Nursery Rhymes Schmursrey Rhymes

I'm not a big fan of the kiddie tunes. Pattycakes holds no thrills for me and I don't give a damn what the wheels on the bus are doing. M and I prefer to rock out to Jack FM with a few lyric swaps for good measure. For instance, Wintersleep's "Weighty Ghost" becomes "weighty toast" at breakfast time. This has the additional advantage of somewhat downplaying my horrid horrid singing voice.

So when Auntie Mare announced recently during one of our walks that she had learned a new tune called "A is for Apple" my enthusiasm did not know no bounds. Besides falling short of the Jack FM criteria, Makeda strikes me so far as a pretty big smartiepants, and songs about fruit or letters of the alphabet did not seem a sufficient nod to her intelligence. It was a long walk and there were three of us, so we put our heads together to come up with something that would please everyone. Before long we had a lively new tune called the "Cuss Song" and A now stands for A**hole. I'll leave the rest of the alphabet to your respective imaginations, but rest assured, we covered it all. 'nuf said.

Our Melting Pot Family

Now, I think we all know that I'm the pastiest white girl around. But that's not true of all of the family. Today, cousin Michiko dropped by for a playdate with her 14 month old daughter Gemma. Michiko is one-half japanese, and Gemma is one-quarter japanese. And Makeda - well, we all know Makeda. So here is my beautiful melting pot family...

Oh c'mon, you didn't really think I'd leave my boys out did you???

Clear Skies Ahead

Shower #3 has come and gone and I think a good time was had by all (including both dogs who not only ate all the kids meals when they weren't looking but had to be hosed down afterwards to get the ice cream cake out of their fur). Thanks to the lovely and talented aunties leslie, suze and judy for hosting (including the set up and clean up) and to everyone for the amazing food and wonderful gifts. The pictures are stored on several different cameras, so I know I'm missing some good shots, but here's what I had on mine:

The guest of honour (fab shot courtesy of Judy B)


Jessica, George, Einat, Aleks

Kristen and Auntie Leslie

Doug and the adorable Lily

With Auntie SuzeCyndi

Auntie Suze, John and his boys

Ice cream cake - yummy - in the colours of the Ethiopian flag

me me me

Thanks everyone again for joining me in the wonderful celebration that is Makeda!

This Week in Pictures

With cousin SonyaBoozing with Grampa

In her little red dress, all the way from France. Thanks Marine!

Looking cool in Grampa's hat.

First time at the waterpark.

Lovin' Auntie Mare.

Duc'n it out

Remember this?

Well, I barely do. Today, however, we got reacquainted, when Auntie Mare came over to do a little baby duty while I took my other baby out on the town. Well, out to the University Endowment Lands anyway. It was a glorious sunny day and I managed to briefly get it up to 150 on Southwest Marine Dr. before the (almost rush hour) traffic dragged me down. Then I -wait a minute - my mom reads this blog and she knows the speed limit on Southwest Marine Drive - let me try that again. It was a glorious sunny day and I cautiously manoeuvered my small not very powerful motorcycle onto Southwest Marine Drive, looking both ways at all the intersections, and momentarily hit 81 before regaining control of my senses and slowing to no more than 50, tops.

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmm good. Thanks Auntie Mare.

Judgement Day

Yesterday was the social worker visit which will serve as the basis for writing a report on my worthiness as a parent, and sent back to the Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs. Now, I actually like my social worker. After all, she recommended me as a suitable parent - this, notwithstanding that on our first visit during my homestudy last year, in response to her question "What would you like to teach your daughter", I responded quickly with "how to make a good margarita". In hindsight, I suppose that answer could have ended my adoption journey rather quickly, but I was counting on her to have a good sense of humour, and she did not disappoint.

Our meeting yesterday did not quite get started as planned - the ever amenable Miss M of course had a sick day and was rather whiney for the entire hour, recovering, of course, fairly promptly after the meeting ended. But, I didn't drop her while I was under observation, so I suppose that counted for something.

Here is a picture of the lovely Miss M whilst feeling a little perkier, a few days ago.

And here she is, looking cool in her first sunglasses, courtesy of Nancy and Bob.