Meeting Zamara Video

Referral-versay!

Last Saturday was the anniversary of our referral. That is when we learned who Zamara was for the first time. We got her picture, name, and all of her information. It was such a great day for us. I have been working on this video for a while and I have finally finished it and thought it would be fun to show it here. It was the day we met Zamara in Ethiopia for the first time. I am also including a couple pictures of Zamara--the first is her referral picture and the other one is her 1 year later. Pretty amazing, huh?

Time Out

A couple weeks ago I was at a friend's house for a mommy's night out. Beth's daughter, Lily, is about 18 months old. Lily was acting up and she put her into time out. She actually stayed there for about 2 minutes. I was totally amazed! I didn't know when to start doing time-outs with Zamara (or as the Supernanny would say, sitting on the naughty spot). Beth started doing time-out with her several months ago. Craig and I figured that now was probably the right time to start working on it.

Zamara has been starting to exert her independence lately. Her big thing is walking in the wrong direction as us on purpose and hitting. She does both of those things to get us angry at her and to be defiant.

A few days ago Zamara kept hitting me and wouldn't stop. It wasn't hard, but I had said "no!" several times. I told her that the next time she hit me she would go to time out. She looked me right in the eye and then hit me. So we put her in time out for the first time. We sat her down right by the couch. I had no confidence that she would actually sit there, but she did! She burst into tears and threw quite a little fit on the floor, but she sat there for well over 30 seconds--which is a pretty long time for a 13 month old. It was so cute (and kinda funny) to watch her sitting there wailing her heart out when we were just a few steps away. Total crocodile tears, of course! Then we got her up and asked her to say sorry (which she can't really say yet), gave her hugs and kisses, and told her why she was put into time out. She was in a bad mood for the rest of the night, though. We have not had to really discipline her that much, so I don't think she knew how do deal with it.

We had to do time out again while we were in Phoenix because she kept hitting me again. It worked just as well and she bounced back much quicker. It's been really hard to do but we feel it is the right time to get things started on the "discipline front". That first time was especially rough! Please keep our little family in your prayers that we would make wise, godly decisions that will bring Zamara up to be a girl who loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind and strength and loves her neighbor as herself.

Weekend in Phoenix

Each year as part of our jobs, we get a weekend off to visit another church in order to see how church is "done" in a different place. So we decided to check out a great church in Phoenix called Scottsdale Bible Church. We decided to spend several days down in Phoenix. We went to the World Wildlife Zoo, swam, and ate at a few good restaurants.

This was our fist trip at a hotel for multiple nights, so we were wondering how Zamara would do. She did great--she didn't sleep through the night at all--but it was pretty good for being in the same room as us and in a different environment.

Here are some things we found out on this trip:

• 1. Zamara loves petting zoos
• 2. Zamara hates to eat at PF Chang's (we are not sure why, she just gets grumpy)
• 3. Zamara loves to swim and play in the water
• 4. Zamara is afraid of feeding giraffes (I mean have you ever been inches away from a 20 foot tall animal? It's pretty freaky!)
• 5. Zamara called every animal at the zoo a "cat"
• 6. Zamara loves Greek food, spaghetti at "The Spaghetti Factory" as well as the chicken nachos at "Cantina Laredo" (the best nachos ever)!

We really had a great time in Phoenix. The weather was beautiful. The Zoo was great. I would recommend it to anyone. All the exhibits were close together and there wasn't that much walking. The coolest part is feeding the giraffes. We will definitely take Zizi back there when she's older. The new aquarium there wasn't our favorite. We'd have to rank Monterrey Bay as #1, Newport, OR as #2 and Wildlife World Zoo as #3.

We also spent some time at an outdoor mall (Desert Ridge- if you want to take your little one there too) where Zamara could play in the fountains. We put her new little bikini on her. She looks so funny in it with her diaper--it doesn't really cover up her booty very well.

In the picture with Zamara on Craig's shoulders, there is a monkey in the left bottom of the screen. I thought I would point it out since it's hard to see him.

It's Sunday night now and we are getting everything unpacked and back in it's place. We will be heading to Illinois and Indiana at the end of May, so this was a great test run for that big trip.

Seriously, you have got to have the chicken nachos at Cantina Laredo! Go now!

Have a great week everyone!

Craig and Laura

YAHOO!

8 full nights of sleep in a row...let's make it 9!

Dance Class Video

Zamara has been taking a community dance class for a few months now with her friend Aspen. Thursday was her last class so I made sure I got some pictures and video. I used our little digital camera, so the picture quality isn't the best. But Zamara looks cute anyway.

There is not much else going on around here except the usual. However, I will say that Zizi has slept through the night 3 nights in a row...and we are hoping tonight is 4.

It has been snowing on and off all week. It's April!!!! We are so ready for spring I can hardly stand it. I can't wait to take Zamara back to the park, let her play in the sprinkler outside, and all other things you can do in the summer. We have all felt a little cooped up lately.

Finally, last week the publisher that is publishing the book I have two quilts in sent me an adavanced copy. It's called, "Quilts, Baby!" It turned out so great. The other artist's work is amazing and I can't believe I am a part of it. It comes out on May 5 in bookstores. I hope everyone can go down to their local Barnes and Noble and take a look at it. You can also see it online at Amazon.com.

Well, that's about it. Have fun watching the video of Zamara at dance class.

Good night!

Re-Adoption

Well, it's official. We have finally completed the re-adoption process here in the United States. Today we went to court to finalize all the paperwork. And Zizi's name was changed from Liyana to Zamara Liyana. It took all of about 5 minutes in court. Here are the pictures.

Random Pictures from the last few weeks

enjoy!

Easter Pictures!

Happy Easter everyone! I don't think we have blogged since Zizi's birthday. WOW! That was a month ago already. The Ducommun's are doing well. Zamara had a cold, an ear infection, and was cutting teeth all at the same time. She is better now, but there were a couple rough weeks there at the end of March. We actually didn't know she had an ear infection. We thought she might have a urinary tract infection so we took her in to the dr. Her pee was fine, but she had puss in both ears! She hadn't been pulling on her ears at all. She is healed up and back to normal...except the teeth. She is still working on them and is drooling all over the place.

Today is Easter! It is so fun to get to celebrate Jesus' resurrection with Zamara. Of course, we had her all dressed up today for church. She looked adorable. Craig has been working all weekend...literally. I think he got 3 hours of sleep on Friday and 2 hours last night. He just got home from the last of 7 services and is now going to take a nap. Once Zizi wakes up I will be taking her on a field-trip to the mall to let daddy sleep--and do some shopping with mommy!

Yesterday we had planned a big Easter Egg hunt in our back yard with some friends, but it snowed! So we moved the hunt inside. The kids had just as much fun, though. Zamara really got into it. She still doesn't know there is candy inside the eggs. I am completely fine with that because I didn't really want her to have candy before her nap anyway. She just thought they were fun rattles.

So here are some pictures of the weekends festivities. I love the last one with Zamara showing a little baby crack! So funny.

Also, Craig's sister, Aunt Ashley, came to visit this last week. Zamara calls her "Asheee". We had a lot of fun. Zizi misses her aunt so much!

Lastly, today is also my mom's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMMY MARY!

blessings, Laura