OK, so my friend is SO much more organized than I am!  After only a day, she sent me pics from our Friday Halloween party at the Music & Crafts thing we all go to.  Note the cute tigger with the girls – that’s her daughter!

In contrast, the king of ghoul was off to a much more adult party tonight.  I thought he looked reasonably hideous, but the girls didn’t seem to mind in the least. 

They were much more scared of the pint-sized werewolf (probably 5 years old) that showed up trick or treating tonight!  

And then there is poor Maggie – petrified by the firecrackers going off all night.  All 35 lbs of her is curled in my lap right now.

Anyway, the girls really enjoyed walking through the neighborhood.  I think that is why I am still up blogging, actually – they may have been limited to four candies, but Mommy went a little overboard on the chocolate.  Ummmm… chocolate….

Our first real-time post since we’ve got home, I think The girls just finished their jack’o'lanterns, and I think they are fabulous!  They designed them (from cut-out shapes) and decided where the eyes, nose, and mouth would go, all by themselves.  Now they are picking out seeds from the pumpkin meat, and I have an unexpected reprieve. 

PS: Thanks for the cool pumpkins, Grandpa!

Spice is the Lady Bug and Sugar is the Bumble Bee. Thanks to H in Ontario for the costumes!  I forgot my camera yesterday for the Arts and Crafts party, so you get the dress rehearsal picture.  Enjoy the night!

Jrock’s best friend K and his family suffered a terrible loss Wednesday, and we just found out last night.  K’s sisters are the closest thing to sisters Jrock ever had, and now the quiet, shy and thoughtful sister, with a three year old son, is a widow. 

Her husband, a really nice quiet guy we’ve sat in the farm kitchen and at wedding dances with for the past few years, was killed 10 days into his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.  132 soldiers may not be a lot to lose in a mission as big as this, in theory, but it  certainly feels like one too many when you know the soldier.  It’s so sad that he was killed trying to help other people live in peace and safety…

Take care, family – our hearts are with you.

You can tell the girls are getting their braids out either that day or the next if you see photos of them wearing a hat!  So here is one hair day to another – two weeks later though

We thoroughly enjoyed going into the bush in Ethiopia, but even in the heart of the city you can see an amazing amount of birds.  It truly is an amazing place – From fatbirder.com: “In addition to 840 species of birds, of which a staggering 30 are endemic (Africa`s second highest country tally); Ethiopia has a number of peculiar mammals, and a scenic diversity and cultural uniqueness that are hard to equal.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself! 

Jrock isn’t into birds, but even he was enthralled.  And the Rift Valley also showcased other amusing and enthralling animals, such as bush pigs (warthogs), baboons, hippos, monkeys, etc.  Enjoy some of our best pictures!

A friend gave us a book (“The Baby Whisperer for Toddlers” – bad name, but good book) and inside was a small section on values-based parenting.  Well, in the work I do we also use a lot of value-based planning and value-based management.  In fact,a book that was very helpful to get our relationship off on a good foundation was “Smart Couples Finish Rich”, another good book with a bad title.  It’s about arranging the business side of your marriage (finances, responsibilities, etc.) around the things that are most important to you.

Anyway this little collection of paragraphs struck a chord with us.  We’ve had several talks since about “what is it that we really want to teach our kids?” And I don’t mean to make their beds, but rather, to be responsible for their roles as family members.  The idea is that if you have it top of mind what your core values are, as parents, then the day to day “what the heck am I going to do in this situation?” questions are easier to act on in a cohesive way.  Your responses to your kids become for long-term focused instead of reactionary.  That’s the idea, anyway!

So these are our values we have come up with so far (in no particular order) – I’m sure there will be others we add over time. Please feel free to post comments with some of your core values for parenting.

• Compassion: for people and animals.  They certainly have come a long way in understanding emotions and empathizing with the dogs and with us. A lot of this is role modelling, and then taking time to read expressions, and puppy body language.
• Self-assurance: Knowing who you are, and that you can do what you set your mind too.  We try not to help at every turn, to climb the jungle gym or do up a sweater; rather, we tell them that we believe in them and coach them to succeed.
• Responsibility: There is a big world out there and we have many roles to play, as part of a family, and as part of our community.  So we take them to rallies and drop off clothes at the Salvation Army, etc.  One other tangible thing is that we don’t waste food or water… so if they ask for something, like a half a banana, they have to finish it or eat it later. (But if we give them food, they can choose when to stop eating.)

On Saturday we are going to join the Bike Rally in Kelowna to support international action against climate change.  There are events happening across Canada, if you would like to get involved… check it out!

What are you doing this Saturday?
In three days, millions of people around the world will gather in support of protecting our planet. How will you be involved?

Join the party…. So far, 4,000 events are planned for the Oct. 24th international day of action on climate change – including hundreds in Canada. From St. John’s, Newfoundland to Tofino, B.C., people are organizing street parties, concerts and pumpkin carving festivals to celebrate a better future for all. Find an event in your neighbourhood.

Make your voice heard…Join thousands of Canadians who have sent a message to Canada’s Prime Minister and leaders of the opposition in support of a fair, ambitious and binding agreement at the UN climate summit this December.

The week+ before our trip to Calgary was eventful. First of all we went to our first Moon Festival,the Chinese Thanksgiving equivalent, hosted by our friends who have a little daughter from China. 

Following the fall theme, we had to get our RV ready for the winter, and my Dad was in town to give us a hand.  AND he babysat for a few hours one evening for Jrock and I to go to a business meeting.  After 3.5 months of no time together, it was heaven.  Thanks ‘Grandpa!’

Like everybody else, we’re also getting into fall activities – more time indoors and a bit more organized activities.  We went to a music/art program with the afore-mentioned little girl and had a blast… since it’s by donation and every Friday, I think we will go back.  Plus the girls really enjoyed the singing. 

Life is settling into the New Normal around here… I’m finally over my cold (thank you Calgary visit!) and we’re finding ways to balance 1. kids 2. starting our own business and 3. family/friends life.  But still I haven’t found the time to get my consulting work done.  Yikes.  The girls are starting daycare 2 mornings a week this week (yes, I feel supremely guilty!) and that should give me one morning a week to play catch-up with my contract and one morning to work with Jrock.  And now that I have most of my energy back, evenings are starting to become productive time as well. 

Anyway, better run – I have some research to do! I hope you will all look forward to my next post on Ethiopian animals… warthogs and donkeys! Cheers!

Well our trip to Calgary over the last four days was certainly eventful.

First of all, let me describe Spice’s “Worst Day Ever”.  We were just heading off to the Wiggles concert from my friend L’s house.  Spice had woken up from a nap and was talking on a toy cellphone when she tumbled headfirst down the staircase.  So after realizing that she wasn’t going to stop crying, we made the decision that she had to go to the hospital with Mommy, while Sugar would go to the Wiggles with Daddy, L and Leo (her son.) So the poor tyke missed the Wiggles, then she was separated from her twin for the first time in her life, (this was probably the most traumatic bit,) and then our dear Spice broke her collarbone.  Snapped right in half.  I still feel like a schmuck: she survived 3 years in Ethiopia with no safety anything (no seatbelts, balcony bars 10 inches apart, etc) and then 1 1/2 months in Canada she has a broken bone, poor dear.

Anyway, besides that big event, we had a really nice trip.  Both Jrock and I feel a little more energetic afterwards, and we really enjoyed all our visits.

With S and M in the park in Invermere – the girls really love visiting with them.

The first day we traveled to Invermere to visit S and M.  The girls saw a skif of snow for the first time and we had injera for Thanksgiving.  The next day we were off to Calgary… we stayed for two nights with our friends L and K and their son Leo. The kids are the same age, so they had a good time together.  The first day was the collarbone/Wiggles – Sugar had an awesome time riding the C-train and going to the concert, by the way! – and then Spice and I went to Auntie T’s to see Gramma and Nona (my grandmother.)  We were joined later by Jrock and Sugar… and ate Ethiopian takeout (unfortunately 3 hours late! due to the snow and a sketchy delivery service.) 

Then the next day the kids hit the snow, hardcore, and had a real blast.   After hot chocolate we went back over to Auntie T’s for more injera and afternoon naps.  We went to see my grandfather and he was quite delighted with his new great granddaughters, even joining in for a chorus or two of Baby Beluga.  Happy Bday to Grandpa Peter in advance – he turns 97 on Monday!  Then back to Auntie T’s for supper and visits with more Aunts and Uncles.  They were all delighted by the girls (of course!) and we had a nice, if short, visit. 

The last day after a leisurely breakfast and the kids all having a bath together (these are pictures for their weddings… lol_) then we hit the road and drove 8ish hours home.  The girls were pretty darn good the whole time, and Spice even managed the seatbelt in the carseat pretty well, considering her shoulder situation. We arrived late in Kelowna singing in the car and counting the lakes (with no snow) till we got to the house.

I went searching the web and found a great page with several great amharic fonts… all for free!  So I thought I would pass it on.  If you are unsure of what you do with these, usually you simply just save the ttf file, then put in in your c://windows/fonts file – and voila! you can type in Amharic.

Now, you are wondering what the heck I need these for… well, that will just have to wait!  It’ll be a surprise.

One of the most intimidating things I found about being a prospective adoptive parent (fondly known as PAPs,) was a hair and skin regime for my kids.  How do you know what to pick? Especially when their skin and hair are so different from yours…

Well, everybody has their favourites, and I hope you parents out there will leave a comment and share the products that you like for your kids! I personally go by two rules of thumb:

1. Read the ingredients.  Just cause it says it’s natural or has extract of somethin-er-other doesn’t mean it doesn’t have copious amounts of other weird stuff in it.  I steer clear of alcohol and petroleum, personally.

2. Trial and error.  I brought some stuff for african kids’ hair to Ethiopia, and gave it away a week later.  Instead, I experimented with some of my Lush products and found a match.  So what do you know!

Ok, so once every week or two I put about 5 tablespoons of olive oil in my girls’ hair and let it sit for 5-10 minutes while they play in the bath. Some people like jojoba but I prefer olive oil.

And once a week I shampoo their hair with some beer shampoo, (Lush Cynthia Sylvia Stout) just to get any product build-up out.

The girls have a bath every second day, and I always put lots of (Lush American Cream) conditioner in, let it sit for 5 minutes, then pick it out.  If their hair is in braids, I make a little cream rinse by mixing the conditioner in a cup of water and gently pour it over the braids instead.

Then when I braid their hair I’ve started using some pure shea butter (and I mean no other ingredient! you can find it in healthfood stores) as a “gel” substitute.  It lets me get a better hold on the braids and really conditions while it’s in there.  I notice a big difference in hair quality now when I take the braids out.

And for the body – well, there are a few body butters from the Body Shop that have a good ingredients list (but they are not all created equal, so read – the least fav is their kids one!) but the girls like the Body Shop Shea Butter the best, after extended smell tests. 

For their face, I wanted something really mild, so I use Burts Bees Buttermilk Baby Bee Lotion.  And I (or Daddy) apply both of these lotions post-bath.

So what is your kids’ beauty regime?  Any tips and tricks, products or preferences?

Sugar and Mommy – and Baby and Mommy Beluga. It was raining like the dickens.

A week ago we drove for an overnight (which turned into two nights away) in Vancouver. We visited my BF, went to the aquarium, ate Ethiopian food, shopped at IKEA, and showed the girls the ocean.

Every day since one of our daily reading selections (we read about 4 books a day) has been Baby Beluga! (I wonder why???)

Auntie S and Uncle T taste Ethiopian for the first time (outside of our house.) The girls packed it away!

Our kids are pretty awesome travelers – they are sleepers/singers in the car, neat eaters in restaurants, and generally pleasant company.  Which is great, because we really do like to travel about.  They handled the two nights in the hotel with the dogs great too – but were glad to be home with their stuff and familiar surroundings when we got back.  It was a really nice get away for us; especially for me, since I’ve been feeling quite cooped up since we got home. Enjoy the pictures!

Ok, so this is a little bit of a complaint post.

How stupid is this… we don’t actually get any proof of citizenship when the girls get their facilitation visas from Nairobi.  So when you get home, you have to fill out some more paperwork and send it away.  But because the girls have really odd legal names (the custom in Ethiopia is to name kids after their father, ie: Dad is John Melvin Smith, then Kid will be Lisa John Melvin,) we have to get their names legally changed. Because right now their citizenship cards have their old names: Sugar Jrock and Spice Jrock. (A little web joke there.) But here’s the rub:  $164 dollars, thank you very much, for the legal name change, plus another $30-60 to have documents certified.  THEN, we have to reapply for new citizenship cards (because they won’t have birth certs or anything else to carry around with them) which is another $150, plus an additional $60-80 in doc certs.  Nice.  You just think you are done with all the legal costs when you get home.  Nopers.

But hats off to BC Medical.  Their Care Cards were issued in a week and have their new legal names – no questions asked.  Hurrah!