Wednesday, May 30, 2012

events of the uneventful

Thing 1 doesn't want to let go of this birthday girl thing and I guess technically she can't because I'm going to bust my tail for the next three days to throw a spectacular birthday party this weekend.  She tried to milk it all day long; asking for candy, claiming she didn't have to share her new toys with her sister, demanding lunch at 1PM instead of noon with the rest of us.  That's my diva girl!

Thing 2 is killing me with this turning 3 transitioning out of a nap phase.  If she doesn't nap she's up all night screaming for God-knows-what waking us all up and the last thing I need is to wake up IN BETWEEN the times the baby is nursing.  Bella slept between 2 and 4:30PM today which was a relief but also a concern because then she won't go to bed at 7PM and my evening time gets cut into and that blows.  The one good thing is that she should sleep soundly tonight.

Thing 3 is cutting a tooth.  I think? I hope! Sheesh, she's 7.5 months with no teeth and that's not super weird because Bella cut her first tooth at 9 months, but Ashlynn has seriously been teething since she was 3 months old and with zero payoff it totally sucks.  She's fussy and drooling and refusing a spoon in her mouth.  This girl never misses a meal so there better be a little white nugget erupting soon!  The crawling has set in motion a series of "Oh crap" moments. Like today when she pulled herself up on the wiggly granite fireplace and almost wobbled her face into the stone or when she crawled to a black spot on the carpet and picked the tiny thing up with her superpower fine motor skills and luckily I was watching because that black spot was a dead fly I had swatted earlier.

On to the uneventful stuff.

We have to bleach our eggs in Addis Ababa (along with everything else really).  They come in plastic bags and are generally spotted with chicken dookie.  I also "float" the eggs.  Basically while they are soaking any floaters are tossed.  Gas is created in bad eggs that causes them to float and it's a pretty simple way of avoiding food poisoning via bad egg.  Especially since my homemade ice cream has raw eggs in it (gasp!) and I make an awesome pasta carbonara (double gasp!).  I never made these things in the States but here I am taking my chances on the eggs here in Ethiopia.  Maybe the dookie makes them seem fresher. Right out of the chicken butt fresh!  Anyway, floating the eggs makes me feel better.


I never thought I'd be saying this but the locally grown fresh strawberries in Addis Ababa are pretty slammin.   I get about a half pound for $1.50.  I always leave gorgeous bowls of fresh strawberries out for the girls when they get hungry and need a snack.  I almost never sit down and eat some myself because I play that I-should-save-that-lovely-healthy-fruit-for-my-growing-offspring-game.  Not today!  I threw all the really dark sweet ones down my gullet before the kids even saw the bowl. HA!

The house is filling up with roses for our upcoming birthday extravaganza.  At 1 birr per rose I am getting 200 roses which is about $10.  Ridiculously awesome and cheaper than balloons and streamers!

Here is Bella when she woke up from her juicy two and half hour nap.  Sometimes she only half wakes up (well-most of the time) and screams and kicks and whines and scratches herself for a good 30 minutes.  Lucky Me!

 There was mozarella at the store today.  Boo yeah!  The girls and I had pizza for dinner WITHOUT the obligatory side veggie I usually make to feel better about serving pizza.  Tonight it was, "No, you can't have a treat until you finish all those bits of olives and cheese on your plate".

2 comments:

Emily said...

Pasta carbonara is one of my favorites!
What an adventure you are having, and all the wonderful things you are learning. I didn't know bad eggs floated. Maybe there was something to Willy Wonka's eggdacator.

Heather P. said...

You crack me up, hahaha! I am sorry I am laughing because I could only imagine how much work 3 girls must be. I now realize I have no excuse being cranky because Caleb woke up at 5, barely slept for his first nap this morning, and was a handful until his second nap. Good tip about the eggs, you sure are getting lots of good skills living overseas. Miss ya!