Mango Pits

We have been selling some wine bags at WIA.  28 now to date.  Check out the new link to see our 5 holiday styles.  Please feel free to give me honest feedback.  The ladies really work hard on each of these bags and I want them to sell well so any feedback can only help them.

 Here in the house of Love we strip naked 2 times every day.  The first time is to suck the juice from the mango pit.  The second time is to take a bath.

We bought a laundry machine today!  Tight fit.  Worst thing was that I packed Theo's clean diapers under the machine so he had to wear a stinky all afternoon until we got home!  Poor guy.  But as of tomorrow we can wash it in our fancy new laundry machine.  We bought it from Martina so we got to see her one last time today to pick it up.  She lives down the longest bumpiest road of anyone we know.  We will have the electrician come tomorrow to install it and only then will we know if I was careful enough while driving it home.

12 Library Stories

Only 3 1/2 more work days for Carl!

 I picked out 12 LIBRARY STORIES today to get us through the holidays!!  Kaia thought she was dreaming when I told her!!

The time it took to take this photo is the longest Theo has ever sat still to read stories.  And now it is time for bed.  Good night.

Maria's Shower

Welcome Home Daddy!!

 As we neared the end of our time alone together things began to unravel a little bit.  I had a few free minutes this morning and thought it would be a brilliant idea to make bread.  Why didn't I just sit down and put my feet up?  A few minutes after this photo was taken one of the plastic containers opened and spilled over the floor.  It was full of little dried fish for the dog.  I should have foreseen that!  Good times.

 We did make bread though.  Turned out much better than last time.

A few hours later after nursing Theo I realized I hadn't seen Kaia in a while.  I looked everywhere for her!!  Our house is caged in by The Wall so I knew she had to be somewhere.  After checking inside twice and outside once I finally found her curled up in this closed closet fast asleep.  So deeply asleep that she didn't even wake when I called her name in the room.  She had been hiding from Theo.  Pretty good spot!!

 In the afternoon we had a Baby Shower for Maria, one of the mothers in the carpool.  She is due late December but has a scheduled c section on the 21st.  We are so excited to have a birthday buddy for Theo.  This is the card I made for her, it should match the room nicely.  On the way out of the house I had to come back inside 3 times because each time I left I forgot Kaia's shoes!!   The last time I left the house I also left my purse so I don't have any photos from the shower.  It was meant to be a kid-less event but there were 3 there in total and they were an handful!!

While I was making Maria's card Kaia wanted to make one too.  Those are full moons and stars.  We forgot to bring it.

I can hear Carl finishing up with the kids in the bath.  It is so nice to hear his voice in the house again.  Looking forward to a relaxing evening with him trying to recoup and gear up for the last hectic week before the break.

Roasted Goat

Hi Daddy!!  Are you checking the blog to see how we are doing?  We miss you!!!

Today we squandered the day on the swings, in the hammock, reading stories on the new couches, picking strawberries, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and preparing last minute details for a baby shower tomorrow.

My good friend Martina (the artist) and her family are leaving next week.  Tonight her friends gathered to say goodbye, Carl was very disappointed to have to miss it.   The tradition here is to roast a goat to send someone off.  That is a cucumber in his mouth.  I did have a piece.  It was very strange to stand next to him while chewing, I couldn't look at him while I ate him.

 There are many local artists here.  Since Martina is an artist we thought a portrait would be a fitting parting gift.  The artist we chose has a little stand out on the main road and does oil on metal.  He advertises with a painting of Obama that he has done.  His name is Lukas and I can get you his number.  I will try to get a shot of his shop one day too.  This was exactly what we expected to get.  They swear they will hang it above their bed.

 

 

 In his defense this is the photo he was given and he has never actually seen Martina or Marc.  It's like one of those spot the difference photo games, only it is way too easy.  I love that they both look so old and that they both have African features with a white complexion.

All in all it was a great night... for everyone.

Our friends's son

Thursday was a holiday.  We spent the day at home trying to catch up on home projects and enjoying the rain.  In the evening we got the most horrible news that my friend had found her 11 month old son in the pool.  We heard it through a 3rd source so news was slow to come.  They don't know how long he was in the pool but they did get him breathing and airlifted to Nairobi.  By 10 in the evening he was stable.  Thank God.  By Friday he recognized his mother and was playing with his tubes.  A great sign.  We are so relieved.  I can't put any of my feelings into words.  This has been a heart wrenching experience.  Hoping to hear continued good news today.  What a terrible reminder of how precious life is and to enjoy each moment we have.

 Here is Kaia enjoying the rain.  While Carl and I were busy being productive indoors I went outside to find her in her day clothes standing in the rain trying to catch rain water in her mouth.  What a turkey!  We compromised and decided she could drink all the rain water she wanted but that she should wear her rain jacket and rain boots.

 So do you remember these chairs in August?  The ones I was convinced were bug and flea infested besides being so ugly we had to keep them covered because we couldn't stand to look at them.

 And how they were under construction in September, October, November, and the first half of December...

 Well they are finally finished!!  It took so long for me to figure out how to sew those cushion covers and we seemed to run into roadblocks every step along the way.  The material was barely enough and the seat on the couch is actually a patchwork of 7 smaller pieces!  It turns out it cost about 110,000 Tsh (or 75 USD) just to refurbish them!!!  No matter, totally worth it.  They are gorgeous and very comfortable.  Now we need some tables and a matching carpet.  It never ends :)  Notice how dirty Theo's knees are!!  Crawling and rainy season are a BAD combination!!

Boo hoo.  Carl is gone for the weekend.  So at night we had movie night without him.  ELF.  Great movie!!  We normally make this bowl of popcorn.  Without him this week, even though we had a friend over too, we still couldn't make it to the bottom of the bowl.  Guess Carl eats a lot of popcorn!!  But in his defense we did make a little more than normal because I burnt the first batch and was able to salvage a bit from the pot. I think I am procrastinating on cleaning that pot by updating the blog :)

Off to clean the pot.

Into the Woods

We did lots and lots today!  Totally the opposite of yesterday.  Theo and I had a really nice morning sewing pillow covers for those chairs we are still working on.  Then we molded a few food items out of dough that we will bake and paint for Kaia's kitchen.  

 Then we went up to meet Kaia for playgroup at ISM.    Kaia sure works hard in school!

 

 Then Daddy took us out for dinner at the Coffee Lodge.  You can see the coffee plantations in the background.  They make for a wonderful landscape because they are green and beautiful but not very tall so there is still a very spacious feel to them with tall trees planted sporadically to add depth to the landscape.  They cut the coffee trees down to stumps each year and right now the stumps have grown to about 5 feet and the leaves are coming in.  Flowers will be soon to follow.  The lodge also has a few rooms to rent and they cost around $800 a night... but they are BEAUTIFUL!!

Then up to ISM for the play 'Into the Woods'.  The show was really amazing!!  The acting, costumes, singing, stage, tech aspects, all really well done.  Also a great play for all ages, funny enough to keep me interested and also had Cinderella, Jack and his beanstalk, Little Red Riding-hood, Rapunzel, and the wicked witch to keep Kaia interested.  This shot shows the moon that I sewed and the clouds that Kaia helped paint.  Both kids did great and we stayed in our seat (yes, one seat for the 3 of us) for the entire show.  Go Loves!  Theo loved clapping with everyone else and Kaia loved squirming like a worm.

Rusty Bolt

So I realize we haven't been doing much that is blog worthy these days.  Great excuse to pull out the camera though and have a little something new up for Grandma.  Today Carl took the car into the shop, the power was out for 11 hours, and it rained cats and dogs for about 4 hours. The best news all day was when Carl came home and said the big problem we had been having with the car was due to a rusty screw.  What a relief!

  Being caged in the house we were destined to have a 'interesting' day of some sort and this is how it started.  I guess it took me a while to get to Kaia to wipe her bum.  So she made herself comfortable.

 Theo's hair is really coming in.  Thank goodness he has a sister that knows exactly what to do with it.

I love African rain storms.  Warm, fresh, and everything smells so wonderful afterward.

Kaia-ism

Yesterday Kaia went to the play during school.  I asked if Cinderella was in it.  She said 'no, but Christiaan was'.  He is a boy I tutor.

Theo-ism

He is learning not to scream for food.  So instead he says 'a gung ung yung yung'.