pictures of mommy

Tess drew these 2 photos and said  "this mom so big doing..."which means these are the 2 thing you do the most, mom...

drive everyone around in the car...top picture

and go for long walks with the dogs!!

She is very observant.  As you can see she draws at about a 3-4 year old level.  There are certain things we find she can be developmentally behind on and then others she seems way ahead of herself.  It's so fascinating to me.  Her teacher and I talk almost everyday.  We find her behavior is similar at home and at school.  Her teacher is finding she is quite needy. She wants to stay with her, by her side all the time, instead of going to play with the other kids.  She is the same at home.  ALWAYS at my side.  This seems normal to me so we are just trying to encourage her and give her ideas of other things she can do.

Things we are observing...She is just terrible with paint.  Everything ends up a big brown blob...I would guess she probably never painted before.  Crayons are better and I know they had crayons at the orphanage.  She is great orally repeating the alphabet and numbers,  but does not know what they represent or are used for.  We are just starting to get that letters have sounds and form words...this was abstract to her.  Again, I think there was no real formal teaching so all of this is totally new to her.  Math seems to be going fairly well.  We save all our corks from wine bottles which are now my math counters when we do math homework (I knew they'd be handy for something).  They work great for addition and subtraction...it has really helped her.  She brought home her first library book and did not know why she had to give it back.  I guess libraries are a funny concept...it was hard to explain to her-still not sure she gets what it is...

Little Ethiopia playdate

We have joined a great group of families that have adopted kids from Ethiopia.  We meet once a month in Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles.  It's called Messob Playdate.  The kids are so cute together.  There is a lovely couple that are Ethiopian and adopted from Ethiopia.  Tseiga (the dad)  teaches the kids Ethiopian games and songs.  One time he did a skit and Cameron was the Ethiopian shephard.
There is a great Ethiopian market here that we can get injera (the basic ethiopian bread) to bring home for Tess.

A mom at the play group shared her story about her daughters adjustment period.  The girls have been home 1 year and spoke such great english that people don't know the girls are African.  She said her daughter also started 1st grade a year ago and now is completely american.  I know that is our goal, but part of me loves Tess' accent and cute pronunciation.  I'm loving watching her learn and explore everything...part of me wants her to always be a beautiful african little girl!!  I'm thinking that won't happen since her favorite TV show is...

SPONGE BOB !!!  Can you believe it!!
This was Tess's first time eating injera and doro wat since we have been back.  She was so happy and ate so much that she complained of a stomach ache when we were done with lunch!  We held off letting her know Ethiopian food was available here in America since we were having some trouble in the beginning getting her to eat.  Now that she eats a pretty big variety of food we thought it was a good time to let her know that we will try to make the playdate each month and she can eat her beloved injera to her hearts content.

Tseiga teaches Tess and Jeff a traditional Ethiopian children's game.  Jeff had to say the words to the game in Amharic....lets just say Tess is doing way better with her english than her dad is doing with his Amharic!!
Cameron is always a hit with all the kids!! They just love him.  One little one asked him " why is your hair so white??"

Tess does her homework...

Happy Birthday to my LOVE!!

Here are the 10 things I love most about my amazing husband!!...

1.  I love waking up next to him!!  I'll never be tired of that!!

2. I love that he seeks to know God!  He is an amazing worship role model for the kids!!

3. His tattoos rock!!

4. He said yes to adopting an orphan!  He was supportive and open to it from the first time I                brought it up!!  His exact words were..."Let's do it!" and he never looked back.

5.  I love that he wants to see and do.  He is always coming up with new trips and adventures  he      wants to take us  all on.

6.  I love that he follows his dreams in a big way.  The sky is the limit!!  This year he wanted to        continue his dream of  learning to play POLO so we went to Argentina to our friends polo             horse farm so he could work with some great Argentine polo instructors...

7 .  I love that he has clarity on all things thrown at him...he is just as amazing at running his              big business issues as he is of hearing me out on my little everyday kid issues-- and he                  always comes up with the perfect rational solution...He is our rock!

8.  I love that he is an absolutely dedicated and involved dad!  He never misses a game and has         been a coach to each kid at one point or another.  He also does friday breakfast with dad and       takes one of the kids to breakfast on friday mornings.

9.  I love who he has become as a man , 22 years after meeting him in Paris.  I would marry him        again in a heartbeat!! 

10.  I mostly love that he loves me, our kids and our amazing life.  We are blessed beyond                  words...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY and thank you for this amazing journey that is our life!!! I'm so glad that you are the one sharing it with me!!  OX

Our Little schoolgirl...

Today Tess brought home this lovely picture she drew at school.  She said it is a picture of our house.  She always comes home and shares stories of her day at school

Cameron is loving 4th grade and thinks its so cool that he can do part of his homework online and send it to his teacher.  He is a great role model for Tess.
The math whiz at work.  She only had to do 3 pages but did 7 and I made her stop.  She just loves it!

Tess is loving school.  She has really settled into the routine of school and homework.  She loves to do her math homework and is quite good at it. We had back-to-school last night and it was very cute to sit at her desk and see all her work.  She is just adjusting better than we ever could have hoped.  The Lord is really working side by side with us!! and answering all our prayers!

you go girl...

You have to understand how typical this is for Tess...we arrive at the Wavehouse for Cameron's party.  The waves in the pool are very intimidating!  I did not get Tess a wrist band because I never dreamed that she would go in.  She has been improving on her comfort level when in the water but...SHE CANNOT SWIM!!  She is up to putting her face underwater and making swim strokes with her hands.  She can maybe do 3 strokes but then pops right up.  She just continues to amaze us with her determination and plain old GUTS!!  She insisted we get her a wrist band which allows the kids to go in the wave pool.  She did not even hesitate..she jumped right in and did great.  

I got a new video camera and have some great footage of her..I'm still figuring out how to get footage onto the blog so bear with me...it's coming.

Chat with Tess

Cameron's Birthday... California style!!

WAVEHOUSE  San Diego,  Sept, 19, 2009...celebrating Cameron's 10th!!!

Cameron's Birthday... California style!!

Cameron chose to have his party at the WAVEHOUSE this year.  For those of you not in California...this is a very cool place that has pools with giant wave machines.  The kids can actually surf and bodyboard in the pool.  We took 5 kids and went down to San Diego...above is Bennett in the "tube" pool...

      HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY Cameron!!!

Cameron riding a wave in the "flowrider" pool...
Bennett had a blast!  He did tricks and the younger kids tried to copy him...
You'd never know Tess doesn't know how to swim...if her brothers can do it, she thinks she can too...and she did!!
The younger kids watched the "tube" pool from the jacuzzi..how cool is that!!


Cousin Jason rips it up in the "flowrider"...we laughed so much...the kids loved it!  We booked the party for 3 hours which included 1 hour on the waves just for us!!  The kids all did great...Next came the firepit, pizza,cake and presents...

Playdate with Greta

Today Tess had a playdate at our house with her little friend Greta.  She is Tess's first friend that is not a family friend.  They are in the same first grade class.  Greta's little sister, Hayden, wanted to stay so I had her mom leave them both.   I was observing how Tess is doing at playing with other kids her age.  Here's what I saw...

The girls really did not play "together".  I'm not sure if it is a lack of language or if Tess really doesn't know how to play with toys, with other kids.  I pulled out the Barbies that my sister sent me from her daughters and watched. Greta played with a big Dora doll and Hayden played with the Barbies.  Tess watched and wandered around.  I notice that even on her own she has a very limited attention when playing with toys.  I think she has never had them so she doesn't know how to entertain herself with them.  I have tried to get her to play with toys so I can get some work done...and it never works. She plays for about 2 minutes and then is right back at my side.  She will sit and watch me play with them,  but she can not do it on her own...interesting.  She will stay very engaged when it comes to sports, but not toys...just an observation. 

 The girls did play together when I gave them lollipops and took photos...they giggled and had a ball...ahhhh sugar...its universal!!!

" If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself in the lives of those who do not have your advantage, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but the hundreds and thousands of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better...or maybe just the one...

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already."

Read this again...

FUN with TESS and CAM

Cameron and Tess had their first soccer and flag football games this weekend.  They wer both so excited!! Tess plays for the 'Shooting Rock Stars'  and Cameron plays for the 'Mustangs'.
Tess scored 2 goals in her soccer game and Cameron scored the only touchdown in his flag football game!  Bennett also scored 2 touchdowns at his football game...Jonas kids ROCKED this weekend!! Go teams!!

Jumping on the trampoline at our friends house...

Tess and Cameron caught a lizard outside.  They named it Chuck and kept it all weekend.