A Visit from my Auntie Resa

My aunt came to visit us for a few days.  We spent lots of time together...mostly just time around the house.  We got some yummy food including milk shakes together.  That was pretty fun.  And, we had our first family game night together with the games that mommy got us for Christmas.  One is called, "I never forget a face" and it is a matching game with kids from all the different countries.  I have a great memory so am pretty good at this one, if I do say so myself. 

The second game we played is a story telling game. There are picture cards and each person around the table picks a card that has a picture on it...and you have to add to the story based on the card that you've drawn.  We had a great birthday party with so many gifts and animals - including a boat bringing gifts and a lost key to the birthday house which fell off the boat and into the sea with the fish.  We had a princess and a castle and party goers sitting on the moon.  It was quite a silly story! 

Thanks for coming to hang out with us Auntie Resa....it was pretty cool.

Uncle Gogo

Today was my uncle Gogo's birthday!  Can you imagine this is the third birthday of his that I have spent with him!  The first birthday of Uncle Gogo's that I spent with him, we celebrated in Karatu the weekend before:

Gogo's birthday weekend

And the weekend after we celebrated with a bbq at our place.  I had only known Uncle Gogo less than a month...but I was already smitten!

A bbq party!

The second time I celebrated Uncle Gogo's birthday, we were still in Africa.  On his actual birthday we celebrated together at home in Arusha and went for Chinese food for dinner since it's his favorite food.  By this time....I fully loved my Uncle.  He is so much fun!

Happy Birthday Uncle Gogo

The following weekend, we went on safari to Karatu once again. 

Safari to Karatu

This year has been a bit rocky.  Uncle Gogo and I are having some power issues and we seem to get into lots of struggles...Mommy goes crazy sometimes.  BUT...the one thing that is for certain....no matter what, I LOVE MY GOGO!  HE is my Gopherter. 

This year, we are living in America..in California.  And, we celebrated again today.  Mommy, Clara Shei and I took Uncle Gogo to a great Indian restaurant, in honor of our first home, Arusha and the amazing indian food which we miss soooo much!  It was yummy and fun!  Tonight the whole family went out to dinner at Chipolte, and even Megan came with us too. 

Happy Birthday Gogo!  I love you....

Martin

Today was a special day.  We took the day off around America to celebrate MLK Jr. Day.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a special man who lived in America during a time when there were lots of problems between people of different skin colors.  I don't really get it.  Here, it seems like skin color is really no big deal.  When we go to the zoo or the kids museum or any place around San Franisco really, we see people who all look really didn't from each other.  And, when we go spend time with friends around the Bay area, lots of times the families don't look like each other.  One friend has a latino mommy and an african american daddy.  Another is Italian and Asian, another has one white mommy and one african american daddy.  And, we read lots of books about all the different colors that people are and how beautiful it is to have a world filled with creamy milk chocolate and sun kissed sand, with hair like baby lambs curls and hair that floats like a river. 

But, this day is about something a bit different than the life I'm living in San Francisco today.  This day we talked about a man who lived when the color of our skin made other people not want to play soccer with you and stopped you from going to certain schools or sitting in certain parts of the bus.  We read about Martin and his hard work to make sure that I could live in the world I do today and we learned that there is still more work to be done to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.  And, I learned what that phrase means.  It means that we should care about what is inside us more than what we look like on the outside.  I find it easy to think of the grinch...we care more about the fact that his heart grew three sizes (we care about our heads and our hearts) than the fact that he is green.  When his heart grew, he was able to bring back Christmas, but his being green made no difference at all.  This is what Martin wants us to all recognize....we need to care about what our hearts and our heads are doing....and then just enjoy those baby lambs curls and that creamy milk chocolate skin....it's all so beautiful!

Skype

I LOVE skype.  For the time we lived in Africa, we used Skype a lot to make calls back to Bada and Grandad and to our friends in the States, so that we could be connected back to mommy's life in America. 

Now, we are living in America, and skype is helping us to be connected to our friends and family in Arusha.  Today we got to made a skype call with Arnold and David (my big brothers back in Arusha) and Rebecca and Wendy who are the directors at the center that helps to take care of them.  Rebecca and Wendy are much more than that though....they love all the kids at the center and take such good care that they make one big family up!  We miss them all very much. 

It was really cool to see David and Arnold on the camera.  They were so funny, they made fun of me and all started jumping up and down on the bench they were sitting on.  They said that they were pretending to be me, because I'm so wired I can't sit still,even for a second.  Ok....I admit....I'm a little BUSY!!!! 

It was nice to hear how well they are doing in school and how much they enjoy it.  I can't wait to be a big boy and go to school.  I want to be a doctor, like Bonyo Bonyo, the brave boy from Kenya. 

http://www.bonyoskenyamission.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=80

Arnold would like to be a football player (not the American football kind....the soccer kind).  David doesn't know yet, but maybe he would like to be an artist....he is so talented and a very sensitive soul. 

Clara Shei and I loved talking to everyone, but we do miss you guys so much.  I keep talking about David and Arnold and Africa...and I miss them and wish we could go visit for the weekend!  Mommy tells me that we will get back to see everyone just as soon as we can! 

I am the Lorax and I Speak for the Trees...

I love the story of  Dr. Seuss about the Lorax and the Onceler who cut down all the trees and smogged up all the land, air and sea.  I especially love to read the end with my Mommy, where we say, "unless someone like YOU (and then mommy tags me to let me know that the Onceler is talking to ME) cares a whole awful lot, it's not going to get better, it's just not".  We work hard around our house to help out the Lorax, like only using 4 squares of paper when we go to the bathroom (mommy and I count them together so I learn how much I need) and turning off the water when we brush our teeth and not just flushing the toilet for fun, but only when we need to, so that the bears still have trees and the fish still have water.  It's all VERY important.  I get worried when I see a situation that I think the Lorax would not be happy about.  While we were in Seattle, we drove by a plant where there were lots of buildings churning things around and a lot of smog and smoke was coming out of the top of these buildings.  I said to my mommy, "uh oh,that is a lot of smog, the Lorax would not be happy!". 

Well, I know that the Lorax and the Onceler would be proud of me.  About a year ago now, at our house in Arusha, I planted two trees with David, our friend and the best green thumbed gardener around.  We had to leave Tanzania, at least for now, but David has stayed on at our house there and he is taking good care of our trees.  He just sent us some photos of our trees and how they are growing!  Thank you so much David for sending on the photos and wow....thank you for taking good care of our trees.  Hopefully all the bears, and birds and fish and people will be a whole lot better off if we can all just care a little bit more.

We miss you so so much David!

The 5 cent farm

I've been hearing about the 5 cent farm in Portland, Oregon for a while now.  I think my mommy has a huge fascination with it (especially when we were living in Tanzania) because it seems so american idealistic.  In any case, the family that lives at the 5 cent farm is the Ross family. My mommy grew up with the mommy of the Ross family - Bradi.  Bradi has a husband Ron, two kids Emerson and Flannery, a dog named Dobler and some chickens (who I think must be very cold this time of year)...oh, and a goldfish that I tried to drown. 

So, to start the year of 2011, we went to visit the Ross family in Portland, Oregon.  What an amazing 48 hours I had there. My mommy looked a little ragged by the end, and poor Bradi was probably just plain exhausted by me, though not nearly as exhausted as her boy....Emerson.

Oh, Emerson, how I do adore you!  I can't wait to be 8 years old and just like you.  I think you are so cool, I want to be hanging on to you from the moment you get home from school till the moment you have to go to sleep. 

And, Flannery, well she has the coolest stuff ever...including a dollhouse and a goldfish.  When Flannie and Emerson were home, I just had to be with them every second.  When they weren't, we had to find a way to entertain ourselves....so we went to the OMSI (science center in Portland). Bradi is really fun at playing with us....she likes to find ways to shoot various balls out of air tubes in the ball room....mommy thinks that some things never change.

We loved our visit with the Ross family.  We loved Dobler, the big red dog, and we hope that we get to see them all again real soon!

PS - Ross Family

I'm really sorry about the tazmanian devil that whipped through your home.  I loved you all and thank you so much for having us!  Ms. Bradi - I love your photos, thanks for taking some of me! 

And, thanks for your kind words on your blog: 

http://conchodandy.blogspot.com/2011/01/parenting-and-juggling-skill.html

Goodbye Seattlites, Hello Portlandia

Yesterday we drove down from Seattle to Portland and spent the day and evening with one of my mommy's dearest friends who she met in the dorms, freshman year of college...Jen. 

Since mommy has been living abroad, she hasn't seen Jen....so it's been a LOT of year.  Boy...can those two ladies TALK.  They stayed up all night just talking.  Man....they put Clara Shei and I down to sleep in the bedroom and stayed out on the pull out couch with their tea and their talking all night.  Finally....early in the morning, they fell asleep....and that's when our fun could begin. 

When Mommy and Jen woke up at 5:30 in the morning, Clara Shei and I had been up busily smearing our shea hair butter all over EVERYTHING.  Somehow they didn't find it as fun or nearly as funny as we did.  In fact, mommy was down right furious!  Go figure....

The funny thing is....even with this (small) indiscretion of ours....and even with Mommy getting so (unreasonably) angry....it was still just the most fun visit.  Maybe it's because my mommy was relaxed and happy to be with her friend and have it feel like no time at all had passed.  I could see what a truly special friendship they have.  Or maybe it's because despite her insistence that she is not a 'kid' person, Jen is so cool and we loved her and hanging out with her and I think she is just one of the most special people. Oh, and I really like her her husband, Cean and her son, Ayden too.  What a super cool family!  I can't wait to see them all again!

oh, and on top of it all.  Jen is quite an artist.  She designs jewelry and is an amazing amateur photographer (Portland is apparently full of them).  Jen took these photos of me...thanks Jen.  See you again soon.  I promise I'll lay off the shea butter next time.

Are you just happy to see me?

Today we are headed down to Portland to visit more friends.  But, before we left....it was really important to feed our ducks in Kirkland just one more time.

They might be getting to know us a bit too well, they were awfully....friendly

The thing is that they seemed to want to eat the bread, and so did I....so we were coming at cross purposes.  hmmm...no reason to eat ME though guys!

The First Day of 2011

Today was such a nice day.  A perfect way to start a perfect year.  A little time with friends, a little time with family and a LOT OF LOVE. 

The morning was spent at Meg's....just sort of getting it together.  We cleaned up the house after the previous day....did some laundry and generally organized our lives and slowly started the new year.  In the afternoon we headed to Aunt Lin and Tom's house for a little family fun.  It was so so cold, but Mommy really thought we needed some outside time...and she was really nervous to have us running loose in Lin and Tom's house after the craziness of the past few days.  To be fair, everything in Lin and Tom's house is an antique from 1833 or something and it is not really child proofed.  However, she needn't have worried.  We were just fine! 

We had such fun at Lin and Tom's house.  After the park visit with Mommy, Bada, Aunt Lin, cousin Rebecca and her new husband, Joe....we came home and met up with Tom for a family dinner and some home fun.  I learned to play the ukulele and made a band with Lin, Tom and Joe.  Clara Shei was our dancing groupie.  I also got to spend time reading with Aunt Lin.  She and Tom gave me a really beautiful book of poetry for Christmas and I love it.  Tonight, I read Dr. Seuss with Aunt Lin.  I could really sit and read forever.  After dinner and dancing we headed back to Meg's...tomorrow we head to Portland to see more friends to start the new year off. 

Happy First day of 2011....I hope yours was as nice as ours....

C'mon Universe...

It's 2011...time for my Mommy to find her perfect job.  She has already discovered that the universe had a plan to ensure that we are a family and bonded.  Not only did she put my Mommy in the right place at the right time to find me, she also ensured that she would not have a job in 2010 so that we would have time to bond as a family.  (she read some study that says that for adoptive families it is really important for the kids to bond with their parents and to not be passed right away to another daycare or care giver situation so they don't just think of their parents as just another care giving situation).  As a single mom, she would never have taken a year off to parent us unless the universe gave us the situation.  So....2010 was as it should have been.

But, listen universe. Clara Shei and I are pretty bonded to Mommy now.  We are secure little people and know we belong to a family that loves us. We are happy, healthy and well adjusted little people.  We have clothes, healthy food, fun educational toys....and if we want to keep all those things and not end up at the homeless shelter...a job for mommy would be great! 

I'm modeling for YOU universe, my future in the current situation.  Please don't make me sleep on a park bench in 30 degree weather universe.  Please....give mommy her dream job!