Happy Birthday, Sweet Alemitu

We had a Wiggles Birthday Party!! My little baby girl just turned 2. On one hand it feels like she has been with us forever. On the other hand, I can't believe almost 1 1/2 years has already gone by since we brought her home. It feels like we were in Ethiopia just a few months ago. Here is a snapshot of Allie at age 2:

Measurement - 16th percentile for height/weight, but growing at the appropriate pace for her size

Attitude - Bossy; diva; completely runs our house; sweet; belly laugher; funny; cuddly

Favorite Things to Do - Play with her brothers; Watch/Dance to the Wiggles or Care Bears ("She-She")

Speech - She just started talking more in full sentences (i.e. "No Mommy, I don't want to sit down. No Mommy, I don't want to eat" -- at least she's polite about it). She also calls her grandmas and great-grandmas "Papaw". All grandparents are "Papaw". I was a little sad when an Ethiopian man recently spoke Amharic to her and her face didn't show any recognition.

Dare Devil - Don't throw her up in the air, but she loves going on theme park rides. Her favorite thing to "ride" is a swing. She loves to swing, and HATES to get off the swing.

Water - She is a little fish. She loves to jump in and try to swim back to me. She loves the pool ("Wa-Wa"), and she stays underwater most of the time she is in it.

Brothers - She adores her brothers and tries so hard to keep up with them. For the longest time, she called both boys "Wes". Then she started calling Calvin "Dough-Kah". And now she calls them "Wessy" and "Cal". Occasionally, she will yell at them in a bossy manner saying "BOYS!" or "GUYS!"

Result of head butting Wes

In the tornado ride with her brothers.

Sleeping - She is still an amazing sleeper. She sleeps about 12-14 hours a night and takes a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. We've let her sleep in our room a handful of times, but it doesn't always go well. She stays up for hours, laying quietly, and playing with our faces while we try to sleep.

She has to have her baby to sleep.

Diva - Her bio mommy must have been a girly-girl because that describes Alemitu perfectly. She loves wearing jewelry ("Gee-Gee"), high heels, sunglasses, and sparkly shoes. She is very particular about her shoes.

Naked, but in her high heels

Food - She doesn't eat much, but her doctor is okay with it since she is still growing at a good pace. Sometimes she will devour her food, but mostly she picks at it. She will attempt to eat anything you put in front of her. Recently, she almost ate 2 cheeseburger patties for dinner while we were in Indiana. She loves to dip everything in ketchup ("bucket") or ranch.

Hair - She has gotten really good at sitting still to get her hair done. On occasion she will cry through it, but most of the time she sits calmly and watches The Wiggles while I braid her hair. (30 minutes - 2 hours) As soon as I tell her "All Done", she has to find her daddy and brothers to show them her new hair. I received the biggest compliment while we were in Nashville recently. An Ethiopian man was shocked that I was the one who had braided her hair. He was amazed at what a good job I did, and told me that my style was just like the girls wear their hair in Ethiopia.

Games - Alemitu loves to play little games like stealing your spot or stealing your blanket (thanks to my mom). She'll tell you to do or say something, and then she'll yell at you after you do/say it. She has a great belly laugh and sparkle in her eye as she tries to trick you with something or other.

Trouble - Alemitu definitely succeeds in running this house most of the time, but sometimes we have to be the parent and put her in time-out. Just like her brothers, she goes in time-out quietly and waits until she is released. Even though she can be demanding and bossy (i.e. yelling at people to "sit down!"), she is really a good girl.

We love her so much, and Adam and I often talk about how we can't imagine not having her in our family. She brings us so much joy and love. Here's to another great year!

Blessings from Wes & Calvin

I've had a rough couple of weeks. In the last 8 days, I was diagnosed with a bladder infection, kidney stone, and then kidney infection. We had to cancel our San Diego vacation with our friends because of this (planned for months). My old dog had a seizure with vertigo last night (emergency vet assumes), and I thought she was dying. And. Insert big sigh. My sister moved away - something I still can't discuss without breaking down. It has been a crummy, crummy week. I've been feeling sorry for myself. And that's okay . . . a little.

So each day I've been counting my blessings. I have so, so many blessings. Each day something so cute or funny happens with my kids that I want to tell everyone about. I always talk about Alemitu, so I thought I'd share a few of my blessings from Wes and Calvin:


A few nights ago, the boys were pretending to be Mario and Luigi. Of course, Alemitu wanted to play. The boys always make sure she gets some of their toys, but this time they went further. They dressed her up to be the Princess on Mario Bros. (They also said our dog was Yoshi.) To walk into my bedroom, and see all three kids dancing on the bed, pretending to be Mario and Luigi, and singing with pretend microphones in their hands --- aaahh. Life just doesn't get better than those moments. I love those moments.

This week, I also caught Calvin saying "Dammin" and Wes saying "What the hell". They had no clue that they were saying anything bad, and so we talked about words that just aren't very nice to use. Moments like these where I can sit and discuss with my kids about being "respectable young men" (per Coach Justin), are moments where I realize that life just doesn't get any better than this.

This week, I also sat down and played Mario Brothers on the Wii with the boys. I have been working with my boys to defeat one of the games. We take turns playing, and there is so much encouragement and laughter in these moments (slight frustration too if you were to ask Adam). Everytime we pass a hard level, my boys give me a huge hug and tell me how much they love me, and then they dance around the room. I'm their hero in that moment. What a great feeling. Life is good in those moments.

A few days ago, I took the boys to the splash park to meet some of their friends. When we got home, Wes turned to Calvin and said, "This was the best day ever, right bud?" Calvin agreed. Wes has a ton of "best days ever". It makes me laugh every time I hear him say that, but how amazing is that -- to have a life filled with "best days ever". 

This week, I saw the boys get a little sneaky. Aunt Jenna's birthday presents for them were shipped to our house. I opened the box from Amazon and saw the gifts inside. Nosy Wes walks around the corner and says "Mom, what's that?" I told him that it was gifts from Aunt Jenna and to keep his grubby hands out of the box. I put the box up high on our 3/4 wall between the family room and kitchen. Five minutes later, I walk into the room again. Wes has a guilty look on his face. I turn to see where Calvin is, and he is trying to climb the wall to get to the presents. My sneaky little boys.

Even though I'm sad, my life is filled with happiness and I feel it daily. Life is good. So ready for my upcoming vacation though. :-)

San Francisco

Our family LOVES San Francisco. We couldn't wait until our 8 day vacation there in May. We rented a flat that was steps away from the Pacific Ocean in the Richmond District. It was such a wonderful, wonderful vacation. The boys kept asking to move there. Wes said it was because Frisco's pizza rolls were better. Hmmm.

We spent our time at the science museum, zoo, Golden Gate park (a few times), the ocean, and Muir Woods. It was such a great break from daily life. Even though we have vacationed there in the past, there is just so much to do in that city that we have barely scratched the surface. The only bad thing that happened was when Wes got sick one night. It went EVERYWHERE, and the beds had layers and layers of thick bedding. Once Adam got him showered, we put him in the second bedroom while we cleaned up the first. A few

We stayed in the yellow flat above the garage.

minutes later, he got sick all over the second bedroom. Thank goodness the flat had extra bedding, but I had to wake up every hour to switch the laundry loads from 1:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. The laundry was downstairs, and I was trying so hard to be quiet and not wake up the lady who lived in the flat above us. Other than that night, the week was really, really fun.


One day we drove by a house that was having an open house, and we decided to pop in. We were the only people in the house with the owner. The owner was Korean and didn't speak very good English. The entire time we were having trouble communicating. However at one point, he asked "She isn't your daughter though, right?" We said yes. He immediately puts his fingers up in a "tsk tsk" motion shaming me and saying something in Korean and laughing at the same time. Adam and I both said, "She's adopted." He felt horrible and kept apologizing, and we were trying not to laugh. So we turned around and looked out the big picture window so he wouldn't see us smile --- only to be facing an older woman in only her bra vacuuming her house across the street right in front of the open window. We left the house trying to suppress our laughs.

Trails by our flat

I can't wait to go to San Francisco again. I love, love, love that city and I really hope that at one point in my life I will be able to live there. After all, I hear the pizza rolls are great.

Hanging out at the flat

Golden Gate Park

Our boys are artistic -- creating art with food

At the trails right by our flat

From inside the flat

More trails by the flat

Muir Woods

Adam and Calvin playing with cameras while Allie is in the background upset because she is stuck on the fence.

Golden Gate Park

Pacific Ocean

The boys experiencing a payphone.

Climbing structure at Golden Gate Park

At Pier 39

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter this year. It just so happened that I turned 32 on Easter, so we had a birthday/Easter weekend. I was able to celebrate my birthday while my parents were in town. Mom and the boys decorated my house with "Happy Birthday" signs while I was at work. Then Sunday, both sets of grandparents came to see the kids for a little bit.

Wes helping Alemitu hunt for eggs. She caught on very quickly.

After that, I went to my sister's house (who had just given birth to my nephew!!) for an impromptu visit (picking up a carving knife that she bought and I borrow probably more times than they've used it themselves) and was able to spend about 45 minutes of sister time with her. My family was at home napping, and when I got home I told Adam that it was such a highlight of my day to have some quality time with her. It put a big smile on my face.

For the afternoon/evening, we went to our good friends' house and had dinner and a big Easter egg hunt. Adam ended up throwing me in their pool at the end of the evening. Even with that, we had such a nice, relaxing time laughing the night away. At the end of the night, the adults were all sitting around a table outside and the kids were running around the backyard. I looked around the table, as we were all telling stories and laughing with (at) each other, and I just felt so blessed. I feel like I use the word "blessed" a lot, but I can't think of another way to describe it. I am one happy, blessed, 32 year old.

Captain America joined us for birthday lunch.

Coloring Easter eggs

Wes spinning Adam for a 'pin the nose on the lion' birthday game.

Spring Time Pictures

Adam teaching the kids important life lessons (on a swing set)

Alemitu's first trip to the ice cream truck. It soon fell splat on the garage floor.

Superhero spotting! As my mom says, the boys are "protecting the dent". (They call the cul-de-sac a 'dent'.) They still dress up in costumes daily.

The boys wanted to go to sleep in my Jeep.

I love these kids!