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.