glare. After a few days, I told her that she didn't scare me. She thought that was hilarious and began laughing and saying "Alemitu scare mommy! Alemitu scare mommy!" The next day, I just glared back at her. She broke out in laughter after that too. She then decided that her scary glare wasn't very scary and thus not effective. So she went back to the finger shaking. Every once in a while we still get that look.

Because Alemitu has so much attitude, sometimes we have to be tough on her when she doesn't want to follow our rules. She doesn't scream and throw fits or anything like that. She just simply says things like "Um . . . . no" when we ask her to do things. She weighs her options to decide if she wants to do what she is told . . . she is her mother's child if I am to believe the stories told about me. (Surely not.) Time out doesn't seem to faze her. She finds a place to sit, and then she plays with the carpet, her hands, or the wall. No big deal. I mentioned to Adam that we might want to introduce the corner (an idea I got from my sister). Adam at first couldn't imagine doing that. He felt it was way too archaic. Well  . . . a few days after he returned home from a business trip, I got the following picture when I was away at work. She was not happy, but it worked. 

While I may be slightly terrified of her attitude, I am thankful that she does listen most of the time. And I'm even more thankful that she puts more energy into having a good, hyper, loving, silly, singing, dancing, super loud talking attitude. She may be 25 pounds of attitude, but most of it is a kind of attitude that will brighten anyone's day.

As a funny sidenote, about an hour after I received the "standing in the corner" picture from Adam, I also received the following pictures. Poor Adam. It was kind of a rough daddy/daughter day. 

Bad luck with fish!

Adam and I have a pretty bad history with having fish for pets. We always think it is a great idea, but it isn't. It is a horrible idea! And our stupidity (i.e. not realizing you can put fish in a cold bowl of new water while you clean their tank) always kills the fish. For the past 10 years, I have had a very strict rule -- NO FISH!

Well it was my idea to get Alemitu her fish. But this time we were going to keep it simple. Just one little goldfish in one little tank of water. Seems simple right? Wrong.

On Christmas morning, Alemitu was super excited to discover her fish. She kept wanting to touch the fish and play with it. We were so excited that she loved the goldfish ("Goldie"), and we were even more thrilled that we had picked out a tank with a lid so she couldn't touch the fish on her own. 

Alemitu touching Goldie while we cleaned the tank.

My cat checking out his dinner, I mean the fish.

The fish had a great few weeks, but one night Adam told me that Alemitu may have overfed Goldie a little. We joked about how it would be our luck to find the fish dead in the morning. Turns out -- if you overfeed a fish, the fish food takes the oxygen out of the water and kills the fish. Crap.

So after work the next day, I head to the pet store to get a new fish. Instead of a boring old goldfish, I buy a pretty fish with orange and white stripes. I think this is a great idea until Adam asks me how I'm going to explain the change of color to Alemitu. Simple. We got a new fish and the other one went bye bye. She's 2. I showed Alemitu her new fish and immediately she began asking for her old one. Crap. 

After explaining that the old fish went bye bye so that the new fish could live with us, Alemitu was once again excited. We had to clean the fish tank before we could put the new fish in it. Alemitu was so upset that she had to take a nap without the fish in the tank. We had the fish in a bowl in the kitchen while the tank (in Alemitu's room) was warming up. When Alemitu wakes up from her nap, the first thing she wants to do is check on the fish and put it in her tank. So we run to the kitchen to see the fish, but there is no fish in the bowl!!! The fish was on the kitchen floor after jumping out of the bowl to its death. This is an all too familiar scenario for Adam and I. Crap.

I was able to distract Alemitu (who hadn't noticed the dead fish on the floor) by telling her the fish wasn't ready just yet. Adam booked it over to the pet store and bought a third fish that looked exactly like the second. Problem solved. New fish went into the tank, and so far, so good. I am sure that it will only be a matter of time though.

Calvin's First Girlfriend (I think)

One of the main reasons I write this blog is so that when I am doing the kids' photobooks for each year, I can look back at this blog and remember the little moments. I need to document this one.

Calvin talks a lot about a girl named Julia at school. They are the only two in the class that go to a reading program, and they have become good friends. I know that for most of the school year, Julia has been the one person he has played with on the playground at recess. As a worry wart, sometimes I worry that maybe the other boys don't want him to play with them. Calvin is extremely well liked at school (so I'm told), and I believe it. He is incredibly caring, generous, and is extremely, extremely laid back. He gets along with everyone. So I know it was silly of me to worry that none of the boys wanted to play with him, but it was still on my list of worries.

Today Calvin and I spent some quality time together. Wes is really sick with the flu (sicker than I've ever seen him), and he didn't get up from the couch all day. Calvin didn't know what to do with himself. I offered to play with him, but he just wanted his brother. Calvin told me that he used to like to play alone sometimes, but now he knows he was wrong -- he never wants to play alone again. Ha! I explained that normal kids have to do that every day -- they don't have a twin that lives with them. He couldn't believe it.

Anyway, while we were hanging out I told him that he was invited to a birthday party for a girl in his class. He said that he wasn't friends with this girl, but she was nice. He then specified that his best friend was Julia. I asked if he had other friends at school. He said he did, and listed a few, but he said that he liked to play with Julia the most and they play together every day. He then told me that one time Julia wanted to play freeze tag and he didn't want to. She thought he was mad at her, and so later in the day at library she asked if they could still be friends even though he didn't play freeze tag with her. He said "yes".

That conversation made me feel so much better knowing that he chooses to play with Julia, and not the boys. And it also made me smile because I think he may have his first girlfriend, and they almost had a break up over freeze tag. I encouraged him to keep playing with Julia because she seems like a nice girl.

Calvin is such a cool kid. He is just so easy going, and he has no problem doing what he wants and not what is expected. Recently, I got an e-mail from his former teacher for kindergarten and first grade, and she wrote:

Your family makes me smile. I hope I can have boys who are so well behaved and have their own personalities that they aren't afraid to share with others, like yours. I think that's what I always liked best about Calvin. He was his own person no matter what. Peer pressure meant nothing to him. I hope he stays that way.

 Me too, Mrs. V. Me too.