We’ve been learnng colours all week and one of the pieces of the pie was making homemade playdough.  The girls got to choose the colours, and as they were playing I constantly reminded them about which colour was which.  Daddy also did a day of colours: going through the colour book, finding things in the fridge that are each colour, picking a felt each of each colour, and drawing the bananas, oranges, cabbage and beer (blue). We try to make it fun.  And now they are doing quite well with the colours… green and orange as still evasive for them though.  Jrock said “how many million times do I have to show them green?” in a semi-exasperated tone.  A gazillion, I guess!

For your homemade pleasure, here is a copy of the recipe I use for homemade playdough. Remember, you need to keep it away from air in a tight ziplock bag in the fridge when you aren’t using it, or it will turn as hard as a rock.

Cooked Playdough
     3 cups flour
     1.5 cups salt
     6 tsp cream of tarter
     3 tbsp oil
     3 cups water
Dissolve salt in the water.
Pour all ingredients into a large pot.
Stir constantly over medium heat until a ball forms by pulling away from the sides.
Knead the dough mixture until the texture matches playdough (1-2 minutes). Divide the dough and add a few drops of food dye to each portion.
Store in a tight ziplock bag. Should last for at least 3 months.

At first when we arrived, I was determined to cook at our hotel.  After all, there was a hotplate, and I love to cook.  Things I didn’t take into account: electricity (therefore cooking power) only once every two days; eating out being so darned cheap; and a complete inability to leave kids while taking off for 1/2 hour.  So a couple of weeks in I gave my lentils and rice away and faced it: I was eating out 3 meals a day for 7 weeks!

Breakfast was in the guest house itself, since it was included with our daily rate.  I ate crepes with honey for almost 50 days straight – yummalishiousness.   We usually ate in our room, since it was just easier… although the poor cleaning lady swept eggs out of the rug many times.

We made sure that once a day we ate Ethiopian traditional food, including injera and shiro (hot chickpea paste,) and sometimes tibs (Ethio steak stirfry) or gomen (my favorite – spinach.) We usually ate a larger lunch out, and then had dinner in at the guest house in the lounge.  We’d often order eat-in from the Ice Blue restaurant across the street for the hotel – rain or shine, they would bring the food steaming into the lounge.  We also tried innumerable restaurants and cafes… you can get just about  any type of food in Addis, but they are especially good at Italian (remnants of the military occupation all those years ago.)   One of the girls other favorites was curry; it’s so similar in spice and eating style to Ethiopian food.

As a consequence of our eating out, and teaching the girls right up front how to behave, they are pretty darn awesome in restaurants.  Now that we’re back in Canada and it costs so much to eat out, we don’t do it as often. In Addis, it usually cost us between $8-14 Canadian for four of us to eat a meal, with beverages.  I think our most expensive meal (in Addis,) was $35 at the Makush art gallery restaurant (heavenly pasta) which included a bottle of decent Italian wine, pasta and dessert  for four. It beat the heck out of lentils and rice on a hotplate, let me tell you!

Sugar: Our budding naturalist.

We had a quieter week – which is good because I have bronchitis (the nasty cold I caught on the plane home that just got worse and worse…) and Jrock is suffering from a nasty cough too.  We take turns sleeping on the sofa because if one person isn’t coughing like crazy the other one is. I’m on the antibiotics now, but I’m still at 70% energy – which isn’t enough with two three year olds, if you ask me!

The team of us also went out to the Gellatny Nut Farm (this is not code for us going crazy – there actually is a nut orchard on the west side of the lake) to check it out and see if it’d be a good location for our fall OKFCA gathering.  Jrock slept in the car but the girls had a great time picking nuts and throwing rocks in the water.

A funny thing Jrock said I should mention that as rookie parents of three year olds we do make a few mistakes.  Our crowning achievement to date is letting the girls play tea party right before bed (with iced tea) and by 10:30 having two wet beds.  Better yet, a wet floor, as they apparently had so much tea that it ran over the rubber mattress cover and onto the floor.  ~nice~ Lesson learned, though!

Spice: Jrock calls her our "powder puff"

Another things we have no idea about: what’s age appropriate for three year olds to learn.  Right now they are learning colours and about weeding and doing their chores by themselves (making their beds and feeding the dogs.)

Their English is fantastic, all things considered, but when I hear other three year olds talk I know we have a ways to go.  Our challenge right now is the “to be” verb… I’m repeating back their statements properly – they are flirting with sentence structure but are completely oblivious to “is” or “are.”

A question for you Moms and Dads and anyone who knows: Can you recommend a good book on emotions that we could read and study emotions together?  We’ve got happy, sad and angry down, but they are ready for a lot more (although not necessarily in the moment of frustration.)

I thought I would write about something lighter… A story that starts in Ethiopia and continues to this day

When you are thinking of adopting transracially, girls’ hair can be intimidating.  Try twins on for size!  Anyway, I jumped in with two feet and am really enjoying doing the girls’ hair.

What works for us: The girls have a bath every second morning, and each time they get a big glob of Lush American Cream conditioner.  Yes, I know, it’s expensive.  But their hair is very tight and dry and it is fabulous stuff.  Once a week, I also shampoo their hair, usually with baby shampoo, but lately, with anti-fungal shampoo.  That’s right – we have the dreaded scalp fungus.  Yipee!  Ii sucks – the girls are good at taking their pills but even the oral anti-fungals don’t seem to be addressing it yet.

I also want to say that they MUST sleep in a sleep cap – not optional.  Luckily, they took to it right away.  Or else they would be megga frizzed out, all the time.  And in the car for long rides too (and the airplane, for that matter.) And they aren’t allowed to wear their hoody on their head with braids, either.  I know, I’m mean.  Anyway, about the fun stuff. Sometimes they have free hair – the fro! but it actually takes quite a bit more work than braids.  We pick it out before the bath, because I like the texture more after it’s been conditioned… it’s kinds cool and lumpy.

But we’ve tried lots of other hair styles,as you will see below.  It don’t really like puffs too much, as you have to comb the hair so much to get it flat.  The mohawk and two puffs are cute, though.  The girls usually want something really similar, so I try to mix it up in suble ways – different beads, or a different pattern. That kind of stuff. 

Our beads, snaps, the magical beading implement and sleep caps are from Sharuba (which means braids in Amharic.)  Check it out!

So here you go – a hair journey… to be continued…
(click on a pic it you want to see it bigger, then click again to see the full-sized picture.)

Spice – the Iron Chef!

Protective headgear for breakfast

To see bigger versions of the pictures, just click on your favorite pic below.

This kind woman in Adama sells tef at cost to Faya.

Flying to Ethiopia the way we did, we were so afraid that 1. our kids would be dispersed to other orphanages and 2. that they would run out of food.

Well, if the Women’s Ministry hadn’t been in a training seminar for two weeks at that time, the transition home may well have been “reorganized” and the kids with it.  Thank goodness they were coincidentally in a 2 week retreat period.

Our fear of food was very real at the time.  When Mom and I left for ET, they had 3 days of food left.  When we arrived, the former Imagine director had been there and brought cash from her daughter, so they had 8 days of food.  Using imaginative budget stretching, M, the lady in charge on the Ethiopia side, managed to stretch that money even further (amalgamated two homes into one, laid off staff, etc.)

As a result of the bankruptcy, there were several awesome families who fund raised and sent money for Imagine / Kidslink in Ethiopia.  $1000 cash of this money arrived with a mom a few days after we did.  Fortunately, it was at the same time as the gold company decided to make the big corporate donation.  And Kidslink in ET did NOT feel comfortable taking any non-accountant-delivered donations.  So we emailed home with suggestions of organizations that could benefit from the $1000 already there.  They said we should donate the money to Faya Orphanage.

Following are photos of all the stuff we bought for $1000 (plus a little from us) - M, the lady in charge, made a list and we went shopping!  In Addis, we bought a bunkbed, 2 cribs, mattresses, and a huge dresser.  Then we roped it all on top of our van; we were going to Lake Langano south of Adama so we just brought it along and dropped it off at Faya Orphanage.

The storeroom full of formula, meds, and other stuff we brought from Canada.

A week later when we returned from Lake Langano and spent the rest of the money (within $2 – I kid you not!  We bought sheets for the beds/cribs, bags of tef (which cost about $120 each now and last Faya 1 month) a bag of flour, and misc. baby items.

A thousand bucks goes a LONG way in Ethiopia, let me tell you.  All this stuff, in addition to the million cans of formula that Jrock hauled over (from a generous BC family) were very very welcome gifts and helped them out a lot.  I will tell you more about Faya and the kids in general in a subsequent post, but let me say for now that they make everything stretch REALLY well at Faya, and the people running it are awesome, creative and determined.

If you are going to Ethiopia sometime soon, please consider making the short 2 hour daytrip down to Adama and visit Faya Orphanage.  After all, if you visit, you will see firsthand why you should donate.

What they need now: First off, money.  We didn’t feel comfortable that our instructions from the families allowed us to just hand over the cash; so we bought stuff on their wish list.  But above all, they need money to pay the rent, pay staff, and buy tef.  You can donate online here www.fayaorphanage.org  using paypal.

If you are visiting, they could use four kid backpacks full of school and art supplies for their school-aged kids.  And the other thing that is SO expensive there (seriously more expensive than Canada!) is baby products.  J & J baby shampoo, baby powder, diaper cream, etc.  And they have 3? (if memory serves me correctly) little babies there now.

Some pics of the donations!

Just a little funny for all my teacher friends and fam out there. Just click on the link below, save and then open to hear the audio file.

Parents Calling the School (what they don’t want to hear!)

PS: Don’t agree with the last sentence, but the rest is SO true!

Their first grandchildren! (Sugar / Spice)

A week or so in pictures. We’ve laid pretty low – the girls are figuring out the dogs and cats… They’ve started chasing the kitty, so that’s – er – progress, I think.

We had some visitors for their Bday (which was actually in August; they are Leos – Ambasas! – their favorite animal). My parents came for an overnight and Uncle B dropped by for the evening. Two comments – one is that simple birthdays are great. They made their own cake, and then chose their fav food (pizza and pasta respectively) and then we had a simple meal with one present after. Perfect. No meltdowns, just grins!

The other thing I should mention – Uncle B (my bro who is a loveable guy) was hear like 5 minutes and Sugar called him Daddy in Amharic. Hummm… We also found that she especially was too glommy with our cousins from Australia as well (the adult male) and have decided that we have to put a few rules down.

So if you see us – no picking up the kids! A kiss or hug hello for family (if the girls want) but after that no hugging or holding or picking up or cuddling. Poor Gramma – she was used to doing all this and we put the rule down for everyone. (Yes, I saw you pick them up a couple of times Mom, but you also tried real hard not to You are being a trouper! ) I think Uncle B and Grampa found it easier.(I heard B correcting Gramma once – good uncle!) Anyway, the rule applies to everyone, sorry! What looks like super gregarious kids at three looks a lot different when they are teens and indescrimitately showing affection to everyone. Much better to address it now. And make sure they have no doubt who their parents are.

It is HARD! to get a good family picture! This one we are all at least smiling. Dusk playing on the deck…

Both the girls are pretty firmly attached to me – and Spice is pretty attached to Jrock… but Sugar will drop him for any other interesting guy (and Spice will “flirt”.) Time will help, but we especially have to watch them with other men (like Uncle B, who will have a relationship with them eventually, but at first meeting was a stranger, for all intensive purposes.)

Another attempt at a family photo. I love Spice's squished face and Sugar's cheeky grin!

We started going out with friend a bit later in the week, but you’ll have to wait for the next batch to see the pics. We’re off to my Rotary meeting tomorrow for breakfast… should be fun. I’ll quit Rotary for a bit now that I’m home, and rejoin again then I have some time.

We took the girls to Jrock’s work today and it was fun showing off the girls; they are, after all, lovely and funny little kids. People tell us everyday “they are so beautiful!” and we simply reply “yes, they are! aren’t they!”

Our Aussie cousins and the girls use chalk and bubbles as body paint

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Getting a little more confident with Maggie

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Colouring out on the deck – Spice is especially good at this!

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Our lovely "Lady" Maggie – she is being so patient and awesome with the girls

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Spice and Daddy telling secrets

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We bought a painting in Ethiopia and here we are having it framed.

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The family (+Grandpa) at the girls

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The cake they made themselves – Vanilla and Spice cakes! serious!

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Spice opening Nona's card. Notice their traditional Ethio dresses they wanted to wear for cake.

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Sugar opening her dinky cars – their only presents. They were delighted!

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Examining Maggie – they want tatoos like the one in her ear. I said no.

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Gramma and Grandpa eating brekkie with Sugar

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Spice sleeping with a kitty – big step!

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Eating breakfast. They love having their own napkins to wipe their face, clean up and fold. These are clean girls.

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Getting distracted by the dogs outside… at least they enjoy looking at them now.

 

  

 

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Waiting in the tranisiton home for the big moment – Mom was really nervous too… but not like me. I was just sweating!

You’ve seen pictures and a little description of meeting the girls for the first and second times at the transition home, if you’ve been following the blog.  But here is a little more.

Trying to get a smile from them on the first day. We went walking about the yard and explored, since they were sadder inside.

The first day we went to the transition home, I wasn’t sure what we would find, considering the food situation and everything.  But the staff were holding down the fort, and after seeing the girls cry and quake, we thought definitely another day wouldn’t hurt.  It took a while for the girls to leave the social worker’s arms, and then only spice would play with me  little.  Sugar just looked forlorn.  They both cried a lot and were so scared.

Spice with her hoard of stuff – they carried around those ziplocks full of our care package (all their worldly possesions) for a week. I guess it's the first time they ever had anything of their own – and the only thing they brought from the transition home.

Sugar's face just about describes it – sad, worried and forlorn – and expectant and accepting of what is to come.

The second day we gave them their new hoodies… they were still wearing the Tshirts we had sent in our care package (back in Dec – they got it two weeks before we got there and didn’t take those shirts off for three days.  They said that they wanted to go to Canada, but not with Mommy! ~honesty, anyway. They were SO little, and so afraid.  I felt like their mommy right away, but had to take some time to get to know them so I could atually comfort them.  For the first few days they cried and cried for their teacher, who they loved and napped with every afternoon.  Like, they would scream/chant/gasp/cry “teacher – teacher – teacher” over and over and throw themselves against the door for 1 1/2 hours at a time, a few times a day.  It was brutal on everyone – but mostly for them. Some people had worse issues with discipline and acting out and willfuless… but I don’t know anyone who had a worse time with grief.  The poor little things.

Their teacher at the transition home… I think she definitely was their mother figure there.

So it was a rocky start – baptism by fire.  I expected the worst, so I wasn’t surprised, but that didn’t make it any less tough.  We thought on our feet – after a coupledays we stopped naps, which we a trigger with the teacher fits.  And once they saw I wasn’t going anywhere, they started leaning into me crying, instead of sobbing on the floor and pushing my hands away.  And we had flashes and hints of the good times to come – big smiles, Sugar’s tongues out, and Spice’s sense of humour emerging.

A hint of things to come – delight at their first ride with Mommy in the "mechina" – van!

Now you see how they got their names…

PS: Spice makes the most hilarious faces!  Sugar just grins….

For those of you who have never been to Ethiopia, here are some pictures that will give you a taste of the captial, Addis Ababa.  For those that have been, you will also remember the sounds

horns honking, donkeys braying, children laughing, machiato cups clinking, blind ladies begging, diesel trucks roaring, friends greeting

and the smells

coffee roasting, popcorn popping, sewer seeping, mud caking, spices cooking, smog sputtering, unbleached cotton drying

Here are some of the sites (click on a photo to see a bigger view, and then click again to see the really big version).

Life is resuming at home now – although I have to admit it’s hard being at the house so much, and not having the dogs running about.  But the girls are making slow but steady progress with the dogs (the dogs now can run about on the floor as long as the girls are perched on the table or counter) and I’m trying to encourage some more independent play so I get a few moments to myself. (So far, under 15 minutes a day  :-S  but I’m working on it.)

Anyway, we’ve had somevisitors… We went tot he beach today with a friend, my godparents stopped by for some peach cobbler on their way through town, and my oldest friend (my godparent’s daughter) is in town from Australia, where she’s lived the last 6/7 years, with her two little girls in tow. 

We’re had ice cream three times this week – the girls love it, but I’d better cut it down if I want to keep off the pounds I lost in Ethiopia! And we’re been going to the parks, the beach, shopping, etc.

I managed to sort out some photos from our trip tonight (notice the midnight posting time) so hopefully I will get around to sharing some in a couple of days. I’ll leave you with my favorite picture of the week: