Day 13-14 - Time with Zane and Entoto Mountain

Since we first met Zane, he has been walking only with support from nannies, us, furniture, or whatever he can use to keep his balance.  On Day 8 or so, we were able to help Zane walk a few steps without support from Daddy to me and back.  We knew he was close, but a little too wobbly still to walk on his own.  He loves to practice though, and since he's been playing with us outside, he's been watching the older boys play soccer.  He will stare at them for a long time, then get down and try to walk really fast with our support.  I think he's trying to run!  On Day 10, Daddy was sitting a little far from Zane and I and he randomly got up on his own and walked by himself to Daddy.  It was about 4 steps.  I guess you can say that those were his first steps; however, we thought maybe it was just a fluke.  So we tried again.  Zane wanted to hold our hands to walk the rest of the day.  "Oh well," we thought, "he'll walk when he's ready."  On Day 12, Zane walked from one end of the porch to the other to meet me on the other side.  He definitely was walking on his own with no support this time.  The nannies came to the window to watch and he did it again!  All the nannies clapped and cheered for him.  It was so sweet.  That confirmed for me that it was the first time he had walked on his own. He will still go short distances by himself, but he likes to hold our hands most of the time still.  Today we got a really good picture of him walking on his own and leaning his hand "cooly" against the wall like a stud model.  It was so funny and totally not planned.  I think he likes his new found freedom.

Yesterday after spending time with Zane, we went to Entoto Mountain.  It's the mountain just outside of Addis Ababa that is know for the women who carry wood down to the market at the mountain's base to sell each day.

We drove to the top, and looked out over Addis Ababa.  We also saw St. Mary's Church at the top and the palace of Menelik I and his wife.

It is so beautiful in the mountain.  The air is cleaner and birds are everywhere.  We saw several black "eagles" (according to the guide) that strongly resembled ravens (hmmm...).  The palace is made of a plaster that serves as a natural cooling system for the palace. There was a separate bedroom area and living/dining area.  By separate, I mean totally different huts.  They have tall ceilings and ox skin covered by a thatched roof.

So apparently, Entoto and Saluta Mountains are prime locations for Ethiopian runners to train.  Mark, Tim, Rob, Justin, Laura, Nikki, Arnold, and Randall thought it would be exciting to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, have Job and David pick them up, and go running up Saluta Mountain with Ethiopian runners!  Wow.  They're very brave.  And a little crazy.  Mark and Tim were very proud that they were ahead of Ethiopian runners for approximately 20 yards (not to mention, Mark and Tim started 30 minutes before them)!