Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Bunna lover!

We have a little girl with serious love for coffee---particularly Ethiopian coffee (bunna in Amharic). Makenna has always asked for coffee whenever we have had it since she was little. At first we resisted for obvious reasons (really who needs a toddler hopped up on caffeine??) but would occasionally give her a sip or two. As time has passed, she is no longer happy with a sip or two, but really loves to have it. We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant a week ago and she drank almost an entire cup of coffee throughout the course of dinner. Everytime she had a chance (when I wasn't paying attention) she was sipping out of my cup hoping that I wouldn't notice. Of course I did when my cup was nearly empty! The craziest part is that this was at 8:30 p.m. at night! But, she fell asleep as soon as we got in the car (around 10 p.m.) and slept with no problems. Wow, dodged a bullet there right?!? :)





(playing with an empty cup that she would not throw away because we had gotten coffee at an Ethiopian cultural event and she could still smell the coffee in the cup-took me 2 days to get this away from her-crazy girl!)



She also seems to notice the difference in the type of coffee. Ethiopian coffee is usually brewed pretty strong and has a smooth distinct taste. When we have had other types of coffee she will ask if it is bunna, like she knows that it isn't the same. Weird! Who knew a 3 yr old could be a coffee snob? She even asks for bunna candy. There are coffee flavored Werthers (which are great by the way) and she would choose them hands down over any other candy. Cracks me up when she talks to me with her little baby coffee breath.


Oh, and we aren't completey irresponsible about the effects eithe. We have done some research on the amount of caffeine in coffee and it's affects. It seems to be a pretty common thread with a lot of families who have adopted from Ethiopia, especially older kids, because coffee is regularly given to kids. As far as we can tell, no stunting of growth here(which is NOT true), she's still a tall drink of coffee! :)

3 comments:

CINDY... said...

Ha! Your post made me laugh. Maya loves bunna too, and honestly I actually like the taste of bunna much better than American coffee. But Makenna's definitely got Maya beat on the amount she drinks. We're still at a sip or two!

Jess said...

This is so funny, Emma keeps trying to steal my coffee whenever I 'm not looking! I had given a few sips thinking she wouldn't like it, but of course she loved it! I knew from the forum that kids in ET often drink coffee but I didn't know if I should encourage this or not...She does seem to love it, and honestly it feels good for her to have some kind of instictual attraction to it!

Jessica

Stacy said...

Lucy used to love bunna but now not so much. I guess she outgrew it, at ripe old age of 2! Your girls are soooo cute.