Snow Day

Aliyah's birthday is March 5 which is a perfect time to go to the snow!  Now if her mom could just get around to posting birthday pictures in her actually birthday month...

Tide Pools

Recently we went to one of our favorite day trip places, the tide pools!  We had a nice sea food lunch and then had fun exploring all the critters of the ocean. 

Daddy Time

Pretty soon after we came home from Ethiopia it became clear that Aliyah was bonding with me more quickly than she was with Pete.  We figured this made sense since she'd had all female caregivers in Ethiopia.  Plus, everything we've read indicates that it's normal for adopted children to bond with one parent more than the other. 

Fast forward a year and Aliyah still clearly prefers mom over dad.  With the boys, if one of them gets hurt or is sick, they are just as comforted by dad as by mom.  Pete wants that same relationship with Aliyah so he is working to improve their bond.  One way he's been doing that has been putting Aliyah to bed and getting her up most days.  It's really helped to strengthen their bond and one night recently, when Pete was at basketball practice so I put Aliyah to bed, she requested that I read her bedtime story on the floor because that's how "daddy does it". 

California

Gotta love winter in California!  We've had some great spring like weather lately.  Last weekend we went for a bike ride and to feed the ducks.  It definitely felt more like June than February.

Melkam Genna

Last weekend was Melkam Genna which is when Ethiopians celebrate Christmas.  To celebrate the holiday we headed to Oakland to have an Ethiopian feast.  We love watching Aliyah when she eats Ethiopian food.  She tears the injera and scoops up the wats like a pro.  Nothing is too spicy for her and she has a huge smile on her face throughout the meal. 

This trip we convinced Nick to try some of the food.  He was hesitant at first but he found a non-spicy corn based dish that he liked.

Noah wasn't as adventurous and stuck to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I brought for him.

And to top off our great meal, the restaurant had our favorite Ethiopian beer, St. George.  I've looked to see if we can buy it anywhere nearby or even order it and I haven't been able to find a resource.  I guess it will be a special treat for mom and dad for when we go to Ethiopian restaurants.

Age Differences

One of the biggest changes to our family since bringing Aliyah home has more to do with age differences rather than with having three children.  As the boys get older there are so many more activities available for them but unfortunately Aliyah is still a bit young to participate in some of them.  It's challenging for us to find something that is fun and interesting to 2, 5 and 7 year olds.  So while we definitely still try to do lots of things together as a family of five, it's not all that uncommon for us to divide with one of us taking the boys some place and the other parent doing something with Aliyah. 

During the Christmas break we had a few of these occassions and one of those was when I took the boys ice skating while Aliyah hung out with dad.  Nick had been skating a few times but this was Noah's first time.  I helped him around twice and then he said that he didn't want my help and wanted to do it by himself. 

He started off holding onto the wall..

Then he started venturing off the wall a little..

And by the end of the day he was skating!

We told Noah that if he gets good enough at skating that he can perhaps try ice hockey and he thought that was a great idea.

And soon enough Aliyah will be old enough to join in a lot of the same activities as her brothers if she wants to.

For now though, she is happy to do things like ride the train...

While her brothers do things like go sledding..

Holiday Tradition

One of our favorite holiday traditions is our annual trip to Pier 39 to see the Christmas decorations.  We did all of our favorite things like watching the Sea Lions, going on the carousel, eating lunch at Bubba Gumps, watching street performers and then buying some fresh crab to eat at home for dinner.

 Aliyah doesn't like going on the animals on the carousel but she is usually ok sitting on a bench.  Silly mom didn't realize that this fancy bench rocked until we started moving so Aliyah spent the entire ride clutching my shirt with one hand and covering her eyes with the other.  I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap and she said no, she just wanted to ride like that.

 She felt much better once we were on solid ground at Bubba Gumps.

And this is what normally happens when we try to get a picture of all three of our kids looking at the camera...

 ... but then we happened upon Santa at Boudin Bakery and somehow the impossible happened. Must be the magic of Christmas :)