How quickly they grow

I cannot believe that Little Miss is almost 7 months old already!  Where does the time go?  Snuggles are becoming less frequent, as she navigates her world.  She is pivoting like a champ, and commando crawling well, and can crawl on hands and knees a tiny bit.  Oh, it just goes way too fast, but what a blessing it is to watch her grow!

Wet Paint: Please Don't Touch

We have finally had some success with Ato T and finger painting!  Hooray!

Speaking, of not touching when paint is wet, here's something that's been bothering me lately.  Mike and I are both Caucasian, Miss O and Miss I are also Caucasian.  In case you haven't noticed, Alto T and Little Miss are both African-American.  Our church has a small amount of African-Americans, and a large number of Caucasian people.  Lately, Caucasian people in our congregation seem to feel incredibly comfortable coming up to touch Ato T to feel his hair.  Now, I get the desire to do so.  Before I had AA kids, I wanted to do that as well.  Their (my 2 AA kids') texture is different than my hair's texture - we want to touch what is different to us.  However, I held back touching other's people's heads - just don't think it's terribly appropriate.  With Ato T, I have not seen the same respect for boundaries.  People (especially at church) seem to think it's just fine to come up to him and touch him on the head to say hi, or rub his head, or touch the scar from when his shunt was placed and ask what happened.  I'm not sure why they think this is okay.  Maybe it's because his wheelchair puts him at the perfect height for people to do it, maybe it's because he's a little kid, or could it be because he is not able to run away from them when they are doing it?  I do see him try to push their hands away, or give them looks that say, "Why are you touching me?"  But none of these people seem to notice that.  All they seem to notice is that they are making effort to be (or at least act) comfortable with his disability.  Yes, I think it's great when people can step out and include those with disabilities.  However, it would be nice if they would learn to do that without having to touch my son.  No one finds it appropriate to touch a complete stranger on the head when it's a typically functioning adult.  I would appreciate it we would all show the same respect to individuals with disabilities (and babies, pregnant women, etc.).  So please, if you don't know him, think of him as having a sign around his neck that says, "Wet Paint:  Please Don't Touch."

Equal time

Ato T turned 4 yesterday.  It's official - he's spent an equal amount of time in our family as he did in Ethiopia. It feels significant.  Happy birthday sweet boy!  You have stolen our hearts!!!!  I love your smile, the way you dance while staring at you thumb, and the way you squeal with delight when someone you love comes into the room or when we drive into our driveway.  You are a blessing!

Ato T has recently been saying "d,d,d,d,d" so he got a dinosaur cake.  As a birthday gift, we gave him an MP3 and headphones, with the hope that listening to his music when we're out in public will help him sit patiently.