Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Friends!

Last week, Sabah and I got to have dinner at Mudai (a GREAT Ethiopian restaurant here in Portland) with the Zeltins. I met Corey and Lisa in Ethiopia when we were both picking up our girls. They live in Bend and were in town for the weekend and we decided to re-unite the girls. Here is a sweet sweet moment that Lisa was able to capture on film of Sabah and Weredesh:



Oh my gosh...it just makes my heart smile every time I watch this.

Sabah's list of Ethiopian friends just keeps growing and growing. Her Toukoul buddies that she's met live and in person now includes:

Weredesh Blog
Aslynn Blog
Janissa Blog
Jeremiah and Josiah Blog
Ruby and Roman Blog
Alec and Haven Blog

And not to forget little Zaela, who isn't from Toukoul, but is actually her first Ethiopian friend she met after coming home to the U.S.

We are lucky to have so many of these friends living in Portland and thankful for airplanes that allow us to visit those in California and Arizona. What a blessing for these children to keep this special connection with each other.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Can you help a little girl with her school project?

Calling all blogger buddies (and stalkers).....

Emily Burns, a 4th grader from Lincoln Elementary School in Illinois, needs to collect a postcard from every state. She has collected one from most states, but still needs the following:
North Dakota
New Mexico
Utah
Delaware
Connecticut
Maryland
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
West Virginia
and
South Carolina

If you live in one of these states, would you be willing to send a post card to her at:

Lincoln Elementary School
c/o Emily Burns
501 South Euclid Avenue
Princeton, IL 61356

There is no requirement as to what to write on the postcard. You can write about the weather, some state facts, something historical, etc.

Please leave a comment if you are able to help out. I'll be sending her one from Oregon this afternoon. What a fun project!

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

9 Months Home

Where oh where has the time gone? I can't believe Miss Sabella and I have been a family for 9 months now! She has changed so much from our 6 month home post. I no longer have a little baby, but an opinionated, sweet, stubborn, independent, lovable, kissable, cuddleable (I made that up), ornery, silly, talkative (a language only she knows), smiling, dancing, singing toddler. Sabah brings a smile to my face and melts my heart every single day. Some of her accomplishments/changes from the 6 month post include:

* Her hair is getting SO long. I can put it up in two pigtails now and she is just so stinkin cute.
* She laughs a lot now. REALLY LAUGHS. Again, for those following the blog, you may remember that Sabah rarely laughed. She smiled a lot and did quick excitement screams, but never really just giggled. She does that now. It makes my heart burst with momma happiness.
* She now sleeps in a big girl bed (toddler bed). I had put a toddler be in her room with her crib for her to gradually get use to it because Tina will be taking the crib in a few months for her new baby girl, but Sabah didn't need to be gradually moved to it. She jumped right in (ok, not jumped...she struggled a little at first to get in), snuggled right down and fell asleep. She also stayed put until mommy got her up the next morning. Since then (about two weeks now), she has had no problems. Her crib is now disassembled and waiting for Auntie to pick it up.
* She talks ALL the time and can even say some understandable words. Please, Thank you, up please, down please, more please, Hi, hi kitty, hi baby, What's that, Where it go (she mumbles this all together into one word, and shrugs her shoulders when she says it), all gone, weeeee (on the swing).
* She has developed taste buds...and I don't know if I like this or not. I use to be able to feed her anything, but now, she is definitely getting picky about what she likes and doesn't like. She LOVES all fruit and will eat all the fruit on her plate first and THEN start picking at other things. She use to LOVE veggies, now she tolerates them. She loves wheat bread and that is always the second thing she eats. She HATES salsbury steak...and I mean HATES it (her and thousands of other people).
*She is starting to throw mini tantrums when she doesn't get something she wants, or if I tell her she can't do something. Timeouts work good though and I just sit her down and tell her she can get up when she stops crying. Oh, I so can't wait for the terrible twos. :)
*She walks so much better now, which is GREAT for my back, but it sure slows us down. She walked from the car to the store this afternoon with me, while my sister and her gang of 3 kids waited and waited and waited at the entrance for us to finally get there. Oh well....a slower pace isn't a bad thing.

There's definitely more changes, but I don't need to turn this into a novel (I just need to post more often).

Here is a hodgepodge of pics. I'm too lazy to label each one and put them in any type of order, but they are of her new big girl bed, and a day at the Portland Rose Gardens....oh and a bubble bath thrown in there as well.