One of the joys of a transracial family is learning about new things… culture, food, hair?  I love talking to everyone I come in contact with about E’s hair, to get ideas, suggestions or recommendations.   I also read a lot of blogs on hair, and am always looking for something different to try.  I’d read for a while about yarn braids, but they looked pretty complicated.  Monday I watched a youtube video and I’m like… I can do that!  So I went to Michael’s and bought one skeen of black yarn.  Figuring I’d save it for whenever the mood struck.

I get home that night and E had been playing in sand…. if you have or know a kid with kinky hair, you know that that’s pretty much the worst thing ever, maybe aside from paint or glue.  Anyway, it meant washing her hair 4-5 times and scrubbing her scalp to get all the sand out.  There was probably at least 3 tablespoons left in the tub.  To say it was traumatic, would be putting it quite mildly.  But since her hair was conditioned (we’d washed recently, so conditioning was the only opion) I figured, ehh, why not put it up now.  I know it had said 1.5-2 hours to do, but I figured I could do it faster.  I can’t.  It took close to 3 hours.  Alex got home about 3/4 of the way through and started taking pictures….

I divided her hair into 4 quadrants, then divided those in half, and sectioned out about 10 “boxes” to braid.  You take 2 pieces of yarn, about a yard long, hold them both by the middle wrap around the top of the hair, and braid 2 pieces of yarn, 2 pieces of yarn, 1 chunck of hair.  When the hair starts to run out you take one of the sections of yarn, and give one strand to the hair section.  Once the hair all runs out you keep braiding until it’s as long as you like.  Then tie the yarn in a knot, and cut.

This took 2 movies and a Backyardigans.  She sat patiently for the back half, the front was more of a struggle, it was getting late, and I’ve never spent more than an hour doing her hair before.

But she was so happy when it was done.

The next day, I gathered it up into an easy ponytail.  She loves to swing it.

The idea is that is should last 5-6 weeks.  If it truly does, it’ll totally be worth all the pain.  It’s super easy, she can wear it a lot of ways, and frees us up in the morning not to have to do much.  And I imagine it’s really a protective style, since the hair is braided up in the yarn, and shouldn’t break too easily.  We’ll see… but for now – it’s fun!

Our second anniversary of Family Day was on the 9th.  But Alex was in Mississippi for work, so we had to delay our celebration until Friday night when we were all together.  Alex and Ella made a cake, complete with sprinkles, as they are the only reason for making a cake in the first place (according to E).  Then we had to sing — and have candles.  E is obsessed with “blowing out the fire.”  Here are a few pictures I happend to take on my iphone…

Blowing out the candles.

Her toe happened to land in the cake, and only a parent would think to lick the frosting off

Family cheese (I was on the couch with the camera, so excuse my absence!). 

I let Ella wear the necklace I bought for her for her very first Family Day, and she kept saying “you gave this to me?  for my family day?”  It’s nice to have a day to remember how we chose to be a family, and celebrate together.   Happy Family Day!!!

Two years old today. Time flies so quickly. Hard to believe that it was that long ago that Alex and I travelled to Alabama, spent time with her amazing birthmother Tiffany, and met our daughter.

Ella is such a bright and happy child. She loves to sing, and usually wakes us up in the morning to one of her favorite songs. She loves her puppy “Milo-bug.” She is always asking “how are you?” and wants to help when you’re in the kitchen cooking. Her favorite movie is “Babies” ie: Happy Feet and asks to watch it at least 10 times a day. She loves ice cream and playing with her toys. She is an amazing child and brings such joy to our family.

Happy Birthday baby.

Yesterday Ella had her second birthday party. Her actual birthday is not until next week, but Grandma and Grandpa B. were in town, so we had our celebration a bit early. Here are a few pictures from the party:

The party was a fish theme. The cake was kind of a disaster (melty frosting, crumbly cake, etc), but it all turned out okay.

We had the party at Golden Gate park between the carousel and the playground. Before all the guests arrived Ella and Grandpa rode the carousel together.

When time came to cut the cake, I realized that our lighter was out of fuel — so we just sang. And Ella enjoyed her piece of cake with lots of frosting.

Loved the frosting so much, she dipped her salami in it. The food was all of Ella’s favorites, which included Cowgirl cheese, salami and mortadella from Boccalone, and lots of veggies with “sauce” (ranch dip).

Lots of her friends came. She and Audrey are very huggy.

The most exciting gift came from our friend Gail. It was a horsey. LOVED the horsey. It even had a button in it’s ear when you pressed it it made galloping and naaying sounds.

Mom and Dad’s big present was a bike. She liked it when I helped… but is still an inch or two small to ride by herself. I think this will be a big hit in a month or two.

We opened the rest of family gifts today.

But the horsey was still the favorite…

Grandma got her a Mr Potato Head. The glasses were small, but not small enough..

So Ella reached the 18 month mark a few weeks back.  She’s a whopping 26lbs, and 31″ tall.  Her weight is perfect, but her height is starting to slip down the charts.  So she won’t be much taller than me, which is just fine.  She runs everywhere, and her vocabulary grows by the day.  Lately she’s added “love you;” calling Milo by his name, instead of Dado; “I got you;” and finding the remote control and saying ever so sweetly “yo gabba?”

A few weeks ago I brought her to Sears to get her 18 month pictures done.  I had no idea what an adventure I had attempted.  She wouldn’t stand, sit, or be still – at all.  The only decent pictures she’s obviously looking at me, not the camera.  Then about halfway through she decided she was DONE, and started bawling — serious crying, eyes turning red, snot running down her face to her dress, meltdown.  I told the photographer that we were done, but she wouldn’t let us go!  She said she had to get her seven poses, and we cannot leave until she does.  Oh my.  So I tried all the tricks in my bag, including treats, and asking perfect strangers to attempt to entertain her.  The last shot had to be on her back (um, whaaaa?) and she’s screaming.  Lovely.  I was able to find 2 shots that I didn’t hate.  This is one of them.  I know she’s not looking at the camera, but that smile and laugh is all Elle.

We traveled to Utah mid-October to see family, celebrate Ella’s birthday, and for a film screening for Paperback Dreams

The film screened on Thursday, October 23rd at the SLC library. It was well attended, thanks in part to our Heiner family, and SLC friends! Unfortunately, our dear one-year-old (still sounds strange!) did not have the patience to sit quietly and watch Daddy’s movie. But luckily (?) neither could Cousin Gray. So Spencer, Gray, Ella and I entertained one another in the lobby. Spencer is the best Uncle ever, and was a huge help with Elle, and I taught Gray how to hand out postcards once people left the theater. He called them his “monies.” And he’d give them out to anyone who walked by – and sometimes would demand their return!

The next day was “Hamburger Day.” On the 24th of October last year we met with A Angel Adoption to sign our adoption paperwork, in a Burger King. It was surreal to say the least. But we decided that ever after 10/24 would be Hamburger Day. (We couldn’t stomach the thought of it being BK day…). So we piled up Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Spence, Cousin Gray, Mom, Dad and Ellie. We went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Ella and Gray had a blast, mostly sharing a Caffeine Free Diet Coke (nasty).

That night when we went home Spencer and Alex decided to carve pumpkins. I thought they were a little over ambitious, but boy was I surprised! They carved 4 pumpkins – one that looked like Ella, Gray, Milo, and Dash (the latter two are our respective pups). They were so awesome lit up!

On Saturday Chris and Amanda joined us. Ella took a real shine to Amanda. Super cute.

And we had her birthday party. It was great to see so many family members and friends. Too bad we didn’t take many pictures! But here’s the 2nd birthday cake. She was still a bit freaked out when we sang to her. Maybe it’ll go better next year…

All in all it was a great trip. We got to see family, Gray and Ella had a ball together, and it was great timing for a vacation.

I meant to have this done for Ella’s birthday, but somehow in the craziness, I didn’t get it done. But here it is, one year in pictures of our little Ella Michelle.

 Yes! We finally have a court date for Ella’s adoption hearing!!!!!!  Yeay! 

June 9th at 8:45am. 

It’ll all be official.  We are beyond thrilled.

Ella had a big week. She got to show off theOmar Little shirt Jared made her:




She went toJapan Town so mom and dad could get some Ramen (but not the $.10 pack of noodles we remember from our college days):



After dinner, we posed for some family photos in a Japanese photo booth:



Then on Sunday, we had our usual park walk. It was a little chilly in spite of the sun, so Ellie wore a hat. She ended up looking like a celebrity cancer patient trying to avoid the paparazzi:



After the walk, she joined dad for her first ever shower (which she loved). The mist from the water got all over her face, and she just closed her eyes and smiled. But parenting note: Holding a wet naked soapy baby when you’re wet and naked yourself is trickier than it sounds when you’re on dry ground:


Last but far from least: Ellie hit a new milestone this week, as evidenced in this video: