The Whole Crew

Easter morning didn't quite go as planned, so I was determined to get a picture of my crew the following Sunday.  Imagine my shock when they all lined up looked at the camera and smiled. Well, almost. But I'll take Sifen looking adoringly at her big sister anytime. (:

My Easter Beauties

I (literally) dusted off my "real" camera a couple of weeks ago to try and get some portraits of the girls in their Easter dresses with our pet bunny, Tuton. I was super disappointed with them at first... but after slapping some Photoshop filters on them, I kind of like them. 

Miss Anita mini photo shoot from the first day home

One Week Home!

Last Friday, February 14th, 2014, we arrived home with our littlest love. The first few days were amazingly smooth, exhausting, but nothing unexpected. Even the 17 hour international flight went as well as we could have hoped.

18 months is such a fun age, and my little girl amazes me. She's beautiful and brilliant! We spent lots of time in Ethiopia singing and playing. Her favorite is Wheels on the Bus and she quickly caught on to the hand movements- especially the baby saying Wa, Wa, Wa! So adorable!

She tries to mimik everything that I say and even my expressions. She has the cutest little Ethiopian baby accent and talks gibberish that I'm sure has some Amharic thrown in that I just don't recognize. She does use several Amharic phrases to communicate including " AYE" for No (: "Nay" for Come and "Ado" meaning give it to me, or I want it. It's amazing how far you can get in life with just those 3 phrases.

 

 She won't have anything to do with any other adult but me. At first she would shake her head No every time Gram would even look at her and cry when Daddy got to close, but she is warming up to both and quickly befriended her big brothers.  Below is her little buddy - we were blessed to travel with them all the way to our departing gate in DC. His Ethiopian nickname was Yabby and she called him "Ah - Be". I think that they were a comfort to each other during the initial transition.

She was such a trooper when traveling and things were going pretty smoothly once home until we ran out of her formula that she had been on in Et. It was her main source of comfort and I had been allowing her to have a bottle whenever she wanted one. She would accept NO substitute and was heartbroken that it was gone. The next 2 days and nights involved a lot of crying when it came time for naps or bedtime.
Intense, angry, grieving cries. It was tough stuff. My baby wanted her comfort object and I couldn't give it to her. She would scream until I thought something in her would burst, and then she would finally collapse in my arms. As I held her she would fight me, pushing my arms away, but if I set her down she would scream to be held. And so I sat in the middle of my bed and held her to my chest and just rocked back and forth until she relaxed into me.

The last couple of days, she has responded well to just laying in my bed with me, curled up against me, with her bottle ( filled with nothing but water ) clutched in her little hand. At night I am able to transfer her into her pack and play beside my bed where she usually sleeps for several hours, eventually making her way back into my bed. Daddy? Yeah, he's in the guest bed (: Big sister Addison? Let's just say that she has some adjusting to do. It's only a season.

Better pictures coming soon!