Claudia's Kids

Family Day

2010-07-11T16:51:00.000-05:00

Later this month we will celebrate Family Day, the day that the four of us became a family. Three years ago I traveled to Ethiopia to bring Elias and Hannah home. Since the actual day falls in the middle of the week and the kids all have sports events that day we will be celebrating the event this weekend. I have plans. My children do not know of the plans. This will be fun!

Changing Schools

2010-02-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

I was so excited at the beginning of this school year. Maya was starting at a new school. It was to take her through 8th grade. It is an all-girl charter school with a focus on science and technology. How cool is that? I am sad to say that she will not be completing this year at the school, let alone 6-8th grades. Transportation was a challenge, one that I was willing to put up with. I did notify the school to let them know that I couldn't always get her there on time depending if I left work on time. I was spending an hour and a half in the car each morning between leaving work and finally getting home to wait for Elias' bus. I just accepted it. Then in the afternoon, Maya was able to ride the bus to the nearest stop, 3 miles from home. I had to get up, out of bed to go pick her up. I accepted that too, I had made the choice to send her to school there.

All would have been fine if the academics were as great as I thought they would be. However, my 5th grader was being given homework in her health and science classes expecting her to do math problems beyond her abilities. She seemed to be behind in math anyway, but instead of helping her during the day the school decided to have mandatory tutoring after school twice a week for all the students who were behind. (I was given one week notice that this was going to start). The tutoring ended up being about 3/4 of the school. Due to scheduling conflicts with swimming lessons and scouts Maya could not go to the tutoring. In addition I felt that 9 hourr of school was too much and that actual learning would not take place so late in the day.

In the tutoring the girls were being given new math concepts, concepts that they were then expected to use in math class. I was told that a math packet would be sent home with Maya. A packet filled with the work that was being done in the tutoring and I could help her at home. I was perfectly fine with that arrangement, but the packet never came. Maya asked the teacher for it and was told she would get it later in the week. It was never sent home. I e-mailed the teacher twice asking for it at 2 weeks and 3weeks after being told it would be sent home. I never received a response and still no packet. I e-mailed the math teachers after trying to help Maya with a dificult assignment and realizing she needed more help in her basic multiplication and division. I suggested that the school is not teaching in class to the greatest need based on the number of students in tutoring. The response I got was that the school was covering the subject matter in question in the tutoring and maybe Maya could come in early for help (obviously before school help doesn't work when I have difficulty getting her there on time some days). They also stated they would bring my concerns to the board when reviewing the curriculum.

I made a decision to pull her out of the school. I figure she can get more help in the public school, they will pull her out of class once or twice a week for extra support in math. I discussed it with Maya, she is sad to leave her music class but not so sad to leave her other classes. I decided to let her stay at the school through the end of the quarter, which is today. She told all of her teachers right away, 2 weeks ago. It wasn't until I called the school two days ago to let them know I had enrolled her in another school and why that the math teacher called to see if she could arrange something else to help Maya during the day. I struggled through the rest of the day thinking I made the wrong decision but decided that I had made numerous efforts to advocate for my daughter's education and got no response or a response that showed the school didn't really undersatnd my concern nor could it help her right now. I also thought of how, Maya going to this school was affecting my family. I am getting less sleep each day because I have to get up and pick up Maya. I am therefore tired all the time, it is negatively affecting my relationships with my children, affecting my productivity at work and greatly affecting my mood. The decision I made was for my family and me, not just for Maya.

Impromptu Learning

2009-11-15T22:06:00.003-06:00

Maya has been sick all weekend; fever, cough, occasional nausea, fatigue etc. We are on day four now and she is still spiking fevers. Unfortunately she won't be able to enjoy going on a fieldtrip to a local college tomorrow with her class. I was supposed to work this weeknd but ended-up taking four nights of sick leave instead. I am so thankful that I work in a place that doesn't question when your children are sick and will let me take numerous nights off without penalty.

Elias did not have school on Friday so we were all home that day. Most of the day I let the kids watch movies and just play with their toys. Later on though I decided to have them work on a map of the USA. I found an outlice map of the US and printed it for each of them to look and and had them start naming states. I marked each states with its abbreviation as they named it off. The first dozen came pretty quickly, then Maya had to stop and think a little harder, Elias was pretty lost after the first 5. With some hints from me they finished the map in about 30 minutes. The last state was Oregon. I gave them the first 2 letters and the clue that my dad had been born there, Elias kept guessing Oreland regardless of how many times I told him that was not correct. Maya finally called my brother and got the correct answer. We then went off in our separate directions. ABout ten minutes later as I passed through the living room I noticed Elias painstakingly copying the state abbreviations on to his copy of the map. He even included my crude drawing of Alaska. I think he may have actually like the little lesson.

Hair doesn't do itself you know

2009-11-15T21:14:00.001-06:00

Last weekend I did hair. I decided that Maya needed a hairdo other than the ponytail she usually sports. She washed and condtitioned her hair on Friday night, I then braided it in about 5 fat braids for her to sleep in. Saturday afternoon she watched a movie while I put her hair into multiple two-strand twists. She has really thick hair so it took the entire length of the movie to finish it (90 minutes). Next time I'll do it while it is still wet so I don't have to keep wetting it. She likes it because it is now "swingy". SHe had a number of compliments forom classmates, teachers, family and friends. We undid the twists this weekend and now she has a kink "dread" kind of look that is equally as cute on her.

Sunday afternoon it was Hannah's turn. She decided she wanted to be like her big sister so I did the same type of two-strand twists. It only took 40 minutes to do her hair and that included the detangling before hand. The difference was that I did her hair right after she got out of the bath and her hair is much thinner than Maya's. Monday night Hannah went to swimming lessons, since her hair is so fine most of the twists undid themselves. I re-did her hair in a new do, pigtails with a zig-zag part. Then I separated the pigtails into sections and coiled each section. Very cute hair-do for a little girl.

Last weekend I cut Elias' hair and, at his request, shaved a big "E" into the back. It is starting to fade now as his hair grows quickly. He told me a lot of the kids in his class liked his hair. I'll try and think of something different to do for Thanksgiving.

$$$

2009-11-02T11:26:00.003-06:00

Elias is a good runner. He hasn't been running consistently in the mornings for the last few weeks, we've either been out of time or it's been too wet out. I had heard about indoor track programs for youth so one day I did a google search for programs in my area. I found one that was starting up November 1st. I e-mailed the program director and he then invited us to check out the program. So last night we went to the first training night. I paid a $25 application fee, filled out a form and Elias was off with the 20 other kids, running around the indoor track, working on running form, doing sit-ups and push-ups. He learned a lot about form, got a lot of exercise and wore himself out. I learned a lot just watching them coach these kids. The group was made of about 8 elementary aged kids and the rest were jr. high or high school age.

I reviewed all the info I was given when we arrived and asked questions. This program is for 7-18 yr olds, they have been successfully running the program for 10 years, they have had numerous students go on to earn college scholarships in various sports because of the rigorous training they received. The program costs $170 for each 6 week session. If I keep him in the training I will have paid out over $1000 by the end of June. $1000! This seems ridiculously expensive to me. Elias is only 7 yrs. old. Right now I have 3 children in 7 week long swimming lessons, I pay less than $170 for all three. I can't justify that amount of money for one sport for one child. So for now I will let him keep running at home and work with him on his form myself.

This morning Elias ran about a half mile, already his form looks better.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T20:50:00.004-05:00

My children finally decided earlier this week what they would be for Halloween. Hannah chose to be a cowgirl, Elias picked the Davy Crockett costume and Maya decided on being a witch. We borrowed Elias and Hannah's costumes from my parents. Both of those costumes were my mom's when she was young. Maya borrowed a witch hat from my parents and then we made a trip to Goodwill to find a dress.

While I was perusing the racks of dresses at Goodwill today I noticed a group of college age boys standing near one end of the rack. They were chuckling and pointing and looking around nervously. A couple of them looked my way to see if I was watching. They then quickly left the area. A few minutes later though as I was looking through shirts the boys were back by the dresses. One of them pulled a red flowery dress off the rack and sheepishly put it on over his clothes. The other boys busted out laughing though they too were soon picking dresses off the rack and trying them on over their clothes. I guess they were going to a costume party tonight and needed a last minute costume. Goodwill was a great idea by the way, the dresses were only about $7 each; way cheaper than anything you could buy in a costume shop, plus Maya will wear the dress again. I also bought her a very cute pair of barely-worn dress shoes.

Tis the Season

2009-10-02T17:06:00.003-05:00

Apparently the respiratory/flu season is here, it is going to be a long 6 months. This week every single child I cared for, except one, was in the hospital for respiratory reasons. They were having difficulty breathing for one reason or another. Those children with asthma were having a particullary difficult time earlier in the week when it was dry and windy outside. We are already seeing a lot of pneumonia and of course H1N1. It's not that every child that is having respiratory symptoms actually has H1N1 but the doctors are testing for it anyway. The test takes several days to be confirmed. In the meantime every child tested for H1N1 is put under isolation precautions. This means that any time I want or need to enter their room I need to put on the following -
1. Isolation gown - it covers me from neck to calf.
2. Gloves - they need to overlap the cuffs on the gown.
3. Mask - covers the nose and mouth and makes everything I say sound quite muffled.
4. Eye protection - this year the hospital has sprung for reusable "glasses" we each have a pair to use until we loose them or they break. They fog up easily as your breath escapes out of the top of the mask making it that much more difficult to see things in the dark.
No more running into a room when an alarm is going off. In the least I need to throw on a pair of gloves and a mask. This is going to last until at least April. Yay me!

Instant Gratification

2009-09-20T19:57:00.004-05:00

Hannah and Elias reminded me today that we live in a culture that is used to instant gratification. We went to an apple orchard to pick apples. The orchard itself was about 35 minutes away from home. Not terribly long but long enough for Elias to start complaining that it was taking too long when we were still 10 minutes from our destination. Later in the day after waiting in line for a few minutes to buy food Hannah started whining that we were waiting too long and that she didn't want to stand in line anymore. Shortly after getting the food Elias showed up in the building to complain that we were taking too long. (He had been left to guard the table and our apples).

In the afternoon as we got out of the car to go into Ikea Hannah began complaining that she was thirsty. I ignored the whining until she directed it at me, "Moooommm I said I am thirsty!" I reminded her that I am not a drinking fountain so she would have to wait until we git inside where they do have a drinking fountain.

These incidences didn't seem like much at the time that they were happening but then I began to think of how many of our wishes and expectations are met instantly on a daily basis. We can walk into a fast food restaurant and walk out with a hot meal in five minutes. If I want to know the weather forecast I don't need to wait for the news to come on at 10pm I can just log-on the Internet and find out. Most grocery stores and large stores like Target and Walmart have express lines for people with a small amount of purchases. I can pay my bills online, no waiting in line at the post office to buy stamp, no waiting for the check to get to the biller and clear with the bank. If I want to send a message to a family member I just need to access my e-mail and presto they get the message minutes later. My daughter needs to get home from school, I just jump in the car and drive there to pick her up. Sure she has to wait but not as long as she would if she had to walk or rely on public transportation.

How different would my world be if we had to grow all of our fruits and vegetables then can them so they would be available all year. What if we didn't have a car, or computer or TV. Would we be better people or bitter people? I'm not ready to make any of these changes but I think I would like to get back to a simpler and somewhat slower way of life. Elias and Hannah lived in a village in Ethiopia that didn't have running water, no electricity, no one had a car, they lived off the land. Their family worked hard to care for each other and their neighbors. Tow years later that village hasn't changed but my children have. I need for them to stop always thinking of themselves first. Maybe that will change their attitudes about what they are owed instantly.

First Day of School

2009-09-10T14:12:00.007-05:00

Elias, first day of 2nd grade

Earlier this week Maya and Elias had their first day of school of the new school year. Elias is in 2nd grade this year. This year he has a new teacher and different students in his class than he had the last two years. He was nervous for the last week leading up to the first day. He was really worried that he wouldn't know anyone in his class and he was worried that 2nd grade would be too hard. His nervousness led to some angry, rude and inappropriate behavior. All of that has disappeared since the first day. He knows a number of other kids in the class and has found that the school work is right at the level where he left off a month ago. He has also started running in the mornings to wear off some of his energy. One time around our block is a half mile. He can run around it in 5 minutes. I told him if he practices every day he will be one of the best runners by the time he gets to high school (only 7 more years).

Elias getting off the bus

Maya, First day of 5th grade

Maya is in 5th grade this year. She is now in middle school. Maya, too, was nervous for her fist day because this year she is in a new school, an all-girl charter school. Her classes start at 8:30 and I have to drive her there every day so our mornings are becoming pretty streamlined. One hour between getting up and walking out the door. Four other girls in 5th grade transferred from her elementary school, a few 6th graders are from her elementary school as well. Though she was worried about meeting new people she already made a friend in her violin class. Her friend has a brother and sister who were adopted from Ethiopia two years ago! Sounds familiar.

Maya getting off the bus

Hannah continues at her same day care. She has been working on recognizing letters and numbers. She surprised me earlier this summer by knowing so many letters. She loves to do work book pages of copying letters, finding matches, opposites, dot-to-dots and other preschool activities. One more year for her until she starts school.

I am continuing to co-lead Maya's Girl Scout troop. We split our troop over the summer since only some of the girls would be at the new school. We have 4 girls so far and hope to have more from the school join us soon. In addition I'm spending a lot of time in the car driving to soccer practice and games, Cub Scouts and swimming lessons. Not to mention all the driving to school and back each day as well as back and forth to work. I need to make some more CDs to listen to in the car.

Camping 2009 edition

2009-09-05T15:36:00.009-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at a nice campground on a nice big lake. We eplored the trails, threw rocks in the water, made campfires, cooked hot dogs, made s'mores, held races through fields and around the campground. We played card games and board games, games of catch and beach ball soccer. All was great. Then it started raining during our second night and rained all day the next day. It was a light rain so we drove to another state park to explore their wooded trails. We stayed pretty dry. We returned to our campsite for lunch, ate it in the tent then played games and read books in the tent to waiting for the rain to stop. The tent started to leak after 14 continuous hours of rain so I decided to just pack up and go home. As soon as I made that decision it started to pour. All the kids help to get packed as quickly as we could, however, Maya really helped a lot. She stood out in the rain helping me to pull down the tent, gathered our camp chairs and other supplies left out in the rain that still needed to be packed in the car. She didn't complain once even though our clothes we were completely soaked through. I rewarded them with a stop at DQ on the way home. By the time we arrived home a couple hours later it was sunny. At the campground was rained on for another 24hours after we arrived home so it turned out to be a wise decision to leave.

Even though the trip ended on a wet note my kids still want to go camping again. I am glad they like camping because I love it. Next year I am hoping to go on a longer trip. Maybe a trip to the Black Hills of SD to see Mount Rushmore.

Last Night

2009-08-07T20:00:00.003-05:00

Today I have been thinking a lot about God. I don't consider myself to be deeply religious but I did grow up attending church and believing in and loving God. There have been many times that I have felt His presence or influence in my life and accepted it as normal. There are times that I am taken aback by His work though and realize that He really does work miracles. Case in point; last night.
I am a nurse at a busy children's hospital that is connected to an equally busy adult hospital in fact the ERs are just a short hallway away from each other. Last night I was helping out in the ER early in my shift. It was fairly busy and getting close to midnight. A team of doctors and nurses had just finished performing a procedure on a teenage boy. The boy's father left the room to go to the restroom and he collapsed either in or near the bathroom. A nurse quickly helped him get up and into an empty exam room and alerted other staff about what was happening. The father was complaining of chest pain, was diaphoretic (sweaty) and clammy. A team made of nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and a nursing assistant went into action. Within minutes of his fall he had an IV started with blood work drawn, he was hooked up to monitors and had oxygen applied via nasal cannula and an EKG was performed. The doctor looked at the EKG for 5 seconds and announced that we needed to get this man to the adult ER NOW. He was having a heart attack. They rolled him out and down the hall to the adult ER. His wife accompanied him there after being assured that her son, who was stable, would be well taken care of and would not be left alone in the room. From the time of the man's collapse to the time he was wheeled into the adult ER about 10 minutes. He likely was taken to the cardiac cath lab within the half hour. I was able to follow up with the nursing staff later that night and found that the man was doing well.
At first I looked at the event as a tragedy. Here is this 50 something year old man suffering a heart attack, his son is in the hospital, his wife is torn about who to be more concerned about. But what if he hadn't been in the hospital when it happened, what if he had been at home? Would the paramedics have arrived and get him to a hospital in time? Would he have just died in his sleep? Maybe there was a reason his son was suffering last night. Maybe he was suffering so his father could be saved. It wasn't his father's time to go, he needs to be here still. He needed to be saved. I am in awe of His work. I am confused by the way He does his work but it saved a life last night and for that there are many who are thankful.

I heart Facebook

2009-07-10T22:48:00.002-05:00

I just had a friend from Kenya contact me through facebook. He moved back to Kenya about 5 years ago. We kept in contact for awhile through e-mail. But he didn't always have internet access, then I lost his e-mail address when I changed service providers. The last time I had heard from him was almost two years ago. Apparently Facebook has made it's way to Kenya, he created a profile, looked me up and added me as one of his first FB friends. I love Facebook!

Mini vacation

2009-06-19T17:05:00.004-05:00

We took a mini vacation last weekend to see Lake Superior. Oh we met up with friends too but the main attraction, in my perspective, was the lake. Growing up I lived 5 blocks from Lake Superior, our lives revolved around the lake even without trying. We spent many days at the sandy beach torturing our bodies "swimming" in the 60 degree water then building sand castles and eating food that was just a little sandy. We also visited the rocky beaches often, throwing rocks, eating more picnic meals and collecting the beach glass. My favorite place is a rather secluded rocky beach that we had to walk through yards to get to. I took my kids there last weekend.

Our hotel room had a view of the lake. That's an understatement, we were a mere 200 feet from the lake. Maya and I watched a ship come in with lights on around 10pm while the other kids slept. In the morning we raced to the canal to watch a ship go through and under the lift bridge, a first for Hannah and Elias.

I hadn't realized how much I missed the lake as an every day occurrence until a recently. One day I was driving around running errands, it was 55 degrees and windy, a typical spring day near the lake. Suddenly all I wanted was to go to the lake to sit and lose my thoughts in the water. Of course the lake was 2.5 hours from home and I had children coming home from daycare and school in about an hour. I did the next best thing. I went home, booked a hotel room and called a friend to let her know we were coming to visit. I'm glad I did.

I will never go to Chuck E. Cheese's again!

2009-05-19T18:53:00.006-05:00

About 3 years ago I took Maya and her friend to Chuck E. Cheese's (CEC) just for fun. I hadn't been inside one since I was little so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Well the restaurant was older and therefore a little dingy. It was small and very crowded with all the games inside but the girls seemed to have fun. I bought pizza, pop and a bunch of tokens we spent a couple of hours there. A CEC you are awarded tickets when you play a game the tickets can then be turned in for cheapo prizes. The girls were pulling tickets out of the machine like crazy. Chuck E. Cheese even made a couple of appearances and tossed tickets out to anyone willing to gather them up off the floor. So by the end of the night we had a lot of tickets. Shortly before the girls ran out of tokens the mom of two adorable kids gave me her tickets (about 10 in all) before they left and I added them to our stash. Her kids were little and hadn't done many games, mostly just rides. As the door shut behind that family a woman, who was sitting close by me, came over and told me that the tickets we had just received had been stolen from her son. I told her I didn't think so because I had noticed that family playing some games earlier in the evening. She tried asking me just how many tickets I was given and how many my girls had. Ignored her and gathered up my girls as soon as they were done. We fed the tickets we had through the ticket counter and printed a receipt. The girls had collected around 300 tickets, enough for a couple of nicer prizes. As they were pondering over their choices the woman approached us again and asked "Just how many tickets do you have?" as she tried to look at my receipt. I ignored her. She went to the 19 year old manager and complained. He came over and told me there was a problem. I explained how the girls got so many tickets and offered to show him my receipt for all the tokens I bought. He admitted that he didn't think we had done anything wrong. The girls picked out their prizes and we left quickly.

Fast forward 3 years. Our Girl Scout troop decided to spend their hard earned money at a day at Chuck E. Cheese's. I convinced my co-leaders to go to a store in a different suburb than I had gone before. The evening started out okay. The restaurant was bigger and cleaner than the one I had been to before. WE got our food fairly quickly and then the girls and Hannah and Elias started playing games and the trouble started.
1. A teenage girl approached Maya asking her if she could have her tokens. My refused then turned to me and told me she wasn't sure what this girl was asking her. The girl took one look at me, said "Oh?!" and walked away.
2. Elias found me after about a half hour and told me another child had taken his cup holding his tokens and tickets. He had set it behind him on the seat of the driving game he was playing. The boy just walked up and took it while he was distracted.
3. The same teenage girl walked up to the ticket counting machine I was using, reached around to the front and hit the print button. I called her on her scam. She said "Oh, my bad." I told her it wasn't her bad she did it on purpose and that I had seen her trying to scam my other girls all evening. She walked away. I did get my receipt and finished counting my tickets.
4. A girl walked up to the table one of my co-leaders was sitting at with all the tokens (before we ate) she was eyeing all the cups with tokens. My co-leader asked her is she could help her - the girl gave her a disgusted look and walked away.
5. At the end of the day several of the Girl Scouts reported kids trying to take their tokens or tickets, kids pushing their way to the front of the line to play a game, and people (adults and teens) asking them questions they felt uncomfortable answering - how old they were, where they lived, what school they went to etc.
Apparently Chuck E. Cheese's attracts people who do not have the same morals that I have. Therefore I will never go to a CEC again.

He Bikes

2009-05-04T16:39:00.008-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I finally fixed Elias' bike. The chain kept coming off and this time it was really stuck between the gear and the bike frame. I got it apart, got the chain back on, and tightened the wheel up to the frame and made some other adjustments. The back wheel now spins perfectly.

I had taken the training wheels off weeks ago but Elias still needed to practice balancing before he could practicing pedaling. Elias, happy to have his bike back, started coasting down the driveway with his feet inches off the ground. HE kept veering off to the left, I reminded him that he needed to look up and steer. He still veered off to the left. He blamed the bike. "The bike doesn't have a mind of it's own. It does what it is told to do." I told him. He grumpily agreed but still was blaming the bike under his breath. I went off to investigate the lawn mower.

After awhile I noticed that Elias was now coasting down the driveway, turning onto the street and pedaling a few feet before losing his balance. He even started on the street, pedaled a few feet and lost his balance, falling into the grass. He was yelling at the "stupid bike." "That's right," I said " the bike is saying to itself that it doesn't like this boy riding on it so it's just going to keep pushing you off." He giggled at that and went for another go at it. He continued for awhile until I told him to come in for dinner. He was furious at the bike at this point and shouted over and over that he was going to put his training wheels back on. I kept silent and just led him into the house.
After dinner there was still enough time to go back outside. I went to work in the garden, Elias started back up with trying out his bike. The dinner must have worked wonders because after a few minutes he yelled at me to watch. He was riding. More than a few feet, he was riding down the street. He turned himself around and started up again. Again he rode down the street again, and again and again. He did it all by himself. I never even got the chance to run down the street behind him holding onto his seat. Though I supported him from afar and encouraged him he did it himself.

That's Elias. He can't stand to be wrong or not be able to do something and he won't give up until he can get it right.

Way to go Elias!

Oh! I figured out the trail-a-bike problem and attached it to my bike too yesterday. Hannah and I took a few trial runs down the street and back. She loved it. Now that Elias can bike on his own we can go on some bike rides around the neighborhood. Now we have a whole new batch of parks and playgrounds we can get to without driving.

Happy Birthday Maya!!

2009-05-03T18:52:00.002-05:00

Ten! Ten years ago today at 1:28pm, 33 hours after my water broke, 2.5 hours after I (completely exhausted at this point) started pushing Maya was born. All 10 pounds, 2 ounces of her. I can't believe she is already 10!

Yesterday she had a slumber party with a few friends. I took them all to a giant indoor playground, then we walked around a nearby park. Maya opened her presents while we waited for the pizza to arrive. We watched Hotel For Dogs (very cute) with our pizza then they ran outdoors for some fun in the back yard with the dog while it was still light out. I got to read my book while they played outside. Cake and ice cream didn't happen until about 8:30. They exhausted themselves out enough during the day that they only stayed up until 11:00pm.

We won't be celebrating her birthday with extended family for a few weeks so I gave her my present last night as well. A digital camera in her favorite color, purple. She has been using it non-stop since she opened it. I love that she can take as many pictures as she wants but only prints the ones she really wants.

Everyone was awake by 7:30 this morning so on account of the short night of sleep and the busy day yesterday we took it easy today. We watched Hotel For Dogs again with lunch and had cake and ice cream again since it's her real birthday today. She got to blow out her candles again too.

Happy Birthday Maya!

Devestation, Fustration and then Happiness

2009-04-17T23:45:00.005-05:00

I had known that my blood pressure readings were high the last couple of years. I just sit in my chair of denial and tell myself that it was because I was nervous to visit the doctor, or I had just taken the stairs instead of the elevator to get to the doctor's office. Three weeks ago I was at the doctor again, my blood pressure was high 136/84, they re-checked it 15 minutes later and it was still high 138/88. Hypertension is diagnosed after 3 BP readings of 140/90 or greater. I was getting too close to that. I have family members with hypertension and will likely develop it someday. I am making changes in my like to keep that diagnosis as far away as possible.

I am now on a low sodium diet. Sounds easy enough until you go to the grocery store and look at the sodium content of all the foods you normally eat. I cried through that first grocery store visit. I am on a 1200-1500mg sodium per day diet. I felt like a commercial for sodium:

Tomato sauce - 450mg

Bread - 130mg

Deli meat - 290mg

cereal - 250mg

soup - 500mg

cheese - 730mg

Finding that you can't eat a lot of the foods you normally would eat - Devastating!

The good news is that I can eat raw fruits and veggies, meat that I prepare myself. I can eat most bread, eggs, rice, and shredded wheat is sodium free as well.I found low sodium peanut butter, unsalted nuts, and chocolate is very low in sodium as well. My mom even found low sodium tortilla chips - they taste great. However, it all comes at a price. Low sodium foods are more expensive than their sodium filled counterparts. Who knew it cost more to NOT ADD an ingredient.

I have found that I still can make my kids mac'n'cheese or chicken nuggets and I'll just make myself some parmesan noodles or an egg salad sandwich. We all still eat fruits and veggies and salads on the side. I can make more foods from scratch though that is tough for me time wise some nights.

I've been working on this diet for nearly 3 weeks. I have also been working on fitting more exercise into my week, everything from walking the dog, taking the stairs at work and running around on the playground with the kids. All of this has lead to more energy, less bloating and feeling happier all around. In addition I am pleased to report that when I last checked my BP at work it was 122/73 and I have lost 3 pounds. I'm feeling great!

Enjoying the weather

2009-04-17T22:08:00.006-05:00

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather lately. We went on a day long excursion to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, took the dog to the golf course to run around one last time before they opened for the season, we had an outdoor Easter egg hunt and egg toss, we are going on walks in our neighborhood about 3 times a week and the kids are riding bikes almost daily.

I decided not to sign Elias up for baseball this summer and he and Maya decided they don't want to do any other organized sports this summer. I told them that meant they would be required to get out and exercise on their own or as a family at least 3 times a week. They agreed that this was an o.k. plan. So far we are succeeding in this plan. All three kids will continue to go to swimming lessons this summer accounting for a fourth day of exercise.

Growing Up

2009-03-18T17:44:00.003-05:00

Lately Hannah seems older. It started after she turned four. We no longer have wet pants issues during the day, she buckles her car seat straps herself, she figured out how to count without skipping numbers, she can carry on short conversations, she tells jokes and laughs at others' jokes as well. She now carries on a continual make believe game with her dolls or little toys. Making up story lines as she goes that actually make sense.
I keep telling everyone that since Hannah turned four she has gotten sillier and seems happier. I just thought that she was growing up. Then one day it hit me. She has been with me almost as long as she was with her family in Ethiopia. Maybe it just took her this long to completely adjust. I am glad that she is happy but am saddened that maybe she wasn't happy for a long time. I know I shouldn't beat myself up about it because I can't go back and change things now. It just makes me feel like somehow I let her down.
I've learned from this. I'll think about how quickly I change her environment in the future. We'll take our time transitioning to pre-school in the fall. I am hoping though that smaller transitions will be easier now that she is happy at home.

Service Project Idea

2009-03-13T16:08:00.003-05:00

As you may know I am one of Maya's Girl Scout Leaders. My co-leaders and I decided to have the girls start doing some service projects to give back to the community. Last year we donated toy to Toys-for-Tots, made breakfast bags for the Ronald McDonald House and donated boxes of Girl Scout cookies to them as well, then we went to Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit that schedules volunteers to pack meals to send worldwide.

This year we were a little slow getting time scheduled to work on a new service project but I would like to report that we successfully pulled it off these past Monday. The girls decided they wanted to do something to benefit animals. We had a hard time finding a time that all of us could go and tour the Humane Society so I scheduled to have a pet rescue group representative come and talk to us instead. About two weeks ago the girls made cat and dog toys and dog biscuits to donate to the rescue group. This week a rep from Second Chance Animal Rescue came to tell us about why animals are in rescue, how they get there, who cares for them and how they find homes. We even had a visit from Tracker, the four legged rep. from the group. Unfortunately I cannot post the picture of the girls with Tracker but I do have pictures of the toys and biscuits we donated. The girls had great questions and, I hope, learned a lot about animal rescue. Tracker ended the evening freely giving out his "autograph". All the girls left with a paw print magnet.

dog biscuits - recipe here

Felt leaf cat toy with jingle bell, hang it on a door. I got the idea here. I just modified it a little to make it easier to cut out.

Cat nip stuffed cat toy - Instructions

Braided fleece dog rope toy. To make these cheaply I found a lot of fleece remnants. You can find the instructions here. Again, I modified it a little. We cut out 3inch wide strips (from selvage to selvage) but when we braided them they were way too long so I cut each braid in half and knotted the new ends. I made one of these for Minnie last week from scraps left over from Elias' blanket. She loves it, pulls it out every day to play with it and even brings it into her kennel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIAS!!

2009-03-10T14:56:00.007-05:00

Happpy Birthday Elias!

Today Elias turns 7 years old. We celebrated his birthday with family on Sunday. He had a great time eating pizza, cake and opening presents. Tonight we are going out to eat at his choice of restaurant, Old Country Buffet. He decided this after Maya reminded him that last time they were there (with Grandpa) the each had 2 or 3 desserts. I do have one more gift for him, the book Henry's Freedom Box .

Surrounded by presents. That is his I don't really want to smile right now face.

Fleece tie blanket from me. He also got a card game, race cars, paint-your-own night light, High School Musical Chad doll, and the lovely orange baseball cap he has on in the picture. My parents gave him jeans and a MN Wild Jersey which her wore to school yesterday.

Today I went to Target after the kids went to school and day care and picked up 54 cupcakes to bring to the school. I happened to get to his class while Maya was in the common area outside their classes, she helped me with the door. When I brought the cupcakes into the class all the kids lookedtoward Elias and thanked him for the treats. He gave me a sheepish grin and a wave then turned back to the teacher. Obviously I did my job well and embarrassed him thoroughly.

Preschool

2009-03-05T12:43:00.004-06:00

I've been looking for a preschool for Hannah to attend next school year. Currently she attends a home daycare. I really, really like my current daycare provider. She has been Hannah's only daycare provider since she came home in 2007. A lot of the potty training was done at daycare, Hannah learned how to color, draw, do puzzles and have fun being a little kid. In the winter they go sledding in the backyard, or bounce on the Bounce Master for large muscle time. She goes on a field trip every couple of months to places like the zoo, apple orchard, to see Santa at Christmas time, petting farm, big playgrounds, etc. When the weather is nice she brings all the kids across the street to the high school's track to let the kids run around or she'll bring them to a park for a picnic lunch. They sing songs all day long, play dress up, have story time, take naps and eat healthy food.

So why am I looking to send her somewhere else? I feel that she needs a little extra help to get ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten has changed sine I went to school. Schools these days expect kids to already recognize and write letters and numbers. They really would like kids to already be sounding out letters so they can jump into reading. While I can do some work with her at home, I am limited to short amounts of time I can work with her. She had grown in leaps and bounds from the shy, frail toddler I brought home but I feel she needs more. More challenging tasks, new teachers to work with, new children to learn from.

I visited church preschool today. I wasn't super impressed with it. The learning area was small, the play area was small, the building was old and every child in the school was white. When I walked out of that school I sat in my car and called the Montessori school that Maya had attended from the time she was 3 years old through Kindergarten. Yes, they said, they have openings for the fall, they have openings right now too. I drove there right then. I had resisted sending her there initially because, they are much more expensive that what I am paying now for day care. Once I got to the school I realized it felt right. Some of the teachers have changed but the school is the same, the philosophy is the same, the methods of teaching are the same the school is like a big family, it felt like coming home. Why did I resist this for so long? This is where Hannah belongs. The school is multi-racial, Hannah will have other children in her class who are adopted, children who are not adopted, children who look like her sister, her cousin, her uncles, her mom, and like her.

Hannah deserves this. So without a second thought I have decided to send her there. Maybe she'll even start before the spring is over. I'll cut costs in other places if I need to. I promised to take care of Hannah and give her the best that I can. I can give her this.

Next Blog Button

2009-02-28T13:51:00.003-06:00

Have you ever clicked on the "Next Blog" button at the top of a blogger blog? It's at the very top of this blogger page on the left, close to the middle of the screen. Over the last week I have tried it several times from blogs I am reading just to see what would happen.
Last night I spent quite a while looking at the 'next blogs'. There are a number of blogs that are in different languages, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese too. Since I don't understand nor can I differentiate between any characters of Japanese, Chinese and Korean I have no idea which language is which. I saw some stunning photos of a crater covered in snow, pictures of people all over the world, funny poems, pleas for families to take in rescue pets and even some items for sale. One page had flip flops for sale, they were dollar store flip flops with some ribbon added to make them cuter. The site was in Spanish and there wasn't any information about what country the blog was from but the blogger was selling them for R$28,000. I hope that converts to only a few US dollars because they weren't worth more than about $5.
Next time you want a little adventure on the internet try the "Next Blog" button. You never know what you will get.

Whirlwind Weekend

2009-02-23T14:07:00.002-06:00

We are finally all healthy again. We went through a two week period of sickness. Something gastro related- yucky. Thankfully we are all better and were able to enjoy this past weekend. All of my siblings and their families gathered at my parents house for the weekend. It is the first time in almost a year and a half that we have all been together.

Our weekend consisted of two birthday parties, lunch out for all the moms, brunch on Sunday, a family talent show, a Take 6 concert (phenomenal), delicious dinners, walks around the golf course, playing outside, playing with cousins, movies, and more playing. Sunday night there were 22 of us at dinner. We did manage to get a family picture taken.

Here is a photo of all the cousins.

I hope your weekend was fun too.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

2009-02-03T11:08:00.003-06:00

Today Hannah turns 4 years old. We celebrated her birthday with family over the weekend. Today she brought chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and party bags to day care. Hannah picked out all the party bag contents with a little help from me.

She had a strawberry cake with pink frosting on Sunday. It was the closest I could get to a blueberry cake. She kept changing her mind about what color of frosting to have. She settled on pink after about 10 minutes.

Hannah got a lot of creative presents for her birthday, legos, markers with construction paper, scissors and glue, an art set with paint, stickers, markers, clay and chalk, and she got a princess coloring book/painting book with paints and crayons. In addition she got a little barbie girl riding a pink sparkly pony and a purse filled with purse things. I look forward to many days of creativity in our house. Thank you everyone for the great gifts.

Facebook

2009-01-24T19:30:00.008-06:00

I am finally on facebook. I opened an account last year some time but never did anything with it. Today I finally updated it and started adding friends. So far I like it. Now I just have to remember to go there.
In other news: I really am buying the book from the post below as well as a couple of other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I am told that they were shipped yesterday. One is for Maya entitled Coretta Scott. It is about the Civil Rights Movement and Coretta Scott King's involvement. Maya really likes learning about the Civil Rights Movement. She is especially in love with the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
The other book is for Elias and is titled Henry's Freedom Box. It is based on a true story of a slave boy who mails himself in a box to freedom. You can find other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson on his website. Did I tell you that all three books are signed by Kadir? Yay!
I first found out about Kadir Nelson's illustrations when my sister, Jess, gave a book to Maya titled Waiting in the Wings, about a tall girl who is ballet dancer but can never dance in recitals because she is too tall for any partners and she just so happens to be brown skinned like Maya. I love his illustrations, I love that he draws brown skinned people and children in books that I am willing to give to and read to my children. Hopefully my children appreciate the books as much as I do. I wish I had enough money to collect all of his books.

I'm buying this book

2009-01-22T11:54:00.002-06:00

Ski Lessons

2009-01-18T20:09:00.004-06:00

It warmed up this weekend. Yesterday we enjoyed sledding with my, brother, brother-in-law, his brother and briefly his sister-in-law and niece. There was a bitterly cold wind at the top of the sledding hill. Luckily we didn't spend too much time there. The sledding was great. We all had a number of wipe-outs.

Today Maya and Elias had cross country ski lessons again. It was a balmy 30 degrees with a soft snowfall. Hannah and I went sledding, again, while the other two skied. Hannah found a tree to climb (wish I had my camera with me then). Maya and Elias gushed, again, about how much they both like skiing. Both boasted that they only fell twice. Way to go guys.

The skis Maya is using this winter used to be mine and Elias is using skis that several of my siblings used long ago. Thanks Mom and Dad for keeping them around. Another generation is certainly enjoying using them.

Project Finale

2009-01-18T19:54:00.006-06:00

Here is my Mental Health Day project outcome. Little shoes for my new niece, Alice. They are double layer flannel. I love the brown cat print. My sister is not much of a pink lover so I tried to stay away from pink. The coral polka dot print just went so well, technically it is more of an orange color than pink.

I found the tutorial on line at Stardust Shoes. I tweaked it a little using the tutorial at Maked Crafts so I could enclose the inside seams between the sole and sole lining. I also used a medium weight interfacing on only one layer of each piece (the pattern called for interfacing on every piece).

Mental Health Projects

2009-01-16T13:33:00.001-06:00

We are taking a mental health day today from school, daycare, the cold.... I have been working on something fun today here is a preview. I can't tell you what it is yet.

Winter Fun

2009-01-16T13:17:00.003-06:00

Last weekend, before the cold snap, we headed outdoors for some fun. Saturday we stopped at Target and picked-up some new sleds then drove to a nearby school that has an awesome sledding hill. We spent about 2 hours sledding. Hannah is fearless, she'll take a running leap and slide down head first. Maya took joy in making sled trains and Elias kept looking for steeper and steeper areas to go down the hill.

On Sunday Maya and Elias had their first cross country ski lessons. After an hour and a half Maya returned to the chalet and declared that she loved skiing and wanted to keep going. Elias hasn't found a sport yet that he doesn't like. I saw him fall numerous times but he kept getting back up and trying again.

While the other two were skiing, Hannah and I had some time together inside the chalet. Hannah worked on learning to write her name then we discussed what kind of cake she wants for her upcoming birthday. She wants a blueberry cake with pink strawberry frosting in the shape of a princess castle. Umm...I'll see what I can do.

This weekend it is supposed to warm up and drop some more snow on us. I'm going to pack a couple of sleds in the trunk so Hannah and I can go sledding during the ski lessons. I bought a thermos this week so we can have hot chocolate or cider after skiing/sledding.

Stay Warm!

Our Special Project

2008-12-31T21:11:00.004-06:00

I have had a number of days in a row off from work this week. Maya and Elias are off from school as well. We had a special project planned and we finished it yesterday.

Since I moved into this house I have not really liked the 2nd floor room. It is one long room that runs the length of the house with one larger (12' x 12' approx.) open area at one end. The acoustic tile ceilings are slanted and have dozens of water marks. The roof was replaced a few years before I bought the house so there aren't any new water marks at least. The walls are wood paneling (yuck) and the floor is old grungy looking linoleum tiles. I checked under the linoleum and found only wood sub flooring so we are stuck with the linoleum for a while longer. Elias and Maya moved to the upstairs bedroom last winter, leaving Hannah on the main floor with me. Over the summer the kids switched rooms again. Now just the girls are upstairs and Elias and I are on the main floor. Some days the kids all play upstairs but it hasn't been a very homey feeling place. Until yesterday.

Yesterday we painted. Just the large open end of the room that the girls beds are in. For now it is white, but is is so much brighter and cheerful than the ugly brown. We even covered up the icky water stains on the ceiling. I forgot to take before pictures so I'll just give you a little idea about the walls, and ceiling based on the other end of the room (please excuse the mess we still have a lot of organizing to do).

Here is what the girls' room looks like now.

We did have a rather (ahem) large mishap during the painting process. I spilled paint on the only part of the rug that had come uncovered. I should have rolled up the rug and moved it out of the room before we started painting but I thought we were, literally, covered. The mess, you might notice, is just under Maya's bed near the window. I've already wasted too many tears on the mess. It is just a rug, a rug that continually gives away blue wool fluff to anyone wearing black fleece clothing. The fluff fills up the vacuum cleaner every time I vacuum. I can't figure it out. We have had the rug for almost 2 years.

One last thing about the room. There is a blank corner of the room to the bottom right of the pictures. One wall is about 6' long and the other is about 3' long plus a closet door. I'm going to put a desk in there for Maya. If I showed you this area right now in a picture all you would see is blank white walls and an ugly floor. So you'll have to wait a little longer until we get that part done. It does make a good excuse to visit IKEA. (Like I need a good excuse.)

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T20:58:00.002-06:00

Some of what 2008 brought my family:
First birthdays with the family for Elias and Hannah
New vehicle - a mini-van
New pet - Minnie the wonder dog
Little League - Elias
Tennis and track - Maya
Swim lessons - Maya and Elias
Soccer - Maya and Elias
First family camping trip
Fourth Grade - Maya
First Grade - Elias
Growing like a weed - Hannah
Voting for a new President of the US
Family moving closer - Eva and Adam
New niece/cousin - Alice
Good times with family and friends!

Hope you all have a safe and happy 2009!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-30T20:37:00.008-06:00

What a wonderful gift our mom gave us!

Since New Year's Eve is tomorrow I can still say Happy Holidays. Belated Merry Christmas as well. Our Christmas week was a whirlwind of activity. We started the week on Saturday (Dec. 20th) we decorated the tree and wrapped presents. The next morning we had our own little Christmas at home. Each child got a present from a sibling and one combined gift from me.

Maya got a HSM3 CD and a zippered overnight case (made by me). Hannah got a brown skinned Barbie doll and two outfits and Elias got the Wall-E DVD. I gave the kids and myself a Wii. We spent the rest of the day playing Wii games, Watching Wall-E and the girls played Barbies. It was nice to have a little Christmas at home that wasn't as overwhelming as Christmas with the whole family.

Every night Monday through Thursday I worked and the kids had the whole week off from school. So they spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The cousins arrived on Tuesday, adding to the excitement of Christmas.

Christmas Eve I arrived at my parents after a day of sleep in time for homemade pizza for dinner. We then moved on to one of my favorite Christmas activities, decorating cookies. I helped frost and all the kids went wild with sprinkles, red hots and chocolate chips. There were a number of very pretty candy canes, boots, stars, bells, trees and gingerbread people this year, and they were sooo yummy. Next presents went under the tree and children went to bed, waiting for Santa to arrive.
I spent the night caring for the children unfortunate enough to be hospitalized over the holiday. The hospital receives many many donations at this time of year. Someone spent all day wrapping gifts for each child staying overnight in the hospital, plus extras for any that arrive later in the night. I got be one of Santa's elves in scrubs, delivering presents to each patient while they were sleeping.

Christmas morning was present time with the family, 24 of us in all crammed into my parents living room, plus two dogs occasionally wandering through the mess. I think everyone got something they wanted. After presents we went to the kitchen to make Korean food for lunch, bulgogi, jap jae, mandu and rice.

I have been off from work since the 26th. We have a special project that we are working on this week. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Baby News

2008-12-19T09:53:00.001-06:00

My sister Eva had her first child yesterday, Alice Jane. Congrats little sister! You can go congratulate her on her own blog too.

Dancin'

2008-12-19T09:51:00.002-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Who knew we were such good Disco dancers? Even the dog got in on the action.

Yes We Can

2008-11-05T15:38:00.005-06:00

Congratulations to the entire Obama family, Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha!

YES WE DID!

Yesterday I opened the news paper to see a large photo of Barack Obama next to a large photo of John McCain. I asked Hannah if she knew who they were. She pointed to Obama and said "He's Obama." Later in the day I took all three kids with me to vote. They didn't have the Kids' Vote at our polling place so we drove to the nearest one (about 2 miles), so my children would have a chance to share their vote. The Kids' ballot had a head shot of each candidate next to their name. Hannah took one look at the paper, pointed to Obama and excitedly said "There he is!" Of course she voted for Obama. I have one smart 3 year old.

I've seen this everywhere today but I don't know who the author is. I'd like you to see it.

Rosa sat so Martin could walk,

Martin walked so Barack could run,

Barack ran so our children can fly.

What were you for Halloween?

2008-11-05T15:31:00.002-06:00

For Halloween this year Maya was a fortune teller, Elias was a firefighter and Hanna was a princess. It was a lot more fun picking out costumes this year because Elias knew what was going on and Hannah kind of got it. The only part of the costumes I purchased was the reflective tape on Elias' costume. The rest of the costumes were things we had around the house or in the dress up clothes. Total cost of costumes this year? $6.

I Like It!

2008-11-03T21:31:00.004-06:00

I was in Chess Club in elementary school. I never saw a game there that was quite as fun as this one.

Zombie Jamboree 2008 version

2008-10-27T13:42:00.006-05:00

Before playing this video I suggest that you stop the music playing on the music player that's at the top right of this blog. (Just click on the play/pause symbol)

WARNING!! This video may cause you to hum/sing this silly song all day.

Fall Fun!

2008-10-27T13:09:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, after a week off of school, we spent a lot of time with the cousins. My sister was in town with her two children. We went shopping and out for lunch on Saturday. Sunday we went to the Children's Museum (Free 3rd Sunday), went out for lunch, baked a cake, made dinner, then had a birthdays/anniversary party for my parents. During the free time the kids played and played and played. The weather was beautiful and the kids took advantage of it by spending most of Sunday afternoon playing outside.

My kids get along great with their cousins. Maya and my niece, Greta are great friends. Despite the 3 year age difference they have a lot of similar interests. My sister told me that her son David talks about Elias all the time. Again there is a 3 year age difference but I saw Elias and David having a great time together all weekend. It's nice for Elias to have someone that looks up to him. Hannah just tries to play with everyone, she'll dig in the sandbox, play legos, barbies, house, dress-up, cars, anything that she can to participate in what everyone else is doing. My other nephew, Nicholas, has started learning how to play with the other kids. He is still more content to play alone or with a parent, but he is coming around.

Last week I found out about a new charter school that just opened this fall. It's an all girl school for grades 5-8. I am seriously considering this for Maya for next year. She isn't too excited at the thought of leaving her elementary school a year early but I am thrilled at the thought of an all female environment for learning. I'll tour the school next week.

We are deep into the fall schedule of extra curricular activities. Maya started swim lessons again last week, after a 5 month hiatus due to scheduling conflicts. She told me after the class that it felt great to be back in the water again. Both Maya and Elias have scouts as well. I continue to lead Maya's scout troop. Hannah cheerfully comes along to all the meetings and lessons.

Myla and Cyrus

2008-09-26T09:12:00.004-05:00

My sister is having a baby in December. On her new baby blog she is having a contest to help them think of a baby name. One of the suggested names was Myla. We met a 6 year old girl named Myla this summer on our camping trip. Her 3 year old brother was named Cyrus. Myla and Cyrus. Say those names together now, Myla Cyrus. Remind you of anyone? If you have a pre-teen girl living in your house you probably thought of Miley Cyrus also known as Hannah Montana. Three years ago one had ever heard of Miley Cyrus. Too bad for Myla and Cyrus that they just happen to be young during the reign of Miley Cyrus.

Back to School and Fall Fun

2008-09-24T11:51:00.007-05:00

I never did a first day of school blog. School started at the beginning of the month so I am very late in getting these pictures posted. Maya is in 4th grade this year, Elias is in 1st grade and Hannah is still going to day care every day.

The first few weeks of school have gone well. Maya applied for and got the position of bus leader. This means that she is a role model to the other kids on the bus. She has some authority to tell other kids to follow bus rules and can report unacceptable behavior to the school. She is also starting music lessons this year. She chose to try the flute. Hopefully I'll find one this weekend (Craigslist has a bunch listed). She is in her 4th year of Girl Scouts this year and will be getting practice in leadership, critical thinking and planning skills (including budgeting). She is also playing soccer. In her free time she has been playing nicely with her siblings.

Elias is excited for school and I am told he is taking on some more responsibilities in class, especially by helping the Kindergartners find their way around. He started Cub Scouts last week. I pick up a uniform shirt yesterday, I still need to sew on the patches - why don't they make iron-on patches like girl scouts do? We are learning all about boy scouts together, the promise, the law, the motto and other terminology, like den and pack. He is playing soccer as well and having a great time. I have noticed a lot of improvement in his self confidence as well as his skills on the field.

Hannah just hangs out, she goes to all the Girl Scout meetings, all the Boy Scout meetings and all the soccer practices and games. Lately she has been playing with Polly Pockets and Legos a lot, doing a lot of imaginative play. She is a collector of little toys and has them all arranged in bins in her room. She is growing fast. All of her pants that fit nicely in the spring are all too short now. Her feet have grown another shoe size as well. She has been going on neighborhood excursions (to the high school track and to the parks) with day care a couple of days a week and has been going on farther field trips (zoo, giant playground) on Fridays. The day care provider is loving the nice weather we have had this month and likes having only 4 preschoolers on Fridays.

I am leading Maya's Girl Scout troop again - 4th year for me too - and doing all the running around for practices and meetings for the other kids. Work is starting to get busy again - a lot of allergy related asthma lately.

So fall has been fun so far. More trips and events are already planned for next month and should be fun as well.

Acceptance Speech

2008-08-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

Tonight Maya asked if she could stay up and watch Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC in Denver. I agreed to let her stay up. We watched the opening video together (very nice and informative). Then 5 minutes into his speech Maya looked like this...

Fun And Exhausting Day

2008-08-28T21:56:00.001-05:00

We visited the state fair today. The day started out a little dreary and we got caught in a few sprinkles. By the end of the day we were all hot and tired. The sun came out in full force around lunch. We visited the horse and cattle barns, Hannah and Elias tried milking a cow. All three kids got to pet a calf, cows and horses. One horse, Snickers, really loved the attention we, rather I, gave him, he seemed to like looking at the children as well. We left the horse barn and I reminded Maya that now that she is a Junior Girl Scout we could arrange to do a horse badge sometime. She wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it as I was. We stopped for ice cream and shakes before leaving the animal barns. We never made it into the pig barn but we did get to see some piglets and lambs in the Miracle Of Birth center, We didn't witness any animals giving birth ( I think it would have freaked out the kids anyway) but we saw a number of baby animals that were anywhere from a few hours to a few days old.

We ate a lot of food, went on rides (including the Giant Slide) and did a lot of walking. We came home exhausted. Then it was right back out the door for back-to-school night. We met the new teachers, visited the old teachers, and dropped off all the school supplies. The real first day of school is next week. Maya will be in 4th grade. She has a new teacher this year. She got a kick out of walking around and figuring out who would be in her class that she knows. Elias will be in 1st grade. He is in the same classroom as last year but his primary teacher has changed. He has a male teacher this year, something I am very glad about. There were a number of children (mostly girls) who shouted their hellos to Elias in the hall. He just beamed. All the teachers seemed to be happy to have the school full of kids again. Almost all the teachers asked how long it would be before Hannah would be going to the school. It feel so wonderful having a school where you feel like you fit in and my kids are comfortable there.

Camping

2008-08-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

This past week we enjoyed our fist camping trip as a family. Though I grew up going camping, I have never ventured out on a true camping trip in the years since Maya was born, until now. We had great weather and everyone got to try at least one new thing.

Our first day was packed full of adventure. We rented a pontoon boat and tootled around Lake Itasca. This was Hannah and Elias' first boat ride and Maya's first time driving a boat. All three also got to see loons for the first time. We came upon a loon family. It looked as if the parents were teaching the baby to dive. We even saw one loon with a fish in its bill. Later we headed out to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The kids and dog loved being in the water. We even walked down the middle of The Mississippi River for about a quarter mile. The water was anywhere from 6inches to 2.5 feet deep. One point the water was too deep for the dog, she started jumping from side to side of the river then eventually realized that she knew how to swim. By the time we made it back to the car we were all wet so we decided to go to the swimming beach.

That evening we built a fire to cook hot dogs and s'mores. Everyone slept well that night. The rest of our trip involved exploring the park and a visit to the headwaters again. I learned quite a bit about the history of Itasca State Park (the kids weren't too interested). We all got used to eating outside and sleeping in a tent. Hannah practiced looking for cars in the street every time she headed to the bathroom.

Maya helped with a lot of the initial planning of the trip including meal planning, packing lists and budget planning. In addition she helped a lot with the cooking, cleaning up and keeping track of her siblings. The two of us spent the evenings out in the dark listening to the sounds of the night and star gazing while Elias and Hannah slept. For all her hard work she earned her first Junior Girl Scout badge.

We all had fun on our trip. Each child will willingly tell you their favorite parts of the trip. We returned home tired, dirty but happy. I'm looking forward to our next camping trip.

There's a bug on your head!

2008-07-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

Is there a bug on her head?

Our summer has been busy! Two nights a week of baseball, two nights a week of track, one night of tennis. Maya and Elias are still in school until the end of this month, Hannah is at daycare daily. Mixed in we have had family visit from out of town, Maya went out of town to visit my sister, brother in law, niece and nephew and I have tried to do some fun summer activities with the kids.

Now that tennis and baseball are finished we have a little more time to spend together. Yesterday afternoon I had plans to pick up the Hannah from daycare after Elias and Maya got home and then we would go to Target to get the last of the school supplies (for next school year), a couple of grocery items and then pick out fun stuff to make for a raffle basket for the upcoming all school picnic. Those plans were squashed as we left daycare.

We headed out to the car after daycare, Maya started opening the sliding door and Hannah, behind her, kept walking forward directly into the car door! Hannah fell backwards on to her rear end, threw her hands to her forehead and began to cry. I went to help her up and found that her forehead was bleeding. I picked her up, grabbed open my door and found a clean, absorbent paper towel to hod to her head. The bleeding didn't stop for quite awhile, Hannah continued to cry and Maya began crying as well blaming herself for the injury. I got Hannah calmed down and inspected her wound - definitely needed stitches. The bleeding was just a tiny trickle so I got her in her car seat and instructed her to keep holding the paper towel to her head. Maya was still upset but got into the car buckled up. I pulled out my cell phone, called the pediatrician and got the car headed south. The pediatrician's office was hesitant about doing stitches on a 3 year old so I kept heading south to work, Children's Hospital. After a quick visit from the resident we sat and waited for the topical numbing medicine to take effect (45 minutes). We had some visitors, Sam and the child life specialist, Amy and we started to watch Ice Age. The child life specialist was great, she brought in a suture kit, minus the needle, and let Hannah, Elias and Maya explore it, trying out the different parts. When it came time for the suturing Hannah did wonderfully. Having the chance to see and touch the instruments being used beforehand was perfect preparation, she wasn't scared and didn't complain or cry. Suzanne did a great job suturing, only 4 little stitches. Once it was all done all three kids got a popsicle and stickers and Hannah picked out a stuffed cow to bring home. We were in and out in about 1.5 hours.

So our first visit to the ER (for any of my kids) went smoothly. I am somewhat surprised that Hannah is the first one to need stitches, she doesn't play nearly as hard as Elias. Though they were all impressed with having to go to the ER Maya was a little more awestruck than the other two about being able to see where I work. She claims that she doesn't like blood and such, but she handled watching Hannah being stitched up without cringing or getting nauseous. Maybe there is a future in medical care for her.
Elias told Hannah last night that it looked like she has a bug on her head. Indeed it does. Hannah still doesn't quite understand all that has happened. This morning she pulled the bandaid off, looked in the mirror and complained, "Mom this is still here". Yes and it will be for another 5 days!

My Son, Elias

2008-06-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Elias is playing baseball this year. He is quite athletically talented and catches on quickly to anything new. Last summer he had the chance to hit a few wiffle balls with a plastic bat as well as practice throwing a plastic ball. I signed him up for little league figuring he would love it. I gave him a baseball glove and ball for his birthday but we never had a chance for him to practice catching with the glove before the first little league practice due to the ugly weather we have had this spring. On the day of the first practice I realized that not only had he never held a metal bat, never threw a baseball nor caught one in a glove, but he really didn't know any of the rules of the game, like which order you run the bases or what a strike or an out is. Everything was new to him. That first practice when it was his turn to bat he needed help on positioning himself next to home plate. Then with each swing of the bat he took a step forward with his left foot but never repositioned his legs before the next pitch. Pretty soon he was standing with his feet as far apart as they could be. The bat seemed heavy in his arms and he was swinging it like an axe, not following through with his body but rather stopping just after it crossed home plate. He practiced with a smile on his face and claimed he was excited for their next practice and game.
Later that week I told him that my brother or my dad could help him practice his swinging, catching and throwing over the weekend because he wasn't quite "getting it". He began to cry, put his head down on the table and exclaimed "You don't think I'm good at baseball!" I reminded him that he had never played baseball before and I didn't expect him to be good at it the first time he tried and I told him that even those baseball players that we watch on TV didn't know how to play baseball until they started practicing when they were younger. He perked up a little but was still upset that he wasn't perfect.
Elias had a game on Wednesday this week. He has been practicing and playing baseball for about a month now. I noticed that he does a great job getting his right elbow up and out, holding the bat correctly. He has a great swing and gets a hit every time he is up to bat. His throwing arm is amazing and he does pretty well catching as well. As we were walking to the car after game the grandma of another player asked if Elias had been playing baseball since he could walk, she thought he was a great player and looked as if he had been playing a long time. I told her that he had never even held a glove or metal bat until a month ago and didn't even know what baseball was a year ago. She was shocked and stated that he must be really talented to have picked it up so quickly. I just smiled and nodded.
I am excited that my son is talented in athletics. I'm more excited though that he is a nice kid and cheers on his teammates when he is not playing. He knows every boy on his team and cheers when they get a hit and shouts words of encouragement when they don't. He will go further in life as a team player who is nice to everyone than on talent alone. That is my son, Elias.

Two months of updates

2008-05-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

I knew I hadn't updated in a while but I hadn't realized that it had been two months! So here's the news: At the end of Feb. I was in a car accident. All 3 kids were in the car, no one was hut thankfully, but my car did take a beating on the front passenger door. It took more than a month for the insurance to figure out what they were doing and finally assigned liability to the other driver ( he hit me on the right as I was turning right!?). So I brought my car in to get fixed in early April. The next day the insurance called to say they were totaling my car, they would pay fair market value for it and pay for the rental car for 5 more days. So I scrambled and looked up fair market value of my car. I then had to negotiate with the insurance to pay me a better price than their first offer. I then searched the Internet for used cars that I could afford. Finally, on the fourth day my Dad and I found the perfect car in my price range - a Mazda minivan! Just in time for the hike in gas prices I purchased a gas guzzler. However, the kids can spread out and we can transport extra people if needed and it is a really comfortable ride if I ever decide to take a long trip.

Early May brought us Maya's birthday. We had a fun filled day on her actual birthday. First we drove an hour out of town to meet a dog that we did end of adopting and bringing home. (It sure was nice to have the mini van to make the longish drive with 4 kids and then later a dog.) Her name is Minnie, a 2 year old black lab/border collie/something else (Whippet?) mutt. She loves people, she'll follow us around the house until we sit, then collapse in a heap on the floor near our feet, content to sty near us until we move again. Even the cat decided (after a week) that the dog was okay to have around.
The rest of Maya's birthday was spent with a family birthday party at my parent's house and then Maya had a friend sleep over for the night. I was exhausted at the end of that weekend.
We discovered that this year that our ages are all multiples of three. Hannah is 3 years, Elias is 6 years, Maya is now 9 years old and I am ... also a multiple of three this year. How funny!

Elias started baseball a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't been able to get outside to help him practice catching with a glove before the first practice due to the wet weather we have been having. So he showed up at the first practice having never caught with a glove nor ever having picked up a metal bat. He is so quick in learning and is so coordinated that by his second game (only a week after the first practice) he was able to hit the ball on his fist pitch ( a nice hit to right field). He still doesn't quite understand what a play is and how to get someone "out" but by the end of the season I'm sure he'll play like an old pro.

I'll try and post more updates and share some silly stories soon.

Bossy, Bossy!

2008-03-26T18:53:00.000-05:00

Lately Hannah has become increasingly bossy. I think she thinks of herself as a little mama. One night Elias came downstairs to use the bathroom after I had already said goodnight to him. I reminded him that he is not supposed to get out of bed and that using the toilet is part of his getting ready for bed jobs. After I left him to do his business Hannah climbed out of bed, walked into the bathroom and yelled at Elias for getting out of bed. Never mind that she just gout out of bed to tell him this, never mind that she is 3 years younger than him, she had to be the boss and put him in his place. Of course, I had to step in and point out that she wasn't supposed to be out of bed and that what Elias does is none of her business, but it was really hard to do without cracking up.
This past weekend we got some snow. Maya and Elias headed out to shovel the driveway. Hannah took her time getting ready to go out and when she was finally ready she stood at the door crying because "There is no shovel for me." I told her she could go out anyway and just play in the snow. "OK" she says then proceeds to open the door and yell "Elias, Mom said you share shovel with me." She repeated this about 3 times, until Elias finally came in to ask me if he needed to share with Hannah. I told him that he could take turns with her. After they both proceeded outside I sat in utter shock at how "Hannah the Little One" had completely taken the situation into her control so that the outcome was in her favor. I guess I'll need to watch her a little closer in the future and discipline for deception. Who thought I'd need to do that with a 3 year-old?

Happy Belated Birthday Elias!

2008-03-18T15:37:00.000-05:00

Elias' birthday was last Monday. We did celebrate on his birthday but I didn't have time to get pictures up. Elias brought treats to school to share with his class on his b-day - Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls -YUM! We had pizza for dinner, then we went to my parents for cake and presents. Elias loved all his presents - play dough, legos, pajamas, dinosaurs, and a basketball.
Elias is still a joker. Just look at his face in the picture with his pile of unopened presents for proof. He continues to be happy most of the time. I'm told he still smiles all day long at school. He loves to play outside, run, sing, play legos, play with his sisters, anything sports, tell jokes, laugh at all jokes and read. He is doing great in school, starting to sound out simple words and do simple math problems. He desperately wants to be able to read as well as Maya.
Last week Maya and Elias started a new session of swimming lessons. They both love being in the water. Hannah went to the doctor for her 3 year check-up. She is now in the 10% for height and weight. When she came home in July she was only in the 3% for both. She's grown out of a lot of clothes and shoes this winter. I measured all the kids on the wall last week and then have all grown 1.5-3 inches since last fall. Elias goes in for his check up next week. I can't wait to see what his numbers look like.
The kids got the opportunity to go out on a frozen river last weekend. We saw a lot of people ice fishing,dogs, snowmobiles, and cars out on the river as well. I think it was the first time for all 3 of them to be on a frozen body of water. It was a fun activity for all of us and it was free! I need to seek out more of these fun free activities.

Busy Vacation Week

2008-03-03T16:01:00.000-06:00

Last week Maya and Elias had the week off from school. I was able to take some time off work and ended up having a little vacation. On Monday we had Girl Scouts. Tuesday Maya, Elias and I went to the Ronald McDonald House to deliver breakfast bags, then on to the zoo with the Girl Scouts. Wednesday I took all three kids to a big indoor playground for a few hours. Thursday we picked up Girl Scout cookies then on Friday we headed out of town to visit my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew for the weekend. While there we had a mini birthday party for Elias and my niece, went bowling and played outside. The kids had a great time sliding down a big snow pile in the back yard of my sister's house. Bowling was a big hit too, Hannah had 3 strikes and Maya did better than me. Elias wants to have a bowling birthday next year.
The up coming month is busy as well. Next week Elias turns 6 years old. We have a Girl Scout overnight coming up and two Girl Scout cookie booths. Maya and Elias started a new quarter at school today and both are excited about new classes and new subjects they are learning.
Unfortunately we were in an accident last week. We were all in the car and everyone is safe and uninjured but my car has a huge dent on the front passenger door. It happened as I was dropping Hannah off at day care on Thursday. I had my right blinker on and pulled to the left to give myself a wider turning frame to turn into the narrow driveway space. The guy dringin behind me saw me pull to the left and assumed I was turning left. He then proceeded to try and pass me on the shoulder on the right just as my car was turning. Now I have to deal with insurance and getting my car fixed. Hopefully it will all work out easily. He did say was going to try and contest the ticket he got claiming icy conditions even though the only part of the road that was icy was within one foot of the curb on the shoulder. We'll see what happens I guess.

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

2008-02-04T21:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Hannah turned 3 years old. We had a little party for her during half time of the Super Bowl. Hannah picked a pink cake, of course, and got some fun presents. I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first which would explain the odd expressions of her with the cake. She has been to enough family birthdays to know that she needed to blow out the candles, making a wish will come later. She loved opening the presents, as soon as she got one open she would pose for a picture then start on the next one. Here are a few of her gifts. Notice the hat in the picture to the left? My talented sister made that hat for Hannah. The cat purse looks just like our cat, Bootsie. Hannah did get toys for her birthday, legos, little care bears, a princess game and a coloring bag. She got a new outfit too. She loves new clothes as all little princesses do.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Happy Holidays

2007-12-20T21:56:00.000-06:00

Can you feel the excitement in the air? We are getting closer to Christmas. Today we made the mints for the teachers. The kids will bring them to school tomorrow. I managed to make Maya's gift (it's very cute) and wrap a few presents today also. I still have shopping and more wrapping to do before the big day. Since I work all weekend I guess I'll be one of those shoppers on Christmas Eve.

2007-12-14T18:22:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of the kids making cookies last weekend. We made those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kiss in the middle. Maya and Elias had fun mixing and forming the cookies. Hannah just got to watch, she had a cough and runny nose, I just didn't want her to get all her germs on the cookies. Now that the cookies are almost all gone we will do some more baking this weekend. I think we'll make caramel corn and more cookies. We are also planning on making mints to give to the teachers.

In the past I have given the teachers books or a Barnes and Noble gift card so they can buy books for the classroom. With the increased number of teachers to get gifts for this year I decided to go with the mints and some caramel corn. We do have a book to donate to the school library entitled E is for Ethiopia . It's a book I ordered this summer that goes through the English alphabet but has a photo of something in Ethiopia for each letter.

2007-11-19T11:52:00.000-06:00

Last night Maya started writing out her Christmas wish list. I told her she could put anything on it that she wanted but not to expect to get everything on her list. So far she has only come up with four things she wants.

Maya's list:
1. A dog of my own
2. Hannah Montana movies
3. All the family here for Christmas
4. People in Africa get what they need.

I am truly amazed with this little girl's compassion for others, she is only 8 years old yet she believes she can save all of Africa. Sunday mornings she loves to sit down and watch the infomercials about sponsoring a child in a third world country, or sending money to help pay for cleft lip/palate surgeries for children in third world countries. She always tells me we chould be doing this. I wish I could grant all of her Chirstmas wishes but that is financially impossible. So I think I'll research companies that sponsor children and grant her part of her wish.

2007-11-18T10:16:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from a recent Girl Scout overnight trip at camp. This is my third year as a one of Maya's Girl Scout leaders. I have enjoyed watching these girls grow up and teaching them new things. At this overnight (our first ever) the girls learned to tie knots. In the picture Maya is demonstrating her ability to tie a square knot. Elias and Hannah came along for fun and also because I couldn't leave them home. This was their first time wearing winter cats, hats and mittens. Shortly after this picture the mittens were shed in order to pick up rocks to throw in the lake. Hannah found some coins in her coat pocket (62 cents) as she was loading it up with rocks. She started yelling "Mom, moneys!" I though this was a pretty good deal considering I bought the coat and matching snow pants this summer at a garage sale for $3. I guess I saved 62 cents!
The rest of the weekend consisted of the girls learning to sew buttons on fabric, cooking two meals and practicing some outdoor sports skills. There was sleeping too, though not as much as we needed.
This coming week is Thanksgiving so I have been thinking of all that I am thankful for. Lately I have been so grateful to Elias and Hannah's father. He made a very hard, painful decision to let his children leave. In my thanks for bringing these children into our lives I grieve for Elias and Hannah's father in all that he has lost and I grieve for Elias and Hannah too, for the father that they have lost. Now that Elias' English comprehension and communication is getting better every day he has started to tell me things about Ethiopia. He refers to his father as "Bopa". As I have started explaining Thanksgiving to him we have looked at pictures of his Ethiopian family as well as his American family and talked about how and why we are thankful for all of them. Hopefully some of this is sinking in and he'll grow up thankful instead of resentful for all of his family.
I am asking all three children to make a list of three things they are thankful for and to draw a picture to go along with it. I'll post the pictures later this week.

Halloween fun

2007-10-31T18:57:00.000-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The trick-or-treating is done. The bags are full of candy and the costumes have been discarded along with all kinds of candy wrappers. The kids are jumping all over the place hoping more trick-or-treaters will come before bedtime.
Elias and Hannah took to trick-or-treating like old pros. They both loved seeing all the pumpkins on porches and especially loved picking out candy when allowed. Maya dressed up as Hannah Montana, complete with a blond wig, Elias was a friendly pirate and Hannah was a forest elf. We skipped make-up this year but they were all as cute as can be.
Hannah did see her first scary costume - the grim reaper with a skeleton face and a vampire with our first trick-or-treaters, she took off across the room screaming and crying. I guess I forgot to prepare them for the scary aspect of Halloween.

Cooperative Kids

2007-10-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

This is one thing you can do in a clean living room.

I was hit, big time, by Strep this past weekend. I thought is was just a virus until my throat swelled up and ibuprofen wasn't doing anything to help. So I got some oral pain meds and a shot of penicillin and I started feeling better, though I was exhausted all weekend. I tried really hard not to pass it on to the kids though Elias started coughing this morning at breakfast. We'll have to wait and see.
I had planned to get some pumpkins to carve, instead our weekend consisted of us staying home and the kids entertaining each other. I am actually really proud of how well they played together this weekend. Saturday morning I told them they all needed to help clean the living room and the family room and that if I heard any complaining they would have to clean the extra room in the basement. Right away Maya volunteered to clean the basement and convinced Elias and Hannah that it would be fun. I brought down a load of laundry and Maya brought some music and a CD player. We got the room clean in about 10 minutes (including vacuuming). Then the kids stayed down there playing some game they made up with Hannah's little bike thing. Later we got the family room and living room cleaned and vacuumed without any complaining from anyone! They then proceeded upstairs to play with their toys! Whose children are they? They hardly ever go upstairs to play unless they can convince me to go along. Maybe I should get sick more often.
The kids have decided on costumes for Halloween tomorrow but we haven't done any pumpkin carving, I just couldn't get out of the house to go buy any pumpkins. We'll save that for next year. We do have candy to give out, tonight we're going to practice magic and turn lollipops into ghosts. Have fun trick-or-treating.

What's New Around Here

2007-10-18T21:43:00.000-05:00

I've been frustrated with my camera lately. I have been having problems uploading pictures to the computer for awhile but I finally got some uploaded today. We have had some changes around here in the last few weeks. First we got a cute little cat named Bootsie. We brought her home Humane Society one Saturday in September. I took all three kids there with the intention of looking for a cat to adopt. I had found a few online that I thought might be okay. Bootsie was not on my list but apparently she thought she should be. Maya was looking at all the cats and Bootsie stuck her paws out of her cage as Maya went by, causing Maya to stop and look at her then declare that this was the cat she wanted. We spent a little time with Bootsie and Maya was sold on her so we brought her home. She is a very affectionate, petite 1-year-old kitty, she loves sitting on laps and tolerates all kinds of hugs, kisses and being carried around by the kids.

I started back to work last week. A new adjustment for Elias and Hannah, sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house. In addition Hannah started going to daycare in September to prepare for me going back to work. She loves daycare but lately has tried producing tears, clinging to me and crying as loudly as possible to get me to not leave her there. Of course she stops carrying on once she thinks I am gone. I actually heard her stop her crying one day on my way out the door, so I know it is all for my benefit. She and I go to ECFE once a week. I have found it nice to talk with a group of women going through the "twos" right now too. It's also nice to see Hannah cheerfully interacting with other kids.

Earlier this week Elias lost his first tooth and got 50 cents from the Tooth Fairy. He is very proud of losing his tooth and called Grandma and Grandpa right away to give them the good news. He had his last soccer game last week and was sad that he won't be able to play on a team again until next year. Elias is never sad for long, right now he is plotting how to spend all his money.

I took Maya and Elias to conferences at school on Monday. Basically they told me that Elias loves school and is always smiling. Sounds familiar enough, he is always smiling at home too.

Maya is getting into the swing of things at school and even doing her homework at home without too much complaining. She has really taken off with her reading and has started reading to the other kids once in a while. She is still swimming at the U once a week and we all go to Girl Scouts twice a month. (I'm one of the leaders again this year). I think Maya is actually enjoying not being so scheduled this year as she has more time to just play.

Going Potty

2007-09-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hannah's not wearing a diaper today. Even though she has been able to use the potty since she arrived home she won't tell me when she needs to go even when she is wearing panties. So today she's bottomless under her dress. No accidents yet and I'm not even reminding her to go she just goes in the bathroom and sits on her little throne. At one point I checked on her and was reminded of a scene from Ethiopia. On that particular day when we arrived at the care center to pick up our children all the toddlers were sitting on potty chairs all lined up outside near the back door. I had look twice before I spotted Hannah. She was sitting minding her own business until she saw me. Then she was all smiles and wouldn't take her eyes off me. I had only known her a few days and already she was happy with my presence and only wanted more of me. Today when she saw me looking at her she made silly faces and laughed but still wouldn't take her eyes off me.

Getting Bigger

2007-09-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

Being silly for the camera

Last week I took Elias and Hannah to the MD for another round of shots. It had been about 6 weeks since their last visit and the pediatrician wanted to see how they are growing. Well, I got proof that I wasn't imagining things when I thought they had both gotten bigger. Hannah has grown one inch and gained 2 pounds and Elias grew one inch and gained 4 pounds. This would explain why clothes are fitting better, Hannah's pants are not sliding off her any more and Elias actually grew out of a couple pairs of pants and a shirt or two. They are still both on the very small side for their ages though. I did hear from a family in Wisconsin who adopted a sibling group of 4 from Ethiopia last year, all of their kids grew 4 inches and gained anywhere from 5-15 pounds. I have high hopes for my two.
I think Maya has been growing also. She put on a pair of pants the other day that were about an inch too short, they had fit her just fine last spring. I measure everyone on a wall in the kitchen last week. Maya had grown about 1.5 inches since last spring, that explains the pants.

In other news. Elias likes school. Saturday morning he was a little sad that he couldn't go to school that day. He did have soccer that morning so his disappointment didn't last long. We stayed busy the rest of the weekend with a party where all the kids got toys, dinner at Playland McDonald's, and a trip to the Children's Museum. Maya loved showing her brother and sister around the Children's Museum, the permanent exhibits of the ant hill, construction zone and the entire Our World room were the favorites.

Hannah started ECFE yesterday. We will go once a week now. She did well for a first day and ended up dancing around by the last song we sang. She especially enjoyed the play dough and the ball ramp. The teacher pulled out a jingle sheet (on old Winnie the Pooh sheet with jingle bells sewn on here and there) the kids used it like a parachute and laughed the whole time. The best part about ECFE was the racial mix, we have a Somali girl, a Latin American boy, an East Indian or maybe Sri Lankan girl and then Hannah. The other 6 kids are Caucasian, everyone was there with their mom. How nice for all the kids to have such great diversity in their weekly playmates.

Hannah has a fun hair-do

First Day of School

2007-09-04T13:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Maya and Elias' first day of school. Maya got on the bus without a hitch and I drove Elias to school. I could tell that Elias was nervous but I know he'll love being around other kids all day. I didn't drag out my good-bye to him, I could tell he was getting upset. So after a quick hug and kiss I left him in the care of his very capable teachers. I made a quick stop on my way out to wave to Maya and remind her to look for Elias after school at the buses. Hannah and I waited at the bus stop for the kids after school. Elias got off the bus with a huge smile on his face. Both kids took the bus to school this morning.
Hannah and I have been hanging out looking at each other and laughing. We are both a little shocked at the quiet and calm around here without the other two. We've read tons of books, made bread, and colored pictures. Unfortunately we can't walk to the park to play because Hannah has the chicken pox so the back yard will have to do for now. Hopefully she'll get better soon.

Traveling

2007-08-31T09:40:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I took the kids to Duluth for the day to visit a family whose kids I used to babysit for. The oldest in that family just graduated from high school and is starting college now. How did that happen? Twelve years went by way to fast.
While in Duluth we visited one of my favorite beaches in Duluth, the flat rock beach, also known as Brighton Beach. The little kids got to see the big lake and throw rocks in the water. Elias amazed us all with his throwing arm, he could pitch them farther than I can. Then the kids decided to stick their feet in. Soon their feet turned into halfway up their legs, then both Elias and Hannah slipped and ended up sitting in the water. By the time we left they were both soaking wet but had huge smiles on their faces. Lake Superior was a hit. Later we toured my old neighborhood and I commented to the kids on all the changes. Maya was the only one listening, she loves hearing stories from my childhood. We had a great time on our trip and the kids were great travelers.
The last couple of days we have enjoyed spending more time outside in the cooler weather. Elias had his first soccer practice, he was timid at first but ended up running around the field with a big smile on his face. Then we all played on the playground. Hannah had her first ride in a swing. She loved it and soon learned the words "push please mommy". She also proved to be quite fearless on the twisty slide and the tunnel slide. Elias and Maya had fun in the pool yesterday, creating a water slide and later hurdling themselves over the side of the pool. Today we will search out more fun things we can do right in our neighborhood.

Word of the Day

2007-08-25T17:24:00.000-05:00

Hannah's word of the day today is "Eataco" to which I reply "No, eat Hannah" then proceed to eat, kiss and tickle her all over. She melts into a fit of giggles then starts all over, "Eataco".

2007-08-25T14:39:00.000-05:00

The kids have been home for a month now. It doesn't seem like it could be that long yet at other times it feels as as if they have been here longer. Elias is understanding just about everything I say to him now. I know that soon he is going to start spewing out English like a native. For now though I love the mix of Amharic and English in his husky accent. He rolls his r's so everyday words turn have a fun little twist to them, "green three" are two that sound especially fun. He also believes that the correct way to pronounce our state is "Minnesitota". He's still making jokes daily and keeping us laughing. Hannah is picking up English too. She has a soft whispery voice but not much accent. She still uses some Amharic though she wasn't speaking it as much as Elias.
We took a weekend trip to visit my sister and her family in the Fargo area. The kids got along well with their cousins so it was a nice visit. Elias impressed my sister with his running. We headed out one evening after dinner for a walk. Elias, Maya and my niece Greta took off ahead running. Elias ran the entire 1.5 miles, he just paced himself and ran like a distance runner, he wasn't even out of breath at then end. The girls couldn't keep up with him and resorted to walking after awhile. So now I guess I'll have a cross country runner, just as long as he doesn't want to play football I'm okay with it. While we were in Fargo Elias discovered that he loves to play with baby dolls. I am sure when he is 15 this fact will be quite embarrassing to him but for now I think it is wonderful. He likes to change their clothes and even carried one with him in a backpack carrier as we went to garage sales today. He is showing what a compassionate kid he can be and I couldn't be happier.
Hannah is getting better about being around dogs. My sister has medium sized, super mellow dog that loves kids. Hannah didn't like being licked on the face but she would sneak in some petting time if the dog didn't look at her. Elias loved the dog. Now Maya is begging me to get another dog soon. We had to give up our dog when the kids came home for a number of reasons but the biggest reason being that they were both terrified of dogs. In Ethiopia dogs run wild, eat garbage, drink out of puddles, and wander wherever they want, they are not pets. Someone told us that the butchers throw their scraps out for the "hyenas" each night. They may have meant dogs though I did see one weird looking dog that could have been some kind of hyena for all I know. I would think that coming from a culture like that that seeing a dog as a pet would be like me seeing someone with a cougar for a pet. Getting a new dog is something to think about though I don't think it will happen anytime soon.
Maya and Elias start school soon. I think they are both excited. Elias was asking all day yesterday if we were going to school as we ran errands. Maya has been keeping busy the last few weeks running her own school in the living room for both Elias and Hannah. We meet the teachers next week. One of Elias' teachers is male, a fact that makes me happy because he can use all the positive male role models around. This teacher also uses music a lot in his teachings, this is great for Elias because he is really likes music, he has learned songs sung in English quicker than he has learned any other English. Using music for learning for him will be perfect. Maya has a new teacher this year that is also new to the school. Her teacher spent the last year traveling and teaching in South America. I'm sure she has a lot of interesting experiences that can help her in the classroom this year. I need to figure out what Hannah will do when I go back to work so I can get her started going to day care for a few hours at a time. In the meantime she ans I will go to ECFE once a week starting in September. So we'll all be in school.

How It's Going

2007-08-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

We've been home now for almost 3 weeks. It just doesn't seem like it has really been that long yet at the same time I feel that we have been home longer. The kids had their first doctor visit with their first round of immunizations and blood work. We had a lot of crying that day though later they were showing off their band aids like they were trophies. We are all adjusting to the newness of our family.

For the most part Maya is enjoying being an older sister. She loves helping Hannah Meretech get dressed in the morning and cleaning her up after meals. She loves that there are people around to play with besides Mom. Sometimes though her brother and sister don't want to do what she wants or they might be playing with her toys that she doesn't want them to play with it's at those times that she realizes that being a sister isn't always fun. I have been amazed at how well she is sharing her toys and how much responsibility she is taking on in helping with the younger kids.

We discovered that Elias is a jokester. After being home only one day he was acting dramatically when throwing away something into the stinky trash. He'll tell you his name is Mommy with a straight face then crack up. He'll pretend that he is afraid of Maya when she walks in a room and he'll hide behind me. He does have his bad moments too. It hasn't been so easy learning the rules of the house and he's been testing me to see what he can get away with. For the most part he is having fun. He loves to play outside, especially if it involves getting wet or it involves a ball. He is also really excited about learning and we are working on getting him to recognize letters, numbers, shapes and colors. He is practicing writing too and can already write his name. He should be ready for Kindergarten in a month.

Hannah Meretech is a sweet girl. She has a stubborn streak in her but mostly she is just happy to be doing whatever her big brother and sister are doing. She finally started talking (all the time) after about 2 days at home. She has a very cute little squeaky voice. She has done some testing of the limits and discovered that I don't like whining. Her manners get better every day. She is very girly in that she likes to wear dresses, have her hair done and loves babies. She had a ball playing dress-up in old costumes of Maya's. Many of Maya's hair binders end up as bracelets on her little arms.
I am enjoying getting to know the kids during my time off work. We are taking things easy for now and mostly staying around home. I did start signing kids up for fall activities. Elias will be playing soccer, Maya will be swimming and Hannah and I will go to ECFE. We are planning a short trip to visit my sister and her family next week, hopefully the kids will travel well and behave well when we get there.
Enjoy the new pictures for now.

2007-07-27T10:17:00.000-05:00

Thursday July 19 - We finally had a free day to do do some sightseeing and shopping on our own. A number of us took the kids to a mall not far from the guesthouse. I did buy a couple of things but most of the stores had clothing I could buy in the US. We had a snack, ice cream, at a coffee shop then we went to a supermarket and bout some snacks for the plane ride home. The rest of the day we stayed around the guesthouse. I was finally able to call Maya before she went to school (4pm Addis Ababa time). the kids had a great nap and I started packing the souvenirs in our luggage. That night we let the cooks have a night off and ordered pizza, it was good, though not quite the same as American pizza (some other kinds of spice in the sauce).

Friday July 20 - Friday AM was low key day, we finished packing and walked to the office to check e-mail. Later in the afternoon we all drove to the office to get our children's passports, life books and DVD's the staff had made for each child. One DVD was of their stay at the care center, just typical day to day stuff and messages from the nannies. The other DVD is of their birth family. CHSFS sent a videographer to video and interview the birth family. After dinner we left for the airport. Elias loved his first escalator ride in the airport. There wasn't much to do at the airport but wait. The kids found new friends to play with and ran around.

ready to go

At the airport

They didn't even start loading us on to the plane until it was our schedule take off time. Elias was excited to be on an "areoplan" though he didn't like having to wear a seat belt. After 15 hours, 3 tantrums, plenty of food, and not enough sleep we made it to Washington DC at 8:30AM. We made it though customs without a hitch, got our boarding passes for the flight home. waited in line to go through security for an hour and finally made it to our gate. We got some lunch before leaving. Elias liked the fries and ketchup but turned up his nose at the cheeseburger - we'll have to work on that. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Eva and Adam at the gate, we didn't make a big deal out of it because I wasn't sure how Elias would react to leaving Adam. Both kids fell asleep before take-off and I had to wake them to get off the plane in Minneapolis. After 17 hours of flying, numerous hours waiting in lines, incalculable hours of just waiting we were home. Maya and my parents met us at the airport. Both Elias and Meretech were exhausted and a little crabby but cheered up after some food then we all went to bed. That was it no other transition to MN time. They have been on MN time ever since. Nice. Watch here for more updates and pictures.

Farewell Ceremony

2007-07-27T09:26:00.000-05:00

Wednesday July 18 - In the AM we went shopping for souveniers and gifts. I bought some traditional Ethiopian clothing for Maya and myself, some handmade baskets and some things made out of soap stone. There was a guy selling maps of Ethiopia out on the street and every time I walked of a store he followed me trying to get me buy one. I would have bought one too only he started out offering the map for 170 Birr, about $18 US dollars - I bought clothes for Maya and I for about 130 Birr or $14 US dollars so I knew he was just seeking to con the dumb Americans. We went to the Halie Selassie shop also and a music store where I bought two CD's of Ethiopian music. We have been listening to the music everyday lately and I can't tell you what they are saying but Elias loves it and sings along.
Wednesday afternoon was the farewell ceremony at the care center. All the children were sitting in chairs at one end of a large room, the parents lined the wall at the other end of the room. The children who were brought in by their nannies. As they entered the room the school-agers began chanting El-i-as, El-i-as, El-i-as and clapping. I started crying. The social worker gave a speech and handed out cards for each of the children. I started reading the one for Elias and started crying again. Then each child put a hand print on a wall painted to look like the Ethiopian flag. I had counted all the hand prints earlier (nearly 170) there was one for each child who has been adopted so far in 2007. We then had a prayer in both Amharic and English then the celebration with cake. Since Elias was the oldest being adopted that week he got to make the first cut in the huge cake.

After the ceremony Elias gave hugs to his nannies and friends for the last time. Then we took the children back to the care center to stay. The ceremony was emotional but it was so nice to have all the kids with us at the guesthouse, they added some liveliness and, of course, noise.

We're A Family!

2007-07-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

Now they are mine!

Tuesday July 17 - Tuesday afternoon was the embassy appointment. In the morning we went to the National Museum. The actual bones of "Lucy" the oldest known human are somewhere in the museum and a cast of her bones are on display. The rest of the museum has historical artifacts like Imperial dress uniforms, stone statues, pots and paintings. On the third floor you can watch a weaver as he weaves and purchase all kinds of scarves, tablecloths and other woven cloths.
We went to the care center after the museum to pick up the children escept for Elias who was still at school. Elias was dropped of shortly before we left for the Embassy appointment. Both kids loved getting dressed in new clothes and shoes. We arrived at the American Embassy, made it through two metal detectors then were led to a room to sit and wait. There were 9 families in our group and it took about four hours to get us all through. I had to answer about six questions about E and M and sign my name four times. That was it, Elias and Meretech were mine forever.
We later went to the Hilton, a very beautiful hotel between neighborhoods of shacks, to confirm our flight out, check our e-mail and change more US dollars into Birr. Then we returned the children to the care center for one more night and went out to celebrate.
Our guesthouse manager, Massi, took us to the Crown Hotel for a traditional Ethiopian meal and to watch the dancers. The dancing was fabulous, one dancer looked like he was dislocating his shoulder everytime he jerked it around and one of the women put headbangers to shame with all the shaking, spinning and whipping of her head. The food was great though a little spicy for my tastes, Adam had an Ethiopian Special Beer. We went home exhausted and ready to sleep.

Monday I met the boy again

2007-07-24T12:27:00.001-05:00

Monday July 16 -
Monday was the day I got to see Elias again. In the AM we had our orientation, went over our papers for the Embassy appointment and learned a little about the Ethiopian culture that was different from our own. The children were at the US Embassy for medical assessments so we didn't go to see them until after lunch.
When we arrived at the care center in the afternoon the children had just returned from their medical appointments, I went in to see if Meretech was done eating. As she was finishing her milk I noticed a boy sitting on the floor eating out of a bowl. I only saw him from the back and noted that he was bigger than all the other toddlers. On a second glance I realized that was my boy. Elias had returned to the toddler center with the other children instead of going back to his school. Once he finished his pasta we all went outside to play and wait for our turn to talk to the doctor.
Adam had brought a suction cup ball game. He started playing it with Elias and we discovered he had a pretty good throwing arm. Then we found a soccer ball and Elias ran around kicking the ball to various people. He has a pretty accurate kick too. So I'm thinking now I'll be the parent of a child in organized sports. At least I have a soccer player, a sport I know all the rules to so watching the games won't be so confusing. Note though that Elias does love to throw the ball up as far as possible - maybe basketball?
After a while of playing we met with the doctor. Basically I have two really healthy kids (Yay) that still need to have all their immunizations (Boo). After the doctor we went back to playing outside until it was time to leave for dinner.

Meet the Family

2007-07-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

A traditional Ethiopian hut

Sunday July 15 - We woke up early (4AM), which was very early for those of us not adjusted to the time difference yet. Luckily I was still on night shift mode and was functioning pretty well despite the lack of sleep. We had a light breakfast of toast, packed some food for lunch and were out the door by 5AM.
When we stepped out of the gate the street was lined with eight land rover type vehicles. It was still dark and it was damp out. We climbed into the vehicles, one per family and drove off. The countryside was beautiful, very green and full of vegetation. Every once in a while we would come upon a village of huts or shacks. There were a few larger towns, Mostly though it was countryside with huts interspersed here and there.
We reached the city of Hosanna after four hours and made our way through packed mud streets to the care center. There were throngs of children outside the gate begging for candy. Some had learned enough English to ask "What is your name?". When we went inside the gate each family was led to a room where members of their children's' birth family were waiting. E and M's father and uncle greeted me with hugs and handshakes. We were able to talk to these men for about a half hour learning about the family life E and M had left and I was able to promise that the children would grow up being able to attend school and have the opportunity to do whatever they wanted in life. I also promised that our family would spend the rest of our lives learning about Ethiopia, so E and M may have an idea of their heritage. Their father was grateful but also very sad. I gave him pictures of E and M and promised more as they grew as well as letters. One great find was that their father did go to school and can read and write in Amharic. I should be able to find many people here who can interpret a letter for me.
We took pictures then had a candle ceremony, a symbolization of the birth family passing their children to the adoptive family. It was a very emotional day for all involved.
We toured the satellite care center, where the children stay until they are able to go to Addis Ababa. then we were on our way back. The drive back was exciting. All along the highway were people, men, women and children. We were stared at and waved to our whole way back. We stopped at a hut near the highway and were able to see how most of our children had lived prior to the orphanage. We saw people working, guiding their ox to plow the field. Children were the most excited to see us, shouting "ferengi" which means "white people", and waving frantically.
After retuning to the guesthouse Eva, Adam and I walked to the care center to visit with Meretech. She was excited to see us and even more excited when we pulled out a pen and paper for her to scribble. It was almost as if she had been craving the stimulation. She was warming up to us but still not making a peep. We walked back to the guesthouse (about a 15 minute walk) and stayed there for the remainder of the day, visiting with the other families picking up their children.

Ethiopia

2007-07-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

My first meeting with Meretech

We're home now, but I thought I'd take you through my week in Ethiopia over the next few days. I was limited in my internet use all week so I used my few precious minutes on the net to stay connected to Maya back in the states instead of blogging.

Saturday July 14 - After a 15 hour flight Eva, Adam and I arrived in Addis Ababa around 9am. We were driven to the office of Children's Home Society with the other families picking up their children. We were given a packet of info about our children's stay in the orphanange then it was off to meet our children for the first time. Suddenly I was no longer tired and the rain didn't concern me I was going to meet my children! First we drove to the care center where the toddlers and babies stayed. We were shuffled into a room an taken one by one to meet our children so they could capture it on video. I met Meretech first, a quiet, tiny and shy little girl who wouldn't look at me. Then I was driven to the school and met Elias while he was eating lunch. He was all smiles and seemed excited to see me. We left Elias at the school, went back to the toddler center and returned Meretech to her nannies. Then we went to the guest house to unload our bags, find our rooms and eat lunch.
After lunch a couple of us returned to the care center. Upon entering my Meretech came over to me with a smile on her face, then sat in my lap to play with the doll I had brought. She was pretty defensive about her spot in my lap with all the other toddlers and I was happy that she would interact with me at all.
After playing for awhile we returned to the guest house for dinner and then a quiet evening before bed. We were all exhausted so sleep came easily.

We're Excited!

2007-07-04T00:10:00.000-05:00

As you can see we're excited! I received word on Monday July 2nd that the US has approved the immigration of Eilas and Meretech. I leave for Ethiopia on July 12th! Maya can't wait for her new siblings to come home so that she can finally share her room. I'm wondering how long the excitement about sharing her room will last. I keep trying to tell her about the bad parts of adopting older children like the tantrums, breaking things, up at all hours of the night, and the fact that they won't love their mom as much as she does. She just replies "That's okay Mom." What a neat kid.
My sister and her husband will be traveling with me to pick up the kids. I'm thankful that I have traveling companions that are used to international travel and they are people that I get along with. Thanks Eva and Adam for spending your time and money to travel with me. I am so much more at ease knowing that I don't have to do the travel thing on my own.
I am going to try and post while I am in Ethiopia (we will have internet access at the care center). If we can figure it out I"ll post pictures too. Watch this space for updates.