Day 2

Can you tell by the picture what we did today? Yep... he has been going crazy over the bicycles in the garage and was riding them around outside, in his pajamas, while El was taking out the trash. He doesn't seem to get that it is freezing outside and he still operates like he is in the warm African climate. So what else could we do other than bring the bikes inside (that or I stand outside with him, which wasn't an option). As they were bumping into walls and riding around the downstairs of my house I was thinking about how all my "normal" friends would handle this situation. Well, I couldn't come up with a better solution because how do you say "no" to a little boy who is so absolutely excited to see and ride a bike! I can always paint over the marks later.

Around 9:00 a.m. I was talking with my sister on the phone and telling her that it already seemed like the day should be ending. Ty-Fitsum has a way of packing a whole day into 2 hours... but the day was far from over! About 9:30 a.m., while I was upstairs getting ready, I heard Isaac yell that Ty-Fitsum was outside in his socks and wouldn't come in. So I ran downstairs to find him, with the biggest smile on his face, riding his bike in the street! I think that the headache might have begun there because my nerves were just never right after that! Imagine, bringing home a little boy from Africa, who already beat the odds there, and he gets hit by a car in the street here in America! They played in the streets in Africa so why not here? I sure wasn't wearing my "mom of the year" hat yesterday!

After that, I loaded them in the car to go get breakfast for my grandmother, and run a few errands. He immediately started saying, "daddy?, daddy?" I said, "Sure, we'll go see Daddy, why not?" My nerves still weren't o.k. and I wasn't in the mood to start the whole "where's daddy" problem again. Grandma's was uneventful... thank goodness. At the pharmacy, the ladies there loved him and gave him suckers and sunglasses.....sorry to have missed Great-Uncle Bob 1, though. Then we went to the grocery store where he got free cookies and tried to stuff an $8.00 salami roll in his pocket. I told him "no", but... well, he won, and I bought an $8.00 roll of salami (Dad... I know what you're thinking, but I know, I'll hear it from El later). The worst was that he didn't even like the salami!

Sorry, to be writing so much, but I am trying to keep this blog as a journal for him later on and so much happened yesterday...... I am sure we will laugh about it later.

After lunch with El, I felt a little better, and thought that we could tackle Target to get him some new clothes. That was actually a fun experience. He was like a kid in a candy store. His eyes were huge and that beautiful smile never left his face as he looked through all the clothes, picking some up and telling me "cool". He sure has a mind of his own when it comes to clothes. He got 2 pairs of pants, one pair of swim trunks (that he loved) and 3 shirts. He picked them all out and was so amazed that he was able to get all of them because he would only pick out one thing at a time and if he found something more "cool" then he would pick that up and put the other back. It was fun to see him so excited! He also picked up some punching balloons. The toy section was still too overwhelming for him. Then we headed home.

At home, it was back to the bike, which we did take outside for awhile. We had a crash course in that the sidewalks are for bikes and the streets are for cars or "makeenas". Then some friends came over and after that went to Kayla's basketball practice. He had fun at basketball practice playing with Johnny and Isaac. When the buzzer went off though he practically jumped out of his skin and flew over to Uncle Steve. He is scared of loud noises. He loved when Steve would pick him up to dunk the ball in the basket. He also began trying new words......basketball, Aunt Christy, and Uncle Steve which he laughed so hard at that we couldn't imagine what it must mean in Amharic!?!? It was funny!

Anyways, we finally went home and got to see "Daddy", took a bath and went to bed. After the kids went to bed, so did I because of the migraine which had set in by then........which is why I am writing today instead of last night.

Kara