Chattanooga Fans

This past Easter we decided to head to Chattanooga a day early (we go there every Easter to hang with my cousins and family) and visit some of the places we've been meaning to check out for the last several years.  Chattanooga's Tennessee Aquarium is a great place to spend an entire day (www.tnaqua.org), and though it was a perfect day to do just that, we had other adventures in mind.  We made our first stop at our hotel to drop off the Easter 'goods', it was Easter weekend  and we were prepared! Didn't want those happy's to melt! Then we went straight to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (www.tvrail.com) and bought tickets for a short, but sure to please, train ride.  While waiting for our train we wandered around the parked cars.  The girls climbed around those that they could get on.  Ty was just in awe, he walked around and around stopping at times to check out the 'wheels', or to pat the cars.  He just loved it all!  Trains and Trucks and Cars.. makes his heart happy!  

The ride was great... lots of information was shared by the conductor (who worked an 'r' into Chickamauga every time he said it..'Chickamargua'), we went through a man-made tunnel (impressive), the car was air conditioned (always a bonus), we were able to avoid any seat belt complaints as there are none (this IS a big deal) and it was less than one hour from start to finish.  We're fans!

After the TVR tour we headed to the Chattanooga Zoo.  Our last trip to the zoo was about 4 years ago.  It went something like this:  We followed detour signs to find the entrance..under construction.  We pulled up to the ticket counter..literally our car was parked in a gravel lot beside the free standing ticket counter.  Our expectations begin to sink.  We entered, walked the entire zoo in 30 minutes (all animals in 70's cages that we swore we were reporting to PETA... again another sign they were remodeling...probably thanks to PETA) and ended at the 'petting pen'.  In this pen there were goats... who wanted you to feed them.  Brian (he's such a city boy) allowed Kendall to climb the hill in the middle of the pen...and she was curtly met by a ram who head-butted her right off his mound.  Lesson learned.  As we were leaving we noticed the lonely camel and snapped our list pic of him as we carried our dazed and confused 4 yr. old to the van..which was a very short walk.  Here..let me show you a pic of the camel...

Wait..this one is better..without the top of someone's head blocking the view:

Yes.. if you are an observant viewer you'll notice the train car behind the camel. That is a popular 'f' slang there, right above his nostril.  We feel certain the goats left it for us.

So you see, our expectations were .. well there were no expectations.  We knew they had bunny petting stations and it was Easter, so there you have it.  I am happy to report however that the zoo has been re-vamped..it now takes about 45 minutes to walk it.  The lot is paved with a beautiful entrance, and you have to walk 1/4 mile to reach it which is pretty standard for most zoos I do believe.  They had a great Easter themed day at the zoo and my kids loved petting the bunnies and enjoyed the egg hunt, etc.  Though it is a small zoo the price is appropriate for the experience and they have an indoor carousel, so who cares about the rest!?  And yes.. my girls pet the goats..this time Brian was wise to their ways and steered clear of the hill.  The camel was still there too.  Interestingly enough, the train cars were not.  All in all our Chattanooga Zoo experience was very enjoyable and we will return!  (www.chattanoogazoo.net) 

By this point the kids were BEGGING to go 'home', they were pretty exhausted.  But check-in time wasn't for another 1 1/2 hours so we had time for one more adventure.  We 'Yelped' ice cream and the best ratings were given to The Ice Cream Show only minutes from the zoo.  To our delight the location was right at the pedestrian bridge, so we parked..ordered the MOST AMAZING ice cream and walked half way across the bridge (over the river) and enjoyed the river views.  We also checked out the Art Museum, though it was closing there were still some really cool exhibits outdoors.  Really a beautiful, beautiful area (the art district).  Our day ended at the hotel where the kids got to swim, eat pizza, sleep on a fold out couch with their own t.v. and wake to the Easter Bunny happy's!  What a great success! 

If you are planning a trip to Chattanooga I must also recommend:

Chattanooga Duck Tours (www.chattanoogaducks.com) - this is a great way to get off your feet and enjoy a different view of the city!

See Rock City and Ruby Falls (not for young kids though)...ride the Incline Railway if you can!

My friend Nancy said they went white water rafting with their 6 and 9 year old..so much fun!

Grab lunch at Tony's Pasta Shop and Trattoria then jump into Rembrandt's for chocolate treats, both found in the Bluffview Art District.  

Kids love the Chattanooga Discovery Museum, within walking distance of the Tn Aquarium.

At the Tn Aquarium purchase tickets for the IMAX 3D..it's totally worth it!  And if the weather is right, go ahead and let them wear their suits..there's plenty of water play around the aquarium.  

Add a little Twist...

The single most asked question I get regarding my beautiful boy is 'who did his hair?'  Answer: Me.  Immediately they reach down to touch his hair (are they checking to see if it's a wig??  do they doubt my ability and expect to find some nylon mesh against his scalp?), and by now he even knows it's coming and obligingly allows them a moment to inspect before he flashes them his dimpled smile at which point they melt and lose their train thought which then leads them to ask 'How do you do it?'  Ok.... let's just say that is the equivalent to asking how to tie your shoe.  Try to talk someone through tying their shoe for the first time ever without a shoe to exhibit it on.  It's not an easy sell.  But fixing Ty's hair is not hard,  really.  However, you just gotta see someone do it.  We knew we wanted to try to Twist/Lock his hair from the first time we went to Ethiopia.  It is a common style there among the older boys ... the younger boys have short cuts.  And babies either have a fine baby fro hair or shaved.  When we returned home with Ty we were invited to dinner at our friend's,the Yate's, house.  Their son's family now lives in Ethiopia and their daughter Summer is doing amazing things in the Korah region (check out Project 61 here). That same night Summer was flying in with her Ethiopian 'son' Worldu, and guess what?  He had the COOLEST hair!  Did you know that hair transcends all languages? So grateful for that~ as Worldu and Summer gave us a tutorial on the steps right there in the Yate's livingroom while listening to some Ethiopian music via Brian's blackberry.  (If only there were dogs barking and coffee beans roasting we would have been transported right back to the EGH (http://ethiopiaguesthome.com/).)  We left there feeling confident that our little guy was going to have Worldu's hair and we couldn't wait to get started! The next several weeks many websites and blogs were read, products were trialed, suggestions were made (some good some bad...good:  make sure you wet the hair before trying to style, pick out the hair while wet with conditioner; bad: after you shampoo add baby oil directly to the hair and style..ok there aren't any worse than that one so I'll stop here.)  Ty's 'curls' as some call them have been referred to as Locks by my most educational supporters (aka the check out clerks at my Kroger) and known as twisting by others.  If you look either of these up on Youtube.com you're likely to find Twisting as a form of braiding and Locks are definitely associated with Rastafarian freeform styles. Locking is more or less the correct name and he would certain look like a cool little 'Marley' if we didn't pick it out every 3-4 days and start over.  In an attempt to give you a shortened, most simplistic explanation... you know when you're nervous, or bored..some use it to flirt..and you twist a strand of your hair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ol_iisVm2w&feature=related) well that is what we do with it.  We wash and condition (see products below) and while still nice and damp we squirt a few spritz's of Kinky Curl's Spiral Spritz all over hair.  Then using Kinky Curl Custard (a small dab for each few sections) we begin our flirty twist.  In the end we get this really cool hair.  That others enjoy inspecting!  

Another important part of hair care is regular cuts. However, you MUST find someone who knows how to cut this ultra fabulous hair!  So don't be afraid to say no to your Redken Specialist and seek out the girl who spends most of her life in Haiti cutting hair for the orphans or go right into Penney's and look for the friendliest black lady who knows a desperate mama when she sees her and is way ok with tellling you what you SHOULD be doing without stomping your pride.  It may take a few tries..but they're out there!

Here are our treasured products:  Kinky Curly works wonderfully with Ty's hair...the price is worth the effect!  I first started out with the Jamaican Mango and Lime Locking Products (found at your local grocery store) and even now sometimes I'll still use them.  The Mango and Lime No More Itch works great on Ty's scalp too, which tends to get pretty dry.  

Looks at those beautiful strands... love it!

After washing, conditioning (and picking out while conditioner is in hair), this is the look right out of the bath. No more long tendrils..those things got bounce!

Here's a pic of Ty's first cut...

This is his blowout...pretty fab right?!

Followed by a deep conditioning treatment...snacks and t.v. are a must at this point.

And rewarded with his fave..a blue lolli!  Makes for a happy boy!

Here's another view.. taken several months later (considerably longer).

Truck Lovin' Ty

In the beginning our only interaction with Ty was through the play of this little truck, and one other yellow car that made noise.  He would not look us in the eye and at first he would only allow brief peeks over at the toys we had brought along for the visit. Brian and I would spend hours just pushing the truck back and forth, every now and then we'd run it up his back and down his leg in a playful way.  His reaction wasn't what we had hoped..but we knew we were onto something when the first verbal sound he made was the sound of the truck. And that, as far as we know, began his love of all things with wheels!  The picture above was taken in Ethiopia, during our second trip which was when he came home with us forever. Since then he has been all about trucks and cars and of course his favorite movie is CARS.  He couldn't say Mater or Lightning McQueen but he could say 'KaChow!' and still uses it to identify McQueen.  I bet if you see us out, you'll find a truck, car or train in his tight grasp and they are not for sharing...consider yourself warned.  For us, toting a toy around is nothing new as K and M are always packing a bag with stuffed animals or games for the 2 minute drive to Kroger.  But this particular habit, the love he has for his 'truck' (he calls them all trucks) goes back to our bonding... and so we love it, embrace it and gladly participate!

This is his famous Wheaties van...he uses it to clear a path through the crumbs he's so evenly distributed about the coffee table.  BTW...those 'dings' in the table are really road 'ruts', and they were not near as bad before Ty joined us...all off roading vehicles have since been banned from the table and relocated to the nearby train table.

We had no idea how influential the CARS movie was going to be until we were forced to carry around this packet of tissue, just 'cause the CARS character was on it.  I don't even know who that is!  But he did!  No one was allowed to actually use the tissues, your nose was just gonna have to drip as far as he was concerned.  This was serious business.

This is a common parking garage for Ty's vehicles. Recently he's figured out how to make the ice come out and the trucks often find themselves in a hail storm.  Truly a little boys dream.

Opposite the hail storm is a molten crash.  Actually...this is my coffee.  Ty thought I could use a little extra zing and added his matchbox car.  A quick stir of the spoon, metal against metal and I fished out the die cast donation.

Here he is with his favorite remote controlled, KaChowing, reverse-forward-right, front fender mouth moving Lightning McQueen.  No the excitement didn't cause his hair to stand up... that's fresh shampoo'd hair.

What?  Didn't your convertible come with a Green Grape driver?

Lining them up, getting ready to go.  This combination gave him HOURS of play.  

Yes, that's a fresh pan of SpaghettiO's in tomato sauce with Meatballs and Tonka Truck.

And at the end of the day..you better believe... this little boy's KaChow is as happy as can be. 

One Year Post

Can it really be?  Have I not posted anything since January?  Well that just won't do!

I will cut myself some slack as it does feel like I'm in some whacked-out time warp game and I'm constantly losing time!  Lots has happened in the last 5 months..wonder if I can remember it all...I know the answer to that already..NO WAY!  But I'll do my best to catch up.. oh what fun we've had!

(Confession:  that last sentence is what I HOPE my children are thinking.  My own declarative statement goes something like:  What the *&$% just happened?)

Here is the first known pic of sweet boy Ty..as at  7 mos of age he was no doubt super sweet!

Sweet Boy Ty learned quickly the messy ways of his gender and hasn't bothered to look for alternatives.  He has changed so much in the first year home, it's amazing to consider!  Now we know that his obsessive ability to clean his plate, and then move on to ours, was really a product of his previous environment and his love for all things digestible.  Now days he will walk away from his plate after eating what he wants the most, and has been known to show off his great arm with chunks of chicken flying across the table.  Of course we encourage him to eat as we do his sisters, but we know the accomplishment this is..this new level of security for him and it just makes us glow inside.

For our one year celebration as a Fabulous Family of Five we celebrated at Goha, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant with our favorite Ethiopian family!  We dined on all of our favorites and then topped it off with an ice cream treat. The girls have adjusted well... they love their brother dearly as long as he's not using them as a mosh pit (which occurs often).  Brian loves coming home to 'big hugs' and already sees the soccer potential in his little guy.  And me, well I'm still trying to figure out what this boy business is all about...and hope that one day soon I can share it with the world!  Until then, I'll be on alert for trucks in the plants, toys in the toilet, dish soap on the floor, cat food in the to go containers, missing shoes, long distance charges, missing library book pages, Q tips in the nose, and flying chicken. 

This Grateful Heart is taking a beatin' and still lovin' life!

O

Sharing The Dream

Today I woke with just one kiddo in the house, the other 2 were having a sleepover at their grandparents house. I had been thinking about this day all weekend. This MLK Day. It has always been a day of appreciation for us, appreciation for a man who showed us all that if you know it's wrong, if it doesn't sit well with your soul, then share it with any and every one who will listen, without violence, use your God given talents to communicate and do something about it. That takes EXTREME courage, and Dr. King paved the road. So this morning, with my little guy in my lap, we pulled up YouTube and listened to Dr. King's speeches. Ty enjoyed the videos, and at times I believe he either thought that we were Skyp-ing with Dr. King or he was joining in and agreeing with the message, he was anxiously sharing his thoughts with the video. I watched and listened, and today I heard his words with new ears. I will not pretend to know what it is like to suffer, for though I haven't walked without obstacles, my hurt is no comparison to those Dr. King felt led to fight for. In his We Shall Overcome speech he says" The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone." Their Freedom IS Inextricably Bound To Our Freedom...powerful. I couldn't be there then, but I am here now and I know that equality among all of God's Children is still a work in progress, and it is crucial that I continue to recognize it and help to correct it. Nearly one year ago I had the opportunity to meet 10 other families who were led to adopt, all of us from Ethiopia, meeting our sweet black boys and black girls soon to join our families as our sons and daughters. I know that Dr. King, and the others who believed in the message, helped pave our way to them. No doubt about it. I am grateful, beyond words. So here I sat, at 8:30 this morning, with my sweet little boy, his skin darker than mine, approx 230 miles from the location of his assassination, and I am so glad he shared his dream with the world!

"Deep in my heart, I do believe, WE SHALL OVERCOME. And with this faith, we will go out and adjourn the councils of despair, and bring new lite into the dark chambers of pessimism. And we will be able to rise from the fatigue of despair to the bouyancy of hope..and this will be a GREAT America!"


"I have a dream that one day,....little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

Love this poem...

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Summer 2011...

Before the year ends...thought I'd squeeze in a sweet little summer clip I recently found. Love my little family! More to come soon..and so glad for that promise!