Sweet Moments...

Just a couple of lines to share something with you.

This morning we received an email from friends who are presently in Addis picking up their child. They said he is shy and timid, with a rare but lovely smile.

I was reflecting on how scared, shy and terrified Ayana was when we picked her up.

Totally terrified. Breathing in little shallow gasps, with a frozen smile on her face. It was heartbreaking. I wondered when it would end.

A few moments ago, Ayana was attempting to ride a little bike she has and she laughed as she wobbled around. She is now boisterous, loud, energetic and full of laughter most of the time. She looked up at me and said with a huge grin,

"Mama, Ayana so happy!"

Oh, sweet, sweet moment.

An Amendment...

Well, a very good friend (hello Val :) ) told me that the enclosures on tramps actually have a higher accident rate than if you use a tramp without the enclosure!

So, before I get any comments that may need moderating..lol..just to let you know...we don't let the kids on there without supervision.

AND we've told them (the older ones) not to rely on the net.

AND safety rules still strictly enforced.

AND we've told them tht if they hurl themselves against it (this is mainly for Joshua and his crazy friends!) that they will not be on there any more.

So...I think I've covered my bases there :) :)

And a comment...

Two sets of our neighbours really don't like us! We are a very noisy family. It can't be helped with 5 kids that are healthy and active and are loud to begin with. Anyway, one set of neighbours doesn't speak to us any more at all, the lady actually ignored me and turned away today when I waved over the fence and said "hi".

Strangely enough, it's since Ayana and Moses have come home and we introduced them as our beautiful new children that they haven't spoken to us. Mmmmmmm, I hesitate to attribute this to them as racism but I can't help but wonder. Makes me sad...and not a little angry.

Another set of neighbours across the street also ignore us now, I mean, they don't even smile at us any more.

Don't you find this sad? Anyway, as I said to Dave this morning as we were talking about it, it's their loss! We have wonderful friends that love us and we love them and that's what it's all about.

Thank you to all my friends that have welcomed Ayana and Moses and love them to bits.

Trampoline Fun...
We had a fantastic trampoline that was given to us by Dave's brother. It was old, having been through their four children, but we loved it.
Unfortunately, the canvas ripped right down the middle a few months ago and we mourned it's loss in our back yard because it is such great fun. The kids spend hours out there and we haven't had any disasters or accidents on it.
Last week, Dave and I decided that we just had to buy another one with the warmer weather coming up. We knew our older kids would love it and we thought it would be a fun, healthy outdoor thing for Ayana and Moses too. (We got the enclosure part too for safety, just in case you're wondering!)
So, off to the store went Dave with Josh and Megan and they brought back two enormous boxes...guess what Ayana and Moses immediately did...sure enough they climbed into those boxes and had a splendid time, squealing and laughing while Dave and the others put the tramp together.














The thing that really made me laugh was that Ayana could hop in and out without any problem, but Moses couldn't get out by himself. He could only manage to drape one leg over the side and then he would cry and shout, "tuck, tuck" for "stuck".
Of course, as soon as you went and got him out, Ayana would run over and hop back in, causing Moses to try and get back in and again cry and call out "tuck!"

So, here is a picture of Dave and Josh setting it up. Then a happy family portrait of all the kids on the completed trampoline. Fortunately, you can't hear all the arguments and the "debates" about where it should go and whether it was level etc.



















We have a cute little video clip of Moses and Ayana jumping around and falling over. Ayana tries to hold Moses up, very cute. I can't figure out how to post it though, so until I do, you will have to imagine it! :)
PS: You may be wondering what my role was in the whole setting up of the trampoline episode? I was the official photographer...someone has to do it...right? :)

An Evening Out...

We recently went out to this great little Ethiopian restaurant in Vancouver called Fassil. (It's rapidly becoming our favourite actually.) We were meeting some people off the forum (great to meet you S!) and also people from the Vancouver group. We had great food and good conversation as usual.

Ayana sat very well, colouring, playing with her little friend T and wandering about a little bit. The great thing about eating at an Ethiopian restaurant here is that the two little ones can just run around and nobody cares. Moses however, took this to a new level on this evening....he was hilarious.

He knows that they adore him in the kitchens. He kept running in there and the staff would cuddle him and laugh, giving him bits of injera every time.

I would run in behind him and they would tell me to leave, that I should just sit and relax, they would watch him.

So, I would go and sit down, only to hear him shrieking with laughter and see him running out of the kitchen holding great rolls of injera that they were feeding him with.

He ran into the area behind the desk and poked at the computer, and the owners daughter would just laugh and play with him.

Two minutes later he would be back in the kitchens, getting more food. Back to the daughter to play. Back to the kitchen. This is all before the food arrived for us!

Here he is at one point, injera in hand behind the bar!

He then started moving chairs out of the kitchen and dragging them through into the restaurant. Of course, I put them back and told him not to touch, but the owners just laughed, "Let him play, he's fine" was all they said.

Basically, he could have done anything and got away with it because the owners thought he was so adorable, I looked like this big meanie trying to set limits!

When the food arrived and he was put in his high chair...he was already almost at bursting point with all the injera he had been fed. (It was a bit of a struggle strapping him into his car seat later...that tummy was very full!)

It just made me laugh to see him having such a fun time and I was more relaxed because the owners were so great with him.

It is impressed upon me every time we go to this restaurant how much the Ethiopian people love children and how very welcoming they are. They hug us when we go in and again when we leave and tell us to come back soon. The owners wife told us to come down on a weekend and hang out with their family.

Whenever there are other (Ethiopian) people in the restaurant, they also laugh with the kids as they run by, wave to them and chat. I never feel as if we are annoying them because our kids make some noise or run back and forth to the bathroom a million times.

What an amazing culture our children come from. We are so dedicated to making sure they grow up very proud of their heritage. After all, it is a great heritage to call one's own.