25 Random Things about Mari

1. Mari loves to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. Some days she never shuts up...those close to me tell me this is payback.


2. Mari knows all the characters on her shows and has to say bye-bye to them when they go off. Bye-Bye Taytee Town, Bye-Bye Gaga Gaga (Yo Gabba Gabba), Bye-Bye Blue, Bye-Bye Dorda and Boos (Dora and Boots), Bye-Bye Backwawaga (Backyardigans), Bye-Bye Elmo, Bye-Bye Eenie and Burr (Burt and Ernie), Bye-Bye Max and Booby (Ruby). Hmmm...yes, we do watch a lot of TV but it is always accompanied by coloring or doing puzzles, etc.


3. Mari can do all her puzzles by herself now, including the hard number puzzle that doesn’t have matching pictures below the pieces.


4. Mari has discovered climbing. I think she’s a little late in the discovery but she is making up for it in the actual action. She can scale her giant gate, she can climb the stools like a ladder up to the kitchen counter, she has learned how to move items where she needs them to climb wherever she wants.


5. Mari loves coloring but is so over crayons. She prefers colored chalk and markers. Crayola makes these great little stubby markers that are perfect for her and they wash up SO easy. I’m okay with that.


6. Mari loves organization. She knows where all her toys go and if I try to change their location, she will move them back where they belong (even if I do it after she’s in bed, she notices first thing in the morning).


7. Mari moved into the 2s room at daycare a couple weeks ago...I was excited because they do potty-training in there. She has yet to use the potty at school (except to fall in the toilet fully dressed). On the other hand, she’s doing really well at home and even asked twice while shopping to go potty. Yay!


8. Mari slept in a big girl bed last night for the first time. She is getting a room makeover for her birthday, so I wanted to start transitioning her to a non-crib. She did great. Yes, she climbed out in the morning at 6:15 but that was nice because, instead of me having to go get her out of bed yelling Mama, she just climbed into my bed without me getting up and we got to snuggle.


9. Mari loves to sing. I’m uber-impressed with her singing. Even when she hums, I recognize it...so that means she can carry a tune somewhat (I’m tone-deaf, really really tone-deaf). She knows the words and motions to countless songs and it’s really funny to listen/watch her "speed-sing" her way through them.


10. Mari now eats broccoli. The only food I’ve found that she absolutely refuses is beets. She’s less than thrilled with bananas but will eat them in cheerios.


11. Speaking of food, Mari now eats everything Mommy eats. We are no longer eating separate meals. This makes me very excited. About the only thing left that I like that she hasn’t had is pork chops. Now that she finally got her molars, we will try.


12. Mari has really little feet. She wears 6-12 month socks. Her shoe size is a 5. I’m not sure what a normal 2-yr-old wears but I know her shoes are tiny compared to those of the kids around her.


13. Mari has a new friend named Daniel. He was adopted from Russia. His parents used the same adoption agency I did. I read their blog because it said VA on the CHI bloglist. I thought the mom looked really familiar and, after she posted a picture of Daniel with a background I recognized, I sent her an email. It was really funny (especially if you hear Rachel’s telling of it) because I wrote something like "I hope you are who I think you are and if you’re not then you’re going to think I’m really weird but I promise I’m not a stalker." Anyway, Rachel and I did go to high school together. We do live close to each other. We did use the same adoption agency. Our kids even go to the same daycare...and now they are even in the same class! Who would’ve thought?


14. Mari loves her grandparents...she talks to Grandma on the phone all the time and goes absolutely nuts for Grand-dad. Granddad works at Lowes and she loves to visit him...then I carry her out of the store screaming hysterically when it’s time to leave.


15. Mari still loves her giraffey ("Raffi"). It was the first thing I gave her in Ethiopia and she still uses it to self-soothe, basically holding it against her cheek while her tongue licks her lips (almost in a pacifier/suckle action). I think she will do this for a very long time...I’m okay with that. It gets us through tough situations.


16. Temper tantrums are plentiful and very tiresome. I am learning how to tell the difference between her angry/attention-seeking tantrums and her frustrated/scared hysterical ones. They need to be treated very differently by me and things are going a lot better. Ignoring works great with the first kind but is very detrimental with the second...only hugs and raffi help the second kind.


17. Mari has learned that "pee-pee?" accompanied by the sign for potty will get her out of anything she doesn’t want to do. Mommy has learned that Mari uses this to get out of timeout. That ploy no longer works. I’m onto ya’, kid!


18. Mari has become very attached to Ollie-dog ("Oyyie" - I guess she’s doing the Spanish double-L pronounciation!). She has started to have hysterical tantrums when we leave him behind. We had to stand in the vet’s parking lot in the freezing cold for 10 minutes the other day until she was calm enough to get in the car seat (hey, if she doesn’t want to bend, you can’t force her!).


19. Mari is getting tubes in her ears on Wednesday. I’m hoping this will eliminate all her poor earaches. Maybe help her speech too...I don’t know if she is getting lazy because of her language explosion or if her pronunciation is slipping because of her ears. We will see.


20. Mari hates having her picture taken now. This is a complete 180 from a couple months ago. I have to make a big stupid fool out of myself to get pix of her. She freaked at school for the photographer...no school pix this go-round. (The current picture at the top of the blog is what her school pix should have been)


21. Mari LOVES lollipops (pop-pops) and will do anything for one. This is a very handy trait, especially in the checkout line at Wal-Mart. I always have lollipops in my purse. She is very good about sharing licks too.


22. Mari loves to blow her nose. She has the mechanics down but isn’t really effective yet.


23. Mari has a boyfriend at school. His name is Garrett but everyone calls him Archie. Mari is so in love with her Aw-chee. It motivates her to go in the morning and as soon as we top a certain hill on the way to school, she sing-songs "aw-chee, aw-chee, aw-chee". I think the feeling is mutual...he comes running to the gate as soon as she gets there. They are in separate rooms now but they still greet each other...he should be moving up soon.


24. Mari’s re-adoption is almost finished. One more signature is all we are waiting for...and that document in on the judge's desk. Just waiting on it to be signed. We are almost done with paperwork.


25. Mari says "I wuv you Mama" all the time. And appropriately, I might add. I will never get tired of hearing that.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tagged - 4th picture of the 4th folder...

So I was tagged...supposed to pick the 4th picture from the 4th folder on you computer. Well, I subdivide and organize mine so this is the 4th picture from the 2nd folder (only 2 in this subsection) of the 4th folder. Anyway...

According to my computer, this was taken January 8, 2008 at 7am. This would have been almost 24 hours after landing back on US soil. If I remember correctly (from my haze at that time), we had been up for several hours and were getting ready to go back to bed...jet lag.

What I can't get over is how devastatingly clean that highchair is (was)!

So I tag Cousin Madi and Malachi and Nataly and Daniel.

Outrage

14 kids under 7! To a single mom!

I have many opinions on this situation. None of them very nice. As it is not my place to judge, I will not give a blow by blow about why this is SO wrong. I will keep those feelings to myself (for now).

I was already outraged and incensed by this story...a mother of six kids under the age of 7 has 8 more. When there are so many children in this world needing homes and families.

Then I found out she was single. I'm not sure I have ever felt more like punching someone in the face more. I, too, am single. I, too, have always longed to be a mom. I, too, have grown up my whole life believing that motherhood was my ultimate dream.

I made the choice to fulfill that dream by sharing my love with a child whose dreams were filled with uncertainty and fear. I chose not to bring a new life into the world when there are so many children already in this world who want a mother. (I do not shun those single women who do responsibly choose to have artificial means to bring a biological child into the world, that is their choice.)

I fear that these 14 children will grow up feeling like they are living in an orphanage with a single nanny. Why bring a child into this world for a subpar existence?

Trip to the Park, Updates, Etc.

I know, I haven't been keeping up very good lately. Only one excuse...Facebook. So I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening.

Mari is growing by leaps and bounds. I keep measuring her thinking she is getting taller by the day; she has grown some more but I think she is just standing up better now and also really losing her baby looks. She talks nonstop (nothing new) but almost everything she says now is purposeful (not just babbling). I can't understand it all but she manages to get her point across most times. I'm amazed at her understanding more than anything. She answers questions now and even asks them sometimes. She has started this new (very cute) thing of attaching a title to every sentence..."look Mama," "thank you Mommy," "get down Ollie," etc. I love that she is interchanging Mama and Mommy and she is saying I love you a lot now, unprompted. She loves singing and has several songs that she sings along with (as well as doing the motions), I love to look back in the car and seeing her just beebopping to the Wee Sing CD. Some of her favs are Hokey Pokey, If You're Happy and You Know It, EIEIO, 6 Little Ducks. She also knows exactly which song is coming up next on the CD and starts singing it as soon as one song goes off before the next one starts...impressive considering there are 47 songs on the CD. She does the same thing with her Nick Jr DVD that we have...she can say some parts of the Dora and Lazy Town ("Tay-Tee Town") episodes right before they do. Okay, maybe that's not smartness, maybe that is too much TV!

Her manners are impeccable. She says please most of the time, loves to say thank you, and will cover her mouth and say "eh-muse me" (excuse me) every time she burps or toots. I may not have the most well-behaved child, but she definitely has good manners. Speaking of behavior...zowee! Crazy almost-2! She is very whiny, every other whine is a "boo-boo," doesn't want to potty anymore, does this little thing where she has her head pointed at you but slides her eyes to the side (toddler version of eye-rolling, I assume?), etc. etc. etc. She is very manipulative and calculating, knows how to push your buttons but stops short of actually getting in trouble. I'm gonna have my hands full! But we are making strides...consistency being the key. The threat of timeout actually means something now, we have almost broken the hitting and throwing habits (almost, but not quite), we are now working on spitting and scratching. Oh, and the ever-famous Ethiopian scream...totally ignore that one and she will stop after 2-3 short bursts.

Healthwise...things are going good. We've had a lot less respiratory issues this year (knock on wood), occasional use of the nebulizer but not bad. We just finished antibiotics for her 3rd ear infection since Thanksgiving. I counted up as many as I could remember since we came home a year ago, and I remembered 8 (I think there may have been 1-2 more, but I didn't write them down). The peds office still didn't think that was significant so I called and made an appointment with the ENT doc myself. We saw him on Friday and as soon as he entered the room he said that based on her records, he had already asked his nurse to check the OR schedule...before he even looked in her ears! So Mari is FINALLY getting tubes on February 25th. I am one happy mama!

Well on to some pix. Today was a very nice day...warm and sunny so we made a trip to the park. Considering we had yucky icy/sleety weather earlier this week, it was a nice break. Mari was initially scared of the ducks and the fishies but she warmed up pretty quickly. She enjoyed the swings and the slide on the playground. She even went down the big curvy tunnel slide!
I'm sure there is more great stuff that I'm leaving out but I can't remember!

Future Olympic Ski-Jumper?

Nite-Nite Mickey

Are those braids or little antennae?

Trying on my snowsuit and boots from my friend Kaili. They fit great, now we just need some SNOW!

Snow day at home with Mommy...no snow, but we did do art!

Hmmm....markers and Mari. Not a good combination.

Snow day lunch. Grilled cheese and noodle soup.

Mari's new best friend. The cow from Dr. Seuss' Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? One of our favorite bedtime stories. BTW, the cow's name is Moo! (bet you're surprised!)

Park Trip

Mari was scared to death at first of the ducks and the giant fish in the duck pond.

Taking it slow in Mommy's lap. (We are singing 6 Little Ducks, that's why my hand looks funny, we are "quack, quack, quack"ing. It worked, she seemed to understand what those funny green-headed things were after that!)
"Qack, Qack!" Mari's version of quacking at the ducks.

Feeding the ducks.

Loved this little guy. He was definitely the most beautiful duck we saw today.

Swinging.

The sweetest sound in the world!

If you missed the big Hair Post, see below. Warning, it's long and boring but has some useful information in it.

THE Hair Post

I've had lots of questions on how I do Mari’s hair, what I use, what I recommend, etc. So I’m going to write out our hair routine. Let me preface this by saying that I had a lot of advice from many people, lots of experimentation, and over a year of hair struggles. Not all hair is alike, nor does it respond to the products the same way others do. I’m going to outline what we do and what we use. At the end of the post, will be a detailed "review" of all the products we currently use as well as some of the others we've used (both liked and disliked).

Skin
Using normal baby care products has not worked on Mari unless I did a full-body slather up to three times a day…NOT happening.

What we use now – Jergens Naturals HYDRATE.

Hair
First, let me say that I love leaving Mari’s hair all natural curly…however, this look actually takes the most product to keep if from looking like a fuzzy lint-trap and takes the most time and maintenance. Braids/ponytails are much easier and also help protect the hair from the elements and hold in moisture.

Shampoo Day:
We shampoo once a week at the most (unless there is an unfortunate accident with the pancake syrup, etc. but even then, I try to adjust the schedule because shampoo strips the hair of its much-needed natural oils).

Step 1 - Shampoo:
I have tried several different products and haven’t found any particular one better or worse than another, except that I do look for ones made for African-American women or coarse/curly hair. We are currently using Pantene ProV for Women of Color. And from the size of the bottle and tiny amount we use…she will be a teenager before I need another bottle. I use just enough to get a thin lather, mostly trying to wash out the products that have built up all week.

Step 2 - Conditioner:
I LOVE this product. Garnier Fructis Sleek N Shine 3-Minute Masque. I use a hugely healthy amount and slather it on her hair…you leave it on 3 minutes and rinse out. It is almost an instant detangler and while I wait the three minutes, I comb through her hair with a wide-toothed comb. She has these gorgeous ringlets that relax half-way down her back! Then we rinse it out. BTW, I have a sprayer that attaches to my shower head that she loves to be sprayed off with…I can direct the spray away from her face so that she does not get stuff in her eyes…love it!

Step 3 - Leave-In Conditioner:
I follow up the rinse-out conditioner with Granier Fructis Sleek N Shine Leave-in Conditioner and finger comb a moderate amount through her hair.

PAT dry…do not rub to dry. Oh the knots you will get!


Daily care: Yes, it’s twice a day if you want to avoid horrible hair sessions.

First, I never “dry-comb” Mari’s hair. The knots are impossible to get out, it leaves her hair all fuzzy and dry, and also breaks a lot easier, so I wet it before doing ANY combing. And only use a wide-toothed comb for general combing, I will use a small toothed comb to smooth the hair into ponytails but only after I have gotten out all the snags.

***If hair is in braids or twists or any other style that I won’t be taking down to redo, then I just spritz with Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner.***

Morning Routine: (at night – during bath – we just spritz with water, throw some leave-in conditioner on and comb out the knots before bed)

(If not already styled or needs redone)
Step 1 - Wet:
Spritz with water from a bottle until almost dripping. If it looks especially dry and/or matted after sleeping on it, I’ll spritz it will a mixture (4:1) of water and Burt’s Bees Apricot Oil (you have to shake the heck out of it!).

Step 2 - Leave-In Conditioner:
Granier Fructis Sleek N Shine Leave-in Conditioner - finger comb a moderate amount through her hair.

Step 3 - Style!

Styling Tips: HAVE FUN!

If going all-natural, then you will need some kind of curl-lock. Here are my two favs:
Garnier Fructis Sleek N Shine Curl Cream Gel – very moist, creamy…just finger comb through and arrange curls.

Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding. You simply take a small section of hair and apply it root to tip pulling the hair out straight as you do it and then let go and the curl relaxes into a beautiful sproingy wave.

Play around. Put little ponytails in the front and then split them in half and incorporate those halves into another row of ponytails, twist them or braid them or criss-cross them into the next row. Take the “puff” of a ponytail, put some “goop” on it and then take little sections and twirl them tightly…you’ll have a ponytail of ringlets!

Don’t be afraid to try some stupid-looking stuff…at least you’ll learn your child’s hair’s capabilities and limitations. Also start when they are itty-bitty so they get used to you messing with their hair. I used to brush Mari’s hair while she was sitting in her highchair eating, just to get her used to me playing with it…now I plop her in front of Elmo or Dora and style away while she glazes over from happy-toddler-tv. She sometimes even falls asleep during braiding.

Click here for one of my favorite website of how-tos.

Products:

Currently using:

Product: Jergens Naturals HYDRATE
What we use it for: Skin care.
When: Nightly – head-to-toe, Mornings – face
Where to get it: Local Retailers
Pros: inexpensive, large pump-style bottle, slides on smoothly and absorbs quickly, light oatmealy smell, mostly natural
Cons:

Product: Pantene Pro-V Shampoo (for women of color)
What we use it for: Shampoo
When: once a week, max
Where to get it: Local retailer
Pros: big bottle, will last a lifetime, doesn’t strip the hair of natural oils
Cons: not the greatest lather

Product: Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Conditioner 3-Minute Masque
What we use it for: Deep Conditioner
When: After shampoo
Where to get it: Local retailers
Pros: super slick, instant detangler, leaves the hair so soft
Cons:

Product: Granier Fructis Sleek & Shine Leave-in Conditioner
What we use it for: Leave-In conditioner
When: Twice a day
Where to get it: Local retailers
Pros: absorbs quickly, doesn’t weigh down hair even after multiple applications, helps with detangling
Cons:

Product: Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner

What we use it for: Conditioning for styles that are left in for days (braids, cornrows, etc.)
When: Twice daily
Where to get it: online or at Sephora stores
Pros: spray bottle, lightweight, awesome smell, natural, get for travelling and for “freshening up” hair styles
Cons: always backordered, we go through this too quickly for the expense of using it everyday

Product: Garnier Fructis Sleek N Shine Curl Cream Gel
What we use it for: curl control when going all-natural, spread on and finger comb curls into place
When: daily on curly days
Where to get it: local retailers
Pros: absorbs quickly, every lightweight so doesn’t weigh down hair even after several applications
Cons: kind of goopy to spread

Have used and like, will use on occasion:

Product: Carol’s Daughter Unscented Body Jelly
What we use it for: Skin
When: Once a day, head-to-toe
Where to get it: online or at Sephora stores
Pros: great moisturizing, unscented, one tub lasts a long time, natural
Cons: always backordered, not inexpensive, slightly greasy on application but absorbs quickly.

Product: Burt’s Bees Apricot Baby Oil
What we use it for: Skin care as an infant, hair care now
When: Skin was once a day head-to-toe, Hair – mix with 4 parts water and spritz on
Where to get it: Local retailers
Pros: Yummy smell, natural, can use on body and hair
Cons: oily

Product: Neutrogena Body Oil (sesame)
What we use it for: Skin care
When: when wanting a shiny, smoothness (picture taking, etc)
Where to get it: Local retailer
Pros: very light, minimal smell
Cons: absorbs extremely quickly that makes it difficult to get on fast enough

Product: Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding – this is a new product for us and we love it but will be used for special occasions only (see cons)
What we use it for: Outrageous curls and ringlets
When: for styling curls only – simply take a little section of hair, apply a little root-to-tip and smooth out straight, let go and spring…instant ringlet
Where to get it: online
Pros: makes beautiful, long-lasting curls (we are talking surviving naptime)
Cons: expensive, does buildup after more than one application or if mixed with other products (think hair glue)

Product: Carol’s Daughter Hair Butter
What we use it for: to smooth and “lock” braids
When: while braiding, smooth on a little to help “lock” the braids
Where to get it: online or at Sephora stores
Pros: only need a tiny bit, works well without weighing down hair
Cons: stinky

Unimpressed:

Carol’s Daughter’s Hair Milk

Luster’s Pink

Just for Me

One day I'll look back at this post and laugh at the number of products I've tried and am currently using. but truth be told, hair acts very different depending on the weather and what you want to do with it. I haven't yet found a "one-size-fits-all" product.

Bad blogger award!

I'm awarding myself the bad blogger award. I stink, I know. I promise a REAL update when I feel like it. Just feeling the winter blahs...you know, by the time you get home from work it is already dark and you've got 20 million things to do before bed, etc. So to tide you over until I actually take the time to post, I'll leave you with a short video.

You can always tell Miss Mari's mood by the position her eyebrows are in...the closer together they get, the farther away you better get. Here is a video of her working on her sillier eyebrow tricks. Just watch those brows!



And Jodi, I haven't forgotten your hair question...I'm working on THE big hair post - coming soon!

1st Famiversary Reviewed

Since I provided you with plenty of video footage on the last post, I'll not bore you with another video. Just a quick recap of our special day on Friday.

We basically had no agenda, other than whatever we wanted. That kept almost-2-year-old tantrums to a minimum because I didn't care that it took her 6 years to eat her breakfast, and 25 weeks to get dressed, etc.

We started out by going to Pufferbellies for storytime. This was Mari's first ever storytime and Susan said she did really well. She wasn't perfect but not bad. She did, however, rock it with stringing the foam beads on the yarn and we ended up with 2 necklaces...she was the only kid (and she was the youngest, by far) that had the patience to do them!
We then stopped to see Grandma at work before heading home for lunch and a nap.

We continued our celebration (after some playtime) with supper, cake, and presents...cause we all know that there have not been enough presents lately! (Which reminds me, I haven't posted about Christmas Round #3 on New Years Eve...I'll do that later).

Here is my gift to me. You can find them at the AHope Store.

Mari's gifts were a great, custom-made doll by fellow adopter (with a recent referral for a baby girl!!) Autumn and a picture book I made at Snapfish.

Mari eating her favorite dinner, spaghetti (except I cheat and give her ziti cause it's easier to eat and less messy!)

Yummy ICE CREAM cake!

What blue icing can do for you!

Looking nicely at her picture book. It's now succumbed to the fast fingers of a tear-happy toddler. Yes, one page ripped out already...but it taped back together pretty nicely.

Cousin Madi came over to play for the evening. The girls had a BLAST together. It is so much fun just to sit back and watch them.

The clothes were an accident but it's pretty cute. And yes, Madi's bib perfectly matches the barrettes that Mari had in her hair all day and I had not yet taken out. Go figure!

I Love You, Mari - Happy Forever Family Day!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(It's 15 minutes long, in case you are wondering.)

Goodbye 2008!

This time last year...here is where I was!

What a way to start a new year. Luckily, I was able to spend last NewYear's Eve over the Atlantic and not in the Atlantic (as I was terrified would be the case!).

I'm saving the "big" post for Friday (our official Forever Day). But here is a cute story to keep you happy. Mari's Ethiopian name is Roza and she was very aware of her name when we met. Calling her Roza brought the biggest grin in the world, so I started calling her Mari Roza as a slow adjustment to her new name. Well, the Mari Roza has stuck and I call her this a large part of the time. When we are in a silly mood, it gets lengthened to MariPari RozaPoza. We were watching Dora the other night and I learned that mariposa is butterfly in Spanish.

She has also started (well, a couple months ago) to call herself Mimi. She can't quite get her mouth around the R in Mari and she has learned about "me and you" at school, so Mimi became her name whenever she sees her pix or reflection. I was reading a book about Ethiopia the other night and found that little boys are fondly called Mamush (which I did know thanks to a certain boyfriend) but I did not know that little girls are fondly called Mimi!

Here's my little butterfly, Mimi!
This has been the best year ever! Here's hoping 2009 is just as great!

Happy New Year!

Mari's First Christmas

Post #200! Here it is!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com