Skin Colors

 People call people with dark skin, black. And those with lighter skin, white. (A friend of our family held up two black and white crayons in front of us and asked us whether our skin fit those names.) If it doesn't make a person feel bad, I don't care if the words are used. But sometimes it's like the person is being separated from everyone else. That I don't like.

I sunburn easily in the sun, therefore making my skin a lobster pink. From there my skin becomes tan. A very light tan. My brother tans easily and his skin turns a very dark brown. A friend of mine does not tan easily and her skin stays a very, very, light tan. When someone looks at another person with different tans, I don't think it really hits them about the skin color. They might notice that they're extremely tan, but it doesn't hit them easily. Do you kinda get where I'm going?

I do really bad at remembering what color people's hair is. Although I can picture them, I can't give their hair a color. Even special features they have, I can't tell you what it is that stands different, (besides if they have pink highlights!). My goal is to always think of a person with dark skin, no different than anyone else. To picture their skin difference as a different feature like I would think of someone with dark hair. Does this make sense?

Where's Ethiopia??

I had the weirdest conversation with some girls last week!

I went to my friend's new student orientation for her school and they played some games to get to know eachother better. Even though I wasn't new, they allowed me to join in. One of the games was Two Truths and a Lie. One person tells two truths and  a lie about themselves and everyone else has to guess which is the lie. So these were my truths and lie.

1) I'm homeschooled
2) I play soccer
3) I've been to Ethiopia

(Hey, do you know which is the lie??)

I got a variety of answers. Most of the kids thought it was the Ethiopia part. After they answered the correct one, I got some very strange questions like...

1) Where's Ethiopia?
     to which another girl answered:
2) Isn't it near Africa?

I answered through the noise that it was IN Africa, but I don't know whether they heard me. I just thought it was so funny that they had no idea where Ethiopia was. It's not like it's small like..say..Togo, and it's known around the world for it's coffee and stuff.

Hope you are having an AMAZING day!

Update on Belly Boy!

It's hard to believe, but Belly Boy has been home for about 5 months!

His newest thing now is possesion. Not the usual, "MINE!" from babies, but pointing to things and saying who they belong to. He'll point to the car and say, "Daddy!" and point to the van and say, "Du!" for  Bob, who is 14 and never drives the van. Not sure why he thinks that!!

He also recently spits! When he's mad at you or is just being goofy, he spits. Not very fun!! :-)

Belly Boy is very busy tattling, bossing, and chasing us around. As Mom says, the world revolves around him!

He is saying SO many words. And repeats everything! It is SO much fun!

He also likes owies and reenacting how they happened. He still gets "sad" about his week-old owies. And still wants kisses for them!

So that's what's up with this ADORABLE little guy!

More Ethiopian Dancing

Here's another video of the Ethiopian dancing we witnessed at a restaurant in Ethiopia! The dancers were very talented and amazing! They would finish up a long dance, go back stage to change clothes, and come right out to perform yet another long dance. They had very few breaks!

Ethiopian Dancing

While we were in Ethiopia, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant where you have the opportunity to taste Ethiopian food and watch dancers. Here is a video of one of the dances. I have two, so I may post the other one next time. Sorry about how shaky the video is at the end!!

4 Months

We've been home with this adorable, sweet, busy little Belly Boy for four months today. He's adjusted pretty well to this new life. He understands so much! And because he understands so much, he knows how he can show his stubborness! For example, if you tell him, "Come here so I can wipe your nose!", he will grin and stay where he is or might rub his hand under his nose! He amazes us a lot with everything he "gets". He also tattles. He will run to us and hit our arm until he gets our attention. Then he jabbers and points towards the problem.

He's getting used to cars too. He doesn't grab the sides of his carseat in panic around curves or cry for someone to hold his hand. He doesn't like long car rides, but that's understandable. I don't enjoy them much myself either.

Belly Boy's food usually consists of plain yogurt, formula milk, baby cereal, dry cereal like cheerios, soups like Leek and Carrot, bread and peanut butter, crackers and his favorite- cottage cheese.

You should see Belly Boy play with Miss Bossy and Sports Dude! It's so cute. Of course there are the times when they would rather play be themselves, and that doesn't always go over well with Belly Boy. But the times when he does play with them, he's usually their baby or the mom of a baby in a stroller! He cracks up when they laugh and when they play pretend, he does his best too.

One of his favorite games to play is doggy. He gets down and crawls around "woofing". He refuses to talk normally during this time and will sit up and actually put his hands on your legs like a real dog. He's a very good dog though not always obedient and will usually crawl to you when you say, "Come, doggy!" But sometimes he just grins and pretends he doesn't understand! And this isn't all, he used to put his nose in the trash like our dog, and once licked the floor and stuck his nose in the dog bowl. We have to keep a good eye on him when he's a doggy.

We're so thankful for Belly Boy. He fits our family so well! He laughs at our silly faces and actions! And he has us all wrapped around his finger. He knows our names and will scream at us for sympathy or help. He's so much fun!

Ethiopia Pictures