Showing Off

Amy and Pray spent the night.  Emily was also over yesterday evening sewing place mats for her mom.   By the time we come back in August Emily will be long gone to the US and Amy will (hopefully for her sake) be packing to leave.  We are enjoying our last days thoroughly... sewing, hide and seek, duck duck goose, mojitos, lots of dear memories.

Unfortunately today ISM was robbed.  All of the computers in the primary lab went missing.  Thousands of dollars worth of stolen equipment.  This is terrible news.  The school is already struggling financially and working very hard to make ends meet.  The school has 24 hour security and strict policies, it is unbelievable.  Hopefully the police will have good news for us tomorrow.

In the meantime I shamelessly flaunt my most favorite children in the whole wide world...

 If I remember right Kaia was explaining something to him and he was getting a tad bored.

 Kaia and Pray heading off to the grocery store holding hands.

5 more sleeps

The terrible threatened power outages weren't so bad.  We have been having power during the day but not at night.  It has proven to be very unproductive because at about the moment Carl walks in from work, and I might actually get something done, the lights go out and I can't see a thing.  Very relaxing week though.  

Getting so homesick!!  Thinking of bare feet in green grass, big stores full of beautiful things, libraries, museums, traffic lights, power, warm water, smooth roads, dogs on leashes, Cafes, and loving friends and family. I think Kaia is a little apprehensive about the trip.  She has been very moody lately, resistant to change, and has made several comments about how she will miss her friends and pets.  I forget this is all she knows.

 Theo has been pretty tough and demanding again this week too.  Teeth coming in further maybe?  Maybe he also senses the upcoming trip.  One day he woke at 6am and literally whined, cried, and wanted to be held until 8am when I changed his diaper.  He collapsed to sleep naked on the changing table and relief encompassed me.  I covered him and brought my work into the kids room and he slept there for over an hour.

 I can't wait to share American culture with Kaia.  She has this new shirt that she calls her toothpaste smile shirt.  

Here Pray helps Theo put on his shoes.  Absolutely precious.  Pray is so wonderful with both my kids.  Amy has agreed to stay in our house while we are gone to care for our animals, staff, and bath tub.  What an angel she is.  But she doesn't like curry on popcorn.  Strange.

 Kaia had her first play date this week without the parents coming along.  Huge step in life.  This is a new girl in her class and Kaia talks about her all the time.  They are two peas in a pod and whenever I see them at school they are glued at the hip.  Of all the gibberish Kaia has shared about her the one thing she never mentioned is that the girl only speaks GERMAN!!  These two innocents also raided the cookie jar together... troublesome pair... this could get interesting.

 Exhausted.  And both asleep at the same time!!  PArTY!!!

 Here Carl tries to help with some light hand sewing.  He took the thread and threaded into a plastic shell bead from one of Kaia's necklaces he found on the floor.  Then asks how to get it into the needle.  What?  Progress is slow.  But look how proud he looks :)

Santa Claus is coming to town!!  Gifts are coming along.  I am starting to enjoy the holidays in May.  Pulled out the suitcases today and dusted them off.  Tossed a few things into them to feel productive. 

5 more sleeps!!!

Kili Bowl

How could I forget to mention the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl.

 Last Saturday Arusha hosted an American Football game.  Drake University Bulldogs vs. All stars from Mexico.  We didn't go since Theo is too young and we didn't think Kaia would care much.  Amy kept us posted play by play.  Drake took it 17-7.  Evidently 20,000 fans packed the stadium, very impressive in a country you would b hard pressed to find a football.  They also did great outreach work before the game.  Both teams arrived a few days early and worked with kids from local schools.  Our school neglected to participate!!!!  Finals week they said :(  Now I believe the teams are racing up Kili, but I am not following the progress. 

Also... I went to the doctor for a routine appointment and after checking in I had to go pay at a seperate counter.  They gave me my medical file to hold while I waited in line.  I have never held my own medical file before.  Since the birth was the most interesting thing I have done at the hospital I flipped to that page.  Summary...

Stage 1:  6 hours
Stage 2:  5 minutes
Stage 3:  3 minutes
Apgar: 9/10

I had no idea they were keeping track of any of this.  In my humble opinion it looks great in black and white!!  Go Theo!!!

More Goat

Feels like forever since I posted.  Happy to report we are all healthy again.

First and foremost...  My precious mother had a cancer scare.  And while I share all the little details of our lives I have kept to myself what has preoccupied my mind and thoughts most for weeks now.  We are so happy that it was a false alarm and all the tests have come back negative.  Thanks to God.  We love you Mom!!

 That's right.  More friends leaving.  This time it is a woman who came just a month or so before us.  She has a daughter who was only 5 months at the time and is now already 2.  She is my crunchy friend, she loves to bake and make pretty things.  Very sad she is moving on.

 Power has been fine lately!!  We are 3 days into the dates they threatened the 15 hours cuts and nothing has changed.  Newest threat starts Monday... 4 days of no power 6-11pm.  No problem.  Here we are enjoying our power by chatting with Grandma.  I love how Theo is dangling off the table to get a good view.

 Preparing to travel.  Kids are going to have to get used to sleeping at different places.  Here Theo has fallen asleep on Melanie's lap.  She is our our easy going, life is always sunny, German friend.  Kaia fell asleep on the couch to the drone of adult conversation.  It was a great night and hopefully an indication of what our North American travels will be like.

 Our rear view mirror has fallen off again.  I refuse to drive until it is fixed by Carl is much more adaptive than I.  He just holds it up when he wants to see something.

 Melanie gave us an outfit for Theo that her 1 year old daughter had outgrown.  Before I even had a chance to try it on Theo, Kaia was already sporting it around the house.  Yesterday we went through all our hand-me-down clothes to see what fit her now.  For an hour she tried on cloths cheerfully without complaint.  What will we do with her when she is in high school!!!

Theo kept busy too.  He likes to take my fabrics and spread them out flat on the floor.  Then pick them up and drag them around the house.  Then spread them out, and drag, spread, drag.  Silly boy.

11 days till we fly like birds.

Ganging up

In Finnish news... did you see that Finland beat SWEDEN to win the World Championships in hockey!!!  They are living the dream!!  Check out the photo of the 90,000 Fins who met the returning team... these days it is great to see large groups meeting for a good reason :) 

In Tanzanian news... Mafuta Sasa in Dar es Salaam is turning used cooking oil into biodeisel fuel.  Very progressive for these parts.  Despite being ridiculed by the general community and not being able to sell to fuel stations because governing agencies don't understand enough about his product, he perseveres.  We hope to be able to support him in the near future. 

In Arusha news... this is what a Load Shedding Time Table looks like.  It is looking like the dreaded cuts on May19-26 from 8am-11pm will be trimmed.  Instead day or evening cuts for 4 days in a row.  Totally do-able, In fact that is basically what we are doing now so we won't even notice a difference.

On the home front... Kaia's fever came back last night along with a headache and a very unusual 3 hour midday nap.  So we are nesting again today.  Uugh.  She woke up looking fine and the spots are mostly gone.  Hopefully this is the end of it.  Very sad to have missed a playgroup that was celebrating her friend's birthday today.  Also very sad that I am definitely fighting this too and am utterly exhausted.

 Today for the first time they ganged up on me.  I wanted to change Theo's diaper and Kaia showed him how to hide under the bed.  Clever.

 This is Kaia's 'telling on you' face.  Here she was explaining how Theo took Kuna.  

This is Theo's 'salad' face.  For some reason he has started asking for bites of my salad during lunch.  The salad usually has lots of raw onion, carrot, green pepper, and is covered in balsamic vinegar.  He makes this face for each and every bite but then keeps asking for more. 

**Video coming as soon as our power comes back on**

**ETA:  Seems we have a problem uploading videos again.  Sorry.**

And here is Theo crowing like a rooster.  Sometimes he really gets the sound right and often accompanies it with a great back arch.  But I couldn't get those on camera.  This one is cute enough though.

Sickies

Material shopping, sewing, and cuddling sickies.  Theo fought off his fever and passed it on to Kaia.  She was sick Thursday but better by Friday so we sent her to school.  That night her fever spiked again so we committed to nesting for the next 24 hours.  It felt like forever for her!!  Daddy went out shopping AND out to an evening birthday party without her and she was devastated.  Afterward she remarked 'I made it 20 days stuck in the house!!'  Life is challenging.

 My tater tots.  Theo is still in a bit of a funk.  Those 4 teeth still coming in?  Maybe.  And Kaia sick.  Poor us.  So we watched a few videos to pass the time.  Finally Theo is sitting for a couple minutes in a row!!  

 Haven't been taking too many photos the last few days so here are some old ones that never made it to the blog, been saving some for an occasion like this... Photo crisis with no new shots for Grandma!!

Theo on the trampoline.

 Kaia posing.

 Carl and I with Kaia in Finland.  2 months old.

Carl and I with Theo in Tanzania.  3 months old.

18 more days till wheels up!!

Construction

Had a bad driving experience today.  There are three roads through town.  The north road is longer but faster, the city road is shortest but always congested, and the short-cut with is very very bumpy but pretty free of traffic.  Ironically both the north road AND the shortcut are under construction right now.  Best way to school right now is straight through town.  Already contested, you can imagine how it is now that the other roads are under construction.

There are lots of robbery ploys here to get you to stop, pull over, or get out of your car.  Basically you don't stop for anything, no matter how terrible it looks.  If there is actually something really wrong then there is always a crowd of local people ready to help.  If not, then it is probably a ploy.  Single women are obvious targets.  One such ploy is for a biker to slam into your car... you will then stop to make sure he is alright.  Today it happened to me and it was terrible.  I knew for a fact I hadn't done anything, I wasn't even moving when he hit me, but it was so hard to continue driving as if nothing had happened.  Traffic was slow and he and his friends kept running along beside me trying to get me to get out of the car.  It took a few blocks for the traffic to lighten up and then everything was fine but I am really not looking forward to my next drive across town.  Can't wait for the short-cut to be fixed.

 I usually meet my tutoring student in the performance area and sometimes Kaia's class comes in at the same time for PE.  I love watching them.  Here she is walking along the balance beam.  I think she has a great style.  I never choose her clothes anymore, only her.  She is wearing a sundress with leggings under and a long sleeve shirt over.  Somehow it totally works.  Today she also snuck her dress up shoes into her schoolbag.  Sneaky girl :)

 Theo had a workout of his own today.  He loves the trampoline!!  About 5 hours after this photo was taken he had an underarm temp of 103F.  Poor guy.  He is doing better today.  Hoping for a healthy boy tomorrow.

 A friend of ours (actually many of our friends) have a trampoline.  When we pulled out of the driveway this is what we saw.  Lucky tortoise.  I didn't know they even had one, definitely wasn't keeping an eye out for him.  

 And speaking of inappropriate animals, what is wrong with this picture?  Carl is going to flip when he realizes I pulled out the camera before chasing him out? 

Double-And I am pretty sure there is a frog under my desk as I type.  I would check but the power is out and you all know the status of our flashlights.

 My darling Kaia.  She made this new dress for Kuna yesterday.  'Mommy I want to sew'.  Ahhh, she knows how to schmooze.  So the dress is cut out of one of her old socks.  She knotted the ribbon together over and over again to make the belt. 

 AND (with some help) she sewed on the first 5 of these hanging beads at the bottom!!  I am really really proud of her... for wanting to, for having the patience to sit down and work on it for so long, and for doing such a good job!!

And here is Kuna today.  Lounging at the beach.  

Ta-ta for now.