Happy Birthday Boy

When we met Nes's Mom she gave us his birthday, which was today. I was glad because it would be the first birthday we celebrate after he got home. His Dad's 40th is coming right up. I was wondering how he would handle having to wait until June to be the birthday boy. This way he his king for the day first.

I am a keep it simple kind of girl, so I bought a few gifts, and considered what he might like to have for dinner. He loved fried cabbage at the guesthouse, and since it is on sale for St. Patty's day I picked some up. I thought I would give t'ebs a whirl. And I made french bread, I know it isn't injera, but I am fresh out of teff. It looked like the w'et that we had in the guesthouse, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing.

I made a mocha cake for dessert. I am admittedly a terrible cake baker. They never turn out right. They usually look much worse than they taste, but I won't be doing weddings anytime soon. The cake had a bit of spill in the oven, which I forgot about while I was at the dentist, so when I fired up the oven for the bread I got some nice little flames. I threw in some baking soda and pondered what to do next. My dough was already in the mixer, so I couldn't bag it and run to Safeway. I managed to scrape out most of the flaming material and charcoal without burning myself, so I fired up the oven again. It all burned out fairly quickly and the smoke alarm didn't even go off, I think that is good.

The kids ate all of the t'ebs, which is more than I had hoped for. Nesradine loved the cabbage and the bread soaked up the sauce which is all it needs to do for him. He was a bit put off by all of us singing to him. When we got to his name he began to grin. It took me a minute to explain the blowing out of the candles, but he got it and thought it was fun. I'm sure he won't remember this day, but we will, and hopefully it will alleviate some of the birthday jealousy. Helen however was wanting to know when her birthday is. Kids all react pretty much the same.

We had a dentist appointment earlier in the day. He was a champ. The hygienist wasn't sure he would get what he was supposed to do. We managed to show him, and he was very cooperative. He is going to need a ton of fillings, and his front teeth will probably stay stained until they fall out. The good news is they are all baby teeth and they look worse than they are. That doesn't make them any cheaper to fix, but it means that the next set should be just fine.

I also learned another Amharic word. While I was cooking dinner he kept asking for kwalima. I asked him to show me, and he showed me eating. I still didn't get it. I called my friend who has Ethiopian children and asked if they knew what it was, to call me back. I finally got my phrasebook out and discovered that he wants sausage. Bummer, I had beef. Maybe tomorrow I will get sausage, he is a man after UB's heart.