Five Or More Things That I Like About Daddy, by Meazi and Melese...

  

Five Or More Things That I Like About Daddy, by Meazi and Melese.

Meazi:

I like that he is brave.

 I like how alike Melese and Daddy are. (Melese pipes in “Because our birthdays are so close.”)

 I like that we have fart contests. (No one claimed we were highbrow over here and thankfully for you, no picture).

I like when Daddy’s work is over because then I get to see him.

I like how scientific he is.

  I like how artistic he is.

 I like how he teaches me crocheting and knitting. (Or Beekeeping).

Melese:

I like that he is shy.

He loves me.

 Because I love him and he gives me presents and stuff. 

I love when I jump into daddy’s arms. 

I love him because I kiss him.

 I like how he tricks me when he comes home like he says, “What are you having for breakfast?”when it is dinnertime.

 I like that he loves me, again. 

Introducing Meazi to the ocean.

Each year on his birthday, Steven makes a cake for Melese's birthday which is the following day. That was a really confusing sentence. The point is, he spends his whole birthday (Steven) preparing for Melese's.

She still looks at him this way.

How many men can feed the baby without putting their drink down? Remarkable.

Trash Truck Cake- Melese's 2nd Birthday.

Parenting Books.

Firetruck cake that LIT UP- Melese's 3rd Birthday.

Pumpkin Dremel-ling.

Helping M&m make their oath for citizenship.

Explaining the plight of the Jews to a three year-old.

Spending additional hair hours because Melese would like to look exactly like his big sister.

 Happy Father's Day to an incredible father.

Dear Meazi,

Dear Meazi,

In case I don't get a chance to write you a proper letter on your last day of school like I did last year

here is how your best friend describes you:

An Honest Child.

A Loyal Kid.

A Smart Girl.

A Bee-Charmer.

An Extremely Funny Lady.

A Nice Person.

A Gentle Being.

My Friend.

Happy last day of second grade.

I love you,

Mommy

What Was Your Biggest Day?

 

“It’s a big day," I replied when Meazi’s Amharic tutor Mahelet told me she was graduating from college on Saturday, “A really big day." I flashed back to my own college graduation, I was standing on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village hailing a cab with my mom. I was sobbing. School was over and the Icelandic actor I was in love with was not in love with me. Everything seemed so unstable. I was thrilled to be finished with school, and I already had a job, but my emotions were all over the place. Happiness, sadness, relief, fear, love- my poor mom must have thought I was a total nut bag at that point. There was no way we were going home on the subway, this kind of display was only suitable for the private backseat of a dark taxi.

I don’t know why I only had toddler adjectives in my vocabulary to describe graduation day to Mahelet, “big” “really big,” but I could tell by her face that she knew what I what I was talking about. I have no doubt that Mahelet, a brainy engineering student, has a very bright future, but still the end of something that intense and that structured can be a little unnerving and a lot bit emotional for actresses and engineers alike.

I have been thinking a lot about big days this week. There have been many “big” days along the way. The day the doctor called with my cancer diagnosis was a big ‘bad’ one. My body felt the same way as graduation day, only much more awful.

The day Steven’s mom died, really bad day. I remember my very non-religious husband reading the Mourners Caddish quietly in our living room minutes after getting the phone call.

What else? Wedding Day? Cliché but true. All my emotions were on the surface that day too. I picture my dad putting his arms around me and my brother and sister and saying, “You kids know all the right things” following my sister’s beautiful maid of honor speech. I remember Steven flubbing his vows a little bit but making an affable recovery in the nick of time. It was also a big day.

All of these times I remember, all of these big days.

Guess which day is the biggest?

 Ok, Ok, maybe it is because it is the most recent of so many mentioned? 

Today, this day, four years ago was my biggest day.

In my nearly one hundred years alive on this planet, the day I first heard about Meazi and Melese is, by far, my biggest day.

I loved them then just hearing about them.

 It would be a few months before I met them...

It would be a few months before we brought them home...

But on that big day, May 27th, it seems that my body must have somehow known what it would be like to know them. Along with that e-mail and that phone call it was as if someone slipped me a mickey, or made me swallow a Wonka-like everlasting gobstopper of emotions- a predictor of what it would be like to raise them. 

On that big day they made me a mother, something I had longed to be.

Today, I love them so, so much. 

They are everything to me.


Many of you were a part of the day we heard about our future as lucky people. Thank you for being there.

Happy Biggest Day to me.

What was your Biggest Day?

The Return Of The Sunday Garden Tour

We are spending some time in the garden. We spotted a rare East African Butterfly.

Loquat Harvest

Steven and I continue to disagree on whether the kids will need all ten fingers as they grow up.

Behold the Loquat!

Discussing Pectin.

Happy Sunday. Don't be surprised if you receive jam from us this holiday season.

Wordless Wednesday