The only concern Jrock had with getting a puppy now is that the pup wouldn’t be ready for kids when they arrived. I am happy to report that there is nothing to worry about – Laughlin is definitely kid-friendly!

The story: My poor friend L called me Sunday saying “where are you?  Where is the Picnic?” – she had showed up at our OKFCA event a day late. Ooops!  So I suggested she stop by our house with her two little ones on her way home.  We had a prolonged lunch together (fresh homemade bread – yum!) and the kids ran around on the deck.  I am sure glad I built those gates for my godson’s visit, I tell you.  The whole deck is like a big outdoor playpen

As I said, it turns out we needn’t have worried about Laughlin behaving himself.  The two kids – D is almost 2 and her little bro J is 9 months (I think) – well, they are pretty used to dogs.  Maggie and Laughlin had a great time licking and playing with them.

Laughlin is teething really badly – he’s almost lost a tooth a day for the last week! – but he didn’t gnaw on them once.  Good puppy.  Here are some pics below, but the real gem is the video. Be prepared for SUPER cuteness, times two.

Thanks for stopping by, L, and giving my puppy a workout!

Me and two friends' daughters – it's nice to borrow kids until I have my own!

Our group, Okanagan Families With Children From Africa, met this past Saturday for a family picnic in Lake Country.  It was really nice to see one of our original members with her daughter home (only 10 days after arriving in Canada!) We also had some new members join us: a couple who are just starting the process to adopt from Ethiopia, and a lady with her young daughter from Swaziland. Very cool to see our group grow and flourish! 

Thanks to my friend N who organized the event – and is off in 2 days to pick up her little girl in Ethiopia!

MORE PICTURES of the event.

Rough week?

Smile!  It’s the weekend!

There are elections looming in Canada, down south in the US, in our province of BC … and even municipal elections in Kelowna! in the next couple of months.

I would never dream of telling people how to vote – the power of democracy is choice! But I do encourage everyone to gt informed about the issues and vote with your values in mind.

If the environment is a topic of particular interest to you, you might want to check out http://www.voteenvironment2008.ca . The website, sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation, articulates any different environmental issues and questions you should consider asking your candiadtes, and then points to you the various party websites to do your research and contact your loca candidates. 

Get informed, get active, and don’t forget to vote!

Most of you know that Jrock and I have requested two kids under 4 years old.  SO, while it’s entirely possible we will be referred twin babes, more likely, we will be jumping into parenting a couple babe/toddler/preschoolers!

Something that you may or may not know about us is that we have hosted many many exchange students from all over the world, and I was an exchange student in a different country three times myself.  So we have a pretty darn good understanding of culture shock at the teen age.  To try to understand how our kids will feel, we take the overwhelming new sites, smells, food, people, etc, (that we know so well), mix it with the fear of leaving your homeland, and add in a lack of ability to communicate and a toddler’s understanding of “who the heck ARE these people?”…. we’d better be as prepared as we can be to support the kids through a possible really rough time.

One of the things we’ve done to prepare is compile communication tools that are toddler / preschooler appropriate.  I’ll share a couple of the with you here:

Click on Picture to buy at Chapters

#1 – A picture book that shows everyday word and situations.

These are so that we can show pictures of what is happening, even is we can’t explain it.  My favorites so far (that are totally making the trip over to ET!) are:

This is an awesome little book – all the pictures are so very rich with details and claymations… the people are of all different ethnic backgrounds and the pages show amazingly beautiful detailed pictures of family structure, the house, the playground, shopping, etc.  Just wonderful.  (Thanks to my mom-in-law! We saw it at a Cherry Festival and she bought it for the kids-to-be.)

Although not quite as beautiful, it walks kids through situations like going to the doctor, dentist – a even travelling by plane.  Very useful! A great gift from my friend L, who sells Usborne books in Calgary (if any of you Calgarians want to host a kids book party, leave a comment to that effect and I’ll email you!)

#2 – Amharic Language Training for Adoptive Families

Click to buy from the Author

Also totally essential – a language CD so you can talk to your kids in their own language (- or at least the language they have been conversing with caregivers in for the past few months.)

Total props to Amy Kendall who had the vision to create this wonderful language CD.  The sentences are read by an Ethiopian man – slowly so you can follow.  The little book is coil bound and purse ready, and all the words and phrases are written with the English pronunciation (NOT the phonetic alphabet – which is like learning another language altogether in addition!)

But the best part of this little book/CD package – the content!  Amy is an adoptive mom herself, and she totally understands what we need to be able to ask and say:

“I am your Mommy“
“I will take good care of you“
“Are you hungry?”
“Do you want to go potty?”
“Please clean up“
“It’s naptime!”
“Don’t hit“… “
and my favorite – “This is our dog.  He won’t hurt you.” 

 

I love Lonely Planet Phrasebooks for visiting a country, but for communicating with your kids – this is definitely the best choice.

Interested in ordering your own copy?  Click here. If your kids are over 10 months old when you pick them up, you probably should.  (Or get tutored by an Ethiopian, but, that’s not really an option in Kelowna!) Anyway, way to go Amy – thanks for a great resource!

Click to buy at Chapters

<- The Usborne Little Book of First Experiences

Heck, they are only small, cute and cuddly once!  So here is some more gratuitous puppy footage – photos and vid.  Warning: the video is uncut and only for dog-lovers

Two two amigos chewing bones.

It can be hard to get a picture of him when he's moving – see the video! But when he's sleeping… LOTS of pictures.

Seriously – how cute is this?

Daddy is coming into the yard… lemme out!

Watching Daddy… these are high-alert watch dogs.

Still wet after his bath – but no dampened spirits, I can assure you.

Happy face!

EXTRA Happy face!

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gEVECXCAi4]

Little stinker…

Haatim on Youtube!

You would think he doesn’t like me! Haatim actually licks my pet off!

Laughlin!

formerly known as “Leftie”

“dweller by the lake”

We picked Laughlin (pronounced Laak-lin) up yesterday in a whirlwind trip to the coast – He is spunky, brave, polite to the cats, and a big suck to me.  His daddy was the top cairn terrier in Canada in 2004… which really doesn’t matter at all except that the lady who bred him obviously took wonderful care and attention in cultivating good temperaments. He’s been like a little whirlwind through the house – constantly wanting to play and waking us up twice last night with jumps and licks and suggestive whines towards his toy on the dresser. I told Jrock that Hamish, who was half cairn terrier, was like this for the first four years.  He just raised his eyebrows, laughed, and looked exhausted already!

Enjoy the pictures and video from the first 24 hours.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i6R1VuksNg]

Well, we are off to get a new brother for Maggie tonight – “Leftie” was the viewer’s choice but we’ll have to see who the cocker spaniel prefers!

Speaking of the little devil – Maggie has always enjoyed the falling reminants from Jrock’s granola bars.  But she would never, for example, rip into the box of them in the pantry or anything.  She’s too polite.

But in the last couple of days, she’s found a new trick.  If I leave the pantry door open and unattended, she will go in there, get a granola bar out of the box, and then bring it to us to be opened and shared!  It’s a cute little trick, but instead of the granola bar, we just put it back and give her a doggie treat instead.  What a funny little puppy to come up with that. 

Here she is as she appeared in the family room last night!

Since our Hamie passed away, our house has been very empty feeling…. so we’ve decided to get a puppy to keep me and Maggie company, run around, chase the cats, eat our socks and pee on the floor.  Hmmm…. well, it comes with the territory.

So… here are the two candidates – 4 month old cairn terriers. [Edit: Both boys!] Which one do you like the look of best? 
Cast your vote by leaving a comment below.

Leftie?  – or – Rightie?

(…and remember to leave politics aside – this is puppy choosing, not the election, people )

Pictures served!

My sister (seen above cooking and crying over onions!) and I had fun cooking for our guests – she brought some of her favorite recipes and we resurrected some of my successful ones.  We cooked and we cooked – actually, it took about 4 hours.  (And then the next day we cooked the injera and fritters for 1 1/2 hours.) 

The result was great.  Really, Jrock said it was the first time that he enjoyed the leftovers – and there are always a lot of leftovers when we cook Ethiopian! 

Some tricks and tips:

• First of all, we put the two meat stews in crockpots and cooked them for hours and hours. 
• Second, we thickened the stews (Doro Wat, for example) so that they were easier to eat, and that worked really well. 
• Third, we sliced all the onions (all 15!) ahead of time, so we could just scoop out a cup at a time. 
• Fourth, we made the best honeyed wine which went really well with the food.  I’ve shared the recipe below.
• Fifth, we made cheese for the first time.  Basically you just boil buttermilk, let it cool, strain the solids out and then add some chopped chives and parsley.  It was awesome!
• And lastly, we tried a new recipe of chickpea fritters and served them as an appetizer with a really thick onion/berbere sauce.  It was nice to have something to start with, instead of just the one course that you usually have.

As for the meal itself – well, it was fine.  We didn’t know anybody who was coming… and they were all very nice! but it’s weird making small talk all evening.  (It was a dinner that I had put up as a silent auction item for our Rotary fundraiser, and the lady who had the successful bid brought her friends.)

In amongst the small talk, we tried to talk about Ethiopia and what we know about the country and culture.  They were pretty interested, and for all but one of the guests (who is coincidentally adopting a 6 year old girl from Ethiopia) it was new news.  

One thing we discussed was AIDS and HIV and the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa. I found some of their questions surprising - one lady wondered if people got AIDS for life or if they grew out of it, for example.  But I rose to the challenge and I did some education in that regard and there are some more AIDS-aware people in Kelowna now!  I did get a chance to mention Meg’s Faya Orphanage for HIV+ Kids and collected some donations, which was nice of them to help out. 

Thank you, sister “Ena” for your help!  It was a pleasure spending the weekend with you and I was so glad for the help!

Our Tej Honey-Wine Recipe

This is our Canadian version of an Ethiopian specialty.  It’s delicious!  Try it!

Ingredients:

• bottle of Riesling or another light, sweet, wine
• the bottle full of water
• 1/3 cup honey

Simply pour the bottle of wine into a big jug or carafe, and top it up with the equal amount of water.  Stir while adding the liquid honey – and then chill for at least an hour in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow I am having a big dinner with 7 surprise guests.  Earlier this year I donated an Ethiopian dinner to a silent auction o raise money for local charities, including the hospice.  This lady bought the dinner and we’re now hosting it.  The trick is hat we don’t know any of the people coming! ha ha

Luckily my sister is in town and she’s just as good (if not better) of a Ethiopian food cook than I am – so we spent the morning organizing and now off to the farmer’s market we go!  For all of you who have cooked Etiopian, you can appreciate it – we need a LOT of onions!

Our dishes planned:

• Chicken Wat
• Bef Wat
• Gingered Vegetables
• Red Lentils
• Chickpea Wat
• Collard Green
• Iab (buttermilk cheese)
• Tej – honeyed wine

Maggie LOVES playing in the garden hose.  She is a really good girl and waits patiently by while I water the vegetables, but when I say “ok” – she just goes nuts!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/gfRxNptiIYY]

Break out the candles!  The balloons! It’s our one year anniversary!

.

Oh, wait. 

I mean, it’s ONE WHOLE YEAR of waiting for a referral.  ONE WHOLE YEAR since our dossier arrived in Ethiopia.

Hum.  Well, that doesn’t sound so celebratory…

Well, I suppose I can wish us good luck for next year.  Right on – that’s what I’ll do. 

Good luck, self! 

Good luck, Jrock! 

May you be blessed with children in the coming year!