Arabella Jun turns 5

It wasn't long after Christmas when everything was put away, that the girls started asking about their birthdays.  In our family, Justin and I have birthdays in March (neither which I blogged about, but both were wonderful), then Bella's is in April and Addie's in May.  It's birthday season in the spring.  Birthdays for the girls happen to fall very closely to our departure preparations.  The plan this year was to celebrate Bella's birthday on her actual birthday, then host a joint Addie and Bella party in May, and then have a small family celebration on Addie's actual birthday.  Usually we host two big kid birthday parties a month apart and I simply couldn't get that to work this year.

So on April 29, 2014, Arabella Jun turned 5.  She was thrilled to see a little banner I made for the mantel and she chose a mint chocolate chip cake for dessert.  Burritos for dinner were also her choice.  The smartest thing I did was make a little 6 inch round cake which was plenty of cake for the five of us and enough for second helpings the next day.  But there weren't leftovers for days.  Wonderful!

Arabella is a pretty awesome 5 year old.  She's made remarkable progress at school this semester.  She's starting to read site words and pay more attention to her art work.  She's focused and even has close friends.  Last year, she floated about from friend to friend.  This year she's socially moved on to a best buddy.  She's obsessed with the new Disney Frozen movie (the theme of our big birthday party this year) and sings at the top of her lungs to the soundtrack.

Bella has a very dynamic personality.  She can be very clumsy and un self aware at times. She barrels through things and buldozes through her life.  But then on the other hand she's very sympathetic and compassionate and mindful about her play.  She has a wonderfully sweet pleasing nature about her.  She is quick to give gifts and special little prizes she finds outside (snails, flowers, rocks) to her family.  She loves to sit and play by herself, singing and dancing and acting out elaborate scenes with her toys.  But then she also engages her sisters in lengthy play for hours on end.  She seems to fit in the perfect middle-child mold.  She really is multifaceted and seems to mold herself to the current environment.

She's still our tough child and we still joke that she always will be.  She'll be the one we pray a little extra for.  Her clumsiness leads to disastrous injuries at times.  Thankfully nothing too serious.  Her tendency to get dirty and put things in her mouth leads to a significant amount of tummy troubles.  She is particular about her clothing, shoes, hair style, and even the way she gets washed in the bath. She huddles under her bed covers with 50,000 stuffed animals and toys.  She literally buries herself in her things at night.  We find all sorts of strange things in her bed like scarves, bug spray, the door stop, books, etc.  She is knob kneed and skinny and tends to eat small portions of things.  Getting her to finish her meal can be a challenge, unless it's in the middle of a growth spurt like right now, and she's eating eggs AND pancakes for breakfast.

Arabella is a joy.  She's cause of much frustration and heart ache but it just makes her more lovable somehow.  She's precocious and silly and sweet and funny all wrapped into one.

She's most often the first girl out of bed in the mornings.  She pulls her blanket and stuffed turtle, along with which ever toy or doll is her current favorite to the couch in the TV room.  She reads a book or just waits until Justin or I come downstairs to start the day.  She always greets me with the sweetest "Good morning Mommy" and big hard hug and it warms my heart every morning.

Happy Birthday Bean!

Arabella Jun turns 4

Our sweet Bella Bean turned four yesterday.  She has requested that her favorite color, green, be showcased for her birthday this year.  So I made mint chocolate chip ice cream with homemade hot fudge.  Amazing! The house is decked out in green buntings!

Bella is our little dreamer.  She's our fighter too.  From the moment she was born she has been our spicy girl.  She's stubborn and contrary just to be contrary.  A good way to get Arabella to do what you want her to do is act like you don't want her to do it, or comment that you don't think she could handle it.  We struggle with her on basic things like getting herself dressed or sitting at the dinner table to eat a meal.  She comes up with completely imaginary reasons she can't do these things.  Usually, her legs hurt or she can't walk. A good example of a typical Arabella challenge is after her bath we lay out her pajamas and encourage her to focus on putting them on herself (OK, I might "encourage her the first 19 times I ask, after that I shout).  We usually hear some tears, whining and most likely a few "my legs are tired!"comments.  The minute I mention that I don't think she's big enough to put on her own pajamas or that surely those pajamas are just too hard for her to manage; she snaps to it and starts putting them on with a smug little smile on her face.

It's impossible not to completely adore this girl.  We find ourselves talking about her and her antics after the kids are asleep.  Bella's the one who generally says something hilarious and I have to call Justin at work to relay it to him before I forget.  She's a character and we love her. Especially her quirks.

Green Crocs for Bean

Arabella has a fantastic imagination.  She's typically singing and dancing.  All her imaginary play requires her to sing everything her toys are saying.  Often things get so dramatic that I end up asking her if she's OK, only to hear "I'm just playing Mom!".

She's pretty klutzy, at least once every other week she has a major fall and I'm certain that THIS is the time that I will have to call the embassy and figure out how to race her to one of the horrific hospitals in Addis for her bones to be set for a cast.  Luckily, we haven't had any broken bones but her legs are in a constant state of watercolor shades of purple, blue and yellow.  One of her front teeth was bruised from a fall and is now permanently discolored.  She already has two small scars on her face.  She's a mess and I do worry about her more.  She's just going to require a bit more worrying than the other two throughout life.

It's wonderful to watch Bella grow.  She's extremely independent and lovable.  She brings us so much joy every day of our lives.  Our family would not be the same without our Bella Bean.  Happy Birthday precious girl!  We love you.

Ashlynn in the bath

Note the mouth in motion-Ashlynn is a talker and she chatters away any chance she can get

I have tons of photos of Addie in the bath as a baby and toddler, a good amount of Bella doing the same thing, but not many of my youngest daughter splashing around.  I have my camera with me a lot during the day so it's not for lack of trying.  Bath time with three girls, at once, all by myself is simply chaotic.  I'm generally grinning and bearing it so we can all just get through the routine without too much shouting (from me).

 But tonight Addie was busy exercising at bath time-yep push ups and head stands and all sorts of crazy moves.  So I snagged the younger two girls and plopped them in the tub first.  It quickly turned into a giggle fest as they made fountains with the bath toys and tipped water over the side for Lucy.  Ashlynn thinks it's absolutely hilarious to see Lucy lapping up the bath water.  I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures before snapping everyone back in to shape for bedtime.  The fun they were having was contagious!

3 year old cures for the common cold

Arabella gets sick often.  She's always got her hands in her mouth and Lord knows where her hands have been.  I can't even begin to count how many times I have to tell her to stop touching her shoes (or her bottom).  Yes, those hands go in her mouth.  She gets sick and then we all get sick.  It's no fun!

She was sick again today.  Fever, sore throat, tummy ache.  The works.  She moaned most of the day on the couch watching Curious George.  The only things that made her feel better were Monkey Preschool Math on the iTouch and a chocolate banana smoothie.  Doctors should prescribe this combo.

I did get one smile from her today.  A genuine smile at that.

I wish Bella's cures would work on me in two days when it's my turn to be sick.

first day laughter at preschool

Bella's been itching to go to preschool since Addie started Kindergarten last week.  When Monday morning arrived, her attitude was more like "finally, I get to go to school too", instead of nerves.  My second daughter has never been known to be shy or cautious so I didn't spend an ounce wondering if she's have a great first day.  After she downed her morning cup of Indonesian spiced tea (I'm not kidding she likes her tea black and spicy), she hoped in our truck (the "Zalalem bus") and off she went.  Chipper and ready for a new adventure at her first real preschool.

Last year she attended a little parent run co-op preschool with four three other little girls her age.  It was wonderful for her social development as all the little girls became good friends, but she's definitely ready for big kid preschool this year.  She's ready to make new friends, have her own teacher and bring home her own art projects.

I'm really excited because her teacher Ms. Nadine is an American woman whom we know through the embassy community.  Her youngest son goes to school with Addie.  Nadine is the quintessential preschool teacher.  She's always singing or reading the children a story when I see her.  Bella is going to have a fantastic year.

When I picked Arabella up that first day she was beaming and it was clear she'd already made an impression on the teachers and aids at school.  Ms. Nadine said that the best part of her day was hearing Bella's laugh all day.  She said she laughed at everything and Arabella's laugh is the most contagious happy sound.  Nadine said everyone couldn't help but laugh with her.  Bella generally worms her way into your heart the first time you see her smile and hear her great belly laugh as she throws her head back in glee.  Or her gravely chuckle or the silly giggle she has as well.  She inherited her charisma and laughter from her father. Wonderful traits to have. It's fun to see other people enjoy Bella so much too.

I can't believe she is getting so big already.  Every day she runs up to me shouting "I did it all by myself!" Yesterday she said the word "America" and the day before that she put her PJs on all by herself.  Tomorrow it will be her ABCs.  

graceful and not so graceful ballerinas

Addie and Bella couldn't be more dissimilar when it comes to grace.  Adelaide is swift and purposeful with her movements, especially when dancing.  Arabella on the other hand is clumsy and awkward with her movements, especially when dancing! I think these pictures say it all

mama's hair salon

I never thought I'd be the mom who'd plunk down my kids and get out my Fiskars.  Much like my own Mother did for my sisters and I while we were young.  But here we are in Ethiopia and I have no plans of taking my kids to the salon for a trim.  I also didn't think I'd be the Mom making field journals and homemade potato chips so there you go.

Band Aid Bean's hair grows like ivy out of control and Addie just likes to be pampered.  Both got cuts the other day.  

shaggy

grooving with her new cut-you didn't think she'd sit still for a photo did you?

I guess this is her hair pose face

Addie and Bella: the musical

We recently added the 1982 version of the musical Annie to our movie selection. It was one of my very favorites as a little girl. Don't you love this movie?  For a few days after each viewing, I'm pretty certain Adelaide things she's living in a real life musical.  Every thing she says is sung to the tune of "Maybe".  Everything rhymes and falls in the same cadence as the lines: 

Betcha he writes
Betcha she sews
Maybe she's made me a closet of clothes

It's absolutely precious and makes me smile uncontrollably.  The girls have a entire new world to stage their imaginary play in.  The mystery and wonder of an all girls orphanage with a cruel head mistress has been the reoccurring theme lately.  I catch Addie and Bella playing with toys and someone is ALWAYS Mrs. Hannigan.  They've been sweeping the floors and skipping about with "Hard Knock Life" as the theme song.  "Let's go to the movies" is another favorite.  They love that Annie falls asleep at the movie theater. To the girls it must seem absurd that one could fall asleep in a movie theater!  It's the movies!!! The popcorn!!!

Arabella's favorite song is "Tomorrow" and she's always singing it but sometimes she gets confused and sings  "The Next Day".  We always have to remind her how it goes.  As a side note Bella has reached in and grabbed a special little spot of Justin's heart because she's decided that she NEEDS to see Star Wars in the movie theater with her Daddy.  Star Wars is big in our house.  You can only begin to imagine how huge this is for my husband.

The girls love movies almost as much as their Daddy.  In the past few weeks Justin has taken them to the movie theater in Addis Ababa to see Ice Age 4 (a story that didn't need to be told) and Madagascar 3 (excellent).  It's been pure luck these children's movies have been showing at noon on Saturday.  Now every night Bella says she wants to go to the movie theater with Daddy.  It's kind of become a Daddy daughter thing.

What other movie musicals would be appropriate for Addie and Bella at this age?  I am loving this sing-song life we are leading.  It needs to continue.

rain, rain go away and a bonus variety show

Wishful thinking on my part.  The rainy season continues through much of September in Ethiopia so we have a bit of a wait until the rain actually does go away.  In the mean time we are trying to be creative with indoor activities, play dates, crafts and taking advantage of the sun when it does peak through the clouds.

I blessed the rains down in Africa

Yesterday we had bit of sun for two hours and the girls had spent the early morning hours getting inspired by The Muppet Show season one (the original which is totally awesome and hilarious).  Adelaide and Arabella decided to put on a variety show for me, Teklu and Eneye.  They set the stage, had costumes, props and  short acts.  I sat there watching, amazed that these two clever little girls were mine.  Moments like that, when your kids amaze you, make it all worth it.  Here are a few videos (the grandparents are going to love this).  The first one is multiple acts, the second is the "Fairy Lost Princess" act and the third is Addie solo. I apologize for my poor video skills, I was holding Ashlynn for much of the performance. 

superbella

Bella with bangs

I have a hard time keeping Arabella's hair out of her face. She's always batting it out of her eyes.  Her cheeks are almost always adorned with some sticky food-like substance which her hair sticks to. She's a mess most of the time. I finally broke down and cut her bangs after her teacher at school mentioned it as a solution to her messy mane.  It took all of two seconds to cut her bangs but she aged a year or so in that short amount of time.  She looks especially cute now.  I think they suit my little monkey (she decides now she likes her Curious George costume for last Halloween.  She wouldn't touch it in October).  

Arabella's day

I love planning and preparing and throwing birthday parties for my daughters.  It's a highlight for me in April and May.  This year Arabella was so happy all day.  It made all the work worthwhile.  First thing in the morning she was singing "Happy Birthday" to herself.  She danced around to the playlist Daddy had put together for her party.  She knew it was her special day and it was precious to see her so happy and excited all day long.

After the party the birthday girl napped, or more likely a sugar crashing induce coma for two hours.  When she woke up she had a bunch of birthday presents to open!  She was so happy to have a new Razor scooter and "mouse house".  The playdough stamps were a big hit too.  Thank you so Grammy and Grandpa for the great gifts.  

Arabella's third birthday

Three years ago I was gasping into an oxygen mask in the final moments before I delivered my second precious daughter, Arabella Jun.  She came in to this world bright pink and screaming, announcing to all within ear shot that she had arrived.  The past three years have been nothing but an adventure with this little girl!  Happy third birthday Arabella!

Mickey Mouse cake

Her birthday present from Mommy and Daddy was her beloved Buzz Lightyear

She was thrilled to have everyone singing Happy Birthday to her

the birthday had a mouth full of food/cake all day

The most delicious fudge chocolate cake I've made to date.  

Bouncy house!

crown decorating

Eneye with Ashlynn and her daughter Tutu

We celebrated with a party with a few of her friends here in Addis Ababa.