You All Are Going to Get the Wrong Idea; I Swear I Was Watching My Child

Adjoa had a pretty rough day. Poor little girl.

It started when I was working on the computer and she was about a foot away from me driving her 'car.' {It's one of those awesome scooter-type deals but you don't need to use your feet to propel you - you just start steering and it goes. Pretty Awesome, thanks Pa!}

Anyway, I think she was trying to turn around and, well...she fell down the stairs. Car and all. I was really close, so I was there lickety split. She was more scared than anything else. The terror stricken scream that little thing emitted could have been lifted from a horror film. Seriously.

Then the crying started. Poor thing. I checked her over. No real damage, a bruise around her eye has starting appearing, though.

Then, I was chopping various veggies for a soup. Adjoa was helping me {don't worry, it's not going where you're afraid it is}. She was putting the cut veggies into the crock pot. She picked up a potato and was pretending to eat it. Her silly vigor turned to tragedy when she bit her tongue and lip. {I'm still not exactly sure how she managed that, but I saw the blood that proved it} No scared crying that time - it's pure pain when biting your tongue and lip.

Shortly after recovering from that, she was wanting a piece of cake. To get a better look at the piece I was serving up for her, she decided to use the counter for lifting leverage. Except it wasn't the counter. She put both hands on the hot stove. It wasn't on, it was cooling down from when I browned the meat for the soup, but still. It was pretty hot to the touch.

More crying.

Needless to say, bed time was earlier last night. Both to avoid any more trauma and to get some much needed rest from the eventful day.

{In between much of this, I had to get my blood drawn to check my thyroid levels} This concerned Adjoa greatly. She insisted on checking out my wound as we were leaving the doctor's office. She clicked her tongue a few times, said "ow-uuuu-ch!" quite empathetically, patted my arm, and comforted me with, "Home, Ma! Let's GO!" And then turned to the door and marched right on out of the office.

It was an ouchy filled day, for sure. But so lovely that we were able to comfort each other. Mom might be awesome at bestowing the comforting touch, but I think a child knocks mom out of the park!

Thanks to My Hunky Husband, I had a Birthday Filled with Music, Dance, Costumes, and Food

I had a great Birthitine Day this year.

Robert bought me a 3-disk CD, Radio, and iPod player that attaches under the cabinet for the kitchen. We don't really have a CD player {since we both have iPods}, and I was getting tired of firing up the computer every time Adjoa wanted to dance and sing to her Kindermusik CDs.

He also took both of his Valentines out for dinner to my favorite place: Mazza. {It's this local Lebanese restaurant, although they also have other Mediterranean style dishes}. Soooo Yummy! {Are you jealous, Lois? Well that's what you get for going on a cruise without me!}

And to top it all off, he planed an evening out - just the two of us! Aimee's awesome sister, Erin came to babysit. {Side note here, Erin is a totally awesome babysitter. She had all these fun activities planned - some were even educational. I love her. She is my favorite. And she tops the list for Adjoa, too!} Adjoa thought it was totally awesome to have a friend over to play with her!

While Adjoa and Erin were learning colors, making Valentine cookies for 'Ma' and 'Da-dee', Robert and I went to Ballet West's performance of Madame Butterfly.


It. Was. Amazing.

There were actually 2 ballets performed: Gong, and Madame Butterfly. Gong was interesting and fun, but Madame Butterfly was amazing.

I loved the music, the dancing, the costumes, the performance. Robert isn't much of a ballet person, so it was really great that he did this for me. Very much appreciated.

He's so good to me!

Love you, babe!


Ok. So whatever your feelings are about ballet, you have to recognize that this is both amazing and beautiful. How could you NOT want to see a couple hours of this AND beautiful music? This is a new dancer, Romi Beppu, from Hawaii at rehearsals. Yes. I am that cool. But no, I didn't take this picture. I swiped it from Ballet West's blog!

This is what the curtain opened to - Amazing costuming.

Happy Birthitine Day to ME!

I made this post, like WAY, in advance so it would be a special surprise to me when I log into my blogger today to see what wonderful, awesome, make-me-jealous things everyone has done recently {and by recently I mean in the last 10 or so hours, because that's probably how long it's been since I've logged into my blogger}.

I was born at 4:50 in the P.M. {note the posting time, eh-eh *elbowing you in your ribs*, except it's AM but remember, this is supposed to be a surprise to me from me} AND my mom said I was the best Valentine she ever received. But she pretty much says that every year.

So how 'bout it Mom, am I still the best Valentine you ever received?

See That Cute Little Girl Down There in My Previous Post??? She Said I Must Beat Her.

Ok. So I have to give you a little culture lesson before I begin this story or I might get nasty comments and phone calls. In Ghana, they use the word 'beat' when they talk about spanking and disciplining children, etc. Granted, it is still sometimes hard to see, but it's their way of life, not mine. And part of adoption, especially international adoption, means you bring some of that back with you.

For the record, I never saw a child being disciplined {spanked, beaten, what-have-you} in anger. From what I observed, there were set punishments for certain crimes: late for school? a single swat on the hand.

So the other night I was putting Adjoa to bed. The process took nearly 2 hours. She was up every few minutes. A couple times to go potty, but every other time, she just didn't want to go to sleep. You know how it is.

Finally, I'm putting her back in bed and I give a nice, general threat because I'm such an awesome parent and there should be books written and lectures given regarding my break-through techniques that are oh so effective.

I said something like, "If you get out of bed again you are going to be in big trouble. It's time to sleep."

{To be fair to myself, I am certain a statement like that would have worked for me when I was a child - if I ever even got out of bed, that is. I was an angel! BTW my parents don't know how to comment so they'll never be able to refute that claim. Not that they would. Because I was.}

About 2 minutes after my vague threat, Adjoa comes walking into plain sight. When I spot her in the kitchen, she doesn't even take off running to her bedroom like a child in trouble should. Nope. She just gives me a big grin and laughs as I take her back to bed.

I ask if she needs to go potty.
No.
Does she need a drink of water?
No.
I ask what she needs in order to go to sleep.
She says "You must beat me."
Huh?
"You want mama to beat you?"
"Yes."
"How many times? Just once?"
"Yes."
"You want mama to beat you one time?"

{See how I keep asking because I can't believe this child is telling me I must beat her}

"Yes."
"And you will go to sleep if mama beats you?"
"Yes."
"Okay...."

I gave her a swat on the behind and put her in bed.

She started crying when I left the room, so I went back in and said, "I don't know why you are crying. You told mama to beat you."

She stopped crying and WENT TO SLEEP.

I told Lois about it and she laughed so hard. She said Adjoa knew she was being naughty and expected a beating because of it. Funny. I just hope we don't have to go through that every night.

Yeash.

Post script: We've had 2 nights in a row without any problems, and Adjoa hasn't asked for any more "beatings". What a relief! Of course, she hasn't been naughty again, either.

Celebrate Adjoa! {aka a Shower for Adjoa}

Some of our terrific friends are throwing a party for Adjoa. If you are in the area on Saturday, I hope you can stop by!

Mom Flew in on a Whim {and Super Cheap Tickets} and Aunt Cathy Celebrated by Taking Pictures

My mom was here all last week. I like to think that's why I didn't blog AT ALL for so long. I mean it folks, I didn't even look at a blog the entire week.

So Adjoa just loved 'Nana'. That's what she calls my mom. She took to her right away and had my mom wrapped around her little finger for the week. Nana spoiled Adjoa, which is the way it should be, right?

Adjoa keeps asking for Nana and wants to call her all the time. She informed me today that "Nana is coming!". hmmm, sure. But not for about another 2 months!

We visited Aunt Jill {Auntie Jull, to Adjoa} and Aunt Cathy {Auntie Caffy} pretty much every day last week. It was almost too much fun -meaning a lot of new people and not enough napping, but Adjoa was a trooper through all the excitement.

She played with Uncle Rod for a couple hours and had him running all over the place. He said he thought she only said one word: "Come!"

Anyway, here are some adorable pictures Aunt Cathy took of Adjoa.

Adjoa was playing dress up - so please don't ask what on earth she is wearing in the picture! I love this picture - isn't she so cute when she's pouting? I love it!

If you look really close, you might be able to see the Cheetos stuck to her teeth! Gross, but so much fun!

I think this is one of my top favorite pics of Adjoa ever.

Adjoa's sassy look

Aunt Jill gets that look from everybody, it says something like "You're Crazy, Aunt Jill!"

Being a ham.

More Pictures of Snow Fun

Here are some close ups of our adorable baby! These were taken Sunday when Robert and Adjoa were out in the snow.

She loved being outside playing in the snow - we are going to have to invest in some sledding gear. That'll be a riot!

Right after her second - or maybe third face-plant. She would run after Eden and then trip in the snow. She's so used to running and running, the drag created by a foot of snow and several pounds of snow clothes was just too much.

Robert and Adjoa's First Snowman and Adjoa's First Snow Falls

We came home from church and were greeted by a yard full of snow. Robert excitedly suggested we eat something quickly and go out to play in the snow. He was eager to build Adjoa's first snowman. Which turned out to be Robert's first snowman too.

The short afternoon was filled with many firsts for Adjoa. She experienced her first snow falls {the kind that falls from the sky, and the one where you do a face-plant in the snow}. She wouldn't wear her gloves, which wouldn't have been so terrible if she would have left the snow alone, so I had to keep a towel handy. She thought it was so funny to throw the snow up in the air and have Eden jump to catch it.

Anyway, I snapped a bunch of pictures that are too cute to not share.

Robert and Adjoa decided to name the snowman "Madjoa" Robert asked, "What is that?" And Adjoa said "It's a Madjoa!"

Adjoa kept kissing Eden during our photo shoot. She was too quick for me to get a picture of it, but this one was pretty funny. I love the look on Eden's face!

Finally one where everyone is looking at the snowman. Madjoa was the only one who behaved!

Quick Picture of Eden because We Have a Sneaking Suspicion She is Bitter Over the Lack of Blog Attention She Has Been Paid Lately

Here's a funny picture I snapped of Eden this morning. I came in to do some work on the computer and apparently she was bothered by the light I turned on or the noise I was making typing. I glanced over about 20 minutes into my work to see if she was still asleep.

I assume she was.

Thanks for the Dinners!

We had several families from church bring us dinner through out first 2 weeks with Adjoa. Last night we returned all their dishes and included thank you notes.

The cards were ones I picked up in Ghana, and Adjoa "wrote" Thank You and "signed" her name. She was so excited to write. She loves to {as she says} 'write letters'.

All bundled up to deliver Thank You notes

Here's another video of more bedtime silliness. Adjoa is such an entertainer. She hams it up all day and keeps us laughing. Every time she sees herself in a large mirror, she starts dancing and talking to herself.

My favorite part in this one is when she checks out her little bum while she's dancing. It's so funny!