I was always sort of worried about how Micah would transition since he's the "baby" of our family.  Let me say that he has done amazing!  He really does love his little sister (until she's mobile enough to take his toys).  Any time she starts to get irritated that no one is paying attention to her he runs to her side and plays with her or talks to her.

He's designated himself as the "diaper sniffer" and will let me know via sniffing her diaper that she needs a change.  This is an extraordinary job for a three year old boy who is obsessed with poop, farts and booty's.  Most of the time he's not right, but it makes him feel helpful.  If they are both in our bed together while I get ready for work he will try to snuggle with her and she just bangs him over the head with her hand.  It's very sweet to watch.

One thing I didnt' really think of was how he would understand how she came to our family.  Three year olds have limited understanding of things but before she came we told him that Sanai's real mommy couldn't take care of her and so we were going to be her new mommy and daddy and take care of her.  We also told him that she really wanted a big brother to watch over her, which he thought was sooo cool!

He knows that she is from Africa and when we went to the airport a few weeks ago he actually asked me if we were taking Sanai back to Africa since we were at the airport.  I told him no and asked him if he wanted to take her back to Africa and he said NO!!

Me and the kids went to a soccer game last week and when we walked by the ticket table an african american woman was taking money.  He marched up to her and asked her if she was Sanai's mommy!!  I was sort of embarassed because the lady was very confused.  After I reminded him that I was her mommy and hustled the stroller along, I realized that he was asking if she was Sanai's birth mom.  I asked him later if he understood that I was Sanai's mommy and he said yes but that Sanai's birth mommy wasn't white, she had to be black because Sanai is black.  He understands that mommy is "vanilla" and daddy is "brown".  If you ask him what color he is he will say "honey brown". 

Moral of the story is that we need to reinforce that we are Sanai's new mommy and daddy and that Sanai's birth mom lives in Africa, so that he doesn't ask every African American lady if she is Sanai's mommy! ha ha

Well, I have survived my first week back at work.  Mornings have been surprisingly easy.  I decided to get the kids clothes together for the whole week and stuff them in the little shoe hanger on the back of their door that way there's no guessing in the morning.  Tommy's been getting Micah dressed before he leaves which helps a lot.  I haven't been late or running behind one time yet (knock on wood).

Sanai and Micah now go to the same daycare, he is so excited!  I'm not so excited that daycare is now more than my mortgage...She's also acquired a yucky, runny, clogged nose this week.  She's been waking up quite a bit at night because she can't breath but it's all building up her immune system because Micah hardly ever gets sick anymore.




Breakfast time with Ms. Tammy and Ms. Donna


I took her shopping the other day and found this cute hat.  Of course she needed it for those cool evening football games.  I also couldn't pass up the super cute furry boots to keep her feet warm.  hee hee My sister in law was right, a little girl will make you go broke!

Other exciting news is that Sanai started saying "da da".  Of course I know it's easier to say than "ma ma" but I spent 5 weeks at home and got up every night with her and she has the nerve to say his name first!!  So inconsiderate! ha ha

She also started sitting up!!!  She has been progressing and growing so quickly I can't believe it.  On the plane when we brought her home she couldn't put any weight on her legs and she wouldn't even stand with her legs on my lap.  Now she will stand and jump and can roll acrossed a room!!  She has been sitting up for extended periods of time too.  Of course we still surround her with pillows but she's so happy to be sitting up, it's cute!

I'm boo hoo'ing (is that a word?!) this week because it's my last week with my Ethiopian princess!!  We had a great weekend traveling and hanging out with family in Iowa though.  Sanai got to meet my grandma's, aunt and my brother and sister in law and two sweet nieces. 

 I was a little worried on how Micah would do because he's never been on a plane, but he did good.  Plenty of toys and snacks and he was good to go.

 

We arrived in Detroit for our layover and two hours later found out our flight had been delayed another two hours and then cancelled.  Luckily, there was another flight and they just combined ours with theirs and we arrived pretty close to the time we were supposed to before.

The weekend was full of rehearsals, dinners, makeup and hair appts and lots of fun. My friend Denise, the bride, looked beautiful.  We all had a lot of fun!  I saw a few friends I hadn't seen in a really long time.  Before I knew it, it was Sunday and we were headed back to Tennessee. Luckily our flights were on time and there were no delays.  Both kids fell asleep on the second flight.  The attendant said my kids won "best behaved" award for the week. 

They were both pretty excited to see Daddy on Sunday!!

I'm ready for a few weeks of relaxation after this weekend, but knowing our schedule that probably won't happen. ha ha

At the reception



Bridesmaids


 

I've got two weeks left of my maternity leave, the time is truly flying by.  I have been enjoying every day with Sanai - she's so fun and is learning so many things.  And I seriously think she's the happiest little girl I've ever seen!

She really enjoys bath time and splashing in the water.  She has been eating like a champ as well.  This upcoming Thursday we are taking a trip to Iowa for a friends wedding, so it will be interesting to see how flying by myself with both the kids will be!

Playing on the couch

 

Cruising in her new Jeep

All clean after bath time

Playing with her farm toy

Munching on her toes at the park



 

Sanai's Room

Once we saw the face of our little girl, I had a million ideas swarming around in my head about how I wanted to do her room.  I scoured the internet and pinterest for some ideas and if you remember I had posted two insprirations.  One was a yellow/teel blue/bright pink combo and other was a more vintage/antique type with a red crib.  Although I loved the red crib idea I went with the other inspiration for her room and I think it turned out great!!

Let me say that virtually everything is DIY.  The most expensive piece is the rug that I found on clearance and it's AMAZING.

Old dressers that I painted black and found the white ceramic knobs at the Habitat Restore for 25 cents each!

 

All the wall pieces were from yard sales and were spray painted, besides the pink crown which I got at Hobby Lobby. The canvas was made with a friends Cricut machine and a canvas that I painted.  The frame around the canvas is from a yard sale.

 

This frame was also purchased at Hobby Lobby, candle stick at yard sale and elephant from Goodwill

 

Alphabet letters were gathered from yard sales, Goodwills, etc by me and my mom .Once all together I painted and covered various letters with decorative paper. The bench is made from a twin bed frame purchased at a yard sale for $20 by my dad.

 

Up close of rossette lamp shade

Lamp from Goodwill, spray painted silver and lamp shade covered with hand made white rossettes (took forever!) Side table purchased for $20 at Goodwill and painted white. Black ebony elephant purchased in Ethiopia

 



The closet was already painted so I just added the stripes

Fabric purchased from Joann and Hancock fabrics, old pillows recovered and bench cushion was left over piece of memory foam we cut to fit

 

Crib bumper recovered with fabric from Hancocks.  Sleeping baby courtesy of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia :)

This amazing rug is called "wooly bully" and is extremely thick and soft and big. I found this guy on CLEARANCE at Lowe's for $100!!

Light fixture from Habitat Restore for $4, sprayed yellow. Micah's old cherry wood crib spray painted white, cages from Goodwill and Old Time Pottery sprayed black.

 

So...what do you think??

I created a video a few weeks ago to document our adoption journey.  I debuted it at my baby shower and also posted it on facebook but thought I would go ahead and post it here as well!  Hope you enjoy :)

Doctor visit

Monday was Sanai's visit with the International Adoption Clinic at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.  She did really great on the car ride there, she slept most of the way!  When we got there we checked in and waited to be called back.  She happily sat in her car seat in the waiting room.

I was asked a lot of questions about her behavior and sleeping habits.  She has nights where she sleeps from 8pm until 5:30-6am and then other nights where she wakes up two or three times.  I hadn't realized that perhaps when she was at the orphanage/transition house that she was woken up for a scheduled nightly feeding.  The doctor said that the bottle might be her "pacifier" and be the thing that gets her back to sleep.  I had been giving her a bottle right before bed so she suggested we do a feeding, then do bath time, then put her to sleep so she can learn to fall asleep on her own.  Since we don't really have a routine down yet this is what we have been working on the past few days.

The doctor also suggested we start her on rice cereal and slowly introduce fruits and vegetables since she's 6 months.  She's slowly learning how to swallow solids and that weird spoon in her mouth that she's not used to.  We introduced sweet potatoes on Wednesday and they've been a hit!

I was actually really proud of myself because Micah has been home sick the past few days and I was able to take care of him, keep the house clean, give Sanai a lot of attention and while she was playing/napping I whipped up a batch of homemade sweet potatoe baby food!  I made a lot of Micah's baby food when he was little because it's SOO much cheaper, really easy and you know exactly what it's got in it.  I peeled, chunked and boiled the potatoes in water on the stove.  Then put the soft potatoes in the blender along with some of the water and poured what would fit into an ice cube tray and the rest in small containers that I put in the freezer.

Consider how much food this is (ice cube tray not shown, but full in the freezer!) for $2.40.  Imagine how many jars that is!!  I'll be on the look out for peaches, carrots, squash and apples when they go on sale.  My blender doesn't blend peas, green beans or meats (when she's ready) very smoothly so I always buy those jars...with coupons of course! ha ha