Day 3 and Gaining

Dave’s Day 3 updates from Ethiopia:

4:10 a.m.  I fell asleep, but have been awake for at least an hour.  It's 4:10am here.  I'm going to try to sleep for a couple more hours. Trey is a restless sleeper, constantly rolling around, but he does sleep through the night.

 7:18 a.m.  Just woke up.  Trey did not cry, although he is a bit solemn this morning.  He is up and out of bed now, playing with his flashlight.  Not real interested in engaging with me or doing the things I ask him to do yet this morning.

7:23 a.m.  Trey is certainly inquisitive.  He likes to take his flashlight, turn it on, and use it to look inside all the new devices he has received.  Strangely, the only thing he is not interested in is the iPad.  Maybe that's because it doesn't really have any buttons.

 7:30 a.m.  He we go.  He just got the remote control car off the shelf.  He's learned to turn both the car and transmitter on by himself.  It's the toy he usually starts playing with that helps get him out of his funk.

4:51 p.m.  More about Monday
Went to Lucy’s for lunch.  Very cool atmosphere.  Food was good, too.  Trey had injera, churro, and warm milk for lunch.  We colored a lot this afternoon. He prefers markers over crayons. He knows his colors pretty well.  We ended the day on a very high note and we laughed and goofed off for almost an hour. I don’t think he laid down for bed until after 10 p.m. I laid down with him and we both crashed out.

5:20 p.m. Tuesday
Trey slept through the night.  He woke up without crying, but was pretty solemn. We just chilled and I let him do his thing.  That thing turned into, as it usually does, playing with the remote control car.  Then we colored.  It is fun to watch him switch gears from something pretty exciting to something more subdued.  Went downstairs for breakfast.  Trey really enjoys sweetbread and pineapple juice.  He had the same breakfast two days in a row (as a matter of fact he had the same lunch two days in a row – injera and churro).  Amazingly, I had my first cup of coffee since getting here this morning.  Ethiopia really does have the best coffee.

We decided to head over to the zoo after breakfast with another family.  Before leaving, Trey and I hung out in the courtyard of the guest house.  We played with the remote control car some more.  He has the concept of forward and backward down pretty well.  He got a bit sad when I told him it was time to go in.  His crying was only momentary.  I showed him how to use the iPad before we left.  He really thought it was fun.  Started with the iColor application.

We went to the zoo, although it’s hard to call it much of a zoo.  Maybe a dozen or so lions in small cages.  Trey was not very impressed.  Besides the lions, we saw a handful of native birds and a kudu, but that was about it. 

We went back to the guest house and took a short nap.  When we woke up, I got out the matching game, which I had forgotten we had.  He played it over and over again and was very good at it.  Next we got out the iPad and played a puzzle game. Again, he did an amazingly good job for never having been exposed to something like that.

At this point, we have no plans for tomorrow.  The other families are going shopping, but we did that yesterday.  Ideally, I’d be able to get him to take about an hour nap tomorrow, so that he can stay awake until the plane leaves at 11 p.m., then sleep all the way to Frankfurt (wishful thinking).

 6:15 p.m.  Trey and I've been having a great afternoon playing games and tossing the ball.  We went upstairs to the rooftop courtyard and played with a balloon.  He was intrigued with the view and would stop playing to stare out over the city every once in awhile.  I can't imagine what he thinks.  For the last year or so he has been isolated in the transition home.  Now, to all of a sudden be out and about, must be amazing to his senses.

Trey made up a game with the balloon where he would try to hit it by me.  We played it for about 15 minutes, with him successfully getting the balloon by me on a number of occasions. When we were done, as I was getting ready to unlock the door to our room, I said "Chalew, that was a great idea.  I had a lot of fun playing that game." He was looking me right in the eyes when I said it and he smiled a big smile and reached out and gave me the biggest and hardest high five of the trip.  Love you all!!  Two more days :)

Photograph by Michael Gowin