May Days

Wowza .... end of May already!
Two weeks left of school for Kaia and Carl.
lots of end of year events to do and look forward to ... busy times ...

You can see Kaia is exhausted!  This is a typical afterschool time during the school week.
Mommy was talking to a student and Kaia fell asleep on the library cushions/floor.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Theo keeps growing and 'hitting milestones' ... here we are working on getting his underwear up by himself!
Big guy!  Just that one little problem.

and here was an interesting creative Kaia moment ... spelling her name by herself with Lego!

What ARE they doing??

So who can be the first to figure out what they are doing?

 

The next video may help.  Watch the lady on the left carefully,  it may help you figure it out.  She learned her skills from watching the cat.  Sassy is the most proficient at this skill.  Laika is getting better.  The kids are hopeless, although they have the most fun.

Get it yet?

Dirty Water

So the kids have gone a little crazy with the face paints.

And it wasn't long after Kaia's birthday that Carl started to notice that the paints were making a MESS of the bath water!!!

Only... one day they didn't use face paints and the water looked the SAME!!!

 So what's the deal?

And day after day it STILL looked the same. 

So we ask Salim to check it out.  After looking confused and blaming it on the rainy season for 10 or so minutes he finally climbs up to the roof to check out the water tanks.  Turns out one is missing a lid.  So he tapes it with plastic and tape.  Sigh.  I ask him to clean the tank but he is adamant that in a day or so the water will be clean.

2 days later.. shockingly the water isn't clean.  We correspond with both the school and the owner. 

2 days later... the school sends Alex.  Alex and Salim spend the day cleaning the tank with soap and water. 

1 day later... water is still dirty.  Salim says in a day it will be clean.

1 day later... it isn't clean.  Owner says he sent fundis to clean.  

1 day later... we welcome back Alex who finally notices that ALL the tanks have dirty water... approximately 13000L of dirty water!!  Then he notices that the water coming into the property is dirty!!!  He sympathizes and turns to leave.  But wait I say.. maybe we can install a filter?  Oh he says.  He will check that out tomorrow.

Today is tomorrow.  No word.  

Today Kaia left muddy footprints on her way OUT of the bathtub.  

This is so gross. It has been about a week and a half now.  

Baths, dishes, laundry all being washed in mud water.  

When we move home I will NEVER take clean or warm water for granted.

 

'Get Out Mommy's Garden!'

We have so many pics and videos to post ... well, we will just take it one or so at a time ... here is a keeper from the last month - The chicks have been growing fast, but not fast enough that they couldn't still squeeze through the tiny holes in the fences.  BUT big enough that their little appetites were starting to do damage to my garden!!   So here is Theo - my little hero and protector - shooing the baby chicks out of the garden for me... 'Get Out Mommy's Garden!' ... very cute ...

'

Happy Mommy's Day

PJ sadly noted this year how she was hearing more 'Happy Mother's Day' rather than 'Happy Mommy's Day' ... ahhh ... our children are growing up?!  No, maybe its Daddy .. well anyway, note the title of this blog!

So, there were many preparations on Saturday for this special day, and Daddy thought at least a few of them would remain secret ... but oh no - Kaia was quick to share the secrets with Mommy as soon as she had a chance ... tsk tsk ... bad doggies!

Theo and Kaia got Mommy two new hanging/porch plants, some sunflowers, some chocolate, a nice home made card, some rainbow pics of Kaia and Mommy together and a secret video (here).!

It was a very nice weekend ... Happy Mommy's Day ALL!  XXXXXXOOOOO Us

Cast off!!

And I don't mean knitting... Carl FINALLY got his cast off!! 

 It was almost as exciting as Kaia's birthday.  

 This is what WE see from the car when we patiently wait for him to walk down this sidewalk to the car every day when we pick him up from school.  Here is the very last time he was walking with a cast.  He isn't going to miss it even a little tiny bit.  

He got it off last Wednesday.  We all went with him.  He didn't have an appointment, there were no appointments until June!!  The docs told him to just come on in and hope for the best.  So we all went figuring it would take forever and we could entertain him.  We came at 330 and we were lucky enough that they saw him BEFORE clinic hours began at 4pm.  

They wouldn't let the kids watch the actual cast removal, they said it was too loud and scary.  I don't know what kind of primitive tool they used.  But it worked.  

From a sitting position, almost immediately, Carl was able to lift his leg almost horizontal... something he wasn't able to do after 4 months of physio therapy.  Now the challenge seems to be getting to to bend down past 90 degrees.  The wound is still stiff and a little sore.  He also has to build the confidence to put away his crutches and develop the faith that his leg won't give out on him.  And he has to built up all his muscle again, 4 months with no exercise has taken it's toll.  All in good time, we are definitely on the road to recovery.  This is best case scenario.  Carl has even already been on his stationary bike trying to strengthen it a little at a time.  

 

 And the real reason I am so happy he lost his cast is that he can DRIVE again!!  Gosh have I hated driving everywhere, this traffic is taking it's toll on my mental health.  Here is the stoplight on the way to hospital.  We only have 2 in town.  This one is broken.  Imagine the CHAOS!!  And what did we pass about 50 feet before the stoplight?  5 policemen chatting at the side of the road.  Think they could pass their time by directing traffic?  Guess not.

 And in the meantime to entertain ourselves...

Theo and I went to music makers on Friday.  We dropped Kaia and arrived early, Claudia was still having breakfast.  So Theo kept her company and had 3 bowls of granola and yogurt.  Then he sat with Yves on the table and ate the popcorn we popped for music makers.  Then the baby was getting breakfast so he found himself a bowl of oatmeal.  Then he finished and Yves abandoned his so Theo ate his bowl of oatmeal too.  Then he was STILL the first kid at the table after music makers making himself a bowl of fruit.  This is all after having a hearty breakfast of bread and peanut butter at home before we left.  Staring to sound like the little caterpillar?  Maybe he just needs a nice green leaf.

 This week it was his turn to be driven around.

 And as for Kaia, she was given face paints for her birthday.
Every parents dream.

 And then she discovered she can do her own face painting in the mirror!!
She is also VERY proud of making these popcorn holders for herself and Theo for movie night.

And lastly, this is Kaia's 5 year old big girl room.  All her hand made birthday cards on the left (I think it is super sweet that so many people made cards and drawings for her), her art in the middle, and the birthday flowers for flair.  Her room is awesome these days... she just needs her bed back from Daddy :)

Kaia is 5

KAIA IS 5!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where in the world has my baby gone.  How can it be 5 years since she popped out.  And wow has life changed since then.  I feel like I am such a different person.  I have loved all the stages of my life but life these days is truly priceless.  I can't imagine it ever getting any better than this.

 

So what better way to celebrate than with a RAINBOW party!!

 Carl and I (obviously in serious need of hobbies) made flower chains in all the rainbow colors and let them blow in the breeze along the sides of the banda.  It was so dreamy :)  The flowers will now adorn her room until we move next.

 Dreamy.

 We had 28 kids come!!!  We definitely weren't expecting that.  All her besties.  What a zoo!!!!  And there were a couple of parents that said that their kids were shy and didn't like parties... but since it was Kaia's they really wanted to come.  What a compliment. 

 We had awesome games, 2 pools, and face painting.  Slotted it in for 2 hours.  Not a chance anyone could get bored.  At one point I thought it was pretty quiet and went inside to get a few things.  Once inside all I could hear the deafening roar of plastic bikes tires on the concrete as the kids raced around the house.  There were kids everywhere!!  We had to chase them from the rafters when it was time for the cake!!

 Kaia can still tend to be shy, especially in large groups or when the attention is focused on her.  She actually did quite well through out most of the party and became more comfortable as her friends arrived to support her and buffer her from the attention.  But when the cake came out she hid upstairs and refused to come out!!  Eventually she let me carry her but wouldn't unbury her head until the cake was cut and everyone was eating.

 What a beautiful rainbow cake for a beautiful 5 year old.  

Theo was kind enough to ease the tension and blow the candles out for her.

But the inside was my little surprise.  

6 individual layers.  This is how I show my love :)

BEST cake ever for the BEST girl ever!!

 We also gave away the cutest 'go away bags' as the kids called them.  These are crayon hearts that we melted in the oven from a pile of crayons we left in the sun and was trash anyway.  Carl made a little coloring book for each kid to go with it.  And when I took Kaia to school today a few of the girls brought in their books to show me how the pictures were coming along.  So utterly cute :)  

And that was it.  2 hours of chaos and then the calm returned.  Then we could relax and had a few friends for dinner.  We chatted on skype with family until it was time to collapse happily into bed to dream of sugarplums.