Oops, I can't believe it's been 2 months since my last posting. Time flies when you're screamingly busy for 15 hours straight every day. I have to say, it's pretty hard to have both of us working full time and still do a decent job of raising this active girl. C'est la vie, I guess.
Netsanet is growing quickly and mentally developing so fast! She speaks in many sentences now, and the babble is less and the recognizable words are more. She has several new words every day; it's just mind-boggling how fast her brain is developing. She knows some letters and numbers and will point them out when she has a sign or something within reach. It shocks me! She's not even 2 years old! We certainly haven't made a point of teaching her letters or numbers; I think she's just picking it up from daycare and our interactions (if she points to letters I'll tell her what they are, but we haven't been doing flashcards or anything...). It's amazing how smart she is, but Ken and I joke that it will probably mean trouble later on - she'll be able to figure out how to get around us pretty quickly!
She's definitely into the toddler stage, with what other parents tell me are typical issues. Her appetite has gone way down and she's pretty picky about what she'll eat (mostly fruit, and some cheese). She's still growing, even if she's lost most of her cute little belly. As long as she's basically healthy, I'll *try* not to stress. She's doing some screeching, but the volume and frequency has gone down a bit with our constant feedback of 'no screaming.' There's been some attempts at biting and hitting, which is not fun, but I guess it just takes consistent 'no' and firm statements. She'll try something for a while, but if we're consistent the bad behaviour seems to go away pretty quickly. She's also had some nightmares lately, which I think probably comes with all the new mental development at this age. It's not all the time, which is a relief, but there have been a few sleepless nights! She's definitely a character, and her personality makes itself more evident every day. She has quite the sense of humor, and will make faces and do things to make us laugh, and she wants us to reciprocate in her little game. I think she's going to be quite the comedian!
Summer weather has been great so far. We have had more sunny days since April than I can remember in the whole time I've lived here. I think we've collectively forgiven the weather gods for that awful winter. It hasn't been too hot, and we've gone down to the beach a few times with Net. We mostly have gone to Lake Washington which is near our house, and they have a great park with a sandy beach and water canals for the kids to dig and re-engineer. So far Net has tried the water a little, but more often enjoys digging in the sand and interacting with all the other kids. We also went to Alki beach, which is on Puget Sound (saltwater connecting eventually to the ocean) at lowest tide for the year. That was pretty fun, and we saw a live abalone (I think), which looks like a huge snail that was digging into the sand. The water was low enough that we were able to gently touch the sea anenomes too, which is always fun. Net got thoroughly muddy and covered in sand and salt water, since she wanted to wade out but kept getting stuck in the sand from the wave action. She fed her crackers to the birds and had a really good time playing in the gunk of low tide. Dirt is very integral to all my happy memories as a small kid, and it was fun to see her enjoying it too!
We tried to go camping a couple of weeks ago, but the area was forecast for thundershowers so we decided to ditch it. Tent camping with a toddler for the first time is a nerve-wracking enough idea, without adding loud booms and rainstorms to the mix. We were desperate to get away for a bit, though, so we ended up going to the sunnier parts of eastern WA and staying in a motel overnight. Net and I swam in the pool there, which was her first full swimming pool experience, not counting wading pools. She was giggly and gasping at the cold water at first. Then she relaxed, and I kept telling her, "I've got you!" until she was repeating it to me ("I got you, Mommy!"). We swam around for a bit, and she had fun stepping off the pool edge into my arms. We'll have to try the pool near our house, and see if she enjoys it as much!
Outings are more fun now, and Net seems to enjoy getting out and seeing different things. It's easier to be a little more flexible with eating and nap times than it was even 6 months ago, which gives us a little more time to go out of the house. She's very into animals right now, and gets excited when she sees dogs or birds. We went downtown over the weekend, and she had a good time chasing and screaming with excitement at the pigeons and seagulls ("Hi bird! Hi bird!"). She also started roaring at them like a lion, and I couldn't stop cracking up. The birds knew they weren't in danger, but they'd give her the nervous eye as they scooted away. The pigeons seem like they could use a little excitement in their lives anyway :)
Well, the summer is flying by, and I hope we get to at least take the canoe out once before it ends. There are many other things I'd like to do, but I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
This baby is active
Ken and I always laugh when we think about what we knew of Netsanet during the adoption process. We sent questions to the orphanage, asking what she likes and what activities she enjoys (oh, we were so clueless! It's a challenge to just make sure everyone is fed and clothed there). The response was a form that had the line "Compared to other children in the orphanage, this baby is ___" They had filled in "active" in the blank space. Oh, we had nooooo idea!
Little Miss Netsanet is a runner and a climber and a shouter. She never stops, even when she is watching TV (she stands up and bounces around for the short periods she does watch tv). She's now climbing on everything and no area of the house is any longer out of her reach. She has figured out how to pull out the dining room chair, so she can climb up onto the dining room table and get to the fruit bowl. She can reach all the tops of the counters in the kitchen. She can climb up onto the couch to get things off the back (where we try to fruitlessly put things out of her reach). There are a lot of loud vocalizations to accompany all of this and I think my hearing may be a little damaged from the shrieks into my eardrum when I pick her up in the middle of one of her activities. We have to take her out to run for several blocks every night when we get home, or she gets really crabby. She's also into breaking mode - in the last week she has broken the remote control and the toilet handle.
Life is a little busy right now, but it's also big fun. She has quite the sense of humor - "uh-oh!" when she pulls something over and it crashes, or "hot!" as she tries to pull over my coffee cup. Like she's completely disassociated from the consequences of her own action, and she's just the victim of some naughty baby in the room who's doing these things to all of us. It's hard not to laugh!
Her lanugage skills are rocking along. She is speaking in some sentences now, and started saying "I love you" back to me just before mother's day (that was a nice present :). It will be a lot of fun to hear what she has to say!
Well, this is a short one but life is busy. We're going to try camping in July, and maybe some additional times once the weather is nice. Here's hoping for a great summer!
Little Miss Netsanet is a runner and a climber and a shouter. She never stops, even when she is watching TV (she stands up and bounces around for the short periods she does watch tv). She's now climbing on everything and no area of the house is any longer out of her reach. She has figured out how to pull out the dining room chair, so she can climb up onto the dining room table and get to the fruit bowl. She can reach all the tops of the counters in the kitchen. She can climb up onto the couch to get things off the back (where we try to fruitlessly put things out of her reach). There are a lot of loud vocalizations to accompany all of this and I think my hearing may be a little damaged from the shrieks into my eardrum when I pick her up in the middle of one of her activities. We have to take her out to run for several blocks every night when we get home, or she gets really crabby. She's also into breaking mode - in the last week she has broken the remote control and the toilet handle.
Life is a little busy right now, but it's also big fun. She has quite the sense of humor - "uh-oh!" when she pulls something over and it crashes, or "hot!" as she tries to pull over my coffee cup. Like she's completely disassociated from the consequences of her own action, and she's just the victim of some naughty baby in the room who's doing these things to all of us. It's hard not to laugh!
Her lanugage skills are rocking along. She is speaking in some sentences now, and started saying "I love you" back to me just before mother's day (that was a nice present :). It will be a lot of fun to hear what she has to say!
Well, this is a short one but life is busy. We're going to try camping in July, and maybe some additional times once the weather is nice. Here's hoping for a great summer!
Friday, March 6, 2009
I smell spring
Finally, the winter appears to be ending... some of the daffodils are blooming, and some of the days are getting warmer and less rainy. Although more snow is forecast for this weekend :p I have never seen such a snowy winter in the 16 years I have lived in Seattle!
I think Netsanet will be really excited to spend more time outside as spring arrives. She is continuing to grow at break-neck speed and is very active. She loves being outside, especially when it's sunny, so I think we will all be relieved when the days are warmer and longer.
She is growing so quickly, it's hard to imagine. She just turned 18 months old. However, she's now growing out of her 18 month clothes and is wearing a lot of 24-month and 2T clothes (I'm kind of clueless and not really sure how those sizes are different, to be honest). Her legs have gotten so long and she continues to stretch taller every day. She has been very tired and whiny this week and wants to go to sleep early and wake up late. She's so sleepy, I bet she's hitting another growth spurt. The time change this weekend will probably be hard on her, but it will also be light in the evenings and we can go for walks when I come home from work.
She has finally started to sit still for small periods of time, as long as she has either coloring or puzzle-type things to occupy her. She loves coloring and has made many lovely Jackson Pollock-like drawings for us. Spatial toys really occupy her interest, but she also gets really frustrated when she tries to make things fit together or come apart. Baby puzzles, large lego blocks, baby food jar with lid, tupperware container with lid - these things will keep her focused for 1/2 hour or so. She concentrates so hard, but she'll scream with frustration if she can't make it work. That little brain is learning so fast, and she is determined to learn everything she can!
While she can sit still for a little while, we still don't think an airplane ride is a great idea. We were going to go to Joshua Tree park in May, but we've decided to postpone until November. I have nightmare visions of a delayed plane, stuck on the tarmac, and trying to keep Net from screaming and running all over the plane. She's quite social, but it's a full time job to keep her from running around and grabbing anything. And I think she's starting to feel that 'terrible twos' frustration - if we prevent her from doing something, it triggers an eardrum-shattering screech. I must say, NOT my favorite sound in the world. I think for now it's a better idea for us to take small local car trips or train trips, rather than try to fly anywhere. At least we can get her out and run around when she needs to.
Net has developed a passion for sitting in furniture. Not sitting still for long, but climbing up into the chair, sitting in it, climbing back out, standing on it, sitting on it, etc etc. She seems to be testing the theory: how are all the ways I can interact with this furniture? This started just before Christmas, when she would try to sit on everything (boxes, etc). She's realized that chairs and couches are for sitting and loves a foam Winnie the Pooh chair at daycare. We bought her a toddler foam couch that folds out into a bed, and she's endlessly amused with sitting on it and standing on it.
She's also practicing sitting on her potty seat. We haven't tried potty training yet, but we're trying to get her used to the potty and have a positive association with sitting on it. Net's daycare provider has recommended that we start trying to potty train her just before she turns 2. I'm so glad we have Miss Dee Dee to talk to - she has a ton of experience with small children and really knows what works for them. Plus she sees Netsanet every day and can tell what's working for her as a person. Every day we're so thankful that she's part of our life!
The other favorite thing right now is the ball. Throwing the ball, chasing the ball, running around with the ball - all REALLY exciting! She giggles and laughs and even drools with excitement; it's very cute! Shoes are also a big hit ('Shoe-shoes' is how she says it). She drags our shoes out and carries them around, and yesterday decided she'd like to try mine on. She tries to put both feet in one big shoe, which is really cute. She also loves her own shoes and helps me to put them on in the morning.
At the end of this month, it will be one year since we all came together as a family. I can't believe it's been only a year, and at the same time I can't believe it's been a whole year! So much has changed, it's hard to fathom. Netsanet has changed so much. I recently gave away some clothes of hers, some of which she wore while we were in Ethiopia. It's amazing to think that those tiny pants were huge on her, and now she couldn't wear them on one leg. She was so quiet and hardly made a peep, and now she's very talkative and social. We never could have imagined this robust little person would grow from that tiny frail baby!
Other than that, it's just every day stuff.... It's amazing how months can just fly by, and it seems like you haven't really done anything ;-) I think back fondly on the days when I could come and go at will, and have a social life (a whole year ago!)... but of course, as the saying goes, I wouldn't change it for the world!
I think Netsanet will be really excited to spend more time outside as spring arrives. She is continuing to grow at break-neck speed and is very active. She loves being outside, especially when it's sunny, so I think we will all be relieved when the days are warmer and longer.
She is growing so quickly, it's hard to imagine. She just turned 18 months old. However, she's now growing out of her 18 month clothes and is wearing a lot of 24-month and 2T clothes (I'm kind of clueless and not really sure how those sizes are different, to be honest). Her legs have gotten so long and she continues to stretch taller every day. She has been very tired and whiny this week and wants to go to sleep early and wake up late. She's so sleepy, I bet she's hitting another growth spurt. The time change this weekend will probably be hard on her, but it will also be light in the evenings and we can go for walks when I come home from work.
She has finally started to sit still for small periods of time, as long as she has either coloring or puzzle-type things to occupy her. She loves coloring and has made many lovely Jackson Pollock-like drawings for us. Spatial toys really occupy her interest, but she also gets really frustrated when she tries to make things fit together or come apart. Baby puzzles, large lego blocks, baby food jar with lid, tupperware container with lid - these things will keep her focused for 1/2 hour or so. She concentrates so hard, but she'll scream with frustration if she can't make it work. That little brain is learning so fast, and she is determined to learn everything she can!
While she can sit still for a little while, we still don't think an airplane ride is a great idea. We were going to go to Joshua Tree park in May, but we've decided to postpone until November. I have nightmare visions of a delayed plane, stuck on the tarmac, and trying to keep Net from screaming and running all over the plane. She's quite social, but it's a full time job to keep her from running around and grabbing anything. And I think she's starting to feel that 'terrible twos' frustration - if we prevent her from doing something, it triggers an eardrum-shattering screech. I must say, NOT my favorite sound in the world. I think for now it's a better idea for us to take small local car trips or train trips, rather than try to fly anywhere. At least we can get her out and run around when she needs to.
Net has developed a passion for sitting in furniture. Not sitting still for long, but climbing up into the chair, sitting in it, climbing back out, standing on it, sitting on it, etc etc. She seems to be testing the theory: how are all the ways I can interact with this furniture? This started just before Christmas, when she would try to sit on everything (boxes, etc). She's realized that chairs and couches are for sitting and loves a foam Winnie the Pooh chair at daycare. We bought her a toddler foam couch that folds out into a bed, and she's endlessly amused with sitting on it and standing on it.
She's also practicing sitting on her potty seat. We haven't tried potty training yet, but we're trying to get her used to the potty and have a positive association with sitting on it. Net's daycare provider has recommended that we start trying to potty train her just before she turns 2. I'm so glad we have Miss Dee Dee to talk to - she has a ton of experience with small children and really knows what works for them. Plus she sees Netsanet every day and can tell what's working for her as a person. Every day we're so thankful that she's part of our life!
The other favorite thing right now is the ball. Throwing the ball, chasing the ball, running around with the ball - all REALLY exciting! She giggles and laughs and even drools with excitement; it's very cute! Shoes are also a big hit ('Shoe-shoes' is how she says it). She drags our shoes out and carries them around, and yesterday decided she'd like to try mine on. She tries to put both feet in one big shoe, which is really cute. She also loves her own shoes and helps me to put them on in the morning.
At the end of this month, it will be one year since we all came together as a family. I can't believe it's been only a year, and at the same time I can't believe it's been a whole year! So much has changed, it's hard to fathom. Netsanet has changed so much. I recently gave away some clothes of hers, some of which she wore while we were in Ethiopia. It's amazing to think that those tiny pants were huge on her, and now she couldn't wear them on one leg. She was so quiet and hardly made a peep, and now she's very talkative and social. We never could have imagined this robust little person would grow from that tiny frail baby!
Other than that, it's just every day stuff.... It's amazing how months can just fly by, and it seems like you haven't really done anything ;-) I think back fondly on the days when I could come and go at will, and have a social life (a whole year ago!)... but of course, as the saying goes, I wouldn't change it for the world!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Busy girl
Well, we made it through our first christmas together in spite of the blizzard-like conditions for a couple of weeks. Net had a cold just before christmas, then her daycare closed due to the record amounts of snow (about 8-14" on the ground for a couple of weeks) and then the usual holiday closure. By the time she got back to daycare, she hadn't seen her buddies for almost a month. She was seriously bored at home and became a pretty severe television addict while we were snowed in. After a few days of being unable to leave the house (couldn't walk because of snow and ice, and it was too cold to play outside for long and unsafe to drive anywhere), we gave up and let the Noggin channel rock during all waking hours. She now bangs on the tv and cries when it's off. (bring on the guilt trip!)
We did get out into the snow a little with her. We were sadly unprepared for the weather and didn't have any boots or even decent winter shoes for her, since it only ever rains and we generally don't go out and play in the rain. I bundled her up in a full body fleece thing, folded the hand and foot parts over her shoes and mittened hands, and put a puffy jacket over that. She couldn't walk due to all the puffiness and covered feet, but I pulled a snow disk sled out of the garage and tied a rope handle to it. We dragged her up and down our street in it, and even went to the park and tried sledding a couple of times. She was ok with it and had fun for about 1/2 hour, saying "weee!" but she'd quickly get cold and sad. 1/2 hour of the day is not a very long stretch to be out of the house. The other 23 1/2 hours were kind of hard. That's where the tv came in. And of course there were no snow clothes or boots to be found in the greater Seattle area. We ordered some online but by the time they came, the snow was gone.
There were a few play dates to break up the weeks, and Ken and I took Net to some nearby coffee shops/restaurants that have play areas. I tell you, those places are great! Before Net, I would have steered clear (the piercing shrieks are a little hard on digestion, especially for non-parents) but now I'm SO glad they are there. It makes us feel like we can actually go out to eat and not worry about trying to keep her in a high chair or quiet the whole time (both are virtually impossible for a very active 17-month old). We still have to watch her, of course, but it's so much easier than fighting her to stay still and quiet for 2 hours. You might as well tell a hurricane to hush up and be still.
Anyway, January 5th was the grand re-entry to normalcy, with Net going back to daycare and Ken and I going back to work. She's obviously very happy with her friends there! We were so worried when it came time for her to start daycare but it has worked out so well.
Net had her first toddler birthday party she attended for our friend's 2-year old daughter over the weekend. It was at the Little Gym, and the activities were a little too organized for Net's age (or maybe just her personality!). She wasn't interested in the group activities and freaked out a little at some of the things (inflatable bouncy thing, for example) but she was very interested in trying to climb on all the gym equipment. I think we will need to get her into some active classes pretty soon...
We also went to our first Martin Luther King Jr. day rally near our house. The march started at Net's nap time so we decided to take her to the earlier rally and then go home. It was an especially big day, since it was also the day before Obama's inauguration! Apparently a lot of other people also wanted celebrate, and the place was packed and hot and noisy. Net made it through about 5 minutes and then started to scream, so Ken took her home. I stayed, and then went back home at the end. I think next year we will skip the rally and try to take her on the march - less sitting still and more moving around is probably more up her alley ;-)
Other than that, life is busy with every day stuff and trying to get clothes and shoes on a frequent enough basis to fit her. She's now wearing 18 month clothing and size 6 shoes. She seems to go through another clothing and shoe size about every 6-8 weeks. This exponential growth has been going on for about 10 months... will it ever level out? Or will we end up with a 6-foot daughter??? (how cool would that be!)
We did get out into the snow a little with her. We were sadly unprepared for the weather and didn't have any boots or even decent winter shoes for her, since it only ever rains and we generally don't go out and play in the rain. I bundled her up in a full body fleece thing, folded the hand and foot parts over her shoes and mittened hands, and put a puffy jacket over that. She couldn't walk due to all the puffiness and covered feet, but I pulled a snow disk sled out of the garage and tied a rope handle to it. We dragged her up and down our street in it, and even went to the park and tried sledding a couple of times. She was ok with it and had fun for about 1/2 hour, saying "weee!" but she'd quickly get cold and sad. 1/2 hour of the day is not a very long stretch to be out of the house. The other 23 1/2 hours were kind of hard. That's where the tv came in. And of course there were no snow clothes or boots to be found in the greater Seattle area. We ordered some online but by the time they came, the snow was gone.
There were a few play dates to break up the weeks, and Ken and I took Net to some nearby coffee shops/restaurants that have play areas. I tell you, those places are great! Before Net, I would have steered clear (the piercing shrieks are a little hard on digestion, especially for non-parents) but now I'm SO glad they are there. It makes us feel like we can actually go out to eat and not worry about trying to keep her in a high chair or quiet the whole time (both are virtually impossible for a very active 17-month old). We still have to watch her, of course, but it's so much easier than fighting her to stay still and quiet for 2 hours. You might as well tell a hurricane to hush up and be still.
Anyway, January 5th was the grand re-entry to normalcy, with Net going back to daycare and Ken and I going back to work. She's obviously very happy with her friends there! We were so worried when it came time for her to start daycare but it has worked out so well.
Net had her first toddler birthday party she attended for our friend's 2-year old daughter over the weekend. It was at the Little Gym, and the activities were a little too organized for Net's age (or maybe just her personality!). She wasn't interested in the group activities and freaked out a little at some of the things (inflatable bouncy thing, for example) but she was very interested in trying to climb on all the gym equipment. I think we will need to get her into some active classes pretty soon...
We also went to our first Martin Luther King Jr. day rally near our house. The march started at Net's nap time so we decided to take her to the earlier rally and then go home. It was an especially big day, since it was also the day before Obama's inauguration! Apparently a lot of other people also wanted celebrate, and the place was packed and hot and noisy. Net made it through about 5 minutes and then started to scream, so Ken took her home. I stayed, and then went back home at the end. I think next year we will skip the rally and try to take her on the march - less sitting still and more moving around is probably more up her alley ;-)
Other than that, life is busy with every day stuff and trying to get clothes and shoes on a frequent enough basis to fit her. She's now wearing 18 month clothing and size 6 shoes. She seems to go through another clothing and shoe size about every 6-8 weeks. This exponential growth has been going on for about 10 months... will it ever level out? Or will we end up with a 6-foot daughter??? (how cool would that be!)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
first christmas together
We are fast approaching our first christmas together as a family, and so we decided to take Netsanet downtown for her first Santa picture. People often ask us after seeing her pictures, "is she always smiling?" The answer is yes, most of the time... but as you can see from her Santa picture, not all the time. This has got to be the saddest Santa picture ever. She couldn't even sit on Santa's lap without almost throwing up from fear and screaming, so I held her for the picture. Even holding her near Santa made her cry her eyes out! My parents said it's just like my first Santa picture ;-)
Aside from Santa terrors, the little bear is happy and active, with bouts of cantankerous behaviour. She is walking and running all over the place and almost never sits still. She's so happy to be walking on her own, and we go for walks around the block on the weekend. It gets dark so early now that it's hard to go for walks after work :( She loves walking outside and insists on grabbing a leaf in each hand to wave like a flag as she runs. We've been learning "stop" when she gets to the curb. I started teaching her by running behind her and putting my hand in front of her stomach and saying "stop!" every time she got to the curb edge. She learned that it's a fun game to pat her stomach at the curb while shouting 'top!' and then run toward the street. Oh well, at least it's a start! She'll stop for a second when I say stop, which gives me a little time to grab her. It's not bad in our neighborhood because there isn't much traffic on our street. But for downtown outings, I see a baby leash (harness, or whatever they call those things) in her future. I never thought I'd use one on my child, but it's a different story when you see her racing toward the street in a busy downtown area.
A couple of weeks ago we had the refinalization hearing for the adoption and all went well....aside from Netsanet releasing a few sounds I like to refer to as "birth control screams" during the hearing (she didn't appreciate being held still and wanted to explore behind the judge's bench). Now we have started the process to get her certificate of American citizenship and passport, so that should take a few months.
Net absolutely loves daycare and I think she gets really bored with us when she doesn't see her daycare buddies for more than a day. Even though she's the baby, she's not shy about making her opinion known and apparently the other kids spend most of the day bringing her things to play with. We're trying not to spoil her, but the kids at daycare may just do it for us! Kidding aside, it's such a relief to know that she's happy and that everyone at daycare is happy she's there.
She's eating like her nickname now (little bear) and really puts it away. She's eating all kinds of solid food, and particularly enjoys vegetables, beans, noodles, prunes, and cheddar cheese. The tummy has become extremely round (I LOVE it!) and I think she's headed for another growth spurt. At her last doctor visit in the end of November, she measured in the 80th percentile for height and the 65th for weight. This means she's taller than 80% of kids her age and heavier than 65% of kids her age. Such a difference from 8 months ago when she was off the bottom of those same growth charts! Her growth curve has been exponential and the doctor gushes with excitement about it every time we come in.
In addition to her physical growth, you can really see her mental processes. She's 'testing' everything which can be a pain (we've had to block electrical outlets with furniture where possible so she doesn't play with electrical plugs and sockets around the house), and she craves new information. We read several books to her every night and lately she's getting obviously sick of the same books. She gets squirmy and slams the pages around, but quiets down if we switch a new book into the mix. I think she's very intelligent, which will be both a blessing and a curse ;-)
Her personality has also become a lot more outspoken. She's very shouty now, and sings as well - she's got the start of the alphabet song down, and ring around the rosy (they do these at daycare apparently). It's pretty funny when I come home after work, because sometimes I can hear her a few houses away if she's hollering. She used to be so quiet that our neighbor commented she could never hear her, compared to her grandson about the same age. I don't think we'll hear those comments anymore!
She likes to play a lot of games now, and loves giving us some wrestling moves if we lay on the floor at her height. She also gives "5" and likes clapping games. It's exhausting to keep up with her after a long work day, but it's rewarding to see that huge bright grin and see her mind processing all this new stuff. It sure keeps life active in these dark winter days!
Aside from Santa terrors, the little bear is happy and active, with bouts of cantankerous behaviour. She is walking and running all over the place and almost never sits still. She's so happy to be walking on her own, and we go for walks around the block on the weekend. It gets dark so early now that it's hard to go for walks after work :( She loves walking outside and insists on grabbing a leaf in each hand to wave like a flag as she runs. We've been learning "stop" when she gets to the curb. I started teaching her by running behind her and putting my hand in front of her stomach and saying "stop!" every time she got to the curb edge. She learned that it's a fun game to pat her stomach at the curb while shouting 'top!' and then run toward the street. Oh well, at least it's a start! She'll stop for a second when I say stop, which gives me a little time to grab her. It's not bad in our neighborhood because there isn't much traffic on our street. But for downtown outings, I see a baby leash (harness, or whatever they call those things) in her future. I never thought I'd use one on my child, but it's a different story when you see her racing toward the street in a busy downtown area.
A couple of weeks ago we had the refinalization hearing for the adoption and all went well....aside from Netsanet releasing a few sounds I like to refer to as "birth control screams" during the hearing (she didn't appreciate being held still and wanted to explore behind the judge's bench). Now we have started the process to get her certificate of American citizenship and passport, so that should take a few months.
Net absolutely loves daycare and I think she gets really bored with us when she doesn't see her daycare buddies for more than a day. Even though she's the baby, she's not shy about making her opinion known and apparently the other kids spend most of the day bringing her things to play with. We're trying not to spoil her, but the kids at daycare may just do it for us! Kidding aside, it's such a relief to know that she's happy and that everyone at daycare is happy she's there.
She's eating like her nickname now (little bear) and really puts it away. She's eating all kinds of solid food, and particularly enjoys vegetables, beans, noodles, prunes, and cheddar cheese. The tummy has become extremely round (I LOVE it!) and I think she's headed for another growth spurt. At her last doctor visit in the end of November, she measured in the 80th percentile for height and the 65th for weight. This means she's taller than 80% of kids her age and heavier than 65% of kids her age. Such a difference from 8 months ago when she was off the bottom of those same growth charts! Her growth curve has been exponential and the doctor gushes with excitement about it every time we come in.
In addition to her physical growth, you can really see her mental processes. She's 'testing' everything which can be a pain (we've had to block electrical outlets with furniture where possible so she doesn't play with electrical plugs and sockets around the house), and she craves new information. We read several books to her every night and lately she's getting obviously sick of the same books. She gets squirmy and slams the pages around, but quiets down if we switch a new book into the mix. I think she's very intelligent, which will be both a blessing and a curse ;-)
Her personality has also become a lot more outspoken. She's very shouty now, and sings as well - she's got the start of the alphabet song down, and ring around the rosy (they do these at daycare apparently). It's pretty funny when I come home after work, because sometimes I can hear her a few houses away if she's hollering. She used to be so quiet that our neighbor commented she could never hear her, compared to her grandson about the same age. I don't think we'll hear those comments anymore!
She likes to play a lot of games now, and loves giving us some wrestling moves if we lay on the floor at her height. She also gives "5" and likes clapping games. It's exhausting to keep up with her after a long work day, but it's rewarding to see that huge bright grin and see her mind processing all this new stuff. It sure keeps life active in these dark winter days!
Monday, November 17, 2008
It's been a while!
Well, I've been back at work for about 6 weeks now, and is life ever busy! It's hard to find the time to add postings, but I've at least added some pictures.
The big news: Net started walking 2 weeks ago and now she doesn't want to do anything else. We took her for a walk in the neighborhood this weekend and she was so excited to walk down the sidewalk! Of course, all plant materials must be tasted and she really wanted to chow down on the neighbor's ornamental shrubs so we had to distract her. She's also really drawn to walking in the street instead of the sidewalk so I see a baby harness in our future. She holds her hands up in a "jazz hands" posture and toddles fast from place to place. It's fun to see and it saves our backs, too, since this little bear is getting heavy!
Netsanet is also eating adult food now, and especially enjoys cheddar cheese. Every time she sees cheese, she grins and exclaims, "cheeessseee!!!" We have to save it for last so she'll actually eat some other food too. She enjoys beans, salmon, mashed potatoes, pasta, and vegetables of all sorts. She'll finally eat some apple now but still doesn't like most fruit.
Daycare has worked out really well; better than we hoped! It's a small home daycare nearby and Net thoroughly enjoys playing with all the other kids. She loves the daycare providers, and they love her. She loves it so much that I think she misses them on the weekend. She'll sit for a minute and look distant and then say, "Dee Dee!" or "Up!" which is the daycare provider's name, and 'up' is what we say when we're getting ready to leave for daycare in the morning (I carry her there in the Ergo pack). I think she really enjoys playing with the other kids and finds Mom and Dad a bit boring ;-)
She has a lot of words now, about 15 total. She says Mama, Dada, dog, duck, cheese, eat, up, down, poop, uh-oh, and several others. It's surprising how fast she's learning to talk, especially since she didn't even hear English until she was 7 months old.
For Halloween, she dressed up as a sunflower, but we didn't take her out trick or treating. She had a bad cold and it was a cold and rainy night, so we decided to skip it. She's too young to eat the candy and wouldn't know what was going on anyway. I took her to say hi to her daycare provider and we went to the grocery store in her costume, so she got to wear it for a little while. The sunflower head made her hot, though, so she was happy to get out of it. Next year she'll probably be more into it :)
Next week we have her court date for refinalization of the adoption here in the States. The US requires this, since we didn't both see her prior to the adoption in Ethiopia. This step is next, then we can apply for her US citizenship and eventually her Canadian citizenship as well. She'll have 3 passports before she hits elementary school ;-)
Life is certainly busy lately. It's so much harder when both parents work - there is no time to cook or do any tasks on the weeknights, so we do everything on the weekend (cooking, bills, laundry, grocery shopping, etc). It doesn't leave much time for fun, that's for sure. It's the most exhausting thing I've ever done, but it's still great to see that hilarious little grin!
The big news: Net started walking 2 weeks ago and now she doesn't want to do anything else. We took her for a walk in the neighborhood this weekend and she was so excited to walk down the sidewalk! Of course, all plant materials must be tasted and she really wanted to chow down on the neighbor's ornamental shrubs so we had to distract her. She's also really drawn to walking in the street instead of the sidewalk so I see a baby harness in our future. She holds her hands up in a "jazz hands" posture and toddles fast from place to place. It's fun to see and it saves our backs, too, since this little bear is getting heavy!
Netsanet is also eating adult food now, and especially enjoys cheddar cheese. Every time she sees cheese, she grins and exclaims, "cheeessseee!!!" We have to save it for last so she'll actually eat some other food too. She enjoys beans, salmon, mashed potatoes, pasta, and vegetables of all sorts. She'll finally eat some apple now but still doesn't like most fruit.
Daycare has worked out really well; better than we hoped! It's a small home daycare nearby and Net thoroughly enjoys playing with all the other kids. She loves the daycare providers, and they love her. She loves it so much that I think she misses them on the weekend. She'll sit for a minute and look distant and then say, "Dee Dee!" or "Up!" which is the daycare provider's name, and 'up' is what we say when we're getting ready to leave for daycare in the morning (I carry her there in the Ergo pack). I think she really enjoys playing with the other kids and finds Mom and Dad a bit boring ;-)
She has a lot of words now, about 15 total. She says Mama, Dada, dog, duck, cheese, eat, up, down, poop, uh-oh, and several others. It's surprising how fast she's learning to talk, especially since she didn't even hear English until she was 7 months old.
For Halloween, she dressed up as a sunflower, but we didn't take her out trick or treating. She had a bad cold and it was a cold and rainy night, so we decided to skip it. She's too young to eat the candy and wouldn't know what was going on anyway. I took her to say hi to her daycare provider and we went to the grocery store in her costume, so she got to wear it for a little while. The sunflower head made her hot, though, so she was happy to get out of it. Next year she'll probably be more into it :)
Next week we have her court date for refinalization of the adoption here in the States. The US requires this, since we didn't both see her prior to the adoption in Ethiopia. This step is next, then we can apply for her US citizenship and eventually her Canadian citizenship as well. She'll have 3 passports before she hits elementary school ;-)
Life is certainly busy lately. It's so much harder when both parents work - there is no time to cook or do any tasks on the weeknights, so we do everything on the weekend (cooking, bills, laundry, grocery shopping, etc). It doesn't leave much time for fun, that's for sure. It's the most exhausting thing I've ever done, but it's still great to see that hilarious little grin!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Back to work soon and Net will start daycare...
I can't believe how fast the last three months have gone. Net has really jumped ahead in her development in the last month! The last few weeks have also been rough on her - she had her first cold since we brought her home in April, and we had to find a different daycare option at the last minute. I had a cold too, and the two of us had to hike around to different daycares in the area and check them out. We chose a good one nearby, though, and I think after the initial adjustment, she'll really enjoy being with other kids all day.
I've been trying to get her feeding and nap schedule to match the daycare's so she doesn't have so much adjusting to do when she starts. It's tough, though, since their naps start around noon and hers were starting around 9am. We're up to 11am start time now, so she should be somewhat used to noon by the time she starts napping there on Monday the 13th. Next week I will bring her in for an hour starting Monday, and increase it to 4 hours on Thursday. The following week she'll start full time. I know people go through this all the time, but it's really tough. She's too young to understand that we're not abandoning her there, so it's just a difficult thing she'll have to adjust to. Poor little bear! I do think that after the adjustment, she'll really enjoy having other kids to play with. Most of them are near her age or within 2 years of her age, so it will be a good small group for her :)
We had her one-year checkup on Monday (even though it was more like a 13-month checkup). She's gained a lot of weight and height and head circumference since her first checkup in April, and she's now at the 50th percentile for height and head size, and the 25th percentile for weight - that means she's a very average baby for her size in this country, which is fantastic when you consider how far off the bottom of the chart she was in April!
She is crawling very fast now, and wants to walk holding our hands all the time. She outgrew the walker and is now 'cruising' on the furniture (hanging onto it to move from place to place while standing). She is more expressive and exploratory all the time, and also is having some difficulty adjusting to all the changes - I think both developmentally and sensing the upcoming change to daycare. She's sometimes been crabby and distracted, and has diffculty taking an afternoon nap. She also got a fifth tooth yesterday, so the endless teething might have something to do with it. Overall, though, we're so lucky to have such a good-natured daughter! She's normally very happy and giggles and smiles a lot, and gives gooey kisses. I'm definitely going to miss her when I head back to work next week!
I've been trying to get her feeding and nap schedule to match the daycare's so she doesn't have so much adjusting to do when she starts. It's tough, though, since their naps start around noon and hers were starting around 9am. We're up to 11am start time now, so she should be somewhat used to noon by the time she starts napping there on Monday the 13th. Next week I will bring her in for an hour starting Monday, and increase it to 4 hours on Thursday. The following week she'll start full time. I know people go through this all the time, but it's really tough. She's too young to understand that we're not abandoning her there, so it's just a difficult thing she'll have to adjust to. Poor little bear! I do think that after the adjustment, she'll really enjoy having other kids to play with. Most of them are near her age or within 2 years of her age, so it will be a good small group for her :)
We had her one-year checkup on Monday (even though it was more like a 13-month checkup). She's gained a lot of weight and height and head circumference since her first checkup in April, and she's now at the 50th percentile for height and head size, and the 25th percentile for weight - that means she's a very average baby for her size in this country, which is fantastic when you consider how far off the bottom of the chart she was in April!
She is crawling very fast now, and wants to walk holding our hands all the time. She outgrew the walker and is now 'cruising' on the furniture (hanging onto it to move from place to place while standing). She is more expressive and exploratory all the time, and also is having some difficulty adjusting to all the changes - I think both developmentally and sensing the upcoming change to daycare. She's sometimes been crabby and distracted, and has diffculty taking an afternoon nap. She also got a fifth tooth yesterday, so the endless teething might have something to do with it. Overall, though, we're so lucky to have such a good-natured daughter! She's normally very happy and giggles and smiles a lot, and gives gooey kisses. I'm definitely going to miss her when I head back to work next week!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
One year old tomorrow!
It's been a busy month! Netsanet is growing like crazy and reaching all kinds of new development milestones. She's said her first two words ("Duck" followed shortly by "Dad"). She can push herself up to sitting from lying down, she is crawling on her hands and knees, she can pull herself up to her knees and almost her feet, and she wants to walk all the time (this morning she took steps by herself with me only holding lightly on to her pj's). Lots of development for such a short time!
There have been a lot of events in this little girl's life, too. We had friends from eastern WA come to stay with us (the adoption buddies we visited in May), which was a lot of fun. The kids were very excited to eat Ethiopian food and go to the Ethiopian grocery nearby. It was great to have them here and see how much they've grown and changed so quickly!
Netsanet had a professional photo shoot, along with several other families from WACAP. The photographers loved her and took pictures for about 45 minutes. She did some naked baby butt pictures in addition to the regular pictures and of course peed on their backdrop, but they still thought she was cute (who wouldn't?). We should get the photos in about a week - I'm very excited to see them!
This past weekend we had her first birthday party, although she doesn't officially turn 1 until tomorrow. It was a good party, with about 35 people present. Net wasn't feeling too well but she was still active and outgoing. The adults finished up the party around 10pm after the little ones went to bed. We lucked out with weather, since it's been an odd an monsoon-like August here. Saturday was clear and warm, and the rain held off for us until Sunday.
I can't believe my leave is already half over - it's gone so quickly! Hopefully the next weeks will go more slowly, although I doubt it :)
There have been a lot of events in this little girl's life, too. We had friends from eastern WA come to stay with us (the adoption buddies we visited in May), which was a lot of fun. The kids were very excited to eat Ethiopian food and go to the Ethiopian grocery nearby. It was great to have them here and see how much they've grown and changed so quickly!
Netsanet had a professional photo shoot, along with several other families from WACAP. The photographers loved her and took pictures for about 45 minutes. She did some naked baby butt pictures in addition to the regular pictures and of course peed on their backdrop, but they still thought she was cute (who wouldn't?). We should get the photos in about a week - I'm very excited to see them!
This past weekend we had her first birthday party, although she doesn't officially turn 1 until tomorrow. It was a good party, with about 35 people present. Net wasn't feeling too well but she was still active and outgoing. The adults finished up the party around 10pm after the little ones went to bed. We lucked out with weather, since it's been an odd an monsoon-like August here. Saturday was clear and warm, and the rain held off for us until Sunday.
I can't believe my leave is already half over - it's gone so quickly! Hopefully the next weeks will go more slowly, although I doubt it :)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Something new every day
So, I've been at home with Netsanet for a few weeks now, and I have to say I am enjoying it! It's much easier than it was the first couple of weeks I was home with her when we returned from Ethiopia. I was kind of scared of starting maternity leave - those first few weeks home with her were exhausting and frustrating. But, she has grown a lot and is more relaxed now and doesn't require quite the intense one-on-one attention as before. For instance, I can leave her to play on the floor in the living room while I grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen and she won't scream - definite progress from the first couple of weeks where we couldn't even sit down with her without her screaming, much less put her down! It's still a lot of work and sometimes frustrating, but overall we're having a good time :)
She's decided she's almost done with that bottle (her gesture says 'get that stupid thing away from my face'), and now wants baby food most of her meals - still takes the bottle first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and sometimes once before a nap. So far she seems to prefer squash, sweet potatoes, chicken, and turkey type meals. She still doesn't like fruit, but she'll munch a little of the fruit from her soy yoghurt (which she loves!). It surprises me how much food can go into that little stomach!
Naps have been difficult lately, which is tough. I'm not sure if it's her teething, a growth spurt, or what, but she'll cry off and on for up to an hour before actually sleeping. It's really hard to sit there and not go in to her room, but if I go in, she gets all energetic and won't sleep at all. So, basically I sit there for up to an hour with my teeth gritted in front of the baby monitor, feeling guilty (like right now). It also makes it tough to schedule anything, since her actual sleeping time can vary by 2 hours in any given day. Yesterday, for example - her aunt Lisa and cousin Elizabeth came for a visit, and she hadn't fallen asleep at all by the time they arrived so she had no afternoon nap. Made for a crabby fussy afternoon and evening.... She still had fun, though. They played in the wading pool in the backyard, munched grass, and crawled around au naturel (the wet diapers became more of a hindrance than a help, so we ditched them).
On Fridays, we go walking with our neighbor and her almost 2-year old daughter. She will be Net's daycare when I have to go back to work, so it's nice for them to get to know each other. We've been walking down to the lake, along the lakeshore, and taking the bus back up the hill, so it's a good exercise and the babies get to see a lot of stuff. Net and the other baby really enjoy each other's company, so it's nice to see them together :) However, given that it's now 11:15 and she hasn't yet fallen asleep but we're scheduled to walk at 12:30, it looks like we're heading for another crabby sleepless social event.
The rest of the week, we end up having people come to visit or going for an outing. I try to take her out at least once a day for a walk, both for my own exercise and for her to see something other than the inside of the house.
Every day, Net comes up with some new gesture, sound, or action - it's amazing to see how much she changes from day to day. Speaking is a lot of bababa, dadada, kakaka, and vowel sounds. She's doing an army crawl now and doesn't roll as much. A friend from work gave us her son's old walker, and she's zooming around the dining room and kitchen and exploring everything at her new height. She also loves the jumper toy that a neighbor loaned us - this baby is active! When we're out, she still loves babies and kids (excited shouting every time she sees a kid or baby), and has discovered that she really loves dogs (smiles and squeaking). She's a little more reserved with adults and will stare at them, but not smile as easily as before, and she doesn't want to be held by anyone until she gets to know them... and even then is a little uncomfortable. This is a good sign that she's bonding well to us, but I know it's hard for people sometimes when they want to hold such a cute baby.
A couple of weeks ago we went to the WACAP annual kids' picnic and she met a lot of new people. Being the only one there from Ethiopia, she was quite the star! She was pretty pooped after a couple of hours and fell asleep in the car on the way back. In August, we'll have another WACAP event, where the other two families and us will come in for an afternoon and others in the Ethiopia program can ask us questions. It will be great to see the other kids and parents that we traveled with in March/April. Since we all went through it together as the first ones from WACAP, it feels like we have a special bond :)
We have started the process to refinalize the adoption in the United States. Typical of most things with the federal government in this country, actions in other countries aren't considered totally valid here. So, even though we legally completed adopting Netsanet in the Ethiopian courts and federal requirements, we have to redo it here in order to get her social security number and citizenship. It should only take a couple of months if WACAP is speedy about getting the required documents to the attorney once they have requested them. Fingers crossed!
In a few weeks, we will have Net's one year birthday party. I can't believe that she's almost a year already! There are going to be a lot of people here, so here's hoping for good weather so we can hang out in the backyard!
She's decided she's almost done with that bottle (her gesture says 'get that stupid thing away from my face'), and now wants baby food most of her meals - still takes the bottle first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and sometimes once before a nap. So far she seems to prefer squash, sweet potatoes, chicken, and turkey type meals. She still doesn't like fruit, but she'll munch a little of the fruit from her soy yoghurt (which she loves!). It surprises me how much food can go into that little stomach!
Naps have been difficult lately, which is tough. I'm not sure if it's her teething, a growth spurt, or what, but she'll cry off and on for up to an hour before actually sleeping. It's really hard to sit there and not go in to her room, but if I go in, she gets all energetic and won't sleep at all. So, basically I sit there for up to an hour with my teeth gritted in front of the baby monitor, feeling guilty (like right now). It also makes it tough to schedule anything, since her actual sleeping time can vary by 2 hours in any given day. Yesterday, for example - her aunt Lisa and cousin Elizabeth came for a visit, and she hadn't fallen asleep at all by the time they arrived so she had no afternoon nap. Made for a crabby fussy afternoon and evening.... She still had fun, though. They played in the wading pool in the backyard, munched grass, and crawled around au naturel (the wet diapers became more of a hindrance than a help, so we ditched them).
On Fridays, we go walking with our neighbor and her almost 2-year old daughter. She will be Net's daycare when I have to go back to work, so it's nice for them to get to know each other. We've been walking down to the lake, along the lakeshore, and taking the bus back up the hill, so it's a good exercise and the babies get to see a lot of stuff. Net and the other baby really enjoy each other's company, so it's nice to see them together :) However, given that it's now 11:15 and she hasn't yet fallen asleep but we're scheduled to walk at 12:30, it looks like we're heading for another crabby sleepless social event.
The rest of the week, we end up having people come to visit or going for an outing. I try to take her out at least once a day for a walk, both for my own exercise and for her to see something other than the inside of the house.
Every day, Net comes up with some new gesture, sound, or action - it's amazing to see how much she changes from day to day. Speaking is a lot of bababa, dadada, kakaka, and vowel sounds. She's doing an army crawl now and doesn't roll as much. A friend from work gave us her son's old walker, and she's zooming around the dining room and kitchen and exploring everything at her new height. She also loves the jumper toy that a neighbor loaned us - this baby is active! When we're out, she still loves babies and kids (excited shouting every time she sees a kid or baby), and has discovered that she really loves dogs (smiles and squeaking). She's a little more reserved with adults and will stare at them, but not smile as easily as before, and she doesn't want to be held by anyone until she gets to know them... and even then is a little uncomfortable. This is a good sign that she's bonding well to us, but I know it's hard for people sometimes when they want to hold such a cute baby.
A couple of weeks ago we went to the WACAP annual kids' picnic and she met a lot of new people. Being the only one there from Ethiopia, she was quite the star! She was pretty pooped after a couple of hours and fell asleep in the car on the way back. In August, we'll have another WACAP event, where the other two families and us will come in for an afternoon and others in the Ethiopia program can ask us questions. It will be great to see the other kids and parents that we traveled with in March/April. Since we all went through it together as the first ones from WACAP, it feels like we have a special bond :)
We have started the process to refinalize the adoption in the United States. Typical of most things with the federal government in this country, actions in other countries aren't considered totally valid here. So, even though we legally completed adopting Netsanet in the Ethiopian courts and federal requirements, we have to redo it here in order to get her social security number and citizenship. It should only take a couple of months if WACAP is speedy about getting the required documents to the attorney once they have requested them. Fingers crossed!
In a few weeks, we will have Net's one year birthday party. I can't believe that she's almost a year already! There are going to be a lot of people here, so here's hoping for good weather so we can hang out in the backyard!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Holy moly, can't believe it's been 3 months already!
I can't believe that Ken's been home with Net for 3 months already! Tomorrow is D-day - he goes back to work and I start staying home with the little bear. I'm excited and also a bit nervous... I know it will be easier now than when I stayed at home with her the first couple of weeks (where she screamed if you stopped walking and bouncing her), but I'm still nervous that it will go ok. I've found myself getting a little ticked at people who imply that this will be a 3-month long vacation. Come serve our small bear for 24 hours and tell me if it still feels like a vacation! Bottle washer, formula mixer, personal clown, spa worker? - yes, all those things. Vacation? - No. It will be fun to see her change over the next three months, and really spend more time with her - but it will also be a lot of work.
Anyway, I'm sure Ken will miss being at home with her, especially since he *loves* his job soooo much. It's very amusing that's he's kind of a neurotic dad. I tease him that he should just have the baby monitor surgically implanted in his head to save the energy of picking it up and putting it against his ear every 27 seconds. It's really endearing so see how much he loves this little girl! He's done a good job over the last 3 months, and I bet he's going to miss seeing her all day long. I fully expect to get several phone calls a day, asking to speak to the little bear...
The weather has finally started cooperating and agreed to be summer, so we should have a good time going out for walks. Net really enjoys seeing something new every day, so I've been working on a mental list of potential outings we can do without a car. We're lucky to live in an area where bus service and walking distance to things are easy.
I'm miffed, though, that Zipcar (previously Flexcar) has no options for carseats, aside from lugging your own along. Highly unlikely that I'm going to haul Netsanet and a full sized carseat 10 blocks uphill to the nearest Zipcar location. That means that my fantabulous car sharing membership will completely go to waste in the next few months. Bummer, but at least it's summer and there are lots of things to do that don't require a car!
Speaking of finally summer, little Miss Net doesn't particularly enjoy the super hot weather. There is a lot of whiny complaining sounds that come out of her when it gets over 90 degrees, like it did a couple of weeks ago. We put some water in the kiddie pool we bought and tried cooling her off that way, but no dice. She stood with one foot in the water and one foot pulled up like a flamingo and cried like we were placing her naked on an ice floe. I ended up sitting in the water fully clothed with her on my lap, so she could touch the water but didn't have to sit in it. OK, maybe I'm a neurotic parent, too ;-)
Anyway, I'm sure Ken will miss being at home with her, especially since he *loves* his job soooo much. It's very amusing that's he's kind of a neurotic dad. I tease him that he should just have the baby monitor surgically implanted in his head to save the energy of picking it up and putting it against his ear every 27 seconds. It's really endearing so see how much he loves this little girl! He's done a good job over the last 3 months, and I bet he's going to miss seeing her all day long. I fully expect to get several phone calls a day, asking to speak to the little bear...
The weather has finally started cooperating and agreed to be summer, so we should have a good time going out for walks. Net really enjoys seeing something new every day, so I've been working on a mental list of potential outings we can do without a car. We're lucky to live in an area where bus service and walking distance to things are easy.
I'm miffed, though, that Zipcar (previously Flexcar) has no options for carseats, aside from lugging your own along. Highly unlikely that I'm going to haul Netsanet and a full sized carseat 10 blocks uphill to the nearest Zipcar location. That means that my fantabulous car sharing membership will completely go to waste in the next few months. Bummer, but at least it's summer and there are lots of things to do that don't require a car!
Speaking of finally summer, little Miss Net doesn't particularly enjoy the super hot weather. There is a lot of whiny complaining sounds that come out of her when it gets over 90 degrees, like it did a couple of weeks ago. We put some water in the kiddie pool we bought and tried cooling her off that way, but no dice. She stood with one foot in the water and one foot pulled up like a flamingo and cried like we were placing her naked on an ice floe. I ended up sitting in the water fully clothed with her on my lap, so she could touch the water but didn't have to sit in it. OK, maybe I'm a neurotic parent, too ;-)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
First Father's Day, hearing test, bbq party
It's been a busy couple of weeks for little Miss Netsanet! We went out with both sides of the family for dinner at a restaurant and Net was able to visit with her cousin Elizabeth. They took turns pounding and sliming the glass door that separated our area from the rest of the restaurant (I'm sure the restaurant staff loved cleaning layers of small handprints and drool off the lower 3 feet of the glass later that night ;-) Net did pretty well and didn't have a vomit explosion like last time - progress! It was fun to get together with the family, and to see the babies play together. Elizabeth took her first steps by herself at the dinner, which was a big moment!
This past weekend we took Netsanet to get her hearing tested, at the recommendation of the doctor (standard routine stuff, apparently). We sat in a quiet room where they taught her that the funny noise coincides with a dancing toy that lights up - which is how she learns to look for the noise, and they can tell that she is hearing something. It's really interesting to see how they have adapted vision and hearing tests for babies - I never would have guessed! Her hearing is all within normal range, which was great to know. It was interesting to see her reaction when we walked into the hospital, though. She got quiet and withdrawn, which means she's uncomfortable. I think she recognized that this is similar to the doctor's office where they stick all those needles in her legs. She ended up having a good time, though - no needles this time!
On Sunday we took Net to her first large gathering - my nephew was graduating from high school and all his family members were there (probably about 30 people). Net was a star at the party, and there were tons of kids around. She absolutely loves kids and babies and seemed so happy when she was surrounded by a group of little girls. She played with all the kids and they blew bubbles for her and Elizabeth. She sat in the grass for a while, and got licked by a puppy (loved that!). She missed her afternoon nap and was a little loopy by the time we left, but she had a great time.
At home, she's starting to walk with some help and she is ecstatic about her jumper toy that our neighbors loaned to us. Her little legs are getting so strong! She hasn't progressed to crawling, and I think she might be more interested in learning to walk than learning to crawl. She rolls very quickly, but gets frustrated when she can't follow us out of the room. In Ethiopia, they teach babies to walk and not many get around to crawling, so she might just do the same.
I'll be starting my leave at home with her in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to getting out in the sunshine with her, but I'm not wearing rose colored glasses - I know this is going to be exhausting, even while it's fun :) Spending two weeks at home with her when we got back from Ethiopia taught me that she needs to keep a schedule every day, and my back will hurt from carrying her. Ken will have the car at work, so our mobility will depend on walking and the bus. We'll still have fun, though!
This past weekend we took Netsanet to get her hearing tested, at the recommendation of the doctor (standard routine stuff, apparently). We sat in a quiet room where they taught her that the funny noise coincides with a dancing toy that lights up - which is how she learns to look for the noise, and they can tell that she is hearing something. It's really interesting to see how they have adapted vision and hearing tests for babies - I never would have guessed! Her hearing is all within normal range, which was great to know. It was interesting to see her reaction when we walked into the hospital, though. She got quiet and withdrawn, which means she's uncomfortable. I think she recognized that this is similar to the doctor's office where they stick all those needles in her legs. She ended up having a good time, though - no needles this time!
On Sunday we took Net to her first large gathering - my nephew was graduating from high school and all his family members were there (probably about 30 people). Net was a star at the party, and there were tons of kids around. She absolutely loves kids and babies and seemed so happy when she was surrounded by a group of little girls. She played with all the kids and they blew bubbles for her and Elizabeth. She sat in the grass for a while, and got licked by a puppy (loved that!). She missed her afternoon nap and was a little loopy by the time we left, but she had a great time.
At home, she's starting to walk with some help and she is ecstatic about her jumper toy that our neighbors loaned to us. Her little legs are getting so strong! She hasn't progressed to crawling, and I think she might be more interested in learning to walk than learning to crawl. She rolls very quickly, but gets frustrated when she can't follow us out of the room. In Ethiopia, they teach babies to walk and not many get around to crawling, so she might just do the same.
I'll be starting my leave at home with her in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to getting out in the sunshine with her, but I'm not wearing rose colored glasses - I know this is going to be exhausting, even while it's fun :) Spending two weeks at home with her when we got back from Ethiopia taught me that she needs to keep a schedule every day, and my back will hurt from carrying her. Ken will have the car at work, so our mobility will depend on walking and the bus. We'll still have fun, though!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
First post-placement visit and a photo shoot
On Friday we had our first post-placement visit from WACAP. Three of these are required - one at 3 months, one at 6 months, and one at a year after Netsanet has been with us. The agency asks questions about her doctor visits, her growth, her milestones, her daily schedule, whether she has had any big social events, and how she is bonding to us. Net did pretty well and went down for a nap part way through the visit. It was fun to put together her medical information and show how proud we are of all her growth and development since she came home :)
Once the 6-month post-placement visit is complete, then we can start the process to re-adopt Net here in the US. We need to do that before we can get her citizenship, SSN card, etc. We'll need to get an attorney for the process, so WACAP advised that we start looking into that soon.
On Saturday we went with Netsanet's cousin Elizabeth and her mom and my mom to get portraits taken of the girls together. They are 11 days apart in age, and it was really fun to get photos of them together. Net was a natural and smiled her wonderful smile for the photographer every time! I was impressed at how the photographer would play with the girls to get them to smile, and all the pictures turned out beautifully. Net really enjoyed hanging out with her cousin, and they took turns slobbering on each others' toys and grabbing faces. The waiting before and after the photo shoot was difficult though, since it was hot and there was nowhere to sit. We stripped the babies down to onesies and leggings after the pictures so they would be more comfortable. I think next time we might try another photo studio (this one was kiddie kandids at Babies R Us - the name alone is enough to make me try a different one ;-)
Once the 6-month post-placement visit is complete, then we can start the process to re-adopt Net here in the US. We need to do that before we can get her citizenship, SSN card, etc. We'll need to get an attorney for the process, so WACAP advised that we start looking into that soon.
On Saturday we went with Netsanet's cousin Elizabeth and her mom and my mom to get portraits taken of the girls together. They are 11 days apart in age, and it was really fun to get photos of them together. Net was a natural and smiled her wonderful smile for the photographer every time! I was impressed at how the photographer would play with the girls to get them to smile, and all the pictures turned out beautifully. Net really enjoyed hanging out with her cousin, and they took turns slobbering on each others' toys and grabbing faces. The waiting before and after the photo shoot was difficult though, since it was hot and there was nowhere to sit. We stripped the babies down to onesies and leggings after the pictures so they would be more comfortable. I think next time we might try another photo studio (this one was kiddie kandids at Babies R Us - the name alone is enough to make me try a different one ;-)
Monday, June 2, 2008
New phases, new faces
I just posted some pictures of Laura, Paneal and Eyu on here, after Laura said it was ok. Paneal and Eyu are two of Netsanet's adoption buddies who came home at the same time we did. Paneal and Net especially enjoyed playing with each other in Addis, and Net was absolutely riveted by both her and Eyu whenever we were all together. It was so fun to see them again, and wonderful to see how well the kids are adjusting to their new loving home with Laura!
Net had some reaction to her immunizations on Friday, but not as bad as before. A little fever, a little out of it for the rest of the day, some fitful sleeping and constipation but at least no vomiting or itchy welts. She's such a strong little person - very resilient and doesn't complain much. She's getting very vocal and lets us know when she doesn't like something, but she doesn't go on and on - she's happy enough to be distracted by her entertaining parents (especially Dad!)
Yesterday she tried out some solid foods in the high chair. She's gotten used to me feeding her bits off my finger during our meal times, but we're trying to get her to grab items and feed herself. She got the hang of it quickly with a cracker, and then tried some cheerios herself, and various items with our help. She tried cheese, avocado, banana, fig newtons, and cheerios last night. We tried a bit of yoghurt, but we're nervous about her throwing up after her miserable bout with cow's milk in Ethiopia. She seems to do fine with cheese, but made a nausea face with the yoghurt. Oh well, we'll keep trying with other stuff. She was considerably less angry about the food bits than the oatmeal cereal, so that's a good step forward :)
Net had some reaction to her immunizations on Friday, but not as bad as before. A little fever, a little out of it for the rest of the day, some fitful sleeping and constipation but at least no vomiting or itchy welts. She's such a strong little person - very resilient and doesn't complain much. She's getting very vocal and lets us know when she doesn't like something, but she doesn't go on and on - she's happy enough to be distracted by her entertaining parents (especially Dad!)
Yesterday she tried out some solid foods in the high chair. She's gotten used to me feeding her bits off my finger during our meal times, but we're trying to get her to grab items and feed herself. She got the hang of it quickly with a cracker, and then tried some cheerios herself, and various items with our help. She tried cheese, avocado, banana, fig newtons, and cheerios last night. We tried a bit of yoghurt, but we're nervous about her throwing up after her miserable bout with cow's milk in Ethiopia. She seems to do fine with cheese, but made a nausea face with the yoghurt. Oh well, we'll keep trying with other stuff. She was considerably less angry about the food bits than the oatmeal cereal, so that's a good step forward :)
Friday, May 30, 2008
She's on the charts...
Well, we had the little bear's 9-month appointment at the doctor this morning, and she's had exponential growth in the last 2 months! She's now in the 10th percentile for height and weight, and the 25th for head circumference. (16 pounds, 26" long, and 17" head circumference) It's so good to hear that, since at her 7-month appointment she was off the bottom of the same growth charts (9.8 pounds and about 24" long). Hard to believe this little one has grown so quickly! The doctor was highly impressed and said she's never seen a growth chart that climbed so fast :)
The appointment wasn't all fun and games, though, since she had to get her second set of vaccinations. Poor baby cries so hard when those needles go into her thighs - it's so sad. Hopefully she doesn't get the same reactions she did last time (itchy welts, fever, throwing up, etc)... at least this visit didn't involve blood draw like the last one.
Two full teeth are visible on the bottom front of her grin, and I think the top ones may soon make an appearance. She teeths on anything that will sit still long enough, and is completely in love with orajel (we may have to seek a support group for her soon... ;-)
She's rolling back and forth and doing a bit of a sloppy commando-crawl, but not quite crawling yet. I think it will probably happen in the next couple of months, though. The doctor also advised trying more solid foods, so we're going to see if we can get her to eat without an anger fit (crying, yelling, and all foods/bowl/utensils end up thrown on the floor)... should be 'interesting.'
Last weekend we took a short trip to eastern Washington to visit some of her adoption buddies from Ethiopia. We wanted to see them, and see how she would do sleeping over night in a strange place. She did fairly well, although she's entering the 'stranger anxiety' phase where she doesn't want anyone else to hold her, and doesn't want Mom and Dad out of her sight at all. From what I understand, that's pretty normal for 9 months and a good sign that she has bonded to us well.
It was great to see the adoption friends, and we brought the kids some Ethiopian food from the restaurant and store near our house. They loved it, so next time we're going to bring a lot more :) Net did pretty well with all the driving, but got crabby and 'expressive' after about 2 hours in the car seat. Next time I think we'll try to leave earlier in the day and minimize the driving in one day (we did about 6 hours the first day, which I think was too much). We'd like to get her used to the idea of going other places overnight, since we both enjoy traveling.
The appointment wasn't all fun and games, though, since she had to get her second set of vaccinations. Poor baby cries so hard when those needles go into her thighs - it's so sad. Hopefully she doesn't get the same reactions she did last time (itchy welts, fever, throwing up, etc)... at least this visit didn't involve blood draw like the last one.
Two full teeth are visible on the bottom front of her grin, and I think the top ones may soon make an appearance. She teeths on anything that will sit still long enough, and is completely in love with orajel (we may have to seek a support group for her soon... ;-)
She's rolling back and forth and doing a bit of a sloppy commando-crawl, but not quite crawling yet. I think it will probably happen in the next couple of months, though. The doctor also advised trying more solid foods, so we're going to see if we can get her to eat without an anger fit (crying, yelling, and all foods/bowl/utensils end up thrown on the floor)... should be 'interesting.'
Last weekend we took a short trip to eastern Washington to visit some of her adoption buddies from Ethiopia. We wanted to see them, and see how she would do sleeping over night in a strange place. She did fairly well, although she's entering the 'stranger anxiety' phase where she doesn't want anyone else to hold her, and doesn't want Mom and Dad out of her sight at all. From what I understand, that's pretty normal for 9 months and a good sign that she has bonded to us well.
It was great to see the adoption friends, and we brought the kids some Ethiopian food from the restaurant and store near our house. They loved it, so next time we're going to bring a lot more :) Net did pretty well with all the driving, but got crabby and 'expressive' after about 2 hours in the car seat. Next time I think we'll try to leave earlier in the day and minimize the driving in one day (we did about 6 hours the first day, which I think was too much). We'd like to get her used to the idea of going other places overnight, since we both enjoy traveling.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Rolling on to 9 months....
This little girl changes every day... her latest thing is growling at things when she's trying to learn how to make them work. Ken refers to her as 'the little bear.' Tooth number 2 looks like it's pretty close to making an appearance as well, so that might be part of the growling. Ken is enjoying staying home with his little bear, and I'm missing both of them while I'm at work every day. Last week we took her to Seward Park and walked around it, next to Lake Washington. She was mildly interested in all the water, but more interested in all the people on the trail.
We're not sure how much weight she's gained, but we're guessing she's probably around 15 pounds now. She has a doctor appointment and an eye appointment at the end of the month (hopefully no more shots at the doctor!)...
Her hair is coming in nicely, after the last haircut they gave her at the orphanage. It's curly on top and on the sides, and straight in other areas - it will be interesting to see how it looks as it grows longer!
In two weeks we are going to visit some of the other people we went to Ethiopia with. It will be her first overnight trip since we got home, so fingers crossed that she sleeps ok in her travel crib. It will be a little test to see how well she does away from home, and then maybe we can try some more short trips. We're really looking forward to seeing our adoption buddies again, too!
We're not sure how much weight she's gained, but we're guessing she's probably around 15 pounds now. She has a doctor appointment and an eye appointment at the end of the month (hopefully no more shots at the doctor!)...
Her hair is coming in nicely, after the last haircut they gave her at the orphanage. It's curly on top and on the sides, and straight in other areas - it will be interesting to see how it looks as it grows longer!
In two weeks we are going to visit some of the other people we went to Ethiopia with. It will be her first overnight trip since we got home, so fingers crossed that she sleeps ok in her travel crib. It will be a little test to see how well she does away from home, and then maybe we can try some more short trips. We're really looking forward to seeing our adoption buddies again, too!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Growing growing growing!
This little girl is growing so quickly! It's hard to believe it's only been a month. She cut her first tooth two days ago, and is teething like a madwoman. She's rolling all over the floor and starting to scoot herself around. She's pushing up her legs like she wants to crawl, but hasn't quite got the front end figured out (so sort of ends up pushing herself on her face)... She has outgrown all of her footie sleepers, but still fits most of her onesies, so I think a lot of the growth is in her legs. (Although there's a fair amount in the belly, and around her cheeks and chin! - VERY cute :) She's gotten quite muscular, and has the attitude to match her new strength. This is not the passive little baby we met at Bete Saida! She makes hilarious new sounds every day and is always figuring things out and is not afraid to let you know what she likes and what she doesn't.
She's sleeping and eating on a regular basis, and it's great to see her adjusting so well. She loves going for walks, and continues to enjoy meeting new people. She definitely keeps her parents busy... such a fun little person to raise! Now I must run, since it's time to serve the queen ;-)
She's sleeping and eating on a regular basis, and it's great to see her adjusting so well. She loves going for walks, and continues to enjoy meeting new people. She definitely keeps her parents busy... such a fun little person to raise! Now I must run, since it's time to serve the queen ;-)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sorry for the lack of updates!
Well, unfortunately I wasn't able to update this blog while we were in Ethiopia. When I could find a working computer with both power and internet service (roaming power blackouts and lack of internet cafes made this difficult), I couldn't access the blog website. I heard through word of mouth that others have had trouble accessing blogs in other countries, so who knows....
Anyway, a quick recap of our trip: it was a very difficult week, since both Netsanet and Ken were very sick with stomach things and each had to visit hospitals while we were there. If nothing else, I got a great overview of the Ethiopian medical system (knowledgeable staff, kind people, lacking a lot of fancy medical stuff like call buttons, but very inexpensive to visit). It cost 10 birr (about $1) for Ken to visit a doctor while we were there for 15 minutes, and 200 birr (about $20) for Netsanet to spend 6 hours getting rehydrated through an IV. The medical folks were very kind and accommodating, and spoke English pretty well (much better than my Amharic!). Laura, one of the adopting parents in our party, came with me to the hospital with Netsanet, since Ken was too sick to leave his bed. She is a registered nurse and was at one time a pediatric nurse, so it was a HUGE relief to have her along. She was able to tell that everything was sterile and adequate for Net, even if the facilities were lacking some medical supplies that might be normal here in the US.
The buildings were interesting - all marble floors and great stonework, but somewhat run down and obviously lacking funds for the last 40 years or so (understandable, given the wars and such that have gone on). The hospital I took Netsanet to was a women and children's hospital that was about 6 stories tall with no elevator. When we went in, a woman was in labor on the ground floor. A half hour later, Laura went downstairs in time to see her being walked up the stairs to her room right after giving birth. Tough lady!
Aside from medical experiences, most of what I saw included the grounds of the Ghion hotel where we stayed, and some parts of the City viewed from the minibus we rode around in. We had to spend parts of two days visiting the American embassy, and another two days at the German embassy (since Netsanet and we were flying through a German airport on the way home, so she needed a visa - grrrr!!!!).
With those outings, and the first two days spent mostly at the orphanages, we didn't have much time to do anything else. When I did have the opportunity to spend an afternoon shopping, Netsanet and Ken were both so sick that I couldn't leave the hotel room. On the last day, I was able to get in a 15-minute shopping trip to a "government store" that carried a lot of local crafts and jewelry.
Overall, people in Addis were very kind and sweet, and all stunningly gorgeous. I had heard that Ethiopian folks are generally beautiful, but it was an entirely different thing to be in a city overflowing with naturally gorgeous people. (I felt like a tired, fuzzy, huge, pasty frump, in contrast :) The city also seemed really safe and interesting. Women and men are always walking on every street, with women walking alone everywhere even at night. I would have felt quite safe exploring if I hadn't been so exhausted and busy with my sick family members.
The Ghion hotel includes large grounds with lush landscaping, and I spent some time walking with Netsanet in the carrier around the gardens. She would only stop crying when I walked and bounced her, so this was a good solution when I had energy. (but not much energy due to lack of sleep and lack of food!)
The weather was great - about 85 degrees and sunny most of the time. It did rain one day, with a pretty good downpour. Our driver said this was the first time it had rained in 8 months, which is normal (the rainy season is in the summer, with dry days most of the rest of the year). In spite of little rain, all of Addis is quite green and looks somewhat tropical. Trees and bushes were in flower everywhere - Acacia trees, bougainvillea, etc. When one was not in the traffic areas, the air felt really pleasant and not too polluted.
When one was stuck in traffic, it could be a pretty unpleasant experience (we unfortunately spent a lot of time in traffic, due to all the embassy and airline office visits). All vehicles appear to be diesel powered, with little or no emissions restrictions. A lot of the city is hilly, so when you are going uphill every vehicle belches black acrid smoke. After a day of this, your eyes and lungs burn.
The urban planner in me noticed the dichotomy of the city - some really new upper-end development happening in certain areas, with a lot of new taller buildings and fancy single family houses. In other areas of the city, you find 1950-1960's 10-story apartment buildings that are kind of run down. In many areas of the city, you find a lot of one-story corrugated tin shacks or worse, with a lot of obvious poverty. In some areas of the city, a lot of beggars will approach car windows of any car at a stoplight - it's heart breaking to see such obvious poverty and people with no other options for survival. I never felt unsafe in any part of the city, though. People stare very directly, but are really sweet and smile back if you say 'selam.'
Ethiopian folks seemed very kind and relaxed in general. People speak very quietly, but are social and affectionate with each other. You regularly see friends holding hands or putting their arms around each other while walking down the street (males and females alike, although couples don't show physical affection in public). I would have loved to gotten out more and tried out my bad Amharic on some potential new friends. Well, maybe next time...
We visited three orphanages while we were there, which was very very hard. One was Netsanet's orphanage. Another was the orphanage where Laura's two little ones were. A third was an orphanage that WACAP (our adoption agency) was considering working with. Each orphanage was clean and organized, and the kids appeared to be well cared-for, considering the lack of funds and busy staff. There were about 30-40 kids in each one, with about 5 nannies at each one. Each included babies and older kids (up to pre-teen age, it seemed). The babies and kids were all amazing - beautiful and sweet, intelligent, and great little personalities. The babies were two or three to a crib and mostly appeared to be fed from bottles propped on pillows. They appeared to get held at least some of the time and played with. The older kids would play together in groups in the yard areas, with great clapping and singing games, or a rather sad game of soccer with a deflated well-loved ball. So many wonderful kids; it was really hard to know that we couldn't take them all home with us. It felt really helpless, but we were still glad to have met them.
The flights there and back were brutal. For anyone considering this long of a flight (30 hours total flight and airport time), I STRONGLY recommend breaking it into pieces, if possible. If I did it again, I would fly from here to the east coast and spend a couple days sightseeing, then east coast to Europe and spend a few more days sightseeing, then Europe to Addis. Each flight is then only about 8-9 hours. It would also help with the jet lag - Addis is 10 hours ahead of Seattle, so you feel like night is day and day is night. Very confusing and exhausting.
Netsanet did pretty well on the first two flights back and slept (Addis to Khartoum, Khartoum to Frankfurt) and then screamed most of the 10 hour flight from Frankfurt to Portland. We had a bassinet for her in the bulkhead seat, but she needed to be bounced and rocked to keep her from crying. That was a rough flight, but c'est la vie! My parents picked us up in Portland to save us the last leg of flying, which was great. Our plane was an hour late, and given the time needed to cross customs and immigration, we would have missed our last flight. Immigration was good, though, in spite of having to go over Netsanet's paperwork. It only took about 45 minutes total and the people were really nice - what a relief!
Two days after we got home Netsanet stopped crying and now sleeps through the night (ahhhhh....). She has gained over two pounds since her low point of the hospital visit in Addis (now up to 11 pounds 15 oz!) and is getting a fantastic little tummy and cheeks. She was dehydrated and underfed when we got her, since we suspect she has a milk allergy and all they had for the babies was cow's milk (served so hot it was almost boiling, but most of them loved it). She didn't thrive on it, though, since she threw up almost every time she ate. We got her onto soy formula and she is growing at a fantastic rate now :) It's so satisfying to see her looking healthy and well-fed. She's a smiley little girl, and very social. She enjoys getting out every day and meeting new people and going for walks. Every day she gets more active and starts doing some funny new thing. She's not crawling yet, but is squirming and scooting, so it probably won't be long. She can stand up with support, and sit for a little while. She doesn't have teeth yet, but is teething like crazy so we'll probably see those soon. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch her grow up!!!
Anyway, a quick recap of our trip: it was a very difficult week, since both Netsanet and Ken were very sick with stomach things and each had to visit hospitals while we were there. If nothing else, I got a great overview of the Ethiopian medical system (knowledgeable staff, kind people, lacking a lot of fancy medical stuff like call buttons, but very inexpensive to visit). It cost 10 birr (about $1) for Ken to visit a doctor while we were there for 15 minutes, and 200 birr (about $20) for Netsanet to spend 6 hours getting rehydrated through an IV. The medical folks were very kind and accommodating, and spoke English pretty well (much better than my Amharic!). Laura, one of the adopting parents in our party, came with me to the hospital with Netsanet, since Ken was too sick to leave his bed. She is a registered nurse and was at one time a pediatric nurse, so it was a HUGE relief to have her along. She was able to tell that everything was sterile and adequate for Net, even if the facilities were lacking some medical supplies that might be normal here in the US.
The buildings were interesting - all marble floors and great stonework, but somewhat run down and obviously lacking funds for the last 40 years or so (understandable, given the wars and such that have gone on). The hospital I took Netsanet to was a women and children's hospital that was about 6 stories tall with no elevator. When we went in, a woman was in labor on the ground floor. A half hour later, Laura went downstairs in time to see her being walked up the stairs to her room right after giving birth. Tough lady!
Aside from medical experiences, most of what I saw included the grounds of the Ghion hotel where we stayed, and some parts of the City viewed from the minibus we rode around in. We had to spend parts of two days visiting the American embassy, and another two days at the German embassy (since Netsanet and we were flying through a German airport on the way home, so she needed a visa - grrrr!!!!).
With those outings, and the first two days spent mostly at the orphanages, we didn't have much time to do anything else. When I did have the opportunity to spend an afternoon shopping, Netsanet and Ken were both so sick that I couldn't leave the hotel room. On the last day, I was able to get in a 15-minute shopping trip to a "government store" that carried a lot of local crafts and jewelry.
Overall, people in Addis were very kind and sweet, and all stunningly gorgeous. I had heard that Ethiopian folks are generally beautiful, but it was an entirely different thing to be in a city overflowing with naturally gorgeous people. (I felt like a tired, fuzzy, huge, pasty frump, in contrast :) The city also seemed really safe and interesting. Women and men are always walking on every street, with women walking alone everywhere even at night. I would have felt quite safe exploring if I hadn't been so exhausted and busy with my sick family members.
The Ghion hotel includes large grounds with lush landscaping, and I spent some time walking with Netsanet in the carrier around the gardens. She would only stop crying when I walked and bounced her, so this was a good solution when I had energy. (but not much energy due to lack of sleep and lack of food!)
The weather was great - about 85 degrees and sunny most of the time. It did rain one day, with a pretty good downpour. Our driver said this was the first time it had rained in 8 months, which is normal (the rainy season is in the summer, with dry days most of the rest of the year). In spite of little rain, all of Addis is quite green and looks somewhat tropical. Trees and bushes were in flower everywhere - Acacia trees, bougainvillea, etc. When one was not in the traffic areas, the air felt really pleasant and not too polluted.
When one was stuck in traffic, it could be a pretty unpleasant experience (we unfortunately spent a lot of time in traffic, due to all the embassy and airline office visits). All vehicles appear to be diesel powered, with little or no emissions restrictions. A lot of the city is hilly, so when you are going uphill every vehicle belches black acrid smoke. After a day of this, your eyes and lungs burn.
The urban planner in me noticed the dichotomy of the city - some really new upper-end development happening in certain areas, with a lot of new taller buildings and fancy single family houses. In other areas of the city, you find 1950-1960's 10-story apartment buildings that are kind of run down. In many areas of the city, you find a lot of one-story corrugated tin shacks or worse, with a lot of obvious poverty. In some areas of the city, a lot of beggars will approach car windows of any car at a stoplight - it's heart breaking to see such obvious poverty and people with no other options for survival. I never felt unsafe in any part of the city, though. People stare very directly, but are really sweet and smile back if you say 'selam.'
Ethiopian folks seemed very kind and relaxed in general. People speak very quietly, but are social and affectionate with each other. You regularly see friends holding hands or putting their arms around each other while walking down the street (males and females alike, although couples don't show physical affection in public). I would have loved to gotten out more and tried out my bad Amharic on some potential new friends. Well, maybe next time...
We visited three orphanages while we were there, which was very very hard. One was Netsanet's orphanage. Another was the orphanage where Laura's two little ones were. A third was an orphanage that WACAP (our adoption agency) was considering working with. Each orphanage was clean and organized, and the kids appeared to be well cared-for, considering the lack of funds and busy staff. There were about 30-40 kids in each one, with about 5 nannies at each one. Each included babies and older kids (up to pre-teen age, it seemed). The babies and kids were all amazing - beautiful and sweet, intelligent, and great little personalities. The babies were two or three to a crib and mostly appeared to be fed from bottles propped on pillows. They appeared to get held at least some of the time and played with. The older kids would play together in groups in the yard areas, with great clapping and singing games, or a rather sad game of soccer with a deflated well-loved ball. So many wonderful kids; it was really hard to know that we couldn't take them all home with us. It felt really helpless, but we were still glad to have met them.
The flights there and back were brutal. For anyone considering this long of a flight (30 hours total flight and airport time), I STRONGLY recommend breaking it into pieces, if possible. If I did it again, I would fly from here to the east coast and spend a couple days sightseeing, then east coast to Europe and spend a few more days sightseeing, then Europe to Addis. Each flight is then only about 8-9 hours. It would also help with the jet lag - Addis is 10 hours ahead of Seattle, so you feel like night is day and day is night. Very confusing and exhausting.
Netsanet did pretty well on the first two flights back and slept (Addis to Khartoum, Khartoum to Frankfurt) and then screamed most of the 10 hour flight from Frankfurt to Portland. We had a bassinet for her in the bulkhead seat, but she needed to be bounced and rocked to keep her from crying. That was a rough flight, but c'est la vie! My parents picked us up in Portland to save us the last leg of flying, which was great. Our plane was an hour late, and given the time needed to cross customs and immigration, we would have missed our last flight. Immigration was good, though, in spite of having to go over Netsanet's paperwork. It only took about 45 minutes total and the people were really nice - what a relief!
Two days after we got home Netsanet stopped crying and now sleeps through the night (ahhhhh....). She has gained over two pounds since her low point of the hospital visit in Addis (now up to 11 pounds 15 oz!) and is getting a fantastic little tummy and cheeks. She was dehydrated and underfed when we got her, since we suspect she has a milk allergy and all they had for the babies was cow's milk (served so hot it was almost boiling, but most of them loved it). She didn't thrive on it, though, since she threw up almost every time she ate. We got her onto soy formula and she is growing at a fantastic rate now :) It's so satisfying to see her looking healthy and well-fed. She's a smiley little girl, and very social. She enjoys getting out every day and meeting new people and going for walks. Every day she gets more active and starts doing some funny new thing. She's not crawling yet, but is squirming and scooting, so it probably won't be long. She can stand up with support, and sit for a little while. She doesn't have teeth yet, but is teething like crazy so we'll probably see those soon. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch her grow up!!!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Traveling tomorrow!
Tomorrow morning we leave our house before the crack of dawn to go meet our daughter! The airlines now say that you need to check in 3 hours before international flights. Everyone says, "don't worry, you can be there 90 minutes early and it will be fine!" But, we're worry warts and we have three legs to our trip, each with a plane change. I'd rather sit around for a while, instead of trying to run down the concourse to reach the plane in time. So, that means that unfortunately we'll have to leave our house at 4:30am to get to the airport 3 hours ahead of our 8am flight. Ugh.
We've been completely nervous the last few days. I can't sleep and I keep waking up around 4:30-5am. Yesterday I made sure that we have all the supplies packed, and at least a few clothes for us. We're bringing one large suitcases and two small suitcases, as well as maybe a large suitcase of donations for WACAP if they have a bag ready to go. We could fit everything for Ken and I into one of the small rolling suitcases. The large suitcase and small suitcase are filled with everything for Netsanet that we need or might need, including diapers, formula, variety of clothing sizes, few small toys, baby shampoo, diaper wipes, baby cold medication, and a whole variety of prescriptions in case she has any number of ailments. It's shocking how much stuff one small body could require! We'll be able to leave whatever we don't use with the orphanage, and she'll use up diapers and formula while we're there. So, we'll be traveling lighter on the way home, assuming we don't buy a ton of souvenirs (I doubt there will be much time for shopping!).
This weekend we met some neighbors who have also adopted children from Ethiopia. They came back recently, so were able to give us some great tips and just tell us about the experience in general. I think it's going to be interesting to see Addis, but I think we're going to have a hard time with all the poverty there. Ken and I have soft hearts (Ken's even worse than me), and that's going to be a tough one for us. This is our first trip to a developing nation...
I think it will also be fascinating to see the city and evidence of all the history there. Addis is a relatively young city for Ethiopia (est 1887) and yet there will still be so many interesting things to see. I hope we also have the opportunity to go outside of Addis for a day and see the countryside. Our first priority will obviously be meeting Netsanet and getting through the embassy process and all that, and then we'll see if there's time left to be tourists. If not, we'll know what we want to see on the next trip!
I've been trying to learn a little Amharic before we go and I think I have the hang of at least a few words. Once we get there, though, I'm sure I'll feel completely lost! We'll have a translator for at least some of the time, but I think it's still polite to know at least a little of the language (and a good ice-breaker, since you and others can laugh at your awful accent). It's an interesting language - semitic background, similar to Arabic or Aramaic. The sounds can be difficult, since there are a lot of syllables strung together in a way that's difficult for my mouth to say. Many of the words are also very long. I'm sure I'll mess up, but I'm willing to try!
Amharic is one of several languages spoken in Ethiopia (others include Tigrinya and Oromo...), but Amharic is the primary one spoken in Addis and the one spoken by officials. Since that is the area and group of folks we'll be interacting with the most, I chose that one to try out. Netsanet's name is also Amharic, apparently, so it may be the ethnic group of her birth family.
"Netsanet" means "freedom" in Amharic... we hope to find out if her birth mother named her, or someone else. We decided to keep her name because it will give her some connection to her time before she came to us, and freedom is a beautiful idea...
We've been completely nervous the last few days. I can't sleep and I keep waking up around 4:30-5am. Yesterday I made sure that we have all the supplies packed, and at least a few clothes for us. We're bringing one large suitcases and two small suitcases, as well as maybe a large suitcase of donations for WACAP if they have a bag ready to go. We could fit everything for Ken and I into one of the small rolling suitcases. The large suitcase and small suitcase are filled with everything for Netsanet that we need or might need, including diapers, formula, variety of clothing sizes, few small toys, baby shampoo, diaper wipes, baby cold medication, and a whole variety of prescriptions in case she has any number of ailments. It's shocking how much stuff one small body could require! We'll be able to leave whatever we don't use with the orphanage, and she'll use up diapers and formula while we're there. So, we'll be traveling lighter on the way home, assuming we don't buy a ton of souvenirs (I doubt there will be much time for shopping!).
This weekend we met some neighbors who have also adopted children from Ethiopia. They came back recently, so were able to give us some great tips and just tell us about the experience in general. I think it's going to be interesting to see Addis, but I think we're going to have a hard time with all the poverty there. Ken and I have soft hearts (Ken's even worse than me), and that's going to be a tough one for us. This is our first trip to a developing nation...
I think it will also be fascinating to see the city and evidence of all the history there. Addis is a relatively young city for Ethiopia (est 1887) and yet there will still be so many interesting things to see. I hope we also have the opportunity to go outside of Addis for a day and see the countryside. Our first priority will obviously be meeting Netsanet and getting through the embassy process and all that, and then we'll see if there's time left to be tourists. If not, we'll know what we want to see on the next trip!
I've been trying to learn a little Amharic before we go and I think I have the hang of at least a few words. Once we get there, though, I'm sure I'll feel completely lost! We'll have a translator for at least some of the time, but I think it's still polite to know at least a little of the language (and a good ice-breaker, since you and others can laugh at your awful accent). It's an interesting language - semitic background, similar to Arabic or Aramaic. The sounds can be difficult, since there are a lot of syllables strung together in a way that's difficult for my mouth to say. Many of the words are also very long. I'm sure I'll mess up, but I'm willing to try!
Amharic is one of several languages spoken in Ethiopia (others include Tigrinya and Oromo...), but Amharic is the primary one spoken in Addis and the one spoken by officials. Since that is the area and group of folks we'll be interacting with the most, I chose that one to try out. Netsanet's name is also Amharic, apparently, so it may be the ethnic group of her birth family.
"Netsanet" means "freedom" in Amharic... we hope to find out if her birth mother named her, or someone else. We decided to keep her name because it will give her some connection to her time before she came to us, and freedom is a beautiful idea...
Friday, March 21, 2008
Four days to go...
Well, I swore I wasn't going to post our life on the internet for all to see, but here we are. I'm creating this in hope that we will be able to access internet while we're in Addis next week...
We will be traveling to Addis to meet and bring home Netsanet, who will be 7 months old when we return. She is the most precious thing we have ever seen. It's hard to imagine how you can love someone so much, even though you have never met her in person. It's overwhelming!
Ken and I chose to adopt a baby and started the process in 2006. In 2007, our agency (WACAP) announced that they were about to offer adoptions through Ethiopia, too. Because we live in an area of Seattle with a large Ethiopian community, we were really excited. We jumped at the chance, and put in our application by the end of summer. WACAP had to pass through four government ministries in Ethiopia for approval, and they thought that might happen by the end of September. It took a little longer, and they got their approval in mid-October. In the end of October, two folks from WACAP went to visit the orphanages in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) that they would be working with initially.
While they were visiting these two orphanages, they found that three referrals (term for matching a baby with a family) were already lined up. Since we were one of the first three to apply for the program through WACAP, we were matched up with a gorgeous baby girl, Netsanet. We were so lucky that WACAP was able to visit the orhpanage at the time of referral, since they took a 5-minute movie clip of her in addition to the pictures. Ken and I have probably watched that movie clip about 4,000 times already!
Meanwhile, back in Seattle, WACAP told us a few more things had to happen with our paperwork before it went off to Ethiopia. We understood that once the paperwork reached Ethiopia, it would sit in a pile until we were eventually matched up with a child. So, we thought we weren't even in the official "line" in Ethiopia yet when WACAP called us with the referral for Netsanet on December 19, 2007. We were so surprised! It was great timing, though, since we were able to tell our families the good news on Christmas Eve when they came for dinner :)
Once we completed the official acceptance of the referral for Netsanet, then it was time to wait for our approval to travel. I have never in my life had time crawl so slowly as it has for the last three months. Every day felt like a week. Finally, finally, we got notice to travel on March 10th. We bought our tickets, and we will be on our way to meet Netsanet on March 25.
We will fly from here to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Addis (total time of about 27 hours). We'll reach Addis at 9pm on March 26 and go to our hotel, the Ghion. We're staying in one of the bungalows (see interactive Addis map to the left). We'll go to meet Netsanet the next morning on March 27! We will likely go to the orphanage to hang out with her and learn from her caregivers about her feeding/sleeping/etc habits before we take her back to the hotel on Saturday. On Monday the 31st, we will have the immigration interview at the American Embassy for Netsanet's visa. At some point we may or may not get to meet Netsanet's birth family (we're hoping, but the latest news says it might not be possible). On Friday, April 4, we may travel home. This schedule is all up in the air, since this is WACAP's first time with Ethiopia adoptions and they're not completely certain how it will go.
Two other families and two representatives from WACAP will be traveling with us, so we won't be on our own! There is also a representative for WACAP in Ethiopia and he will arrange for transportation, translators, the hotel reservation, etc.
Preparation for the trip included 7 innoculations, tons of paperwork, getting visas for us from the Ethiopian embassy, and a huge shopping trip for diapers, formula, medication, etc etc. I've called our banks to let them know we'll be using cards there, and we're bringing cash in case the cards don't work. We're trying to travel light, although one huge suitcase is for Net and all the things she may need. We plan to just leave anything we don't need/use with the orphanage for the other little ones. We are also bringing a donation bag from WACAP for the orphanage, since we're allowed 2-50 pound bags each. We'll have Net on the way back, but our luggage should be a lot lighter... we're not bringing a stroller for her, just a variety of slings/carriers.
Oh, so much to do before we leave!!! Here's hoping for a smooth trip!
We will be traveling to Addis to meet and bring home Netsanet, who will be 7 months old when we return. She is the most precious thing we have ever seen. It's hard to imagine how you can love someone so much, even though you have never met her in person. It's overwhelming!
Ken and I chose to adopt a baby and started the process in 2006. In 2007, our agency (WACAP) announced that they were about to offer adoptions through Ethiopia, too. Because we live in an area of Seattle with a large Ethiopian community, we were really excited. We jumped at the chance, and put in our application by the end of summer. WACAP had to pass through four government ministries in Ethiopia for approval, and they thought that might happen by the end of September. It took a little longer, and they got their approval in mid-October. In the end of October, two folks from WACAP went to visit the orphanages in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) that they would be working with initially.
While they were visiting these two orphanages, they found that three referrals (term for matching a baby with a family) were already lined up. Since we were one of the first three to apply for the program through WACAP, we were matched up with a gorgeous baby girl, Netsanet. We were so lucky that WACAP was able to visit the orhpanage at the time of referral, since they took a 5-minute movie clip of her in addition to the pictures. Ken and I have probably watched that movie clip about 4,000 times already!
Meanwhile, back in Seattle, WACAP told us a few more things had to happen with our paperwork before it went off to Ethiopia. We understood that once the paperwork reached Ethiopia, it would sit in a pile until we were eventually matched up with a child. So, we thought we weren't even in the official "line" in Ethiopia yet when WACAP called us with the referral for Netsanet on December 19, 2007. We were so surprised! It was great timing, though, since we were able to tell our families the good news on Christmas Eve when they came for dinner :)
Once we completed the official acceptance of the referral for Netsanet, then it was time to wait for our approval to travel. I have never in my life had time crawl so slowly as it has for the last three months. Every day felt like a week. Finally, finally, we got notice to travel on March 10th. We bought our tickets, and we will be on our way to meet Netsanet on March 25.
We will fly from here to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Addis (total time of about 27 hours). We'll reach Addis at 9pm on March 26 and go to our hotel, the Ghion. We're staying in one of the bungalows (see interactive Addis map to the left). We'll go to meet Netsanet the next morning on March 27! We will likely go to the orphanage to hang out with her and learn from her caregivers about her feeding/sleeping/etc habits before we take her back to the hotel on Saturday. On Monday the 31st, we will have the immigration interview at the American Embassy for Netsanet's visa. At some point we may or may not get to meet Netsanet's birth family (we're hoping, but the latest news says it might not be possible). On Friday, April 4, we may travel home. This schedule is all up in the air, since this is WACAP's first time with Ethiopia adoptions and they're not completely certain how it will go.
Two other families and two representatives from WACAP will be traveling with us, so we won't be on our own! There is also a representative for WACAP in Ethiopia and he will arrange for transportation, translators, the hotel reservation, etc.
Preparation for the trip included 7 innoculations, tons of paperwork, getting visas for us from the Ethiopian embassy, and a huge shopping trip for diapers, formula, medication, etc etc. I've called our banks to let them know we'll be using cards there, and we're bringing cash in case the cards don't work. We're trying to travel light, although one huge suitcase is for Net and all the things she may need. We plan to just leave anything we don't need/use with the orphanage for the other little ones. We are also bringing a donation bag from WACAP for the orphanage, since we're allowed 2-50 pound bags each. We'll have Net on the way back, but our luggage should be a lot lighter... we're not bringing a stroller for her, just a variety of slings/carriers.
Oh, so much to do before we leave!!! Here's hoping for a smooth trip!
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