He's home!

Dr. Daddy came home Tuesday night- hurrah! Eirena was VERY excited to see him.
Also exciting is that Dr. Daddy had a layover in Seattle and used his time wisely.
You see, less than 4 miles from the airport is a Trader Joe's. Oh yeah! Dr. Daddy brought home yummies from TJ's: peppermint bark, candy cane Joe Joe's, CHOCOLATE, chili mango and other such treats. So we're all set for treats and chocolate for a while.

The day after Dr. Daddy got home we had our first meeting with our social worker for our homestudy. It was pretty much a 50 minute interview (per person) that went over our life history. (And then we moved...) The next step is the home visit which is scheduled for Dec. 6th. It is kind of exciting to actually feel like we're progressing on the adoption.

More cheap entertainment!

1. Get a newspaper ad flyer in the mail.2. Give it to small child to read, especially the pictures of cars and helicopters.

3. Small child will then hide under the newspaper.


4. You "find" the "hidden" child.


5. You are then rewarded with grins and giggles.

6. Repeat.

And this is the fun we had before the dog or cats got the paper- they just take it to a whole new level!

Sniffles and hacks

Eirena and I both came down with a cold. She has the chest congestion, I have the nose/sinus stuff.
Clearly the only reasonable thing to do is have her go to sleep (even though she is chipper) and for me to curl up with a cup of tea and some dark chocolate. That's right, forget the chicken soup, go straight for the chocolate. It has antioxidants, you know!

Pumpkin

In an effort to be economical, healthy and wise I decided that instead of buying canned pumpkin for my holiday cooking, I would buy a pumpkin. I'll let you in on a secret: I actually don't like pumpkin! I like pumpkin pie (when heavily spiced) or pumpkin flavored lattes (when heavily spiced) or pumpkin bread (when heavily spiced) but not straight pumpkin. So I actually have never bought a pumpkin. Now I have done a little reading and knew that there were different types of pumpkins. And I even thought I knew what kind to get for baking. So I went to the store prepared to buy an approximately 4 lb pumpkin, cinderella variety.

Well at my grocery store, they didn't have pumpkins. They had oodles of squash, but no pumpkin. Only something that looked like a pumpkin that was called Calabasa (Spanish name but no translation). Well it looked pumpkin-like so I chose the smallest one that they had, felt it, it felt pretty light, and stuck it in my cart. I was a little worried that it maybe wasn't quite 4 lbs but figured if not, I would get by with the amount I had. When I was checking out (with my three cloth bags plus a pumpkin) the bagging lady wished me enjoyment of my pumpkin (to which I almost responded, "oh, so it is a pumpkin?" but then I was glad I didn't) and then corrected herself and called it a squash.

So now I wasn't sure I had a pumpkin, and I wasn't sure it was even 4 lbs. Time to turn to wikipedia! After much searching I determined that I had most likely bought something in the broad pumpkin family and that it might even be a cheese pumpkin which is excellent for baking. So I baked it last night. My there was a lot of pumpkin. This morning I pureed it all. My there was a lot of pumpkin. I made the pumpkin pie spiced ice cream that I intended to make with some of the puree and it smelled pretty good. And there was still a lot leftover. No worries on running short of pumpkin.

I looked at the grocery slip just for kicks to see how much my "light" pumpkin weighed- um 10.64 lbs. (I think I need to stop carrying the kid around.) So we have A LOT of pumpkin puree.

Did I mention I only like pumpkin when it is heavily spiced?

Mud Bath

Just so you know it hasn't been all dreary with Dr. Daddy gone! Eirena sure enjoyed her personal "spa treatment".

Grocery bags

I try to remember to take my cloth bags with me when I go grocery shopping. I usually remember 90% of the time. I go to the same store on the same day of the week at approximately the same time of day (yes, I'm a creature of habit). Well in AZ if I put my cloth bags on the conveyor belt and then all my groceries it was clearly understood that I wanted my cloth bags to be used first. Apparently that isn't so clear here (at least where I shop).

Last week there was no bagger person, so it was the cashier and me. He started pulling out the plastic bags but then looked up and saw me loading stuff into the cloth ones and said, "oh, you want to use cloth". I really bit my tongue in an effort to avoid the sarcastic response that was ready to spew forth.

This week, I followed my routine again- bags on the conveyor belt, then groceries. There were three bagging ladies, plus the cashier. The first bagging lady understood the implications of the bags. She loaded up one bag, then left. Another lady started to bag, pulling out the plastic bags. I asked her to please use the cloth. Then the third lady placed my milk in the cart, not in a bag. I asked her to please place the milk in the third cloth bag. (By this time the second bagging lady had finished her bag and disappeared.) So the milk went in the bag. Now there were two packages of meat, a carton of veg. stock and a small jar left on the belt. The third bagging lady looks at the milk in the bag and then looks at me blankly and asked, "well where do you want the rest of this stuff?" I told her very nicely that it would all fit into the cloth bag - not only was there plenty of room, but cloth bags are also much stronger than flimsy plastic grocery bags. She honestly look surprised that I could fit all my groceries into 3 cloth bags.

Apparently at this store they are a little unclear on the concept of cloth grocery bags.

Just for fun

about 1-2 months

at about 12 months

at about 3 months

Who is Who?

Simple Pleasures

I'm a cheapskate. I admit it. I balk at how much things costs, especially entertainment. So here is an incomplete list of things that we do for free or almost free.

1) go to the park
2) go to the library - she thinks this is a great outing, almost as good as the park
3) go to the mall (it used to be fun in Tucson when they had kiddie play area, here we just ride the escalators)
4) ride the bus ($1.50 for a full day's tour of the city!)
5) go to church and Bible study (ok, that isn't the primary reason we go, but Eirena really likes being able to play with the other kids)
6) ride Dr. Daddy's bicycle (Eirena steers as Dr. Daddy pushes)
7) walk up to the fire station and look cute so the firemen will let Eirena climb up and drive it (Eirena looks cute- just to clarify!)
8) go to Costco on Saturday when they have lots of samples
9) go running (Eirena likes moving at a speed faster than she can walk but still able to absorb all the sights around her)
10) go to the museums etc. on free days
11) go to the thrift store, especially when they are having 50% off!

Now you tell me what you do (or would do) for free (with or without kids)!

Obviously I limited this to things outside the house, and it is Eirena oriented, but I'd like to hear your thoughts for single, married, kids, no-kids free stuff.

The Truth about Cats and Dogs

A while ago when I wasn't sleeping, I tried to bore myself with thinking about the ways cats and dogs are different. So if you are suffering from insomnia, read on!

1) Cats are just naturally more graceful- they jump gracefully, land on their feet and look dainty, even fat cats. Dogs apparently don't have the innate ability to land on their feet. If they are 'dumped' out of your arms, they go splat.
2) Cats have an innate sense of dignity. So you tricked them into running into the wall? Well, as they shake their paw at you, they really intended to do it. Dogs... yeah they have no qualms about smashing into a wall to get a ball, who cares how stupid they look, they are having fun!
3) Dogs just have way more energy, hands down. Even Berji, when she was her most playful kittenish self (doing commando under the coffee table) has nothing on the boundless energy of the dog. We take this dog for a 5 km run and after a brief nap is wound up all over again.
4) Cats really are cleaner than dogs. I even observed our monster black cat (Efendim) washing his face using their water dish- that explains why there is always so much black hair in the dish.
5) Dogs have way more adventurous taste buds (at least ours does!) Apples, sure. Green beans, mmm, cat turds, oooh now there's a treat. Even Berji does not eat other animals' turd!

But the real truth about cats and dogs is that they both look utterly ridiculous, but oh-so-very-cute splayed out napping on their backs!

Here's to warrior princess Berji (7lbs), rambuctious, goofy Uc (11lbs) and monster cat Efendim (13 lbs)!

Big Girl

Just a quick update to let you know that Eirena is 28 lbs 12 oz (13 kg) and 35 inches. What is it they say about doubling the height the child is at age 2? I doubt she will be nearly 6 ft. tall! She certainly is heavy though!

Walk to the Library

Eirena and Uc - unposed

Eirena walking Uc

resting after our 1 km walk

I'm not sure I want to know details about the thought that inspired that look

Eirena was waving a stick around- Uc thought she must want to play

a puddle- need I say more?

almost ready to walk 1 km back!

Role Models and the Doctor

I have mentioned before that Eirena really like Curious George. Perhaps I didn't quite realize how much, or into how many areas of her life he extends. For the adoption process we have to go to a doctor and have it verified that we are in good health and no major communicable diseases. Neither Dr. Daddy nor myself really go to doctors, and especially having just moved, we didn't have one lined up. So a while ago I called around and found a doctor and our appointment was yesterday.

I told Eirena that she needed to go to bed a little early for her nap yesterday because when she woke up,we would go to the doctor. Her response? Happy! George went to see the doctor (and had to lie down) and things were fine for him, therefore it must be a good place. So she was very excited to go to the doctor and as soon as we got into the exam room, she wanted to lay down on the bed. she lay there for most of the nurse's exam. Then the doctor came and let her play with the stethescope and she thought that was pretty cool. She kept wanting to lie on the exam table like George did with Dr. Baker examining him. (The doctor was a little confused as to who George and Dr. Baker were until we clued her in.) Eirena even got some stickers out of the trip and showed off all her skills in reciting her abc's and charmed everyone.

Having realized the extent to which she looks up to George, I've started commenting on the stories about him. For instance when he grabbed something and didn't ask, the man got very angry. Maybe her love of George will help her connect behaviour and results.

So the whole point of this doctor's visit was to establish that we are healthy enough to be adoptive parents. This really just leads to silly questions. 1) Are you aware of any disabilities that would hinder the patient's parenting 2) is the patient infertile? 3) is the patient mentally stable?
Our doctor met us 2 minutes earlier! We already have a daughter! We answered the questions for her. I realize in some instances this may point to a glaring problem, but when you answer the question for the doctor who just met you, how accurate a representation is it? Just another absurd little hoop to jump through and gearing us up for the psych. evaluation that we'll have to do- now that one is going to be fun, no doubt!

Coconut Ice-cream

This recipe is so good, it will suffice for today and tomorrow's post. Actually I will be having a phone chat with our adoption case worker tomorrow while Eirena is down for her nap, so unless something tremendous happens I won't post.
But really, this recipe is good. I got it out of a Thai cookbook Joel brought back from London for me (makes sense, right?) and I think the ounces are for the British system, not American ounces.

Coconut Ice-cream
225 ml (8 fl.oz) coconut milk
175 ml (6 fl. oz) whipping cream
60 g (2 1/2 oz) sugar
3 T. finely chopped tender coconut flesh or 2 T.unsweetened dessicated coconut, toasted
2 eggs

In a saucepan, combine the coconut milk, whipping cram, sugar and coconut flesh and bring to a boil. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then whisk the boiling coconut milk mixture into the egg. Allow to cool.

Pour the mixture into a small loafpan, cover and freeze until firm. Break up the ice cream, then beat in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Spoon the mixture back into the tin, cover and freeze for several more hours until firm.

my comments:
I did a double recipe and it nicely filled a regular loaf pan and was mostly firm in 6 hours.
Typing this up I am wondering if I did 2 or 4 eggs. I can't remember, but if it was only two, it turned out well anyway.
I actually had a tender coconut to use, so I did the flesh from that, a can of coconut milk and a little bit of the water from the coconut to make up the full amount for a double recipe.
I did not beat it up once partially frozen- we wanted to eat it and it wasn't really crystallized.
I had to guess on the amount of sugar, and either I put a bit too much in or the coconut was just really naturally sweet and so the recipe could use less. (Or maybe none at all.)
I made a tart! cranberry sauce to go over it, to balance the sweetness.

Overall, really yummy and a very refreshing dessert!

The Look

Eirena has this look. She scrunches up her nose and sticks her top lip out and looks really pained. The picture gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. This look is her "sympathy" look or her pained expression. Whenever she hears another baby or kid crying she says (with her face all scrunched up) "baby cry-ing". She also does it when she say "very, very dark" -by which I think she means to indicate that it is a sad thing that it is dark. We actually find her look very funny and, as is the joy of being a parent, sometimes tell her things just to watch her make the face.


On a different topic, we were are Costco today and Eirena saw something and said, "Daddy's treat". Can you guess what she saw?


A Costco sized container of jelly beans, of course!

small town signs

This past weekend we went to Houston to visit Dr. Daddy's family. We were driving back fairly late (eh hem 8:30pm) at night and I was trying to help Dr. Daddy stay awake. So I was looking at road signs. Perhaps it was just too late for us, but we thought the signs (and our accompanying comments) were pretty funny.

Textured Pavement (back where I come from we call that bumps and potholes, but as Dr. Daddy pointed out, maybe if you make it sound artsy and intentional you won't have to fix it).

Old Potato Road (is that what they called that drink back during Prohibition? "oh no officer, we would never have alcohol, they're just old potatoes that we randomly store on this road")
-for the record I know that you were allowed to make your own brew, just not sell it, but it doesn't have quite the same effect to think of it like that

Friendship Cemetary (do all the remains rise up and sing kum-ba-ya at night? you are buried there if you want to make friends? "they had no friends in life, but in death they are surrounded by them")

And finally, as we were driving out of Houston, we saw road signs (generally used to warn of major traffic blockages or slow downs) with announcements about the football game going on. After much discussion about whether or not Houston had a football team and who it was (airing our ignorance of such matters) we noticed that in fact all the traffic was headed in the OPPOSITE direction of the football stadium. To which we remarked perhaps the team was so bad, that the sign is there to warn people to get out of town before the kickoff!

Well I hope y'all were at least a little amused. And if not, well, know that at least we stayed awake enough to make it home!

Nap Time

group nap time on the couch-see they all sort of like each other!

Have your coffee and eat it too!

I like coffee.
I like muffins.
I like cappucino muffins!

1 c. milk
2 T. instant espresso powder or instant coffee (or workout some amount of espresso)
2 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar (I usually do less)
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
8 T. butter, melted and cooled (I usually do oil)
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon (I usually forget this until its too late)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F & grease the muffin tins.
2. Scald the milk in a small saucepan over med.-high heat. Once bubbles appear around the pan's rim, remove the milk from the heat & stir in the coffee until dissolved. Cool for 5 min.
3. Whisk togetherdry ingredients (except the cinnamon), set aside.
4. Lightly whisk the egg, then whisk in the butter and vanilla until smooth. Whisking all the while, pour milk in a thin stream; continue whisking until blended. Quickly stir in dry ingredients.
5. Pour into muffin tins, sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 18 min. or until toothpick comes out clean.

This is one of my favorite muffin recipes. I got it out of a muffin book, the name of which I didn't write down. It is so good even Eirena likes them... oh wait, that's not saying much, is it?

The wee ones

I realize most of my readers (4 of you!) read this to keep up with Eirena. But since it is Berji's domain, perhaps one of you has had a passing thought about how Berji and Uc get along. So I'll tell you:
Initially Berji ran away whenever Uc came near. gradually they could be in the same room and then on the same couch. The main problem was that Uc saw Berji as a playmate just about her own size. Berji was not of the same opinion. However, a couple days ago I saw Berji go up to Uc and sniff her leg, then lick her- motherly preening perhaps?- and then whop her on the head. Uc responded by chasing her and she responded back by hissing and jumping up on the couch where Uc can't get to yet without help.
Aaww, it is so nice to see the wee ones playing, err, fighting with each other!

Also, at 5:30 in the morning when Uc thinks it is time to get up, she starts whining and barking, and often we hear "whine, whine, bark, bark....yelp, yelp" and we're fairly sure that Berji has informed her that it is NOT yet time to get up and to please-keep-it-down-so-the-rest-of-us-can-sleep-thank-you-very-much. I love it! Silence and I didn't even have to get up for it!

what a memory

Eirena loves her books. She loves having us read them over and over again to her. And over and over and over again. She has been able to fill in the blanks at the end of a sentence in her books for quite a while now. But recently she started being able to recite the WHOLE sentence, sometimes the whole page. It is so much fun to hear her tell the story and also amazing to realize how much she picks up just by hearing.

When we brush her teeth we sing her ABC's to her and then count. We started off counting to 10, then increased it to 15. I taught to count 1-15. Then we brushed her teeth counting to 20, but never taught her the numbers. But the other day she was playing outside and I started counting with her and she took off and went all the way to 20 on her own. It is just so amazing to see the developmental leaps she is going through these days.

Just pictures

Just some pictures today that I quickly took while Eirena was modeling one of her "new" dresses. Pretty cute, eh?

Notice her pretty bangles and necklace, head band and clip too- oh yes we were all decked out!


"Enough of this picture taking stuff, I'm ready to go get into mischief"

You want Mommy to kiss your what better?

Go back a few posts with me to the story of Eirena and the fire ants. Remember, the horrible nasty things that leave little dots of infection where they inflict pain on you? Right.

So a while ago Eirena thought it would be a good idea to lie down on our walkway. (This was before Dr. Daddy went to war on the fire ants.) So there were ants on the walkway and Eirena wasn't wearing a diaper, just underwear and shorts. While I was trying to convince her that it was not a good idea to lie on the walkway, she discovered why. Yes, she had ants in her pants and they bit her. So after getting all the ants off of her and claming her down, I took her inside to make sure they really were all gone.

Eirena proceeded to have me kiss all her ouches better, her knees that really was a minor scratch until she kept picking the scab, old ant bites, etc. And then she said "mommy kiss bum better". (Now while the image of this might have been amusing, I must explain that in her mind your bum is the whole area front and back, of where your underwear goes, if you know what I mean.) She didn't actually get ant bites on her bum. She got them in the front. And I'm sorry, I'll kiss her dirty little toes better, but I will not be kissing that bum better. Ah the days when the young are still innocent!

On a completely different topic, has anyone ever set off the smoke detector while taking a shower?

Curious George, Obama and the animals in the barn

What on earth do these have in common? They are the latest products of Eirena's play, comprehension and imagination.



The other day Eirena was telling us a story about how she went crash in a cart. While we had gone grocery shopping the day before, there were no crashing carts. We didn't really know to what she was referring. Until she said that it made a big mess. And then it all became clear: she has been fixated with the story of Curious George Goes to the Hospital and right at the end he rolls a cart down the ramps of the hospital, crashes into food carts and makes a big mess. When we figured that out, she then called herself "Curious Eirena". Apparently she identifies very closely with George.



Obama, Obama, Obama. Well, should he win the election, Eirena will know who the President is. She has heard his name on the news so much that she catches it and repeats it. Lately she likes to say "Obama peed potty". Yes, I'm sure he did...



The potty has become a nice focus point for Eirena in the past couple of days. She's taken with her barn animals (and baby doll) peeing and pooping in the potty. So she sits there and does her thing and then says, "horse pee potty" to which the expected response is to hold horse over the potty and pretend to let it pee. Other times the animals or baby doll need to poop, and then you have to do the appropriate sounds for such an activity. Let your imagination be your guide.

Don't try this at home

In a moment of inspiration I decided to clean some of the stuff out of the fridge. One item that sorely needed removal was a jar of yeast that no longer rose. It was maybe two cups of yeast (very cheap, very much thanks to Costco). I in fact did have a thought process at this time. It went something like this:
The yeast is old, it doesn't react, it is dry and cold. I can just pour it down the garbage disposal and it will float away to whereever such things go. It will be so much less messy than cleaning up little bits of yeast that didn't make it into the garbage.

The problem with my thought process was that it didn't include the thought that yeast congeals into something like clay when wet, regardless of how reactive it is, or isn't.

So imagine with me, approxiamtely two cups of congealed yeast and at least a cup of fuzzy refried beans going down (and then not going down) the garbage disposal. You can imagine why there isn't a picture to go along with this post.

So Dr. Daddy wonderfully helped me unclog the disposal, and then we burned out the motor. He is currently in the process of trying to remove the motor, having sent me away as I seem to have a propensity for doing the wrong thing today.

Let this be a warning to you, one and all: don't put yeast down the garbage disposal, especially if it is at your home!

We're back!

Berji and her dominions are back online! Thanks to some extra insurance money we were able to get a new computer for me. This means that I can help out with a bunch of stuff from home- locating businesses and services (how did they do it in the old days?), emailing people for various things and keeping you all up to date on our lives!

So in keeping with you informed, we would like to announce that we are in the process of making Eirena a big sister. Technically no, we are not pregnant. We are hoping to adopt an infant from Ethiopia in the coming year to 18 months. We are just in the beginning stages (which is when it is very busy getting paperwork and documentation together). From all we have heard and read, adopting is a great faith and patience stretcher, so pray for us as we embark on this adventure!