Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc

If you want to help the efforts to help orphans who remain in Ethiopia please check out Ethiopian Orphan Relief.  EOR is an non-profit charity created by adoptive mothers of Ethiopian children as a way to significantly give back to Ethiopia and honor our children’s heritage. Our store is not live and it has an amazing selection of awesome Ethiopian goods–clothing, jewelry (which is beautiful), and house decorations.  Please check it out and consider donating to our efforts for the orphans of Ethiopia.

10 Months Old

September 5, 2008
Posted in Letters, Zoë

Dear Zoë,

You are now 10-months-old.  I can hardly believe how much you have changed and how each day you grow more and more.  You are now crawling.  I know.  I can’t believe it.  It is not a graceful girlie crawl.  No you are doing a full on military army commando crawl and it is hilarious.  When you get tired, you just stop and hang out for a few minutes until you build up a little more energy. 

You are also cruising.  I know.  I am so excited that you will be walking soon.  Your brother isn’t a fan of your mobility, but I am.  The more you can move yourself means less time I have to spend moving you from place to place and activity to activity.  Especially since you love to move often and get bored after what seems like the blink of an eye. 

Sadly, you already have a favorite TV shows.  You love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Yo Gabba Gabba.  It is my saving grace when you are super crabby but refuse to sleep.  If this makes me a bad mom and ruins your attention span and development please don’t hold it against me.  Mommy had to stay sane. 

You have picked up your brother’s habit of growling.  It is so very cute.  You are growing so fast.  I look forward to your doctor’s appointment this month just to see how much you have grown since you came home in June.  You are wearing 9 month clothes and that is amazing.  You are progressing so much.  You have seven teeth now.  Not all of them are all the way in but they have broken through the gums and I am so looking forward to the impending lack of drool that I will be drenched with as you stop teething for a little bit soon.  I know that I might be dreaming but a girl can dream can’t she? 

You are a stubborn little girl and you will give your father and I a ton of trouble as you grow up.  You have already perfected that “what now?” look that you will give us endlessly as a teenage girl as we ask you do things like clean your room, do your homework, and to be home by 10 on a Friday night.  I just want you to know that that look won’t work for me, because I too once used that look.  I will not bow to your teen angst. 

You still don’t much care for sleep, but you are one for routine.  So maybe you’re not sleeping is more my fault than it is yours.  Sometimes, you don’t get your morning nap at home, because we have something to do.  If you don’t get your morning nap, then  your afternoon nap is almost non-existent and then you wake up more than once at night.  If you get that am nap then everything is just better.  I have learned this, but there really are just sometimes when mom has to get out of the house. I try to make those time few and far between because I want you to sleep.  i want to sleep.  Sleep is good.

Zoë you have added something so amazing to our life.  The love and happiness is awesome and you really are a perfect fit for our family.  I am not sure how that works and how we got so lucky to get two perfect children and by perfect, I mean a perfect fit into our family.  We are so blessed and so lucky to get to be your parents. 

I can’t wait to see what next month brings. 

Love,
Mommy

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (3)

He’s A Big Boy Now

September 4, 2008
Posted in Noah, Parenting

I just returned home from dropping Noah at his first day of Mom’s Day Out.  He’ll go on Monday’s and Thursday’s from 9am-1pm.  I know.  That’s what I am thinking…4 whole hours with only a baby who will sleep for at least an hour or so of that.  I know…even better.  Noah will nap for at least 3 hours when he gets home because he’ll be so tired from playing all morning. 

He is awesome.  He didn’t blink twice about me leaving.  He’s all like “Bye mom”  could you go already? 

I already feel more relaxed and a little less on edge.  Thank you Mom’s day out.

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (0)

I Should Not Be Allowed To Navigate–Ever

September 2, 2008
Posted in Friends

Well almost never.  Sometimes I do an OK job, other times it’s quite comical.  This weekend provided two examples of my poor navigational skills.  I have no sense of direction and never really have.  This is not new and I am quite use to not exactly knowing where I am or where I am going if it is somewhere new.  I luckily know my way around the immediate area that I live in. 

I am so lucky that my best friend moved back to town after years of living in Los Angeles.  She moved out to SoCal after I did and she stayed quite a bit longer than I did.  But she has returned home to her family and me.  It is so  nice to have her home.  We met our freshman year of high school and have been friends ever since.  Our 20 year reunion is coming up in 09.  That’s just how long we have been friends.  She is awesome.  So, I was really doing her a favor by taking her the complete wrong way on Saturday night as we went to dinner.  I wanted to go to this Tapas restaurant that I went to once with hubby.  I figured I would make a reservation.  I couldn’t remember the name of the place we went which is really where my problem started.  As we have more than one tapas restaurant here in town. 

I made reservations but it turns out I made reservations at a place on the hill not in Clayton–we went to Clayton.  I am trying to find the address for a street that doesn’t exist in the part of town I dragged her to.  It really is comical.  Once I figured out my faux pas, I got us to our destination without much of a problem.  The sad part is that our original destination was about 5-8 minutes from my house–it took us close to 45. 

I’m lucky she loves me.  I’ll have to tell the story about the time we went to Vegas.  It’ll make a small detour look like nothing.

so, I had a great birthday weekend.  I ate and drank too much and certainly don’t feel as relaxed as I would like to have felt–but I have two kiddos and they are exhausting.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (1)

37

August 31, 2008
Posted in Birthdays

Today I turned 37.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about that–I am certainly happy to be alive. But 37 is so much closer to 40.  I never use to worry about getting old.  I actually welcomed each birthday and was happy to creep up in age.  But last year, turning 36 really got me.  I think part of it is because I am still in school working towards my dream.  I feel as though I should be closer.  I guess I am closer to my dream but I certainly am not where I thought I would be at this age.  I thought my kids would be older and that we would be better off financially. 

I know I can’t measure my success against that of anyone else, I just feel behind.  I know that I have yet to live half of my life and that really the best is ahead of me.  I am just not that happy about the years moving as fast as they have.  I certainly know that they won’t be moving any slower. 

I have had an awesome Birthday Weekend so far.  I’ll post more about it on Tuesday.  Have a great weekend.

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (8)

Let The Games Begin

August 29, 2008
Posted in Politics

I am sure many of you are aware that McCain has chosen his running mate.  How many are surprised it’s a woman with virtually no political experience-aself-declared “hockey mom”.  I am not surprised that the GOP thinks it can win Hillary supporters by selecting a woman.  I don’t know much about Mrs. Palin from Alaska, but I do think that McCain believes this will woo all of those Hillary supporters who are upset that she didn’t win the nomination. 

I have to think that those great women and men who supported Hillary did so because of her politics and not her mere possession of two X chromosomes.  I am not naive, I know that there are certainly folks out there who stood by and voted for Hillary because she was a woman, just like there are folks who will vote for McCain because he’s old.  But I have faith that vision will win out and that Obama’s message will spread across our country as quickly as it has around the world.  It is a time for change.  A time for real change. 

There are many of us dem’s out there who worry about McCain winning the election and how it is a done deal.  Really?  The election isn’t until November and if Obama speak and presents himself like he did yesterday–how can we not elect this man to lead our country in this new world.  Because it is a new world.  It is time for a new mindset to govern our country and lead us on. 

I am ready.  Are you?

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (7)

One Size–Many Problems

August 28, 2008
Posted in Education

So here I am back in academic/teacher mode.  I am not teaching this semester but I am studenting this semester and every semester for the next 5-6 years as I complete (or attempt to complete) my PhD.  I am taking a secondary curriculum course–where we will examine curriculums and learn what makes a good one.  I am excited about this as it will really help me in the future–one of my post PhD goals/dream jobs in as an English curriculum coordinator for a district.  We’ll see. 

Anyway to the whole reason for this post–other than a brain purge.  We watched this great video the really quite succintly express and exposes the problems inherent with our one size fits all educational system. 

Click her to Watch it…

What animal are you?

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (1)

How Much Is Too Much

August 27, 2008
Posted in Job, Life, Personal Growth

Thanks for all your kind words about my photog business.  It has been in the making for a long time and I am happy to finally have it be “official.”  I certainly won’t get rich-as my availability is quite limited–as I have two kids, go to school, serve on the board of a non-profit, am learning how to write grants and serve as webmaster/designer for my mom’s website.  I swear that I also enjoy my husbands company.  It’s a shame we rarely get any quality time together. 

I was talking with hubby yesterday about my photog business and he quietly laughed and said that I must not think 5 jobs was enough.  I looked at him and he listed them….

“mom, wife, student, EOR board member/grant writer, webmaster, and now photographer.”

I had to remind him that I am not content unless I am doing all that I can.  I love being a wife and mother but neither of those things are fulfilling in and of themselves.  They bring me great joy but not enough to make me feel “complete.”  I love working with EOR and that is an awesome responsibility and pleasure.  It will keep me busy but there is more.  I don’t even want to talk about school.  It has become such a part of who I am as a person.  I have been in school the entire 12 years that my husband and I have been together.  I know he  is waiting for the day that he can know me as a non-student.  Webmaster for my mom is less of a job and more of an obligation.  But it’s really only something that I have to do two or three times a year.  So that’s not too bad. 

I think my hubby worries that I am taking on too much.  My photog business is going to be very relaxed and I only hope to do a few sessions a month.  Nothing major.  I know I don’t have a lot of time, but this is something that I have hoped and wanted to do since Noah came home and I really got back into photography again–I did go to school for it for a couple years.  I finally feel like I am nurturing my whole self. Like I have something for all the parts of me.  Maybe it will be too much.  Maybe I will become successful at it–I know I am already successful with taking pictures, but you know what I mean. 

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I don’t want to wake up and wonder “What could have been.”  That would suck.

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (3)

Hard At Work

August 26, 2008
Posted in Job

Check out what I did today.

Back tomorrow with a “real” post.

By The Dalai Mama | Comments (5)