Cast #2

For those of you who don't know... Carl has religiously done every single exercise that his physio has assigned him every night without fail for the past 8 months. For those of you who have ever seen a physio... you know this is basically a full time job.  Last week Carl went for another MRI in Nairobi because he felt his progress was too slow.  And the news wasn't great.  

My eternally optimistic husband reflected on his way to Nairobi trying to isolate the worse possible news he could receive.  He decided that hearing that this was as good as his leg was going to get was the worst news.  Kudos to him for putting life into perspective.  So the rest of the story is good news in comparison.

The MRI showed that only the side tendon attachments have held.  The middle tendons have detached.  The reasons are unclear, all the doctors Carl have talked to seem to agree that sometimes it 'just happens'.  The doctor estimates he is operating at about 30% right now.  In my opinion that is devastatingly heartbreaking for 8 months of physio, a surgery, and 6 weeks in a cast.  But we are going to view all this through Carl's eyes.  So the bad news is that it won't get any better on its own.  The good news is that they can operate again in hopes of a better outcome.

For Carl the glass is half full and he left for Nairobi this morning to fill it all the way up.  He will be in surgery Tuesday afternoon.  He will come home Thursday evening and be in a full length cast for another 6 weeks.  I don't know where he finds the strength, but he spirits are good and he is excited to 'get this show on the road'.

So in the meantime... we continue to pass the time.  At night Saidi says the hedgehogs come to eat out of Laika's bowl.  Kaia has been excited for a while to get up in the middle of the night and see them.  We haven't done that.  But a few nights ago a hedgehog baby was trying to drink water from the chicken coop trough.  It is a pretty deep bucket and the poor little guy fell in!!!  Salim found him in the morning treading water to stay alive!!!  So he rescued him but the baby was SO exhausted he just sat trying to catch his breath for over an hour.

 The kids watched him the entire time!!

 Once he was breathing better we moved him out of the coop and out of the way of the chickens.  He still wasn't moving much.

 The we decided it would be best for him to be in the sun to keep warm.  Boy did Kaia's maternal instincts kick in!!  See... now she had the very  important job of keeping him safe from SASSY!!

 And this is what happens less than 2 seconds after we all agree... NO TOUCHING!!  Hedgehogs aren't puppies and aren't meant to be pet.  

He hung around the yard for most of the afternoon and finally disappeared mid-afternoon, presumably to find his mom and live happily ever after.

Pray's Birthday Party

Well, just before we attempt to tackle all the beach/mountain pics of our little vacation we wanted to put up a few shots of Pray's 6th birthday celebration!  Here are Kaia and Theo figuring out the Matchbox car set that was set up for play.

Amy did a great job of hostessing with the mostessing with lots of great food, things to do and people - including a special guest -- Spiderman!  No wait, I think that is Theo.

And here is Theo scampering off to hide behind a bush as he eats some of the chocolate birthday cake .... maybe he was afraid of Daddy trying to take it.

Sorry we did not get any shots of the birthday boy himself!!!  But you can be sure he was dressed up as Spiderman at least a couple of times too ...
AND the GREATEST NEWS for Pray and Amy -- their adoption was approved/legally finalized by Tanzanian law yesterday!!!!!!!  Yeahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Congrats Amy and Pray!

'I Tricked You'

Lately Kaia and Theo have been very cute with 'tricking us' ...

Ranging from saying 'Look Daddy, there is a plane up there!' or 'Look Mommy, there is a birdie ...' then 'I tricked you!'

Very cute ... !!!  Theo ... 'I icked you!'
Here are our little schmo schmos with Mommy relaxing for a coffee and juice at TGT - tired perhaps from all the 'tricking!'  :)

Yard Camping

We had a nice stretch of days this past week where we did a lot of camping in the yard ...

The first night, we had a great campfire and cooked the dinner on it - it was great warming us all up and for tasty sausages and homemade pita bread.

Aren't these two little ones cute? 

The night we finally decided to sleep INSIDE - well! - Kaia was quite upset ... she LOVED being outside in the tent with all of us ... understandable ...

Car Wash

We have been very busy wittling away at our Fun Free Summer Stuff List... 

Pillow fights / Cardboard castles / Fancy dress tea party / Balloon ping pong / hosting music makers / claymation / alien juice / treasure map hunts / backyard camping / water balloon toss / sidewalk chalk games / learn new jokes / and making a firepit have kept us very entertained.

We also did a car wash!  And our car almost always needs a wash!  (even every 5 min.!).  

So, the other day we had a bit of fun getting the car washed up (and a bit of each other!)

Check out Theo inside the car trying to wrap his head around it all. 

Theo still not sure whether this is fun or just a chore in disguise.

 

We all worked very hard and each pulled our own weight.

But of course the most fun came from splashing each other .. 

Well... Kaia didn't much like being splashed but she sure enjoyed splashing others :)

EDITORS NOTE: This blog took 5 days at least to put up because of our regular power outages these days.  Rumor has it that Tanesco (our electricity company) didn't pay their gas bill.  So as usual... we are paying the price.

Sick boy

So we have created a mega-list of stuff to occupy our time this summer.  Today was claymation day and tea party day.  We made green and pink glitter playdough and a hat full of fun stuff to sculpt.  Then we made clay creations for others to guess.  For the most part it went pretty well. A few minor exceptions... this is Kaia's TENT.  When no one could guess it she put balloons on top because she thought that would help clarify.

 

And last night we went out for dinner.  Thai.  We hardly go out for dinner so it was nice and special.  Until Carl and Kaia spent the night going back and forth to the bathroom.  Theo got hit the worst and spent the entire day on the couch motionless.  As for me?  I am covered from hair to mid-knee in vomit and urine.

 Mid morning.

Early Evening.

I think this little boy needs his grandma.

Rwandan Ceramics

Theo was very cute this morning .... he usually just crawls into our bed and starts waking us all up ... not terribly cruel but ... today he came in to the room, sat down on the small carpet next to the bed and read a book or two!  PJ thought she heard some noises .. opened her eyes and he noticed.  'Good morning Mummy' and then crawled into the bed .. how considerate!!!

So Kaia and Theo got out of bed today anxious to use their new presents from Mommy from Rawanda.

PJ visited and brought home quite a few pieces of a local Rawandan ceramic that she just loves!  

(and we love them too ... nice simple designs with a beige base and blue/green coloring here and there)

Here and Kaia and Theo first thing in the morning enjoying their milk in their new 'junior' mugs.

Theo finished off his and said 'Please more milk in my present'!  :)  Hee hee ...

Thank you Mummy! ... XXOO

 

Mommy's Home!!

I am back from Rwanda!!!  Arrived yesterday.  Awesome trip and I will do a nice long blog about it soon.

I arrived at Melanie's later than expected and (not so) patiently awaited Carl's arrival.  The long awaited reunion with my beautiful family!!  After about 20 minutes I called and he said 'Oh, that's great.  We are at the grocery store.  Should we come now or stop and get some fruit?'  Seriously?!?

I was thrilled to see everyone again... the kids looked so much older!  Is that crazy?  I was showered with drawings and booklets that were handmade by Kaia (and a toy horse from Theo that he just happened to be holding when the car pulled up).

Today was just perfect.  They were both perfectly behaved, so polite, and utterly hilarious.  Everything they did was too cute and I laughed for most of the day away.  I missed them SO much!!!  I also went a little camera crazy...

 These are the necklace and bracelets that Kaia made for me this morning.  The pendant is a rainbow. 

This is the castle Kaia and I made this morning.  Theo had been out with Carl and when he saw it he said 'It is so pretty!  Thank you so much for making this for me.'  Love it!!

This is Theo finding a monster grasshopper in my lettuce garden.  The kids know by now... this means chicken food!!  Can you see the grasshopper?  We have so many on these enormous guys.

 Blowing bubbles.  Why doesn't this EVER get boring?

 

 And finishing the day in the...

 

 ... bubbliest bath that we could possibly make.