Playing with my christmas present- the imac!

Mary Rose took this great picture of the Munch in front of the White House
You can see the grandstands on the left of Pennsylvania Avenue here prepped for Jan 20th
Strangely such a warm day...

We ventured down to see the National Christmas tree on the Mall

Here is the munch with her gift from Chrissie- a leap frog table-- very kind of Chrissie!  We called her in Cuba and thanked her on Christmas!

Mary Rose was visiting, so we took the opportunity to go downtown to 

1. see the grandstand being built for Obama's parade- which i doubt we will even get close to on Jan 20th, and 

2. to see the National Christmas tree on the mall.  It was super successful plus it was almost 65 degrees warm!

The Christmas Crazies

What an absolute blast it was driving out to Hagerstown to not only see Grandma and Grandpa rock and family but also play with Matt's sister Beth plus her 7 kiddies!   Zara learned fast from Nate, Jacob and Laurie how to play a toy basketball game; i was SO suprised!  I am just so happy she has so many wonderfully vibrant and sweet cousins to show her the ropes!   I often wonder if she is missing out with no siblings.. so i love the interaction with her cousins.

Christmas morning:  Zara discovers her baby grand piano and plops down on her new potty to play it! I have no idea how she didn't fall through the hole!   HA HA  ( its actually very cute with a toilet paper holder and its own magazine rack! Meg and Renee were with me when i bought it at the Frederick Crafts Fair)

This evening we skyped Uncle Anthony and Auntie Becs in the South of France- sadly they did not have a camera on; but it was great nevertheless!  Anthony and Becs are visiting her family and it is Anthony's first time seeing Bec's brother's new twins!  So sweet!

The ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

Look who arrived just in time!!!!!

Missy's daughter is the most precious, perfect, smiley, gurgling little one...landing ontime all the way from Addis! Missy was all lit up inside-

even after 18 hours of flying!

A sweet reception party was waiting... Zara and I thank Missy and her family for letting us "suprise" them at Dulles. I won't write more now--- but I could tell that Sitinia & Zara

will have a lifetime friendship- almost like sisters!

Granny and Grandpa Zarr are back in the country!

the much with new arrivals...just back from Spain and Portugal- spending some quality time...

Missy arrived in Addis... and last we heard was trying to rest before meeting

Sitina for the first time! but nothing since, i am sure its whirlwind of emotions and she has no time whatsoever to be playing around on a computer!

MUNCH TOOK HER FIRST STEPS!

well this was not one of them.. she is propped up nicely though! LOL

she did however take about 2-5 frankenstein-like steps on our living room carpet.

I found this particularly poignant since i had just spent the entire afternoon( frustrated) on the phone calling Pediatric Therapists and the insurance company trying to get her in for hypotonia therapy to help her walk faster! Here i am all annoyed that they are telling me that they can only get me on 4-6 months waitlists to gt into weekly therapy and then ZARA pulls a fast one on me!

She is such a little trickster!

Missy is off to Ethiopia in "2 days and a wake up"!

that is military talk... or so Matt tells me!

How surreal it is that MISSY is Baby S's mother LEGALLY in Ethiopia! What a great moment it was when she told me the outcome of her court date!

Now she is counting the seconds until she will see her daughter face to face-the first time for both of them. I will be thinking of her and her parents who are going with her and can't wait for the 4 ( count them FOUR) of them to return. It's sooo thrilling it gives me chills.

Here is the funniest video- its about 4 mins- but the ladies may enjoy it most!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid3130509001

couldnt resist posting it... sorry