especially if your brother’s booty lands on your arm while you try a handstand.  She cried so hard on Wednesday, I was sure it was broken, but she was using it again on Thursday (fairly freely, and by the end of the day she was trying some hanging exercises at fencing), so I decided I was overly anxious for nothing. Except, she wouldn’t use it again today, complained every time it was bumped, and her hand began to look swollen.  The quickest of trips to the Children’s hospital outpatient office ended with this BLUE! arm, a blue tongue (from the ice pop they foisted upon her) and a sympathy gift of paperoni from mama,  something she has wanted for the last 6 months or so.

I am bummed by the loss of independence (hers and mine), the interesting alterations we will need to make to her nun’s habit (have I mentioned that she likes to be covered from top to toe?) and the need to delay many potential fall activities including music and dance lessons.

A day for the history book though, Astrid Meklit is the first Chapman-Layland to have a cast…we are all SO proud!

Let’s hope for warmish weather until October–AM will be really sad if she can’t wear her long sleeves when it’s actually chilly.

“you spin me wrong round baby, wrong round

like a record baby,

round round round round”

The dance floor aka the family room is going to seem awfully quiet over the next month or so…

Here’s a shot of my crazy little gal, dancing through an empty parking lot on the way to the Metro.  Astrid Meklit loves life!  She was thrilled by our museum choices, our restaurant selections and the shopping we did.  She had a king-sized bed all to herself this week and she refused to share it with her doll Meskerem, “she takes up too much room.”  Poor Meskerem was given a pillow for resting on the floor so that AM and kitty could slumber undisturbed (it’s exactly what we did with you, girlie, when we wanted unblemished rest…)

The rest of us enjoyed the too-short week full of museums and trains and gluten free pizza.  I can’t believe it’s really over–Elliott will be off to school a week from Tuesday. Grappling, really grappling with that new reality.  I hope to make peace with it soon, in the meantime, there is a great deal of Enkutatash planning left to do, and I’m fully immersed.   Busy-ness is a nice distraction tool.  At this rate, I won’t have time to think about our many life changes until sometime in 2011—well done, me!

Today is World Humanitarin Day.  In it’s second year, World Humanitarian Day will be celebrated across the world, to raise awareness about humanitarian work and honor those who  lost their lives giving of themselves.

This day was established by the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations in 2008.

Reuters shared in a press release

Aid workers operate in some of the most insecure countries around the world to ensure that emergency medical supplies, food, shelter, and water and sanitation – life’s most basic necessities – reach millions of people whose lives have been torn apart by natural disaster and conflict. World Humanitarian Day aims to draw attention to the increasingly difficult conditions humanitarian personnel work under – including a disturbing trend which has increasingly seen them become the direct targets of attacks. Importantly, the day particularly highlights the plight of those in need of assistance.

Thank you to each and every humanitarian worker who puts others before themselves. You are all making a difference in our world.

Here is a short video on the 2010 World Humanitarian Day Project

Kim

Astrid Meklit will be four in October.  We have been discussing plans for her birthday party since June (or maybe May?).  It will be a blue party, because it is her favorite color.  She wants blue balloons, a rousing game of pass-the-present, and she wants chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing that looks blue (don’t forget to make them gluten free, mama).   When we aren’t discussing her birthday, we spend a lot of time chatting about Halloween.  For months, she wanted to be a cute, not too scary skeleton, but now waffles between being a horse or a (blue) cat.  I think the blue cat choice is inching ahead, but she really does love horses, so…

Some other things of note:

I call AM the whole package.  People instantly notice how pretty she is, and that she talks a great deal, but in addition, she’s really funny, very loving, and very kind.  As apt as I might be to promote her terrific  qualities, she needs little help from me–my gal is the bees knees!

Astrid remains fiercely devoted to her pink blanket and her stuffed cat “kitty” aka “Ribbons.”  She can’t imagine sleeping without them, but she’s working through a plan of her own creation (with much prompting from her sweet dentist) to stop sucking her thumb by the time she is four, so kitty and pink blanket stay in her bed all day and then she isn’t tempted to suck her thumb when she isn’t resting.  Goal setting is definitely Astrid’s strong suit.  She makes a decision and works to make it happen.  Over the past year, I’ve watched her work patiently to learn to jump, to tumble, to hop on one foot, to draw the letters of her name, and to master dance moves she found in a book about dance.  She is patient, but unrelenting–she works harder than anyone I know .

Still very much a mama’s girl, Astrid Meklit loves nightly chats with her daddy, looks forward to his weekly homecoming, and allows him to be in charge of a couple of bedtimes over the weekend.  She loves to be read to by both of us, but there are books that only daddy may read, which pleases me mightily.   She also adores her brother, although he is too bossy, and she loves having my mom here.

A perfect day for Astrid Meklit would involve lots of reading, swimming, mini-waffles, and tons of board games.  If we added time for singing (she knows every top 40 song Elliott likes), and then zipped to the park for swinging, then to the library, and then to get water-ice her happiness would be complete.  Any one of those elements in her day is enough to inspire her gratitude, all of them together would be better than a trip to Disneyland

An interview with my gal

Me:  Hey Astrid, who’s your favorite kid friend?

AM:  Yiwa (Lila)

Me:  Who’s your favorite grownup friend?

AM:  Mama.  Why, what are you doing?

Me:    I just want to ask you some questions your teacher might ask.

What’s your favorite thing to play?

AM:  Candyland or the color game on the iPad

Me:  What’s your favorite thing to eat?

AM:  pasta, but only string pasta, not the kind with the wrong sauce that I eated last week (I foolishly bought a prepared pasta pouch for traveling, and AM begged to try it.  It wasn’t good at all.)

Me:  Do you have a favorite book to read?

AM:  Knuffle Bunny

Me:  Where do you like to go around town?

AM:  To the zoo because it has the carousel that I like to ride and also it has fish.

Me:  Do you like to go on trips?

AM:  Yea, to DC because it has so many things to go to.  The museum with the playground (The Nat’l Building museum),  we go to the mail museum, and we ride on the blue train sometimes, and sometimes the orange train, and I like all the beds in our hotel room and the sculpture garden but not the carousel because you say it’s too much money.

Further questions were dismissed, mostly because I’ve promised to play Picture Triominoes with her when we’re done, but she says she’s willing to answer other questions later, like when she is “4 or maybe 5.”

My girl!

My dad’s death:  We followed the month in Florida with a month of my mom here, and initially, I planned another trip to Florida sometime in August, but that isn’t going to happen.  Daily loving phone calls from me also aren’t happening, despite my best intentions.  We’re all muddling forward though–still sad, still missing my dad, but there are lots of happy afternoons too.  We’re trying to entice my mom to stay longer next time by offering her a real bed to sleep in rather than a D-lux air mattress–we’ll see how successful we are.

Elliott’s school decision:  The school decision is not mine, and wasn’t mine to make.  While I think Elliott will be happy with his choice, I’m struggling with it.  Homeschooling, specifically unschooling, makes the most sense to me.  I’ve identified as a homeschooling mother for so long, it feels weird not to be one any longer.  Complicating things are the logistics of this school affair.  It’s been assumed (for about a year now) that Albert would begin working in town for about a year starting in June…then no, wait, it will be August.  Um, no–maybe November. Did we say 2010?  Maybe for a few months in 2011.  It’s all still up in the air, but I really thought Albert would be home for the first year of traditional school, making it less tempting to sneak away for a week in DC from time to time.  I had hoped that his in town schedule would help shape our routine (and I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I planned for Albert to do some of the driving–the round trip to school will be a little more than an hour, 2 x a day).  Elliott’s school day doesn’t start until 9, which will make getting AM to preschool on time a challenge as well (really, an impossible dream–she’ll be late unless I can drop Elliott early).  Fencing days will pose an additional challenge–I don’t know how we’ll fit in schoolwork or dinner on Tuesday and Thursday and still achieve a reasonable bedtime.  All kvetching on my part–by mid October, I’m sure I’ll have figured all of this out, and maybe there will be a carpool of some sort to ease the pain.  In the meantime, we’re all enjoying back-to-school shopping for the first time ever.  All of Elliott’s new items are being stored in my closet and Elliott stops by daily to visit his new things, especially his shoes.

Enkutatash:  Scheduled for September 18, the team has a lot left to do.  We’re hoping to host more than 500 people, and there’s still a fair bit of planning to do.  The meeting schedule bumps up from monthly to every other week in August, weekly meetings in September, so we’ll get it all done.  Still, the ‘to-do’ list is a bit daunting…

Dead of Winter gala:  Only 7 months away!  Gathering donations (and additional team members)* for the event at this point.  Once Enkutatash is over, planning will begin in earnest.

art party:  I’ve mentioned it before, I know.  The art party was loads of fun, but EOR is in need of more art.   If you are the parent of a smaller Ethiopian person, please, please, please pop a piece of their art with a mini bio (name, age, a few fun facts) in the mail to EOR’s main address:  2030 SW Christy Ave. Beaverton OR 97005 by FRIDAY.  Sales from art cards generate funds for EOR’s various programs.  We need you (or more specifically, your little person’s masterpieces).

DC trips:  Super hot during this last trip–103 on the very last day!  We managed to have a blast though–4 free concerts, lots of art museums, and more trains than we could count.  We also had dinner with a high school friend of mine, and met some of Albert’s colleagues for dinner and also museum time.  We had such a good time, we’re attempting to squeeze one last trip into the month of August.  A challenge, but we’re up for it!

baby showers:  I’m co-hosting 2 showers in August–one this Saturday, and one on the 21st.  Both mamas, very dear friends,  have waited so long to meet their Ethiopian cuties, it is an honor to plan for these fabulous events, but my time has been so crunched, I’m afraid I won’t do them justice.  These families are among the first 2-trip families.  They were both in Ethiopia last week to see their sweet little ones,  and will return within the next several weeks to bring their guys home.  The showers will be a welcome distraction (the thank you notes–maybe not so much).  Pictures to follow!

That’s it in a nutshell.  Busy-busy,  a little grouchy, but mostly happy.  I wish you all the same!

*If you would like to join the Dead of Winter planning committee, or you’d like to donate an item or items for the event, please let me know. We need You!

exhibit a

exhibit b

and c…

I do a lot of volunteering these days–Enkutatash is just around the corner, so I’m busy with preparations on behalf of ETSS and since becoming vice president of EOR back in January?  Well, let’s just say that I’ve added a lot of hours there too.

While I don’t receive a regular paycheck for any of these tasks, there are all sorts of other perks related to my work.  Desalegn, the founder of EOR’s newest partner, Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children, blogged this news yesterday:

OUR OLD TOILET, THE NEW ONE IS COMING SOON!!!