Happy Days

I need to get better at keeping up with blogging.  My intention was to continue this blog, so M & B had something to reflect on years down the road.  I think about blogging often, creating posts in my head, but logging on and putting my thoughts in words has become more of a challenge lately.  So, my Spring resolution will be to blog more often.  Ethiopia has been on my mind a lot lately.  For one, I still dream of returning, and possibly adopting again.  When I heard the MOWA news, my heart became heavy, and the pit in my stomach grew.  I feel for PAPs, APs and the children of Ethiopia.  I know that when I was a PAP, after committing to adopt from Ethiopia, I couldn't dream of bringing my children home from anywhere else in the world.  And now, as an AP, a huge piece of my heart will always be in Ethiopia.  Therefore, what is happening today in Ethiopia affects me deeply.

I wanted to bring a little "happy" to the week.  I am late, late, late on posting about B's "1st" birthday.  She waited very patiently for everybody else to celebrate their birthday (Uncle Brian, Grampy Peter, Muse, Grammy Susie, Papa Pete, Mommy, Daddy, etc), and it was *finally* her turn.  On March 3rd, we celebrated her first birthday with a visit to Chuck E. Cheese (please, hold the comments :) ).  And on the 5th, we celebrated her birthday with family, including Little A and her mom at home with pizza and ET food from Addis Red Sea.  The countdown to her birthday started weeks before.....Biskut was very sad that Mommy was working on her birthday (which made me feel even more horrible).  My Mom surprised B, and took her out after school while she waited for me to get out of work.  Biskut had a b-day celebration at school, and she came home with a little Happy Birthday hat.  She wore it out with my Mom, and apparently a couple of women bent down to wish her a Happy Birthday, and Biskut's response?  "How did you know its my birthday?"  It cracked my Mom up.
Here she is looking ever so Punky Brewster in her cute sundress and blue jeans:

On Friday night, the night before her family party, we were lying in her bed together, as we often do on weekend nights.  Although I consider myself to be very sensitive, I haven't really cried since leaving their birth family back in June.  But, on this night, my tears were flowing.  She spoke of her family, and I had to explain to her how much they love her, and how truly happy they would be knowing that she is so happy and healthy.  I didn't think she could see my crying as I spoke to her in the dark of the night.  There was a tiny bit of light from the moon sneaking in between the blinds, just enough for her to see the tears.  She wrapped her little arms around me and said, "I love you Mommy.  I will never leave you.  You love me too much."  Oh, my heart just melted.  She is the sweetest little girl I have ever met, and I am so lucky to be able to call her  my daughter.

Her party day arrived, and here she is with her brother, Muse, and Little A in her new Disney "Princess" dress:

I don't want this post to be all about Miss B.  We had our parent-teacher conference this past week with Muse's teacher.  We are thrilled to report that he is doing extremely well.  He always has a smile on his face.  She told us that all of the teachers know him and adore him.  She can't believe how much he is able to eat (still).  He is a math whiz, maybe even to the point that they may be able to accelerate him in a few years.  He has difficulty recognizing his letters.  Doug and I have been working with him for the past few months at night with two different decks of alphabet cards and a wipe board.  He makes progress every night; however, his little sister recognizes each letter, is able to write each letter, and gets a little competitive when playing the letter game.  We used to "play for pennies, " to give him an incentive (get one right, get a penny....get one wrong, give the penny back, and when you get it right, we'll give it back to him).  It worked for a while, but he just doesn't have the attention span that Biskut has right now.  Oh, and he is very polite.  Some of the first words we taught the kids were "please, thank you, excuse me and bless you."  After a week or two in the US, this is how our "sneeze" conversation went:

Mommy sneezes.

Muse or Biskut would say "Bless You!"

Mommy would then say, "Thank-you!"

Muse or Biskut would return it with a "You're welcome-ay"

Or

Biskut or Muse sneezes (or, more often then not, pretends to sneeze).

Mommy or Daddy would say "Bless You!"

Muse or Biskut would then say "Thank you"

and, if we didn't return back with a "You're welcome," one or both would shout back "no you're welcome-ay?"

They learn quick!

Muse also had his first classmate birthday party, and, his first after school play date (this week).  His friend's mom dropped him off, and told us they had a blast.  Muse was so sweet and polite (thank goodness), and she proceeded to tell us that he rode her son's bike.  Without training wheels.  Huh?  Muse doesn't ride without his wheels.  Well, he does now.  He saw his friend riding his two-wheeler, so he must have jumped on and decided it was time he did too.  He rode his bike a lot last summer, but wasn't about to let us take his "brakes" off (he was calling his training wheels his "brakes").  So, of course, what Muse does, Biskut does too.

Here are a couple of pics I took this afternoon:

We are so incredibly proud of our two little people, and the kind, sensitive people they are becoming.