Aimeriez vous acheter de moi quelque cheveux voles?

it's been a crazy few weeks here, good crazy though. saida is walking everywhere, like a sumo wrestler. she's so funny talking all the time in her own language. this morning she woke up early for some reason and not wanting to start a bad habit we just listened to her talking to herself for like 30 minutes. hilina was still asleep and it was like she was thinking, if i talk loud enough she will wake up and talk to me so "DOI ugh errr wuuuh DOI doi hhhhuhhhh DOI DoOOOOiiiI" and then hilina finally woke up and her baby talk is all frenchie sounding so she answers saida and it sounds so pretty, all "oui oui! je suis un ananas. j'etais un canard. mais, les canards sont tres tres stupid, ainsi j'ai change". i love it. i love how much they are growing up. yesterday i stood hilina up in the pocket doors- facing out so she was leaning back instead of forward as she is want to do- as part of our therapy. and saida went to the other door and stood just like her and then lifted up her shirt and patted her belly. so then hilina lifted up her shirt and patted her belly. the must have mirrored each other for fifteen minutes, it was awesome. it just seems like something new happens everyday. for instance just a minute ago saida said "NO!" and the next 2 years flashed before my eyes. sigh. hilina is doing great in therapy - getting stronger every day. if you hold her up she will make stepping motions and is starting to bear weight on her legs. she is so proud of herself, almost as much as we are. we meet with her team in two weeks to discuss her progress, what's working and isn't, if there are other therapies she's qualified to recieve (i'm pushing for speech because she has a really hard time chewing and swallowing). but all in all we couldn't be more pleased with her progress and are really hoping she's walking by christmas not only for her own sake, but mine too, as she is almost 3 feet tall and absolute dead weight when you carry her. and then my little judah. he's an angel. the most content baby i have ever met. i think he heard the happy chaos that is our life for nine months and decided to take it easy on us. he's easy to make smile, and easy to feed, and easy to comfort and all around just a total pleasure to be around and love on.
in just a few hours we are leaving for south carolina where we go each year with ben's family. that's right, we're packing up all 3 kids in the rental car and driving around 14 hours to the beach. we're stopping half way at ben's sister's house to break up the trip but considering our girls have only ever been in car seats 3 times - yikes! let's all hope it goes well. but the way i see it, even if it's total crap for the whole drive when we get there, we'll be at the BEACH. WITH PEOPLE. TO HELP ME! AT THE BEACH!
it's the girls first time to a beach that doesn't have trash and broken glass all over the place (god bless coney island) so i think they are going to be in hog heaven. especially saida as you can't pull that child out of the water for anything - even food.
all tuckered out.

see? he's awake!

my girls

my boys.

saida in the park walking like a sumo wrestler.

hilina

happy ethiopian new year!

guest blogger: excerpts from the album, "ethiopia, the country"

if you all are as sick of seeing our living room as anna and i are, then please take a look at some brand new pictures of vast, open spaces in a far away country. these pictures are from an album of mine i took in ethiopia while anna was puking her guts out during her first trimester with judah and multiple bouts of food poisoning. i felt kind of guilty leaving her in the room and exploring villages on my own, but she pretty much made me and i'm very thankful for that. it was sad though, returning to our dank rooms in the middle of nowhere, seeing her sweating and shivering under a dim, hanging light bulb, in cots on a cement floor. i swear i felt like i was in the english patient more than once.

these 11 photos are for all those adoptive families getting reading to travel to ethiopia. jouir de la beauté.

remnants of a castle, gondar


orthodox burial ground, lalibela


blind street beggar and beautiful girl, lalibela


the goha hotel, (amazing), gondar


toukoul orphanage, (where we first met saida & hilina), addis ababa


after the christmas slaughter, goat's blood on pavement, addis ababa


orthodox priest, lalibela


rock-hewn church and home of above priest, lalibela


addis ababa


lalibela


lalibela

pencil drawing from four years ago

labor day weekend

oh what a weekend! friday we had visitors stopping by all day which i love because it makes my day go so much faster. the boy came over and saida was following him everywhere and he was so tolerant except when she grabbed his shirt to keep from falling over. toddlers don't like to have their clothes pulled because this also happened with another little boy on sunday who face masked her. i think she learned her lesson.




and then saturday was the children's parade which saida and judah slept through and hilina looked like she would have rather joined them. but i just love it except sadly there were no stilt walkers this year which is my favorite. but managed to get some fun pictures nonetheless.



then sunday we packed up all the kids and went over to our friend's house for homemade pasta and 3 different kinds of delicious sauces. mmmmmmm. i could eat erin's pasta every day. mmmmmmmm.


jerah made saida the movie star she so wants to be. God help us.
we made it home just in time for them to close the parade route so the NYPD could set up so that ALL the traffic was re-routed down our little side street. which also happens to have a fire station on it. which means the bumper to bumper traffic that was outside for 4 hours blocked the firetrucks who were so frustrated they just laid on their horns with the sirens blaring until about 5 in the morning. yeah, i know you're all jealous.
needless to say on monday we all camped out and watched the us open and napped off and on.
a perfect weekend. four labor days ago (just 4 years!) we were married, so i guess that was the perfect weekend. but this one with our family was a close second.

historic moment

wednesday evening as we were getting dinner ready and watching the news of the democratic national convention, we turned on just in time to see illinois hand things over to new york, and the most impressive hillary clinton. i called ben in and we pulled the girls on to the couch with us to watch history being made. then hillary moved to forgo the formalities and have Barack Obama be named the democratic candidate for president... it was just, amazing. i cried, ben had chills. i cried because even though this doesn't mean my girls won't ever experience racism, institutional or overt, the nomination of the first african american is a powerful sign of how far things have come. i hope as they get older and we tell them about the evening, how they just clapped and clapped and laughed, that it will truly be change they can believe in, and also change they have experienced firsthand.

here are some photos from yesterday evening.

hilina's eyelashes have grown a foot in the last few weeks. don't know if this picture really captures it.


dreaming of yet more milk

catching my breath?

i'm not gonna front, this is really freaking hard. the past few days have been so much better than i thought they were going to be - got so much done and had a good time and just really loved being with the girls who i have been missing so much the last few weeks. it was so fun to see how much they've learned. like saida, learned how to climb stuff which is, like, a pain in the a** but wow! she's climbing! and hilina can stand up from sitting on the stoop! huge! but both the girls woke up in bad moods this morning and i was like, holy mackrel this bites the big one. if you have kids you know how eternal a tantrum can seem and how it's hard to see past the end of your nose in that moment. i realize that i am so lucky. that my life affords me to stay home with my beautiful children and that if you had asked me 5 years ago what i would want to be doing this is it. but that doesn't make you feel like less of a broken record when you say for the upteenth million time to not touch the baby. seriously, does anyone have a remedy for this? they are just curious but too rough and it's almost like i can't set him down anywhere but his crib unless i sit right there and say don't touch the baby over and over. they don't get tired and go find something else to play with. yet.

let's move on, shall we?...anywho, paige had asked how i get hilina's hair looking so cute. the answer is... I have great friends who do it for me. :) she is very tender headed, and has so much beautiful hair that about all i can manage are the poofs. i understand braiding in theory, and practice on my own hair. but i have to relearn to braid because it's upside down from how i learned. and you have to start with such small pieces that with a wiggly baby - i drop it as soon as i start! so hopefully as they get older and can sit still longer, i can take credit. until then i'll keep relying on the kindness of my friends. something i can do? take braids out. here's h getting her braids taken out. pretty awesome, huh?

and here's my first outing with all 3
judah's first trip to the market - he was thrilled

and just because...

i know i'm short on pictures of the girls lately, but never you fear, now that i am back with them full time, there will be more equal billing.