He speaks English!

I know.. all I seem to talk about with Belly Boy's progress is his speech, but it really is pretty amazing. This little guy has had to adjust to three different languages in his 2 years on Earth. It's pretty astonishing how well he understands English after only being around it for about 7 months. He speaks English and understands more than we sometimes realize.

It's pretty cool seeing how God has made our brains. I mean, if you had moved me to Ethiopia back in March and checked on my progress in speaking Amharic today, I would not be as far a long as Minte is in English. God has specially designed babies brains to pick up their parent's language really fast. (even though they may pretend they don't get it when you say "No!"). Once we get older, our brains lose some of the ability to learn a new language so fast.

We have a speech therapist coming to help Belly Boy with his speech because he is behind compared to other kids his age. But these are kids who have heard English all their lives. I think he's doing well for 7 months. He says phrases like, " 'Miss Bossy'. Naughty!" and even sentences like " I want down!" His sentences always start with "I want" and then he adds the part he wants. Once he said, "I want ANOTHER biscuit!" Probably the most impressive part though are the words he knows like, "mail", "music", our names, and tons more. You can actually have simple word conversations with him, but be careful how you ask questions because he will answer, "Yes or No!"

He is adjusting well to our life styles. Right now he is quietly sitting on my lap listening to Veggie Tales, (my kind of boy, music!). He knows our schedule pretty much and though he doesn't especially enjoy going to bed, he knows the routine.

I've said this before too, but we LOVE having him in our family. He is perfect for our family! God is so good!

Changes in Six Months

Right now I'm watching videos of Belly Boy from Ethiopia. He looks so sweet and babyish. He has grown up in the six months he's been home. His face has changed and his personality has changed as he's gotten more comfortable with us.

It's funny though, because we have several videos, but they're all SO long. Like we have one of Mom feeding him in Ethiopia and it's gotta be like ten minutes long. All of him eating. Yeah. But he was so cute, and we didn't want to miss anything.

The specific video I've been watching is of Belly Boy "opening up to us". We were so excited that he was finally acting normal around us. That normal though is nothing to THE NORMAL Belly Boy.

In the video, we keep getting excited when he slightly smiles and laughs or when he makes a cute face. We now recognize these faces as the ones he gives when he is around new people that he doesn't know. Wow! He has changed so much from the quiet, sometimes nonresponsive little guy we met. He now jabbers constantly, laughs loudly, grins constantly, tattles normally, and loves us naturally!

I remember back when we thought it was so cute how he swung his arm when he walked. And sometimes his leg when we were holding him. Now we recognize those movements as showing us that he's really nervous.

As we've gotten to know Belly Boy better and he's learned to love us, he has opened up for real to us. And I am so glad he's what he is now and not what we thought he was. He's so much more fun this way!

And you know what else is funny and cool? He rarely shows nervousness as much as he used to. It's like he trusts us so much, that he can meet new people and places without fear. In fact, he ADORES going places and gets excited when we ask if he wants to go somewhere. God has worked so much in little Belly Boy's life!

Couple Minutes Later as I Watch More Videos-

It's funny. I recognize and remember certain faces, expressions, and actions Belly Boy does in these videos. But it's more like I'm watching some other kid. Or that Belly Boy has two different personalities. I can't imagine the Belly Boy I know now acting this way. So weird.

Two Ethiopia Pictures

 When I see this picture, (actually when I see any picture of our Ethiopia trip), I get a feeling in my stomach, remembering my stay there. The picture above is what we saw every day from our window. It's a very familiar picture.

And the sheep, (with LONG tails), that visited almost every day.

9/11

Today I was listening to the radio and heard a song about 9/11. It reminded me that the day was coming up or that maybe it was today. I hadn't checked the date before I left and couldn't remember. If I had seen the date even before I heard the song, I would've remembered what terrible event happened so many years ago because I understand better now. I hope that noone every forgets what happened that day, as I'm sure many  people before who have lived during a large, historical date have hoped.

When 9/11 happened 9 years ago, I was little and didn't understand what all had happened. As I got older I understood more and more and when I read a book recently that focused on the attacks, I understood a whole lot better of what all happened that day. I didn't know before of all the horrible things that happened right after the planes crashed into the World Trade Centers. After reading and being amazed and horrified, I understood better why it affected the United States so much. We lost so many U.S. citizens that day. We lost so many businessmen, firemen, and policemen. Regular men and women doing their jobs. And the fact that someone could be so cruel to organize such an attack is really hard to understand.

I hope that in the future years, the people like me who were too little to understand at the time or weren't even born into the world yet, will understand and always remember what tragic thing happened September 11, 2001.

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!