First Day of School

Anna had the best time her first day of school. I was expecting tears, seperation anxiety. Nope, not my girl. She barely waved at me as I left. Too caught up in playing....She just fluttered from toy to toy. You would think she had no toys of her own.

Anyway, the first day was great except she did not really eat lunch. I was so excited too. I used cookie cutters to turn her pb & j into a lion and an elephant. She bit there heads off and left the rest. Lisa said she was so tired, she was asleep in the car within 5 minutes.

She keeps talking about skoool this and skoo0l that. No idea what she is talking about but she obviously loved it.

I wanna go ride my bike (think Mary Poppins)

I wanna go ride my bike,

It's a cute little elmo trike,

I wanna go ride my bike,

So push me mommy,

All around Creve Coeur Lake,

We can stay out so late,

So push me around the lake,

Just one more time...

Anna loves her bike. Look at my girl... So cute. She loves it so much! You see the pouting photo? Couldn't get her to smile for the world. She was mad b/c I wasn't pushing her. She has two buttons on the bike: an Elmo song and an Elmo laugh. Every person who passed us laughed because she kept pushing the buttons over and over and over again. We kept veering to the right b/c she was steering with one hand. Even serious biker's in the spandex and aerodynamic helmets, couldn't help but smile. It was so prescious...

She is a biker through and through...

Tumbling and Apple Juice

So Anna is now a Bumble Bee. That is the name of her tumbling group. I signed her up for lessons and she LOVES it. She can't swing from the bars b/c of her Nurse Maid Elbow. Her left arm has popped out of socket 4 yes count them 4 times. The last time the doctor told me how to pop it back in. So my first thought is I don't think so. We will see if it happens again.

So we totally masted the bear crawl on the parallel bars. They are about 6 inches of the ground. She did ok on the balance beam and on the spring board. The wall walk and cart wheel... well we tried. Her favorite was this huge floor trampoline that leads to a pit with foam blocks the size of loaves of bread. She bounced and jumped her little heart out.


So we are leaving after her first class and I am so thirsty. I have been lifting and flipping her for 30 minutes and Iam HOT. I see a McDonalds across the street and ask.... sweet tea or apple juice? She says apple juice.... Me being a cheap skate says how about Sweet Tea (thinking we can share) She says how about apple juice... I put her in her car seat and ask once more... How about Sweet Tea?
She grabs my chin in her little hand and says..."listen, how about apple juice!" Being the bad mom, I am. I laugh. Well that made her mad. She tightens her grip and says, Listen, LISTEN! HOW ABOUT APPLE JUICE!!!!!!". I got a diet coke and she got her apple juice. Next time I will win... I will win, I promise.

SISTAS PLACE!!!!

SistasPlace.com
Best hair care help anywhere. I buy all of her hair products there. Tuki is so great. You talk to her describe your child's hair and she will hook you up.

Anna is using the Blended Beauty Soy Shampoo.....Blended Cutie Tug Me Not.... Blended Cutie Butter Me UP... I have something new comming this week. Something like Blended Cutie Cake Shake? Maybe. I will let you know how it goes..

So I wash her hair once a week on Saturdays with the soy shampoo. I use the Tug Me Not Conditioner everytime Anna bathes. I sometimes comb through it in the tub, but not always.
I comb it out when she gets out of the bath. I got the best comb set at Walmart. It was a set of ten combs and they are a burnt orange color. It is in with the African American hair care. I also got a boar's hair bristle brush. We use it on her dry hair, brushing her hair in little sections until it loos like a huge afro. I then spray it with water and use the Butter Me Up. I am hoping the Cake Shake will help with Tangles and a bit of a shine.


Anna has what people refer to as GOOD HAIR. I hate that term. Basically they mean it is easy to care for. It is. But most importantly, it is healthy and I am trying to keep it that way. I am still grateful that I don't need to braid her hair, b/c I stink at it.

I am thinking about her first hair salon appointment. She hasn't had a hair cut yet. I want to get her a trim soon to keep it healthy. Not exactly sure when her first hair cut is supposed to happen.

"Please Baby Please"

Any of you read this book to your child? I bought this book for Anna for her birthday. I swear this book is about my daughter. I think the little girl even looks like Anna. Not so much the face, but the hair, thighs, hiney. It is her!!!!!! It also catches her sweet, strong willed, boundary pushing spirit, who is still learning to share. Anyway we read this book most nights. A few nights ago, we get almost to the end of the book and the little girl is at the door of her parent's bed room. The mom and dad are in bed.


Anna says, "Baby momma!!!" , "Baby daddy!!!!" Okay so we have never talked about daddies. MMMM......

So I ask Anna, who is your momma. She pats me and says, you momma.... So far so good.


Then I ask, who is your daddy.... Anna gets real quiet for a minute. Looks at me, looks at the book. Smiles........SISSA Daddy. Sissa is my friend Lisa who watches Anna during the day.


Well...Anna and I have alot to talk about. It is time to start talking about her Ethiopian MOMMY and DADDY.


So I start of saying, mommies are girls, daddies are boys. Aunt Lisa is a girl, she can't be a daddy. She is your Aunt and she loves you very much.


Anna says, Paully Daddy? Pawpaw Daddy.... Okay at least they are boys.


I am working on a book through My Publisher.... Hopefully this will help us. I'll let you know. Any singles have any ideas??? Please share!

Starting over and Anna's Birthday

Okay so it has been almost a year sinced I have posted. I am such a slacker... Bad mommy, bad mommy.

Now that that is over, what is going on in our crazy life..... So very much. We will start with her birthday go forward and occassional flashback.

Anna turned two. Her party was jungle safari. My mom made the most adorable dress. I found the fabric online. Anna looked so beautiful. But such a big girl....

The night before she turned two, I watched her "Gotcha video" Our first few minutes as mommy and daughter. It brought back so many memmories. I forgot that she was asleep when I came in. I had to wake her up. In my mind I always remembered a care giver holding her. Oh and she patted me the first time I snuggled in close. No tears at all. Only smiles and cooo's. I sat down on the floor in the baby's room and just held her and talked to her and she just cooo'ed right back. 13lb little baby all sweet and cooing.

Flash forward 18months to this big girl who talks all the time and flutters from one thing to another. Nothing peaceful about her unless she is sleeping the rest of the time she is like a little humming bird going a mile a minute.

SoI am making my baby girl's birthday cake. I decided that I would be making her cakes until she asked me for a store bought cake. Anyway, I had these grand plans. I used 4 cake mixes and made this multi layer cake. 6 cakes. It was looking good. All iced and ready for the decorating. 3 hours later, I go back in and it has slid. I needed to put dowels in and I didn't. I put it back together, doweled it up and reiced as best I could. Not as beautiful as I hoped, but not bad. The next day I blew up 40 balloons to decorate the yard. It was so hot that by the time the guests arrived only 10 balloons were left. It had started to rain, so the outside party moved inside. Crazy day but Anna loved it. She loved being the center of attention, of having all the people she loves there, and of course the PRESENTS.... She talked about that day for weeks. Seriously weeks. I will post the photos tomorrow. Then you can tell me how beautiful my daughter is, how my cake wasn't as bad as I thougth it was...

By the way one of her most favorite presents was a coloring board of a Care Bare.... It was the first present, she wanted to color not open the remaining presents.

The only thing I would have changed, is having more of her friends there. So definately a 9 out of 10

Anna Here I Come!!!!!

We are on our way to get Anna. I thought it took forever to get to Addis. We had something like a 5 hour lay over in DC and then a flight that seemed like forever on Ethiopian Airlines. I will not be using them again. Later on you will see why. Any we stunk by the time we got to Addis. Hair matted, narley teeth. Yuk. Yuk. Yuk. We get off the plane unsure of what we were to do. We got off the plane on the tarmak (sp) and had to take a bus to the airport. Anyway, then we got into a line for a Visa. If you are going to Ethiopia, get your Visa there it was super easy. Getting our luggage scanned was another thing. It reminded me of cattle being hearded into a barn. Pushed and prodded. I must confess, I got cranky. When I get cranky I get snooty. They probably thought I was nuts when I said, NO MORE, to the people butting infront of me.

Any way after a bit of a snit, we head out to meet my driver Gananew. He is a younger brother of the director of my agency. Shaved head, big smile, lanky like most Ethiopians. Full of personality and joy. Dady to a little girl himself. Anyway, he meets us with a sign. He was right up front. He had to push through a lot of people to be up front. It was late, he hustles us to the car and drives us to the guest house. I ask him if we can go get Anna. I say if she is asleep, I will be very quiet and just watch her until she wakes up. He laughs and dirves us to the guest house. We are in the second guest house. We must of been one of the first guests. Anyway, Kim and I are exhausted. We settle in for the night. We need to sleep but we have school supplies and treats to pack. Once done we settle into our rickety bamboo bed. It is creaking like crazy. A little prayer that it will hold it through the nite. The next morning we are up bright and early. We eat breakfast and I tape a little message to Anna. Then we wait for the driver.

Ok now we are going to get Anna right? Nope. Now we go exchange money. Now Anna? Nope? She needs formula. Now Anna? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Off we go. We get off the main road to a gravel road to an even more rustic road with lots of pot holes. People are traveling on a horse and buggy. Another right turn, then a left I believe and There is the guest house. I knew it. I had seen photos of it, I had memorized it. They open the gate, and we are surrounded by children. I vividly remember Jackson and Logan being there. All so excited. Wanting to hug and be hugged. To have us take photos of them and them take photos of us. I want to run to Anna so bad, but how can I begrudge these children a few moments of my time. Of a few minutes of love and attention. You just can't. So you hug each one. Take some photos.

Then Gananew tells them to go play and he escourts me up three flights of stairs. Nervously I walk. Kim is ahead of me b/c she is to video tape everything. I cannot wait to see it. We will watch it on her first Gotcha anniversary. To relive those moments and cry. I walk into this big room lined with cribs.

I turn to the left and there is a care giver holding my girl. My Anna. I think I froze for a moment and just looked. A few seconds later she was in my arms. I hugged her and kissed her. I even sniffed her hair. She was ao Beautiful! She was mine. This was what I had been waiting for. This moment. I wasn't just I a mom. I was Anna's mom. I was Home!!!!!