Hanging in the UAE, Dubai

I must start by saying that Greg has not been exaggerating when he speaks of the comforts of flying Emirates airline. It was a mini vacation in the sky! For 15 hrs. I played video games and watched movies on the seat back in front of me ( I'm recommending everyone watch Africa United) I slept, read (Cutting Stone) and when the pilot came on to announce we were landing my first thought was "not yet!"
We did land in Dubai, where Greg and I had decided to stay 2 nights on an extended layover.
Today we explored the city.  I am just amazed at how clean Dubai is, and at how empty it feels.
We began our day exploring the Souks in the old part of the city.  There are little shops lining the streets and men outside trying to entice you in.  We explored the gold souk, the textile souk, the perfume souk, and the spice souk.  The spice souk was by far my favorite.  Baskets lined the streets filled with brightly colored herbs and spices and the sellers were friendly, readily explaining what everything was.
We then took a rickety old water taxi across Dubai Creek to the old part of town where I got to ride a camel!! I was so excited (Ella can you believe it!) It was so cool! After that we took a long walk by the creek to the metro line and traveled to the Burj  Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  Unfortunately it would cost $150 to go the top of the building so we opted for photos at the bottom and then exploring the opulent mall of Dubai which houses pretty much every high end store you can imagine as well as an aquarium and ice skating rink.  By 4pm we were at the amazing Burj Al Arab Hotel, which is on a man made island in the Arabian Gulf and is shaped like a huge sail.  We'd made reservations for tea at the restaurant at the top of the hotel.  The view was amazing, we could see the man made islands in the shape of a palm tree and had a great view of the city.  The tea lasted 2.5 hrs and I was so full that at the end I couldn't even eat the delicious chocolates they brought as a last course.
We finished our day at the mall of the Emirates where we watched but didn't participate in Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope.
Tomorrow morning we continue our journey to Ethiopia, we are so excited to meet "M" and experience the sweet personality others have told us about for ourselves.  

Headed to Ethiopia

This is a little Blogger test to see if I can blog via e-mail.  We're headed off to the airport soon on our way to meet our daughter in Ethiopia! Our court date is March 4th, please pray that we pass.  We won't get to bring her home at this time but if all goes smoothly we hope to be allowed to return in a few months and scoop her up! 

LOVE

  Happy Valentine's Day!

  

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  1st Corinthians 13:4-7

It's official, He's 2!

Happy Birthday Biniyam! On Feb 7th our sweet boy turned 2.

His day began by opening his gift from Ella

For breakfast he requested a "breakfast cookie" In Bini's daily list of requests, breakfast cookies come second only to chocolate ice cream. We took the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to him at each meal.

For dinner his friend Judson and Lilli (and their siblings Emma and Owen) joined the celebration.

Pizza!

Ella, as the self appointed head of the party planning committee, decided we'd make puppy cake pops instead of regular cake (she got the cake pops cookbook for her birthday) They were delicious! Cake mixed with frosting, made into balls and dipped in chocolate, yumm... and of course served with chocolate ice cream!

This weekend I decided to try twist in Bini's hair, and thanks to his new found interest in TV I was able to get him to sit somewhat still for the 40 min. it took to do them.  I think he looks pretty cool. 

Beebum

 Our little man is growing so fast, and it's hard to get a picture of him that's more than the top of his head or a blurred shot of a boy on the move.  I have been capturing him on video and also keeping a journal on our counter so I can jot down the cute things that he says in this amusing stage of verbal development.
Here are some of my favorite Bini quotes and antics:
*When I placed his lunch in front of him "No thank you mama, chocolate ice cream"
*When I asked where his sock went "humm.... wonder.... hiding"
* Whenever he sees one of us writing something he'll try to look at the paper and then say "awe, cute"

*Whenever we/he puts shoes on he says "ballet shoes on!" (and he loves putting Ella's shoes on!) 

*Whenever I cough he says "bless you mama"
*When he says bless you or thank you he always says the person's name "Thank you Ella" it's very cute and he's very polite (when he's not screaming for what he wants.)
*He often says "(ex)cuse me mama" before he asks for something.
* My all time favorite is when he reaches for me and says "rock a baby" this he says when he's sleepy or wants to cuddle and we'll wrap his blanket around him and he melts into us.
* He narrates his life, which is pretty nice "trash, trash trash" means I better check what he's put in the trash and "water, water" means he's headed toward the dog's bowl.
* When asked what his name is he always says "Go" but when he sees a picture he'll point to himself and say "beebum"
*After a song is finished, whether on a cd or in music class, if he enjoyed it he's shout "woo, hoo, song!"
* "I do it!" I must have heard this one a million times today! sometimes followed my temper tantrums if it is indeed something he's not allowed to do.
*When I pick him up he'll say "Heavy!" I am now being careful not to say this every time I pick him up. But on the upside of repeating what I say, when I do his hair he now says "nice hair" (and he does have great hair!)
*He loves to sing, Ella taught him a song from school (which she does sign language to) "apple, apple, a, a, a"(going through the alphabet and making the letter sound) Bini has taken that to the extreme he uses it to sing throughout his day "blanket, blanket, b,b,b, diaper, diaper, d,d,d, shoes, shoes, ballet shoes on, door, door, ddd, car, car, c,c,c..." he doesn't always get it right but he's just so cheerful as he sings.
* "1,2,4,5,7,9,10" remarkably consistent in his inaccurate counting.
* He now knows most of his colors and he loves to point them out, especially "YELLOW!" (he was on a kick in november when I must have heard yellow 500 times a day, usually pointing to thing that were not yellow)
* He loves to sing ABC's; much like his counting he gets the general tune and skips many chunks of letters
* He likes to eat grapefruit, but wont eat a hot dog.
* He's the kid who stands on the little slide in the play area at the mall waving and shouting "HI" to everyone who passes.  (our boy is sweet but he is not shy and he is very loud!)
* I pulled into a parking lot and heard Bini say "ouch, hurt" me-"Bini, what's wrong" b-"ears" I turned to see him with his arm over his face "window" he said. I realized the sun was shining through the window into his eyes, I find this so amusing because he has become such a northwest babe.

 Fun with friends, Emma, Ella, Judson, Bin, and Lilli

 oh, we have plans for these two!

 finally got some pictures of him!

 He loves being a "big helper"

 still shorter than Summit

Oh, nice tiger stripes Bini!