Changes at the Heldt house

So last night was Anna's first night in her big-girl bed! (We haven't actually put the bed together yet, so it was just the twin mattress on the floor.) She did great! I turned all the lights off and laid with her on the bed, until she fell asleep. I left the room and she didn't wake up until her normal time the next morning!!! I have to admit I felt a little emotional seeing her in a real bed and not in her crib anymore, where she's slept for the past nearly-two-years.

We spent last night (and into the wee hours of the morning unfortunately) preparing the boys' room! Kevin surprised me when I got home from our church retreat late Saturday afternoon by having the whole boys' room painted! I was so happy when I walked into the house and it smelled like paint (AND let it be known that he somehow managed to do this with Anna underfoot, with no paint incidents.) That night we hit up Target and WalMart for some more stuff: socks for the boys, a couple of shirts for them, a set of twin sheets for Anna's new bed, and a great four-drawer cart thingy for Anna's closet (to put diapers and wipes, her shoes and socks, and some other things in since her changing table has now gone to the boys as well.) Still haven't found her a dresser.

Anyway, we got the boys' room pretty much done last night!!! It looks so happy and cheery; we're both pretty pleased with it. While we were working on clearing out Anna's room she was in the boys' room jumping up and down on one of their crib mattresses that was laying there, yelling "Brothers! Brothers!" She is really, really excited about her brothers coming! Then today we were reading a Winnie the Pooh book together and got to a page where Christopher Robin and Pooh are sitting together. She pointed and said, "Brothers." It was so great! I think she's starting to understand a little what a brother is, and definitely knows that she's going to have some. (If I ask her, "Who are Mommy and Daddy gonna go get?" she answers without missing a beat, "Brothers!" And if I ask where she's going to be while we're doing that, she'll say "Grandma and Grandpa's!")

Things are slowly falling into place. Today I'm going to try to make a list of all the things we need to buy before leaving and attempt to get some of them today. I also need to call the doctor to get two prescriptions that we will hopefully NOT need to take for something called "traveler's diarrhea." (Last night I told Kevin maybe we should take bets on which of us will get sick. He predicts we both will! I sure hope he's wrong!!! As a preventative measure we will be popping Pepto Bismol tablets every day, sick or not. Maybe it won't do anything, but hey, at least we'll feel like we're keeping ourselves healthy!)

I am actually super excited about the food we'll get to eat there. From everything I've read and heard they eat some really yummy things! I am always up for trying new and interesting food and nothing beats getting to eat authentic stuff. While I've been wanting to make a trip down to Los Angeles to go to an Ethiopian restaurant, I'm happy my first Ethiopian food will be from Ethiopia! (I also plan to start cooking some Ethiopian dishes and making it a regular part of what we eat. Though something tells me it will take some practice!)