Nana and Babu

This last week my parents came to meet the boys. It felt a little bit like our adoption story coming full circle. My parents were missionaries in Ethiopia for many years and my siblings and I were all born there. We have maintained a tender love for this beautiful country and its people. It was almost exactly a year ago to the day that my dad contacted Ben and I to tell us that two little boys had just entered an orphanage in Ethiopia and needed a home. How fun that a year later these same little boys are in our home and meeting their Nana and Babu for the first time.

We had a great visit despite Babu getting a bad cold. It made me realize again that I am ready to move back to the West Coast and be nearer to family. The boys are beginning to catch on that the airport takes away their new found family. Yared was in tears when we dropped off Nana and Babu. Nati continues to wake up and ask for Nana and look for her. They are missed here in our home.

A trip to our local Botanical Gardens.... they were having a Butterfly exhibit.

Next was a trip to USS Wisconsin. It is still part of the Navy fleet but is inactive so you can go walk around and visit it. Yared kept asking about the big guns. When he saw me putting pictures up just now he said he was scared of the ship.



I love this shot as mom and Ben often work on computer stuff together. She refuses to let him do it for her but wants him to teach her HOW to do it herself.
Another favorite to do with visitors is take this paddlewheel boat across the river.

Gotta love a 72 year old who climbs on the ground with them. Yared looked up at me when they were laying like this and says, "Mommy look the letter F." Brilliant!!!
We also visited an old Fort. Fort Monroe
The boys entertained themselves by playing hide-n-go-seek. Their version of this is to hide in very obvious places and jump out and scare you.

Nati sat like this by himself. It looked so funny like a little old man reading his newspaper.

Up we go to the top of the fort... Nati is gaining weight but not that much:).

Most days we went to the beach at least once. Babu loves to build in the sand so he would build a ship or a fort and the boys would entertain themselves. We all avoided the water a bit as jelly fish have invaded us. I still managed to get two nice stings in.

Right before we took Nana and Babu to the airport we had an ice cream at Dairy Queen also known by Yared as the ice cream house. Then we walked along the water. We had a rather strange man take this picture of us. I love my huge pony tail taking over my head.

Our Ethiopian family:).

One of my favorite things was hearing Yared learn to speak with a British accent.

On Sunday nights our local beach has free big band music. We put the boys in their pjs and go listen for a bit. Here Nati is entertaining us all with desire to carry our back pack. Listen to my mom and Yared laughing their heads off:).

Cousins

Yared has just begun to feel confident in his English abilities with other kids the last two weeks. It is perfect timing as we had Ben's sister come visit for a few days. She has a three year old and a one year old so these four will be good playing buddies. We had great weather and enjoyed watching the kids interact. Yared was especially thrilled to have a pint size buddy. She loved it too for two days and then she was ready to just have adult interaction. It is all good, but I know I am a mom as it was VERY hard to watch Yared's hurt face when she didn't want to play, talk or even look at him. Listening to the two of them playing pretend was fantastic. It also inspired me to start looking for some activities for Yared with kids his own age. I am going to look into swim lessons and/or a swim team as he loves the water. Nati just loved all the entertainment that was happening all around him.

Today we had the cousins and Auntie leave and now my parents are here. It was great as Yared got loved and spoiled on today by Nana and Babu and you could literally see his love cup filling back up.

Here are some shots of the fun we had over the past week.

Here Auntie Bethany is trying to convince her little one to run through the spray.

Like this.

It worked:).

Swinging cousins.

They have the whole world in their hands.
Mischief anyone?
Beach days were a hit. Here little M wanted to be a princess and Yared did too. I convinced him to be a prince:).
We found this mask and Yared loves it.
I think he looks hilarious.
Yared tried to convince M. that the water was fabulous. She wasn't so sure.

He honestly stuck his face in the sand. Goofy boy.
Here they are counting to 10 so Ben and hide and jump out to scare them.

Eating Dirt

Ok so I have had quite a few emails about my "eating dirt" diet. It is actually called Take Shape For Life. Here is the link for my friends website. I will say two things, it isn't cheap and it doesn't taste great BUT... for me it worked. I know that the money thing actually helped as I knew it would frustrate my dear husband that I had invested our money in a diet program but then was cheating on it. I also found that I could not do it without my daily cappuccinos. They didn't seem to stop my weight loss and they definitely helped me through the rough first two weeks. I wish you all good luck who choose to try it. It really did work well for me. It also gave me a new appreciation for small amounts of good tasting food. And yes I have struggled with loosing weight. I just gradually put a few pounds at a time since I had turned 30. I have tried to get it to go away but it just didn't work. This more drastic approach worked for me and I feel so great that I find all the motivation I need to stay away from junk food.

Random life events that are not to do with adoption:)

First, we have been in the process of adding a garage and master bedroom to our house since NOVEMBER!!! We wanted to take advantage of the our cities tax abatement program but it meant jumping many hoops. We are done jumping and are now building and paying. Here are two shots of the event and how the boys like to view it.

This is a picture of me taken in Ethiopia. After seeing it, I was rather sad to see my plumpness. My friend had become an advisor with a diet program and I called her up. It was a brutal month but I am now 14 lbs lighter and WAY happier. I haven't weighed this little since before I was engaged. It feels great. The diet was tough, I joke it was like eating dirt. I have kept the weight off for a month now by changing what I eat. I am posting about it here as a way of being held accountable. If you are interested in eating dirt, I will get you my friend's contact info. She is very supportive through the dirt eating process.
Another friend gave me this straggly old plant two years ago to plant. I am a lousy gardener but needed something green so I put it in the soil. Low and behold, it grew into this gorgeous lily.
Yesterday was a lazy summer day sitting in the front lawn playing with the boys. Yared took some chalk and colored his legs. Then he told me he had socks on. I thought this was hilarious and was laughing about it so Nati wanted socks on him. But I took one whiff of him and decided he needed something different on his sweet little body.

Yared and Nati's First July 4th

Our 4th of July started with us putting up a new flag. Yared has been obsessed with American flags since our first day here in the US. He would spot them through the window and yell "America, America". He was very excited to have his own new flag. He was not as excited to pose for this picture:).

Two side notes - first I have no idea why this font is underlined. Second we are still working on camera settings when our family is in the shade. As we range in color from extremely pale to lovely chocolate brown it will take some time:).

Yared helping Dad get the flag ready to go up.

At lunch we had cupcakes with a candle to celebrate the 4th. Here is a clip of my horrible singing and the kid's happy faces.

In the late afternoon, we then went to a BBQ at a friend's house. They had a kiddie pool and a slip-n-slide and the boys had a blast.

We skipped fireworks that night as they were too late for us. We went to twilight fireworks on Sunday night. It was interesting to see them during day time hours. The boys loved them, I promise. Nati looks terrified but liked it.

Getting a pretzel to eat while we watched the fireworks.

Family shot... Yared giving a more pleasant look than our earlier family shot.