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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Birth Certificate

We have received Belly Boy's Ethiopian birth certificate. It is pretty cool noticing the differences between his birth certificate and American birth certificates. For example, there is a picture of  "big boy" Belly Boy on his BIRTH certificate. (Yes! ANOTHER PICTURE! CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THE PICTURES!) Also, the year is different. Instead of January 15, 2010, the Ethiopian date says 2000! They also had Belly Boy's name as Belly Boy, Dad's Name, and then Our Last Name! That's how they do things in Ethiopia. Their Dad's name is their middle name. So that's what they did on his birth certificate. It was so cute! But Bob already has Dad's name as his middle name, so we're giving Belly Boy two new middle name after we bring him home!

It is just so exciting seeing that Ethiopia recognizes Belly Boy as part of our family! Yaay! Birth Certificate!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Finger Jello

We had a rare treat today- finger jello. Which made me wonder about Belly Boy and whether he'll like jello! I'm guessing that he won't, since they are such a weird texture! :-)

Our family REALLY likes spaghetti and lots of pasta dishes. Which is perfect, since we've found from Belly Boy's social report that he likes pasta, but not rice! :-)

Mango update- Mom has had mangos quite often. Sports Dude has tried a piece and so has Bob and liked it. Dad says he likes them, but hasn't had one recently to my knowledge. As for me, I'm avoiding the mangos. I've just gotta be brave and go for it.. I can do this..

Mom made guacamole the other day. It stunk! But she was really surprised when it was actually good. I would've tried it, but I was on my way out the door...it's really too bad I missed it!.. :-)

We have some new recipes for some Ethiopian food, but haven't tried one yet. Maybe we'll have to have an Ethiopian meal!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Okay, the one thing I'm not looking forward to- Shots!

When you travel out of the country, you sometimes have to get shots. Well, guess what? We get to get shots soon to get ready for Ethiopia. Ughhh!

I don't know what shots we're taking, why, or even what the side effects are, but we have to take them. (Maybe this will be my next post)!

I've had some bad experiences with shots. When I got a tetanus shot, (don't ever get one of those!), I woke up the next day with a numb arm and felt completely nauseous. Mom took me to the doctor. I don't know how she did, I felt horrible and could barely move. The doctor said it was normal. It would've been nice to know that when I got the shot or even over the phone later when Mom called in. I hope this is only a side effect for this shot. I don't want to go through that again. Bob later got a tetanus shot and although he felt awful, I don't think it hit him as hard. Mom thinks she remembers Dad getting a bad headache from his tetanus shot! Mom didn't get a bad reaction because she didn't get the shot after seeing how we reacted!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Update

We're still waiting over here. Not for court any longer, (Hooray!) but for our travel date!! 

Today we received an update on Belly Boy from our social worker. Length, weight, etc. It's good to hear that he's growing into a stronger, healthier little boy.

We continue to get big projects done in anticipation of Belly Boy's arrival. We have organized the toys, Dad bought paint for his and Mom's bathroom, and several other things I can't think of right now.

Miss Bossy is pretty excited about Belly Boy coming home. She's so funny. She is completely the baby of the family. Even at 5, she still wants to be held, cuddled, and called a baby! I think when Belly Boy comes, we're gonna be surprised at how suddenly she'll grow up! Even now, she occasionally tells us that she's no longer the baby and now Belly Boy is. But then she forgets a little bit later, and wants to sit on your lap and be cuddled.

We can't wait to leave to get our Belly Boy!!!! We love you, Buddy!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Passed Court!

BELLY BOY!

We passed court yesterday! Hooray! Belly Boy is officially ours!  We do not have a traveling date yet, though. We might get it in 2 weeks.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Mom is doing Miss Bossy's hair right now

Mom is trying a new style with Miss Bossy's hair. Those twists I was talking about. She is working on the second twist. The first turned out pretty well. They'd be pretty simple if Miss Bossy wasn't stomping her feet and screaming on the top of her lungs!

The other day Miss Bossy was doing her baby's hair while she was playing. Miss Bossy had a comb and brush and barretes. Her dolly kept getting in trouble for crying and pulling away as she was doing the hair! It's funny how she takes things from real life and turns them into play!

Sorry about how short this is, but I have a basketball game this afternoon, so I have to get schoolwork done before we have to leave! I figured I had better get a post on soon, though!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Doing hair

Sports Dude and Miss Bossy are both African American so we aren't too worried about doing Belly Boy's hair. We've had a lot of experience. Especially Mom as she's the one who washes, combs, and braids Miss Bossy's hair despite her screaming and pulling.

Mom washes the kids' hair once every week with some special shampoo. She puts special conditioner in Miss Bossy's hair and combs it out while the conditioner is still in, (it makes it easier to slip the dreaded comb through), and then divides the hair into ponies and finally sprays Miss Bossy's hair out with a hand-held sprayer thingy. This has usually caused enough tears and pain for a day, so Mom lets Miss Bossy out of the tub with all the ponies unbraided.

The next day Mom rounds Miss Bossy up to tackle the braiding. She's still trying to find something that will keep Miss Bossy silent and still while she braids. We've tried the T.V., and that only works some days, but not very well. We've also tried allowing Miss Bossy to do her doll's hair while she's getting her own done, but that doesn't work very well either.

Then everyday Mom puts either some special pink lotion in Miss Bossy's hair or sprays it with olive oil stuff. When we're going somewhere public, Mom or I put ribbons or beads on the bottom of the braids. It looks really pretty. But that's how Miss Bossy's hair is done.

Sport's Dudes hair is simpler. Dad buzzes his hair occasionally, but Sport's Dude prefers it longer. Then we put lotion or olive oil spray in it everyday. When Sport's Dude's hair is longer, I like to put lotion in it and then brush his hair in an upwards motion so that it makes his curly hair higher and look more afro-ish. It's adorable, but don't tell him that. He tries pushing his hair down after.

From what we've seen in Belly's Boy's pictures, his hair is not in as tight of curls as Sport's Dudes. It's more soft and bushy. I love it! I think and hope we'll keep it long like it is. The Care Center in Ethiopia offers classes for how to do your new child's hair. So I'm sure we'll go to that. Mom wants me to go to it too. Maybe we'll learn a new style for Miss Bossy's hair. That would be really cool. Mom wants to learn how to make twisties. Those are adorable on little girls! I love them!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Volunteering in Ethiopia

I really want to go with Dad and Mom to Ethiopia. I really want to meet Belly Boy and love and play with him. I also want to see Ethiopia. I'm not really the type that like to go to new places, (in fact I used to be so AGAINST going new places in the U.S., that when I was little I would dig my heels in the dirt like a donkey and would refuse to go anywhere new by myself). But I'm really excited and a little nervous about going to Africa.

So anyways, I want to go to Ethiopia, but I don't want to go with Dad and Mom to all the "officiating" stuff they have to do and a couple other things they are planning on doing. Instead I want to play with the kids and babies. I wanted to volunteer at a place called AHOPE, but you have to be 18 to volunteer there and you have to have training, so we're looking to see if I can volunteer at the Care Center. But the person who answered back to Mom says that I need a resume! :-) And they aren't even sure that I CAN help out at all.

That's the newest news over here about the adoption. We're counting down the days until January 13th, (court day).