Hairs

Ella got her hair done last week and here is the result. We let her little noggin have a rest for a while after her last due, but, wimp that I am, I was getting sick of doing it. Once a week was just too much ;)

Although she has extensions, it's not extended much past her real hair. It's getting long!

It's a bit too long to leave long so our favorite style has been to pull it back into two pony tails. We hope that it lasts two months.

This is Frankie's new due! It took about five minutes to do - with a sponge!! I really like it as it's just as easy (as far less painful) than combing it out, especially as it gets longer.

Our tool - a simple dish sponge! Amazing what one can learn from the Internet...

Exhausting productive day!

Whew, what a day. Started out the morning by dropping the car off to be serviced in the POURING rain and taking a boda to work. Of course when it’s raining like that there are no boda’s to be found and you end up walking quite a ways to find one (through the mud of course!). By the time I got to work I was SOAKED.

Being the week before Christmas work was SLOW and boring. Lot’s of people in the office have already started taking their Christmas leaves and no one is really thinking about work anymore. Including me : ) But, due to this slowness, I was able to Skype with my sister and mom for quite a while – FUN!

Then I got “The Call” – the call that I’ve been waiting for! Frankie’s PASSPORT IS DONE! Hooray, hooray, hooray for our lawyer. I dropped Frankie’s few papers off last Thursday and here he has it not even a week later! INCREDIBLE. SO different than the miserable and torturous experience we had getting Ella’s. Getting signatures from every Tom, Dick and Harry in Entebbe and getting a letter from a certain cantankerous government minister. This dude (who caused me HELL) has since resigned (thanks be to God!) so we didn’t have to haul our sorry butts up to see him – WHEW.

Luckily our car was done in time for me to go get it (thankfully the rain had stopped!), I ran home to get my ATM card in order to withdraw money to pay the lawyer for the passport and land title stuff, then off to the bank. To make a long (and terribly frustrating!) story short, an HOUR later I had the needed cash in hand, all due to my own incompetence and stupidity. I hate that! We needed to be in Kampala at 4:30pm so we needed to leave here by 3:30pm at least. Traffic is a bit more crazy this Christmas week. I got back home at 3:30pm and still had to load up the kids and get gas (was running around on an empty tank). Even though I’ve lived here for almost six years now, I HATE being late for appointments. And we’d definitely be late for this one but I really wanted to get the passport and lawyer fees paid today so I didn’t have to go in later this week (when traffic would be REALLY crazy!).

We got to immigration at a little after 5pm which wasn’t too bad. Traffic was bad but at least it kept moving. We then waited over an hour for the passport to be finished but that wasn’t too bad either. I was AMAZED at the reception by various people that we got. I think that people’s perceptions of expat adoptive parents is changing. My kids got SO many smiles and friendly greetings from people and one woman even complimented Ella on her hair saying, “Your Mommy made your hair really nice.” Usually, no matter how nice your kids hair looks, women will always find something wrong with it. I was shocked at the compliment! Then to my disbelief one of the immigration officers came over to tell me how much he appreciated me “doing what you’ve done”. I could honestly reply at how much we really appreciated immigration for helping us get the kids their passports. After all, they are “their” Ugandan children (and their responsibility!) and it’s nice to see the government and individuals helping their own Ugandan citizens in this way. It’s nice when people don’t just say things, but do the right thing as well. In the not so distant past the old feeling was, “Why are you taking ‘our’ children?” Um, because you don’t want them and are happy to let them languish in western funded institutions? I’m all about people taking responsibility and doing the right thing! And I'm glad to see immigration doing that and making it so much easier this time around.

Traffic had thinned a bit by the time we were done and we managed to get home at around 7:30pm. I made a quick dinner (I would be lost without groundnut sauce and rice! Fast and easy!) while the kids bathed ALL ON THEIR OWN. Even Frankie! He even put his pajamas on the right way all by himself! After feeding them and putting Frankie to bed I then had to take out Ella’s hair so that she can go to the salon tomorrow. Not exactly something I wanted to be doing at 8:30pm but hey. My poor doggies didn’t get fed until after 9pm – a good three hours after their usual feeding time! Fortunately they were calm and submissive and it didn’t seem to bother them. What a well balanced pack!

So, while tired, I’m feeling that I accomplished a LOT today. Not only getting the car serviced but getting Frankie’s passport AND surviving the trip to Kampala safely! God is good, even when I’m exhausted!

Ella's first time at the salon and goodbyes

Whew. We had quite the busy week. Work was full to overflowing with end of the fiscal year things to do, contracts to sign, translation plans with the different (five) teams to go over, etc. Crazy! In addition to all of that and working five long full days, I also signed a tenancy agreement on a new house (amazing story about how God provided all of that later!), Ella got her hair done for the first time, and we took our dear friend Prossy to the airport and said goodbye for a year while she's in the UK getting a MA. What a week!

Sarah took Ella and Frank to the salon on Tuesday so that Ella could get her hair done

I am so glad that I waited until she was five to take her to a salon. You can easily get people to come to your home to do this but Ella REALLY was excited about having a real "salon experience". This was all her idea and she loved it. Only now I think that I may have created a little hair monster... I can see her as an adult spending all of her money on her hair and in salons just because they are so much fun for her! And Frankie? Well, who knows!

She was one excited little girl!

It took two women three hours (including one ten minute break or so) to get her hair twisted into extensions.

She only cried once, half way through, but ended in all smiles :)

Proudly standing in front of the salon. She's such a little Ugandan woman now!

Could this really be my baby girl? She's ONLY five and half years old!

It's long and she LOVES it!

Goodbye, dear friend Prossy! We will miss you!

For fun, I tried throwing an emotional scene at the airport. Prossy wasn't too impressed and Sarah just kept smiling through it. The kids, well, they're used to me :)

Our stay-at-home weekend

We had a relaxing weekend AT HOME this weekend! That's right - no parties nor travel nor dedications. Just us at home.

The pool that we've been waiting for SIX MONTHS to finish it's renovations, opened on Saturday! Not only did it open but admission was FREE!! I'd planned on taking the kids anyways but that sure did make it a whole lot sweeter! Sadly, after waiting six months for it to open they have almost tripled it's costs so needless to say, we won't be going anymore. My visions of Ella as the next Olympic swimming champion are beginning to wain... I'm going to check out the prices of some other pools in town though, so maybe there's still hope!

The kids have been practicing riding their new bike so Sunday we took a trip to the office so the kids could ride around in the parking lot and the dogs could romp around on the lawns. Great fun was also had sliding down and jumping off the slide.

And throughout all of these events I enjoyed using my new camera. I had been waiting for my friend Tanya to bring the cord for the charger back from Kenya, only to have her come and me realize that the charger doesn't have a cord - it plugs directly into the outlet!!! This realization hit me as I was dutifully explaining and showing her how it needed a cord that she had to have in one of her bags. She's a bit of a gadget nerd so got a BIG kick out of her little old Montana friend who couldn't even figure out how to plug in her battery charger :).

Our lovely weekend at home consisted of lots of playing in our beloved sandpit. Dave likes to join in of course!

Frankie swinging in the typical H way - mouth open!

The Ellster, mouth also open

"Our" pool - which now wants to charge over $4 per CHILD!

Frankie, taking his first dip. I think that it was actually a GOOD thing that we waited six months to put the boy in a pool. He doesn't like to try anything new but after he starts something he usually really likes it and is fine (this took me about four months to figure out!). In the past he would get pissy, whine and pout ALL day and NOT get over it. It took him about a half an hour of clinging to me and asking if we could home before he started to venture out by himself, play with a ball and tell me, "I'm happy now, Mom!" It's SO AWESOME that he can actually talk now!

Ella the fish - this child LOVES water!

Eating a sandwich before heading back out into the water!

Frankie, soaking up some sun

Splat! Ella enjoyed getting warm on the tiles but she looked a little like road kill!

Frankie and the dogs, chilling on the lawn

A boy and his dog. Sanyu is such a GREAT kids dog! She really loves her kids!

My pals :) What a happy crew they are although sometimes a rather smelly one!

Frankie in flight

Note L's mouth is open again!

There they go!

Frankie got a hair cut Saturday night. I was surprised at how much it had grown in just the last couple of weeks! He has a definite bowl cut but it really helps hide is funny shaped head. I like it!

New haircut and locks!

A couple of things that were in “our” suitcase full of keen gadgets, was a set of hair clippers and a dread lock comb. So within hours of their arrival, Frankie got a haircut! The first in the five months since he’s been home!!

He got his side fuzzies buzzed off, the top poofy reduced, and his hairline trimmed.

The pictures don’t do it justice but it is nicely “shaped” and “trimmed” and really makes him look more like a little boy, rather than a fat, genderless baby. He is a pretty faced boy so it may be important that he has a boy haircut so that he looks a bit more like a boy. And plus, while I thought his little dreads were darling, they were a lot of work and really not culturally acceptable here for a boy. Which I thought I didn’t care about but when it came right down to it, I wanted my friends to like and approve of my sons hair. How fickle is that?!

I think he likes it too because now he is constantly being told that he looks like a “man” (I call him my “man child” which cracks me up) rather than a girl. I thought I’d be more sad to see his fuzzy locks go but instead I was having too much fun with the clippers to even care!

Soon after I was done clipping Frankie I attacked Ella’s head with the dread lock comb. AWESOME!!! I love her locked hair!

This was before it was quite done and she sporting a more Pentecostal look with that “tongue of fire” atop her head!

I’m interested to see just how long these locks last. They’re not exactly dreads and I don’t know if I want to go that far but we’ll see. Sarah and our neighbor Hope have some really beautiful dreads going on and I think they’d just wash out if I got tired of them. Dang do I ever love this kids hair! Hard to believe that only two years ago she was as bald as billiard ball! Whew, and the fun I’ve had with it sense.... ;)

L also got a new princess nightie, which she is proudly displaying for her Granny!

The bunny whisperer

I think Frank has found his calling! That of a bunny trainer.

Frankie and Ms Dave love each other! Frankie has a good way with animals because he is so calm and gentle and prefers to just watch and feed them. As opposed to Ella who wants to maul them, tote them hither and yon in various types of wheeled toys, inspects every inch of their bodies, and has them dance and talk. I have elements of both with animals ;)

Having a chat with Ms Dave, while he feeds her rice

Dave loves to eat just about everything. Your typical rabbit fare, such as carrots, kale, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, potato skins, jackfruit, and cabbage, as well as more untypical bunny food like dog food, noodles, cooked and uncooked rice, toast, and chocolate cake. We are using her incredible appetite as an opportunity for a little training!

Ms Dave sitting up for a piece of jackfruit. Get a load of how big she's getting!

She LOVES her peas. Will come running from anywhere in the house to get them!

This was a new, cool trick that she did all by herself - jump on Frankie's back and ride him around the kitchen like a horse!!

And here she is jumping up on the bucket to get at some dog food

She is big enough now to jump up on the furniture so now I never watch a movie alone. I usually have a little rabbit either hopping around on the couch or nestled down on my chest. Nice!

Frankie's new due. I braided his hair once but that really breaks off the hair. So we settled with some simple little twists that are surprisingly staying in! This boy has thick, soft, curly hair. Very nice! Eventually we may move to little short dreads but I haven't made my mind up yet. I also may just cut or trim his hair with buzzers. Not sure yet. But for now, it's little twists!

Yep, poor Frank. He will be scarred for life :)

Beads (but only a few!)

Peer pressure is a terrible thing, especially in adults. I fell prey to it Tuesday and finally let down my resolve to never ever put beads in Ella's hair. Her Baganda Aunties have been pressuring me for a while, as has the little tyke herself. "It's HER hair" they exclaim, and my response always is, "buy I'M the one that makes it." But my weakness got to me Tuesday, hence Ella's head looking like a craft project.


There aren't many, and they're not staying in for long but THERE. I did it! The child has had beads in her hair! Now maybe L and her Baganda Aunties will get off my case... ;)

French Braids!

Ella's hair is finally long enough to do some really nice French Braids! Her hair is getting really long and thick and is surprisingly straight. Which doesn't hold as well as tighter hair but it's easier to comb out.




Now, to understand my delight you need to know that my family has a history with French Braids. I am the youngest of three girls and we all had long hair when we were younger. As little girls our mom would line us up and French Braid our hair - three different colors! Sadly it would only last a couple of days - if only we'd had hair like L's it would have greatly reduced my Mom's work. To this day when old friends reminisce about the H girls when we were younger, our braids seem to be one of the main things that defined us. So imagine my delight to be able to take my own little H girl back to Montana sporting her own little set of French Braids!

Ella unfortunately isn't too terribly impressed by her french braids because, "I can't see them." Sorry L - you'll have more control over your head when you are old enough to do your hair yourself! But for now, MOMMY IS IN CONTROL!!!!! Hee hee...