Happy 4th of July

I was supposed to be home packing on July 4th, and I was, but that evening I ended up down at the Washington Monument for fireworks. I had a couple of friends over when the idea that we all hop in the car and drive down to see the fireworks was presented. Considering I am two weeks from moving out of the country, it seemed like the perfect DC patriotic activity, especially when I realized that I have never been to the Mall to see the fireworks in the eleven years I have lived here. How on Earth is that possible? It was fantastic! I am so glad we went!


We lucked out and found a very close parking space right downtown, Almi was on her best behavior and the display was spectacular! We got terrific seats right front and center. It felt like the fireworks were exploding right above us the entire time and towards the end we even got rained on with fireworks debris! The weather was perfect (again!) and it was really nice to spend time with old friends. We put down our blanket and Almi got right to dancing. It drizzled for a few minutes, just enough to bring the humidity down a bit, and stopped in time for the show. Almi was prepped about what she was going to see but she was certainly taken off guard at first.


She wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first but when I pulled her on my lap to reassure her she said to me, "It not scary, Mama." She ended up loving it and when it ended asked me, "Where the light go?" I told her they were all done and she asked, "Why?" :-D We all had a great time!!

Look my foot, Mama!

Readoption Hearing

Today we took the the Metro downtown to DC Family Court for Almi's readoption status hearing. It's a formality to check on the status of her readoption. Her adoption was finalized in Ethiopia but in order to get her certificate of citzenship, US birth certificate and passport, she has to be readopted in the United States. Currently she has an Ethiopian passport, a green card and is here on an IR-4 Visa. To do the readoption, I had to hire an attorney, get fingerprinted from everywhere I have lived or worked in the past ten years and redo our medicals. Today's hearing was just to let the judge know where we were in the process. We are still waiting on fingerprints from two states but as soon as those are in we will be good to go.

I don't get why if the FBI prints indicate I am a law-abiding citizen that that doesn't suffice, though. And, hello?! I am a teacher so clearly I have been scrutinized up the ying yang. And wouldn't the FBI know if I was a criminal in a particular state? My federal prints say I am fine but I still have to wait for the individual states? Seems like they should know that. I'm all for making sure parents are good people (and frankly, they should fingerprint birth parents in the hospital before they can take their babies home) but it just seems like it should all be centralized somewhere and the FBI seems like the logical spot.

Anyway, Almi loves watching the trains as we drive to work in the mornings and she has asked me if we could go on a train so she was super, duper excited to ride on one this morning. She thought it was great, great fun! I wish I had gotten a picture of her on the train where she was happy. These shots were taken after we got off. She was so disappointed to get off and see the train go down the track. "Where da twain go, Mommy?"

I wore these cute summery Espadrilles with my outfit. Error in judgement. My feet were killing me when I got home! Why does fashion have to hurt? They may need to go in the Goodwill bag. But I digress..

We had thirty minutes to kill before heading inside so I let her run around in the grass to try and burn off some of her energy. She was chasing squirrels and playing with ants and running around like crazy and I was pouring down with sweat just sitting in the shade. It was so hot and humid!!! I know, I need to get used to it. I have two years of this type of weather ahead but hopefully when I am in it I will be sitting sipping icy drinks, beach side.

It was so hot, all I wanted to do was sit and relax and try to prepare myself mentally for meeting with the judge about our finalization process, not chase her away from the dead bird! I tried to settle her down by reading one of her favorite books. Ha! That only only lasted about 2 pages before was off and running again.

You can kind of see in these next photos how hyped up and full of energy she was. I should have known I was going to be in for it in the judge's chambers.

The hearing lasted for about twenty minutes, thank God, because trust me when I tell you she let her full energetic and bubbly personality known to everyone! They marveled at how I can teach Kindergarteners all day and then come home to her! LOL (Tell me about it!! That's why I'm getting a nanny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I could not get her to sit still. I threatened her (didn't work) and tried bribing her with ice cream (also didn't work). She was far too excited. Luckily, the judge was really nice and told me not to worry about her running around. After the hearing the judge told Almi she could come up and talk in her microphone. Almi loved that! She even sang her ABCs for everyone and impressed them with her intelligence. The judge said, "That's what happens when your mom is a Kindergarten teacher." :-D

As we exited the courtroom she took off running top speed and I had to have my attorney watch my purse and stroller while I took off running in my Espadrilles to find my two year old in the crowd. I found her, plopped her in the stroller and the minute we stepped out the door she burst into loud sobs telling me she was hungry! I guess she burned off every last breakfast calorie with all that excitement. Luckily, I had packed her lunch so she ate her sunflower nut butter on sprouted wheat bread sandwich and banana in her stroller before heading back to the Metro.

That wild behavior did not warrant ice cream for her so I dropped her off at daycare but trust and believe that after I dropped her off I then high tailed it to the Baskin-Robbins. She may not have earned ice cream but a double scoop was definitely in order for me!!

Now it's time for a nap!! Phew!

P.S. The adoption finalization is coming up very soon and my family is coming down to celebrate. Very soon my beautiful Ethiopian babe will officially be a US citizen!

Fun Sunday

Even though it was raining horribly yesterday and was the perfect movie day, Almi was at her teacher's house (yay!) so the movie had to wait til today. Today was sunny and beautiful, though quite windy and a tad chilly but as I was driving over there I justified going to a movie on a glorious sunny day by thinking that if she acted up at least the theater was sure to be empty.

We found parking in the lot and I hustled her down the street to the theater for an 11:35 am showing of Hop. There was only one person in front of us in line and only one behind us which was good when I had to run after her remind her that if she couldn't behave we wouldn't stay. I have to say I was pretty impressed with how well behaved she was.

I bought my ticket (she was free but mine was $9.00--seriously?! for a matinee?!) and we hopped on the escalator for the long ascent to the theater. She though this was pretty exciting. Then I stopped at the concession stand for some popcorn and a lemonade. I balanced the snacks and encouraged her to follow me by enticing her with as much popcorn as she could eat once we sat down. I opted against butter, as much as I wanted it, as I thought it could get very messy. Good call. I snapped this quick photo of her in the lobby before we entered the theater.
When we got to the theater there were only two people inside, which was great since the previews had already started and it was dark. Darn previews added an additional 15 minutes to our movie stay and they were so loud! I hope I didn't damage her hearing in there. Dang. We settled into our seats and I poured some popcorn into the tray for her to eat. She munched happily while paying some attention to what was on the screen. I had to prop my leg up on her seat though because she isn't heavy enough to keep it propped open fully and I was worried she might get shut up inside it!

We ate popcorn and I have to say she was quiet and attentive. She only spoke few times and only got up twice. I ordered a small lemonade for us to share but that darn thing was still huge! What is with the drink sizes in movie theaters?! She kept asking for more and after she took a walk down the row of seats and almost disappeared down the steps I had to snatch her back to sit down for more time. Offering her more to drink was the easiest way. Not surprisingly, she had to go "peepee" so I used that as my ticket to leave the theater quietly and without incident, even though we had only watched about one half of the film. I was fine with that though. I'm not the biggest fan of children's movies.

Here we are on the escalator ride back down.
(why don't Blackberry's take better pictures?!)
It was fun, but I think she needs to be a bit older for us to actually enjoy an entire show so afterwards we did a nice age-appropriate activity and went to the park. She had a ball there!

We both did.
Almi took my phone and snapped this funny picture of me.
Then we went home for lunch and nap but not before she enjoyed one of her other favorite past times: searching for dandelions ("My flowers!!!!!") and then grabbing them and blowing their seeds all over my lawn (it's hopeless) and of course tasting them. lol
all I could do was laugh... Hope you had a great Sunday!

Pretty Pink Toes

I thought it would be fun to paint our toenails yesterday since we were stuck in the house with my cold. Naomi was fascinated with the whole process, calling it "paint." She loved them. She told me they were "pwitty" and I think her little toes look totally adorable!









Thanks, Mommy!



(and had to post this cute pic of her checking them out again before her nap)

Our First Christmas

I heard her call my name this morning. I thought to myself, 'This is it. I have been waiting for this moment for so long. A Christmas morning with my own child.' We walked down the steps and I pointed to her stocking. "Elmo!," she said as I took it down off the hook. She looked inside and was happy with each thing. It was so cute and she was so appreciative. She said, "Thank you, Mommy." I loved that. It was so beautiful to see her so happy with just the small things in her stocking! She especially enjoyed the candy which she ate immediately. It was so simple and sweet and getting to see her face light up was priceless.

After presents we drove up to Baltimore to have dinner with family. They prepared a feast!!! Turkey (baked and deep fried), ham, duck, mac&cheese, greens, potato salad, green beans, rolls, crabmeat stuffing, candied yams, sauerkraut and cranberry sauce... Wow. They went all out. And let's not forget the cake, pie and ice cream! The food was amazing, of course, but really it was so nice to spend time with family. It's just us two so much of the time and I feel more complete with family around. I enjoy being able to share her and have us all spend time together and it was great that she recognized everyone. We all love and appreciate having this sweet baby in our family!!! She is a blessing. So, so loved! And it made my heart swell to see her so happy. It was a really beautiful day. Christmas 2010. I will never forget it.first lollipop!