It Takes a Village

I have been on a roller coaster of emotions with the whole Ethiopian trip coming up so quickly. I can only imagine how much bigger the roller coaster must be for Courtney and Paul! Anyway, I made some arrangements to make Tizita's stay here in Watertown as stressfree as possible for all of us. I am finding out that it takes a village to take care of this little lady for ten days. It seems much harder for a grandparent to care for a grandchild than for a parent to do it, must be the different mind set!
Anyway, I am going to go back a bit on this post. I am starting on Friday, Dec. 30 when we headed up to Oshkosh to redo Tizita's room as part of her Christmas gift. We worked all day Friday and the end result was very, very nice. John feels it is a bit too pink for his tastes, but what little girl does not enjoy a pink room? We also moved the playroom into Tiz's old room and we made the old playroom a room for Natnael. We were pleased with all of our work and so were the Van Auken family when they arrived home on Saturday from their Christmas in Minnesota.
John and I went to Vitale's for New year's Eve. It was very nice, we joined Courtney and Paul back at home for a few beers and all four of us were in bed before midnight.
We went to church on Sunday and spent some time with Tizita while they packed and got organized for their journey to Ethiopia.
Monday was very bittersweet as we said our good byes. I felt so sad for Tizita because she knew they were leaving, but I really don't think she had any concept of how long they would be gone. Courtney and Paul left around 7:00. We packed up and came home to Watertown to begin our adventure in grandparent babysitting with Tizita.

Tiz spent a good two hours crafting with Gigi while watching some TV and unwinding. It was a very relaxing afternoon for all of us.

After the TV/crafting time, Tiz made some pudding. She made vanilla and chocolate and double whisked them. She put them into fancy glasses and we all enjoyed the pudding.

Tiz even helped with the dishes after our pudding adventure.

Bedtime was easy except we both were a bit teary eyed during her prayers. We looked at the moon just as her papa had told her to do and that helped.

On Tuesday, I had to call on my village to get Tiz to school so she would not have to come as early as I like to go. Vikki kindly offered to bring her so I took her up on it. Tiz had a great day at school. All her old friends from last year were so happy to see again and they rekindled their friendships very quickly. Tiz brought her camera to school and the girls enjoyed looking at all the photos. Before school she had taken a few of Gigi in her underwear, but she did not show those to the girls! Gigi was concerned she may have shown them to everyone at school. We needed to delete those! Other than that, our day was fantastic.

During my afternoon class, Tiz asked me if I was tired of teaching because I had to do it all over again in the afternoon. I was tired, but I didn't tell her that! She did fine after being with me for both classes but tomorrow I am again using my village of Gigi and Mallory to take Tiz to lunch at Mullen's and spend the afternoon with her.

After supper Tiz took a nice warm bubble bath. I gave her some light sticks to use in the bath and we turned the lights off. It was calming and relaxing for her and me. John did bedtime duty and she was out very quickly.

Thank you to my village for helping me with this adventure!

Stay tuned for the next installment.