The New "Birtukan"

The girls have a sweet friend named Birtukan, but this post isn't about her (sorry sweetie!), but rather it is about this thing:

This past weekend we went out of town for a few days, and this orange moose was in the parking lot/lawn area of one of the hotels in the town that we were in. We drove past it a couple of times everyday on our way to visit our friends at the campground. Makenna thought it was so cool. This is about how the conversation went:


Makenna: "Look mom a huge animal thing."

Mama: Yep, that's a moose. What color is it?


Makenna: Orange. Birtukan. Let's call him Birtukan. Is it a boy?

Mama: Yep it's a boy. But, Birtukan would still be a good name (thanking god that she didn't ask anymore about the differences between a boy and girl moose as she has done in the past! :)). And, proud that her Amharic color came immediately after her English one. Well done baby!


So, everytime we drove past this orange moose she would yell "Hi Birtukan. Eat some grass big boy." or, "goodnight Birtukan, dream about eating some grass." It was hilarious and I was suprised at the little friendship she developed with this guy over the course of 4 days. When it was time to leave she wanted to take a picture with the moose, so here is Makenna, Ron and Kya with Birtukan.

As we were getting in the truck, Makenna saw this view for the first time and yells out "Gross mom, they put poop on his butt or somesing. Wipe it off!" Ron and I cracked up and confirmed that we do not have an outdoorsy girl when she can't tell the difference between a tail and poop!