Snow, birthdays, and ethiopian food...

Well, we have had quite the week...

B turned 3!!!

We wanted to catch-up on missed birthdays, so he had a few extra "parties":

Birthday candles in his egg-free pancakes at breakfast:

Birthday celebration at an Ethiopia restaurant (party of 4-Mama, Ababa, B, and Miss A-M)

Birthday celebration with his friend who turned 3 in August (B "helped" me make the cake:-)

Two of his favorite presents are a backpack (that he was given at our shower but we just now gave to him) and a scooter we inherited from a friend:

and then today...it snowed...A LOT...like ALL DAY...this was taken in the morning!

My awesome husband got some great shots of our precious little boy enjoying his first snow:-)

Also, B loves his new photo album of our Ethiopia trip so much that we're reading it about 20 times a day so, I ordered two more (with a few more photos in them).  Now he has one for now, we have one, and we have one for him for when he grows up.  I LOVE mypublisher, and if you wait for the BoGo codes, it's really affordable!

Awesome egg-free yellow cake from Madhuram's eggless cooking:

Eggless Vanilla Cake Recipe

Prep time: 15 Mins

Cook time: 27 Mins

Yields: 24 Cake Slices

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 and 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour2 teaspoons
•  Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 2 tablespoons Sugar
• 1 can Condensed Milk
• 1 cup Water (I used orange juice b/c I was afraid it would be really bland, but it was so good that next time I will try with just water)
• 2 tablespoons Vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Melted Butter

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan and line it with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the the wet ingredients one by one. Stir the mixture together using a whisk. Some lumps is okay.
4. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and tap the pan to even it out and break the air bubbles if any.
5. Bake it for 25-27 minutes.
6. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and remove the cake after 15-20 minutes. Place the cake on the rack for it to cool down completely before slicing it.

I baked it in a 9X13 pan lined with a silpat.  Cooled it in the pan and frosted with 1 batch of old fashioned chocolate frosting.  It was DELICIOUS!!!

Fun days!

B came to my office at the end of the day yesterday (it was a childcare handoff b/c Ababa had to work an overnight shift in a hospital).

I had to stay late for an hour or so finishing up some work, so my handy assistant helped me file, pick-up copies from the copier, clean off my desk, and color on the backs of old presentations:-)

Then it was really late, so we got his favorite Indian food at a nearby restaurant.  He was a total champ, though dinner took forever and neither the food nor the service were anywhere close to Sangam's (I have GOT to figure out how to make yellow dal like they did!)

Then we walked to the subway and saw A LOT of buildings on the way.  B was yelling, "building, mama, that's a building, and another building, and ANOTHER BUILDING!!!!)  His eyes were as big as saucers and hw had a HUGE grin on his face!

Then we walked past two excavators parked on the side of the road and some piece of construction machinery that I have no idea what it was.  Then we had a special treat...PINKBERRY!  (We split a small with plain with kiwi and strawberries on one side for him and peanut butter with jam, chocolate chips, and coconut for me--delish! (and their peanut butter flavor is amazing!)

Then we rode the subway all the way home, took an escaltor, walked the 4 blocks home, and trudged up the 4 flights of stairs (our elevator is closed for the next month for an upgrade:-(  By the end he was exhausted and it was after 9:-(  He had a little meltdown getting ready for bed but was asleep about 5 minutes after his head hit the pillow.

This morning we were both abruptly waken-up by woosha barking his head off to announce that Ababa was home.  After breakfast, Ababa passed out on the couch and B, woosha, and I went for a long walk, played by the Hudson River, saw the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge in person and had a great time.  There was running, walking on a beach, climbing rocks, throwing a slobbery wet ball for a neighbor's black lab who was out for his daily "fetch and swim"outing.  B took a loooooong nap today and then we got pizza for dinner (he still hates cheese but makes an exception for Domino's thin crust pizza).

What a great day!  I left my camera and phone at home so no pics, but I'll try to get some tomorrow (if the weather is good, we're thinking about picnic and playground after church:-)

Oh poop...it's a good thing you are cute!

Today was an "interesting" day.  B didn't sleep well last night, so Ababa and I didn't sleep well last night, so we were late to church.  After church we went to the playground.  B was tired and cranky but then got over it and had fun--he can't resist a good slide:-).  We came home and ate lunch (corn, potato, and squash chowder--this is important to know for later in the story) and then B went down for a nap.

So far so good...

Then at 5 I went in to wake B up.  He was just waking up on his own and was happy and cuddly, but his room smelled foul.  I thought it was the cloth diapers which were in their bag on the way to the laundry today.  I took him to the po-po like always after nap, unsnapped his diaper to put him on it, and was faced with a TON of poop (super nasty poop given his lunch).  The is the first poopy diaper B has had since he came into our care.  He has been adamant about pooping in the po-po (potty) since July 1 when he came to live with us in Ethiopia, even when he had giardia and was going 10 times a day with gross diarreah.

The poop was contained in the diaper (yay!  cloth diapers totally work:-) but it was everywhere.  While I was shaking it off into the toilet as best I could, before I could clean him off, woosha came up and started trying to LICK IT OFF OF B's BOTTOM!!!  GROSS!!!  AND...IT STARTED DRIPPING ON THE FLOOR!

Ababa was taking a nap, B was in a great mood and wanted to try and run around (with poop all up and through his bottom and halfway up his back), woosha was trying to get a "snack"....it was a poopstravaganza!

Question:  What do you do first when you have a poppy kid, a poopy diaper, a poopy dog, and poop all over the floor?!?!?!??!?!   Answer: Yell really loudly that Ababa's nap is over and he better get up RIGHT NOW:-)

I put the poopy diaper in the bathtub, wiped off the poopy kid, made the poppy dog sit/stay, wiped up the poopy floor, picked up the poopy diaper and rinsed it in the toilet, wiped off the floor, cleaned out the bathtub, ran a bath for B (wipes were just not going to cut it), and then when Ababa finally was awake and functioning, sent him downstairs with the week's worth of diapers to wash, including the most recent nasty addition.

B thought the whole thing was hilarious and has been in a great mood ever since (I would be too after the giant load he got out of his system!)

Not sure if his tummy is upset or what since he seems to feel great.  We only fed him a little fish and rice for dinner with just a few pieces of plum and is going to bed a little early just in case.

I really hope that this is a one time deal and he goes back to being poop potty-trained tomorrow (we're still working on the pee potty-training) b/c this was not at all fun!

Good thing he's so cute:-)

The pic is from Ethiopian New Year (Enkutatash) at our guest house in Addis.  I did not have enough hands to take any pics during today's incident--they were full of poop!

B-isms

Life as a family of three is going great.  We're doing well with bonding; spending time together; introducing B to our friends, family, and neighborhood, and learning how to be a family...we're not doing to great with laundry; responding to calls, emails, or gifts; or giving people detailed accounts of our time in Addis.  My job is very demanding and has proven to be very unfamily friendly right now, Ababa's EMT class is going well but very busy for him.  So, it's taking all we've got right now to focus on our family.  Hopefully in the next few months we'll start getting the other things together:-)

For now, here are a few photos and B-isms to introduce you to our amazing little guy.

B is a HUGE sponge and mimic.  He's pretty much fluent in English now and is great at letting you know what he wants.  He also repeats EVERYTHING, so mama is working on cleaning up her potty mouth (which needed to happen anyway).  Some our favorite B-isms are below.

"Mama, Happy Birthday Cake" "More candles...candles are fire...mama, candles"
I heard this for about 2 hours a day, EVERYDAY during our last month in Ethiopia as B's favorite activity was making playdough brithday cakes with candles (which meant I made the cakes and candles and then he cut them into little pieces).  B celebrated 3 birthday parties for other little kids and figured out really quickly the joys of birthday parties (namely cake and fire).  Since he's severely allergic to eggs, he only had cake once (only in Ethiopia is it common and relatively easy to get a "fasting" cake which has no milk or dairy:-)  We celebrated Ababa's birthday tonight with an egg-free Wacky Cake (mommy's recipe from college, cheap, easy, and yummy). B isn't really scowling, he just makes a serious face for pictures while saying "mommy, I smile"...and yes, mommy-fail, we had no birthday candles in the house (note to self-must rectify before B's birthday later this month) so I just stuck a taper in the middle of the cake.  It kind of looked like a torch:-)

B has discovered the joy of the playground, especially the slide.  he also got his first playground injury.  As you can see from this pic, he decided after many runs down the slide to mix it up by switching from seated on his bottom to lying on his tummy MID-SLIDE!  Yeah, not a great idea!  He wacked his face on the slide and got a bloody nose. (It's a sad miracle that I caught this moment on camera as we take pics with our crappy cell phone cameras that have 5 second delays on all photos, since our digital camera sucks the life out of batteries like no other...we're saving to get a new digital camera for Christmas:-)

We are still co-sleeping and I have to say it has greatly helped bonding, sleeping, and fostering a sense of family...but...B drools...ALOT...'nough said!

I was very sick for about a week after we got back from Ethiopia.  Once I was feeling better, we ordered pizza from Dominos one night.  The online order ticker was Pirate-themed and a parrot keept squacking "Auck, prepping your order".  B thought that was HILARIOUS and now walks around the house randomly saying "Auck, pemping your ordah"...B is a great eater.  Loves anything with fish and rice (his two favorite foods), soups, stews (like Ethiopian wats, Indian dals, chili, etc.) and he loves fruit (especially, apples, pears, oranges, plums, tomatoes...).  He also loves corn on the cob and chicken.  He cleaned his corn cob the very first time and had his first drumstick the other day.  He sucked the bones dry and even ate the cartilege!  The only foods that he really hates so far are pasta, cheese, pickles, and peaches.

He repeats everything we say, but doesn't always get the meaning quite right.  So, currently he says "that's gis-dusting" when he thinks something is good (b/c I say "that's disgusting" when something is yucky:-) and "mommy, that's Masty" when something is funny (b/c I say "that's nasty" when something is yucky:-)

We just started official pottytraining today (he has pooped in the potty ever since we met him, but pee is usually in his diaper:-(  He loves the book "Everybody Poops" (which Ababa and I think is kind of disturbing and gross).  We started rewarding him today when his diaper is dry AND he pees in the potty and he had a dry diaper all day.  So, we'll see.  After 3 months of diapers, and at almost 3 years old, it'd be awesome if he was potty-trained.  But, if he needs more time that's fine with us too...For now, we are using the bigger diapers in the awesome cloth diaper stash I amassed during the past 2 years and we're learning the joys of cloth diapering in the city...

Only Three Weeks...

Three weeks from today, we meet B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In 16 days I leave for Russia, on June 29 Ababa and I will meet-up in the Frankfurt airport (he'll be coming from NYC) to fly into Ethiopia together and then on June 30 we meet B and July 1 we appear in court.

Please pray that this all goes smoothly.

Three things have to happen before B will legally be our son:

1. His current guardian has to legally relinquish their rights (please pray for peace and safety for them as it is a long journey and a heartwrenching decision!)

2. MOWA needs to write their letter approving our adoption.

3. Ababa and I have to both appear in court in Ethiopia

Then it takes several days for the adoption decree to be written...and then, B will legally be our son and can come live with us in Addis until he is cleared by US Immigration to come to the US and we all will come home together.

Things easily can take longer at each step of the way, and there are many possible complications.

But, as Ababa says, "if God say the same" in about three weeks we meet our son and become a family.

B's Quilt

Well, there's all kinds of drama going on with court dates/MOWA letters right now all of which could delay our court date, plus we are still waiting for our fingerprinting appointment from USCIS (we are going to start phone stalking them on Monday to see what is going on), so we figured we'd post about B's quilt instead:-) Plus we got 4 new pics of him today, showing off a sassy personality, grinning from ear to ear, and wearing a cheerful yellow shirt with a dinosaur!

We've bought a lot of necessary items for B, mostly from craigslist, ebay, half.com, and other discount places (though I do have a soft spot for Amazon sales, especially since I now have Amazon prime:-) We got an awesome crib for B that converts to a toddler bed since he still sleeps in a crib at the transition home, but he'll probably be close to 3 by the time he comes home...and we hope that B will have younger siblings at some point down the road so it should get more use as a crib then...the crib has some scratches on the dark wood that Ababa is going to cover-up with some non-toxic stain, but we got it for about 1/3 the retail price, so we're not complaining:-)

Here's B's crib/bed it's the Babyletto Mercer:

So, we wanted to get something special for him, something new, something custom made just for B, and something that would fit in the mod vibe we decided to go with in his room.  I had fallen in love with Tanneicasey on Etsy's windowpane quilts right after we got married and decided I wanted to get one for our future child.  I also fell in love with the Michael Miller Zoology fabric. So, I was thrilled that Tannei could work with me to incorporate fabrics that we really wanted for B's room.  I picked all the fabrics in the quilt except for one that she picked. She did the layout, picked which fabric to use for the edging, and had the genius idea to do the backing in dark grey.  The first quilt she made had some of the same fabric squares next to each other which looked a little out of whack.  She realized this before posting it for our purchase and emailed us offering to make another one. Usually we would have just chalked it up to being homemade and bought the first one, but we wanted this quilt to be really special for B.

And WOW is it!  We love this quilt and can't wait for B to wrap himself up in it!  It looks awesome in his room.  Reversing it gives a completely different look and a special inset tag on the back with his whole name embroidered on it makes it so special.  I hope that we'll get to spend many many years snuggled up with B under this blanket--reading books, talking, laughing, cuddling, and loving our son!!!

So, here are some more pics--most of the fabrics are by Michael Miller.  In a few weeks, or maybe months, we'll post pics of his whole room.  It's starting to come together and look really cute!!!

Hmmm...blogger seems to be not dealing with pics very well.  here's a link to the Etsy posting if that works better: B's quilt:

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY, WE CAN SHARE OUR BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are delighted and overjoyed to share that we decided to switch agencies and on February 10 we officially received and accepted the referral of a two year old waiting child with whom we are already head over heels in love.  We first saw his precious face on December 16th and, after much prayer and consideration, we were unofficially matched with him January 6th (we couldn't officially accept his referral until our homestudy was done--and what an ordeal getting our homestudy done was!)

We can't post his picture or Ethiopian name on our blog until we have legally adopted him, and we are still not sure if we will share his first name (American or Ethiopian) online, so here at mamaababandwoosha we will call him B.

B for:

Sweet Baby Boy
Bereket (an Ethiopian name meaning "blessing")
Brown Sugar (the color of his adorable face)
Lil'Bit (he's tiny--but growing quickly!)
Beloved (which he is already more than we can express!!!!!)

So, take your pick as to what wonderful word or phrase you think B represents...we think they are all great, just like him:-)

We were hoping that it might work out through some unusual but potentially feasible circumstances to adopt Aang at the same as B, but we learned today that is not to be, so we decided to share our wonderful news with you.  We'll finish the story of Aang and why we switched agencies (as they are closely related) another day, but that is not the story for today.

Today is a joyous happy day and it is B's day!!!!

We'll go back and fill-in the blanks of our path to accepting B's referral in the next few days.  Right now, the biggest wait is that we filed our I-600A on Valentine's Day, got confirmation of USCIS's receipt, and are just waiting for our fingerprinting appointment so that we can get fingerprinted and have our I-171H issued.  The rest of our dossier is ready to go the second that I-171H shows up in our mailbox!

There have been some changes in the Ethiopian court process this week that could really slow things down, so we are praying fervently that we can pass court before the closure this summer!

Sweet baby B, we are coming to you as fast as we can!!!! We love you so much already and can't wait to meet you! Love, Mama and Ababa (and Woosha)

(The picture is the quilt we had made for B.  We'll do a whole post on it later as we think it is awesome.  We had it custom made by an incredible vendor on Etsy.com and we are using some of the prints to make accents for his room too.)