Growing the 'Fro and Playdates

Time for more updates (with lots of pix!!!). Mari's hair is growing super fast and I think I might actually be getting the hang of taking care of it (maybe?). Today the 'fro was very fluffy and soft and the hairband managed to stay in place for hours because it had so much to hold in place. We've had a great weekend together just playing around. Cousin Madi came over yesterday for a play date and the two girls are SO cute together (can't wait to add in #3--just a couple more months!).

New Mari-isms:

• plays with cars by driving them around the room (don't know where she learned that!)
• can high-five
• plays peek-a-boo with her hands now (instead of her blankie)--usually she misses her eyes and smacks both hands on her forehead
• tries to blow kisses, loves to grab your hand and help you blow kisses
• when you ask Mari how big she is, she will hold both hands up in the air (unfortunately she doesn't hold them very far apart so it looks like she is not-so-big)
• getting very mobile while holding on to stuff (will be walking soon...augh!)
• vocabulary: da (dog), mama, kit-kat (kitty cat), bye-bye, iiii (hi), na-na (nite-nite, I think), uh-oh, vveerr (vroom when she plays with cars)
• climbing...this girl can climb all over everything and has no depth preception yet so she launches off things as well (any predictions on # of stitches by age 2?)

On to pictures!

Mari got stuck in this plastic toy bin.

Hey, who's that?
Dainty Drummer!

Sharing balls!

NOT sharing. These next few pix are of the battle of Madi's pacifier.







Worn out after all that playing (she stayed in this position for 3 hours until I woke her up)

My need for organization has worked it's way into Mari's hair stuff. This is a fishing tackle box...works well!

This smells better than cat food!

Yum!

Check out my 'Fro!!

Afro-Puffs

A highchair, half of a banana diced up, several cookies, Moose A. Moose on Noggin + spray leave-in black-vanilla conditioner, one comb, and 8 pink rubber bands = AFRO PUFFS!! Mari's first real "do." She was awesome...only a little whining and crying but that was from me trying to keep the bands from snapping.

"Hey, I wore this outfit to my Embassy apppointment in Ethiopia! It still fits four months later."
"Yum...overall straps!"

"Hey, what's this thing sticking out of the side of my head?"
First time in the real tub...much more freedom than the inflatable one!
"What an exhausting day!"

Baby Chiropractor needed!

Mari apparently wasn't quite ready for naptime today and decided to play with her crib aquarium for a little while. However, when sleep hits...it hits hard!

New Post (catchy title, huh?)

Long overdue for a post. Lots of great stuff happening here in Mari-Land. Grab a snack and get comfortable, this may be a long post!

This story starts last year when we had a couple really bad storms...I lost a few shingles here and there, no big deal. Then, very shortly after coming home from Ethiopia, we had a REALLY bad wind storm. I can't quite remember when it was...sometime during that foggy period after first getting home...I just remember running around the yard, picking up shingles, freezing cold, more shingles flying off the roof and hoping I didn't get killed by one while Mari was napping in her crib. The end-result was large patches of missing shingles, lots of tar paper showing, also lots of wood showing. The weeks after were filled with roofers knocking on my door or leaving cards in my mailbox offering "great deals." But between new motherhood, going back to work, and being ill for most of March...I just never got it done.

Fast forward to one week ago Sunday. My doorbell rings in the evening, I peek out and see a very tall man standing on my doorstep and I thought, "oh dear, another roofer looking for work or another preacher telling me the world is ending." (Sorry Essen!). But since there was also a woman(Kathy) standing on the porch and a baby stroller, I decided to open the door. In the stroller was Lydia (who celebrated her 2nd birthday 3 days before Mari's 1st) was adopted last summer from China. They live just a few doors down from me and had heard from another neighbor that I was adopting and were checking to see if we were home yet (they kind of picked up on all the baby-related trash at the road!). We had a great time catching up on each other's stories and they hooked me up with some local resources so I'll be able to meet other adoptive families around here. They also have 3 other kids, the oldest girl will probably be babysitting for me soon (yea!) and the twin 10-year-olds had a great time playing with Ollie-dog, so I have some pet-sitters close by! What a great doorbell ring! But it gets even better. Essen is the pastor of a local church (I was right about a preacher being on my doorstep!) and their deacon's group has a ministry where they help out folks in the community and, thanks to a post-Katrina missions trip, they just happen to be very good at roofing (see, I was right about a roofer on my doorstep too!). On Tuesday, one of the deacons stopped by with Essen and they checked out the roof. On Thursday, a bunch of men came over and climbed on my roof and in just a couple hours, my roof was whole again; watertight, seamless, even matching (they did a great job matching the shingles).

So a BIG THANK YOU to the guys at Tabernacle Pres in Waynesboro. Mari and I greatly appreciate all your hard work to help us stay dry!

Here are the guys up on the roof. Someone is hiding behind a ridge I think...there were 7 of them.

Mari watching the action from below.
Our new friend, Lydia!

Here are some more random pix. Enjoy!

Happy 5th Birthday Oliver!!

Here is our new daily routine. Mari spent a couple hours at the doctor's office on Sunday (yes, they have Sunday hours!). I took her because her face swelled up like a Cabbage Patch Kid but she ended up having both ears badly infected again, she was wheezing more, and she was just plain tired. She was barely awake all day Sunday. So she got an injection of antibiotics and we are now on a 6-week-course of antibiotics (Bactrim), if that doesn't work then we will explore the "plumbing" option (tubes!). She is back on steroids (Orapred) and we added in an allergy medicine (Claritin) to try to combat the ever-present sniffles. She is now on a twice-daily nebulizer (Pulmicort) that is a preventative med, in addition to her albuterol nebs that she still gets when she is coughing and wheezing. In the mornings, she needs both and, since they can't be mixed, that is almost 30 minutes of just breathing treatments (yes, that means I get up at 4:45 for work instead of 5:15). All this is on top of her 6-week course of the oral ringworm med.

Top to bottom. Griseofulvin for ringworm, Bactrim for ears, Claritin for allergies, Orapred for reactive airway, and to the right is the Pulmicort and the albuterol. Aren't you glad you got your medical lesson in for the day?! Luckily, Mari is very good at taking meds. Mari's new sleeping position. Face down, butt up!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those feet!
Mari's first day in shorts. What a cute little butt! BTW, the onesie is 9 months, the shorts are 18 months. She is so short that she is still in 9-12 month clothes but her little belly and rear-end are well-rounded enough that we have to watch waist sizes!

My New Car!!!

I finally decided to buy a new car. I needed something smaller with better gas mileage. My new car is eco-friendly, has a great turning radius with one-hand steering, built-in child seat, front-end storage, and is very compact. Plus...it's a convertible!!!!!!!!

Heeheehee! Happy Thursday! I'll have lots of new stuff to report later this weekend but I thought I'd give you some pix to tide you over!!

What's this green stuff called? GRASS!

Hello everyone! Yes we are still alive. While I haven't had time for much posting lately, I have been keeping up with blogs. Congrats to all the referrals!! Can't wait for those court dates so we can see pix! Mari and I are doing well. Mari got a really bad cold last week and ended up going on steroids for her breathing (the return of the "Ethiopian Flu") but, for the first time, her ears were infection-free!!! She ended up sharing her cold with me (isn't she such a sweetie?) so I went a week without a good night's sleep between her coughing and mine. But we are in much better shape now. It is finally starting to warm up and get sunny here so hopefully the colds will dwindle...hopefully!

So what's new in Mari-land? She is developing quite a temper (oh, I'm dreading the terrible twos!) but these seem to be attachment-related, so in a way I think they are good. She has become very cuddly and wanting to be hugged and held but sometimes she screams bloody-murder if you are not holding her--at very random times too. And that scream...I've read other blogs that mention their Ethiopian child's murderous screams...until you hear it, you can NOT imagine the sound that comes out of such a little person. It is horrific!! But I like the part where she wants to be held. Tonight, I started telling her "NO" very sternly when she started the scream and it actually worked 3 times. We had a very pleasant evening with only a few tears but these were genuine, appropriate tears.

Let's get to some pix. First is another shot of the lovely new hairdo. Mari's hair is getting really long if you comb it out straight (which just springs back to tight little curls again).

We managed to get a trip to the park in last week (as her cold was diminishing and mine was kicking in). It was a fun day as we met up with a high school friend Chrissie and her little baby Daniel). It was quite hot out and Mari wasn't so sure about the sun hat. She also wasn't so sure about the swings at first.
As you can see, she warmed up to the swings very quickly. The slide was another story! Be sure to check out the flip-flops...one of Mari's Easter presents.
"Just not too sure about this hat on my head! And what is this green stuff underneath of me?"
"Sippy cup makes everything better."
"NOT happy with Mommy. Mommy took away my sippy cup because I was spitting the milk all over myself and laughing. So I'm leaving this place!" (At least there was no temper tantrum involved, but if looks could kill...I'd be one dead Mommy).

The trip to the park was an okay adventure. The duck pond was one of my favorite places as a kid...I could not get Mari to look at a duck. She was too busy looking everywhere else. Oh well. Next time, I guess. Soon she will be big enough to ride the train and FEED the ducks.

Hurricanes & Hair Barrettes

Long post...pix and video at the end!

Yes, we are still here! People are getting worried because I have not posted lately (and Juli is having Mari withdrawal!). So here’s some catching up. Work has been brutally busy, so pure exhaustion has taken over. This past week was especially stressful; my Uncle Phillip died last Friday in an accident which blew us all away. So my parents and oldest brother Todd flew to Oklahoma for the funeral. My uncle worked for American Airlines and they were super helpful in assisting my family with flights...however, last week was pretty tough on that airline. Thankfully, they only missed one flight as they hopped across the country. I spent the week trying to figure out after-hours childcare as my parents usually pick up Mari for me (daycare closes before I get off work). So my brother Chad and his wife Lesa stepped in and helped me so much (and my other SIL, Diana, was on standby ready to step in for childcare too). It is so nice to have a great family nearby...this crazy week definitely made all my "single-parent" fears come to a head. I haven’t found single-parenting too hard thus far (except when I was sick with mono) but I also have never experienced couple-parenting (the old adage...you don’t miss what you never had). But this week definitely brought up some situations that prove I’m in for a ride!

So what have we been doing? Last Sunday, Mari and I met with Tammie from CHI (at an info meeting in my hometown). Tammie was the very first person I ever talked to from CHI and has been a great source of support. Mari is Tammie’s "first-born" CHI kid as we are the first family to make it entirely through the process since she started (most of the families in VA are apparently on the longer waiting lists of other countries). We had a great time just catching up.

The week was filled with me working and Mari bouncing around. I had my parents dog, Daniel, at my house for most of the week. He is a husky/pyrennes mix; he is big and fluffy and lets Mari pull his hair...so both Mari and Ollie-dog were very happy with the addition to the family. Mari got to play with cousin Madi several times...they are so cute together. They have really started to interact with each other. Madi had pinkeye and she was kind enough to share it with Mari (I think this might be the first thing they’ve actually shared!). But nothing a little ointment can’t fix.

Saturday morning we headed into a neighboring town to a photography studio so Mari could get her pix taken. She was very good until it was time for pix of us together...by then she was sleepy, hungry and tired of getting her clothes changed. So the pix of the two of us aren’t great (I HATE having my picture taken) but the rest were fabulous. I’ll post them soon once the link is up.

So that is the big update...on to some pix.

Hurricane Mari strikes again!

Too cute...my first day in short sleeves (aren't my arms delicious?) and hair barrettes!

I'm getting into this table food. Ravioli and peas!

Bananas!

For all those that say "Mari is always so happy!" Guess what? I can throw a major tantrum when I want to. Post-tantrum snot-licking! Look at my cute curls sticking out above my barrettes! When Mommy takes the barrettes out at night, it looks like I have little horns. Mommy calls me "little devil"

Here is what I look like when I first wake up from a nap! Me and my best friend Madi!
Mommy washed my Ethiopian dress so I could wear it for my photo shoot. She decided to wash several of them (since she was handwashing them and then carefully packing them away). She still has two more left to do. Our deck looked very Ethiopian that day with the makeshift clothesline.
Mommy mentioned a long time ago that I was getting a very special birthday gift. It was this lion. Why is it so special? Scroll down to the next picture.
Here is Mommy on a Fisher-Price lion that she got as a Christmas gift when she was my age. Pretty cool, huh? 30ish years difference (you probably could tell that by the color of the carpet!).

Finally, a special request from Cousin Brendan. Videos of Miss Mari. The first video is Mari's FIRST "assisted steps" (I'm not sure she knows what her knees are for yet...a little stiff-legged!). The second is a sweet rendition of our daily "dada, mama" game.

We've come a long way, baby!

So yesterday marked 12 weeks at home!! Wow does time fly. It seems like Mari has always been here and a part of my life but, in reality, 12 weeks is a very short period of time. And it is amazing the distance we have come. Tomorrow is Mari's one-year-old check-up at the doctor's and I'm looking forward to updated stats.
So let's review:

1. When we came home, Mari was on formula and "porridge," and had started on rice cereal in Ethiopia. Now she has eaten pretty much every Gerber Stage 1, 2, and 3 as well as starting on table food. Her favorites are lasagna, mangos, and green beans. And only oatmeal for breakfast. And now we are moving into the world of whole milk.
2. When we came home, Mari could not sit up on her own but could roll over and scoot around backwards. Now she is crawling on all fours, standing up like crazy and into everything.
3. When we came home Mari could only say "ah-dah." Now we say "da" for dog, "mama", "bye-bye", and "kit-kat" for kitty-cat (which impressed the vet today!).
4. When we came home, Mari could "happy-shake" her head. Now she claps for herself, waves bye-bye, helps put her clothes on by pulling her shirt down over her head or putting her arms through the sleeves.
5. When we came home, Mari found comfort in only in her bottle (that sounds wrong) and, while she liked to be held, she would just sit in your arms. Now she reaches for you, grabs on, crawls over for hugs and has become much more snuggly. The best is when she crawls over and lays her head on your chest...pure heaven!

I'm sure there are more little things that have "blossomed" but these are the big differences.

So, on to some pix.

I'm too cute!

This is what happens when I miss my afternoon nap. I fall asleep sitting up, waiting on Mom to put me to bed.

My great kitchen that I got for my birthday from the grandparents!

The back of the kitchen...it's a family room!
Me, standing at the sink!
Me, standing in the tub.
Who says you can't back-hand a sippy cup? I'm a lefty...maybe.