Time flies...

Life has been busy- We celebrated my grandmother's life. The boys enjoyed being loved on by many relatives. They also enjoyed the Zoo and the hotel pool.


We've been working in the garden. In March we planted spinach and beet seeds. Each morning we check the garden and water. We were finally able to pick beets!

Several members of our church hosted the Watoto children's choir.


The commuter challenge- to take the bus, carpool, walk or ride your bike to work- has started. We attended the kick off for our area. The boys rode in a rickshaw which they said was very cool. They tried out different bikes and were given free bike helmets.


We have a few necklaces remaining. If you are interested in purchasing one, please let me know.

This week

For our anniversary Rob and I had a fantastic candle lit dinner with our two boys. Faye brought over a wonderful meal which included candles and a candle sticks. Igor insisted that we turn off all the lights and eat by candle light. I think Igor be a romantic?


Henry continues to adjust to the time. Yesterday he woke up at 4:30 AM and this morning at 5:30 AM! He does wake up around 2:45 each morning and demands to co-sleep with us. For now one of us sleeps with him in the guest room from 2:45 until he wakes up for the morning.


The Christmas tree and all the decorations are finally down! It took few hours each day while Henry was sleeping but it's finally done!


Every other night a dear family from our church bring us a meal for dinner. I have not cooked since returning home and it's been awesome. It has allowed me to focus on the Henry and Igor!


I spoke with Ms. Joya yesterday. She has agreed enroll Henry in her nursery school at the beginning of September. I know, I know, it seems a little early to make that decision but she fills up as early as February for the following school year! Henry is showing such wonderful signs of attachment that I think he will be ready for 2 or 3 days of nursery school this fall. If not, we'll try again next January.


We haven't taken Henry to church yet. I don't want to over stimulate him or infect other children with ring worm. Tomorrow I take him to the doctor. She will do all the medically testing to determine if he has any other ailments. Once he gets the all clear and Rob and I think he is ready for church we will take him.


I still carry Henry around but I Have started to put him down and offer my hand which he gladly takes. I also chase Henry around the house which he loves. Henry LOVES the outdoors. When he wants to go outside he will walk to the laundry room pick up his shoes then point to the door. The language barrier has not been a problem so far. Although, I don't think he speaks Amharic... mostly he babbles. Henry recently discovered the toilet and loves to put his hand in the water.... YUCK! I have to watch him like a hawk because he gets into everything. We are having a lot of fun together discovering new and exciting things.

Igor is engaging more with Henry. They parallel play with trucks and love to wrestle with daddy together.


We are very blessed at our house. Every day gets more "normal".

Adjusting to life

We are adjusting to being a family of four. I have given Henry the nick-name of "barnacle" because he rarely leaves my side. He constantly wants to be held which is great for attachment and is a real workout! My abs and legs are sore from constantly carrying around a 24 pound child. When Henry does leave my side he looks at me, makes great eye contact and then waves good-bye to me and blows me a kiss. It's so cute! Of course, I follow him because he is into everything!

Henry's nanny rocked him to sleep and I am pretty sure she cuddled with him if he woke up at night. Henry is going to sleep around 7:30PM and wakes up around 2:30AM and then every hour after that until 5AM when he wants to get up for the day. Henry will cry and cry until I pick him up. I can get him to go back to sleep if I rock him. I'm a little bit exhausted. I am going to bed at 7:30 too, it's the only way I can function the next day.

Yesterday Igor parallel played with Henry and this morning invited Henry to play hide and seek. I think that's serious progress. Igor can be very compassionate and caring towards Henry and then he will wish that Henry would leave him alone. Here's a sweet picture of the two of them at the airport.

Henry still has tummy troubles but the doctor does not want to test him for parasites until he has finished his antibiotic. Henry had his second visit to the pediatrician's office. I thought I saw the beginnings of ring worm! Henry does have ring worm so we have started an oral anti-fungal medication. Henry took the medicine two days in a row without a fuss. Today he spit the medicine at me. Good times! I have to agree with Henry, the medicine is nasty. I will add it to yogurt tomorrow. Did I mention that I am itching? This morning I found a dry scaly patch on my body. I really hope I don't have ring worm!

Jigsaw puzzles, picture frames, bird house repair and frogs

My parents sent us a jigsaw puzzle they recently finished. Rob and I enjoy the working on the puzzles together. I did the sky and the water while Rob put together the buildings. This puzzle was a lot of fun.

Igor loves jigsaw puzzles too so he put his puzzles together next to our puzzle.

We decided take a jigsaw puzzle to the beach. The thrift store sells 1,000 piece puzzles for $1! I bought two. While I was there I saw some huge frames. They were all under $20. I really wanted to frame Igor's painting but professional framing is sooo expensive. I don't know a thing about framing painting so I went on the internet and found a video which explained how to frame a painting on canvas. It looks simple enough so I bought this frame!

The frame had a small crack in the wood so I glued it back together. Igor needs to sign the painting and I need to buy a fastener for the back. Once that's done I will hang the painting over the mantel!

While I had the wood glue out I decided to fix my birdhouse. I don't own any clamps so my friend Holly said to put a bag of rice on top for 24 hours. I decided to use an open bag of rice. Obviously this was a BAD idea.... ugh!

We are currently pet sitting two frogs. I will post pictures of the frogs as soon as I clean their aquarium. I don't know why I but thought we would like taking care of the frogs. I was soooo wrong. The frogs are water frogs so we cannot hold them. If you cannot hold them are they a pet?? The food is very smelly and I have to change their water every other day. We have scratched off frogs as a potential pet.

Life in pictures

We found a place at the beach! We are so excited. We will be on vacation in 3 weeks. My sister and Rob's parents will join us! We found a great place with a pool one block from the ocean. It's located on a small island so it should be very calm and peaceful. We are all looking forward to some R&R.

This week Igor and I have spent a lot of time outdoors. We've been taking pictures of the birds/animals that visit our yard.

There is something about the American Goldfinch that makes me smile. This little bird seems to dance while feeding. Can you see the American Goldfinch in this photo? He's so tiny.

Here is Igor's favorite bunny- McQueen and Eastern Box Turtle- Sally

Igor and I made garden stepping stones this week. We bought colored ceramic plates at the thrift store. Igor smashed the plates with a hammer while I mixed the concrete.

I poured the concrete into molds. Igor arranged the broken pieces in the wet concrete. I had some concrete left over so I poured it into egg cartons. Maybe Igor can make cities with the little egg domes?



Here are two of my planter boxes. The deer haven't eaten these flowers yet...
My sunflower refuses to give up! Even though the deer have eaten it down to 8" it continues to bloom.

Visit & Art Therapy

We loved our short time with Donna! It's always great to see "old" friends.

Yesterday, Igor & I finally broke out the acrylic paints and the canvass. Igor and I needed a little art therapy. Do you ever have one of those days when you realize you are stuck in a rut? Yesterday was one of those days for us. We needed to shake things up a little bit so we decided to paint. Igor wanted to mix the paints up to create different colors. There is something about paint that calms the soul. Maybe we should paint more often....

Nana, I hope you don't mind, Igor is wearing the apron you sent him for cooking! It's his "painting smock" now.