Tiras Tidings and Micah Moments

I am utterly besotted with these little guys and it is definitely such a fun age and stage for both of them. With Tiras talking more and more, we get that much more of a glimpse into his personality and how he thinks. Micah is in Year One now and it’s amazing to see him navigating longer school days and his social world so independently. Another great dynamic is how much Micah and Tiras enjoy spending time together. Yes, the squawks and outcries of dismay do occur at times, but there are far longer stretches of companionable chattering and boisterous and giggly wrestling. Love it!


And now, just a bit of a snapshot of Mr. Tiras at the present time:

The Talker – Tiras chats away in sentences and paragraphs these days. Some words are clear as a bell and others I can’t quite discern. He also has a grand old time playing make-believe with his toys and I’ll hear him talking away to them and he reminds me of Andy in Toy Story (and of his big brother when Micah first started pretend play in earnest).

Some of my favorite words are the words he doesn’t quite say correctly yet, such as “hopter” for helicopter. I just love that one! I also love how he adds his own exclamations to things now, “Good gwief!” and “I cannot bewieve it!” are two I hear fairly regularly and they always make me smile!

The Charmer – I have noticed that Tiras has definitely caught on to the “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” principle. He will sometimes smile brightly and give us hugs before asking for something he wants. He is also quick to burrow his head into one of our shoulders if he thinks we need extra hits of adorable for one reason or another, including to smooth over troubled waters. Troubled waters caused by another facet of his personality…

The Scowler—Let’s keep in mind that he is two and it is utterly age appropriate to be a bit mercurial at this age. That said, Tiras is embracing his age and very much exhibiting some of the age two drama. If he doesn’t like the answer he gets or if he doesn’t appreciate being misunderstood or if he generally thinks something is just not quite going as he likes, that boy can scowl like nobody’s business. It’s hard not to smile a bit because even his scowls are cute. It is less hard not to scowl when he adds some vocals to those scowls. He’s got some good lungs and he is not afraid to commit to the part of “two year old throwing a tantrum”.

The Awwww Maker – Still, the much more overarching dynamic and facet of Tiras right now is the little boy who constantly makes me go “awwwwwwwwwwww”.
• One morning, Micah was getting ready for school and scraped his back on the doorfame as he was coming into the bathroom to get lotioned up with CereVe. Tiras immediately came rushing over and asked “Micah ok?” and then hugged his brother to comfort him.

• Micah and I often hug Tiras when he successfully uses the potty and we will say “I’m so proud of you.” Tiras has shown a decided lack of interest in the potty since we got back from the U.S., but I still think that in his mind, the phrase, “I am so proud of you” is a nice and loving thing to say when you hug somebody.

That’s the background for the following encounter I had. I took a semiprivate yoga class with a much more fit friend. I came home sore, tired, and more than a little haggard and light-headed. Tiras came running to greet me and said, “I’m so proud of you, Mommy.” It was wonderful timing and lifted my spirits and soothed any dismay I might have felt over my dismal performance quite a bit.

He got such a great reaction from me that he has repeated it several times and it is always nice to hear, even if I am not so sure he knows what proud means. He has definitely placed that phrase in his “charm and awww” arsenal and just a couple weeks ago when not sleeping at two-ish a.m., he rolled over to hug me as we snuggled and said with a smile, “I’m so pwoud of you, Mommy.” He eventually did fall asleep and when I went to get him out of his crib much later that morning, he hugged me and sweetly said, “I’m just so pwoud of you.”

And, at the end of September, I sent this email to the grandparents:
I've told you how Tiras will hug me and say "I'm so pwoud of you, Mommy." While realizing full well he was unclear on the meaning of "proud", it always made me smile! Last night it made me laugh.

Tiras has taken to snuggle time before going to bed. I was wearing my blue cargo pants as I got him ready for bed. They are a bit loose, but not so loose as to sustain my large stretch to get onto the twin bed with Tiras in arms. I heard and felt a huge rip occur along the seam of my pants. I must have groaned or gasped because Tiras asked: "What happened, Mommy?"

I laughed as I answered him, "My pants ripped."

Tiras rolled over to hug me and tenderly said, "I'm so pwoud of you, Mommy."
I am still laughing every time I think of it! :-)

The Loyal Little Brother – Tiras may fuss at Micah if he doesn’t get his way sometimes, but just let ME try and do something Micah doesn’t like and Tiras emphatically defends his brother’s position. Just recently I had said no to something and Micah was not pleased. Tiras put on a determined scowl and drew himself up to his full (less than a yard) height and loudly declared, “Yes, Micah (do whatever something to which I had just said no)!”

The Getting Bigger and Bigger All the Timer – Tiras is showing so many signs of becoming more and more of a little boy and leaving the baby/toddler stage behind.
• He has casually been tossing out colors as if he’s known them forever and as if he did not refuse to engage in any “what color is this” games with Mommy. (a lot like Big Brother in the whole learn it on their own preference)
• As mentioned before, his pretend play has really increased and come into its own. One especially cute example was when he decided to dub his canister of wipes “Baby” and carried it lovingly around the house and insisted I give it Aquaphor after its diaper change.
• Watching Little Einsteins is a favorite activity and “Rocket” and “Big Jet” are his two favorite characters. He seems to have also taken in the music sheets they show at the end of each episode and has repeatedly pointed out music notes in other contexts (a picture in our friend,Aria’s, house and a Barney plate with music notes on the border) and commented “Music”
• He loves drawing and will often announce what the subject of his drawing is. Micah remains skeptical that the scribbles really are eggs and such, but does not rain on Tiras’s parade and say anything to this effect. (In fairness, Micah is not being unduly critical of Tiras--during Micah’s own abstract years, he never called any of his drawings anything but drawings and if an adult asked what he’d drawn, he’d look at them as if they were a bit out there because, clearly, he’d drawn colorful designs. End of story.)
• He is still not a giant fan of haircuts, but went on a triple haircut run and after his brother and a friend only two months older than Tiras had haircuts with no complaints, he sat down quietly and endured his own haircut without a single tear or protest. A FIRST!
• He is so agile and fearless and runs around the house climbing and jumping as much as he can. He loves to do a two-footed jump off the bottom stair and declare victoriously, “Pie-yah!”
• He loves to play with the “big kids” and it is quite something to see this very opinionated kid mimic exactly what the older kids do and run after them and echo what they say so exuberantly.
• Speaking of mimicry, Micah briefly used the repeated use of “not” to emphasize that he did not care to do something. About a month ago Tiras informed me: “I’m not, not, not going to take a bath with Micah.” He also proclaimed, “I’m not, not, not going to get a haircut today.” This latter was said shortly after his tear-free haircut, but I guess he didn’t want me getting any crazy ideas about another haircut any time soon!

The "Pardner"--Deron was watching Tiras and apparently Tiras said to him, "Slow down there, Pardner!" Later he cautioned Deron, "Careful, Pardner!" We are not sure where he gets this as he isn't exposed to Westerns and neither of us use the term. It's pretty funny. He realizes we get a kick out of it and will sometimes greet us with, "Hi Pardner Mommy!" or "Hi, Pardner Daddy!"



And now, a similar snapshot of Big Brother Micah. There are so many quotes and moments that make me smile that I can’t capture them all in my memory. I did scribble a few down and will just toss out some of what he says, does, and likes these days!

The Loving Big Brother-- Micah can be quite the affirming and encouraging big brother. One example was when Tiras was happily using a hand wipe to wipe the walls in our office. I think he was pitching in in the effort to clean some of his own crayon markings. At any rate, Micah was impressed and exclaimed said to me, “Mom, I think you should get Tiras an extra airplane!” (We have used a rewards system with Micah and apparently the concept came to mind as he watched his brother.) Micah then excitedly said to Tiras, “Tiras, this is what you do to get treats! You’re going to get treats!” He added warmly, “You’re doing a really good thing, Tiras.” (Ok, so the internal motivation to do the right thing played second fiddle to getting a reward, but at least it was in the mix. It’s a start!)

The Realistic Big Brother – About a month ago, after hosting several children at our house during Bible Study, I praised Micah for his excellent sharing. Matter of factly, Micah commented that while he’d done fine with sharing, “Tiras, not so much.”

The Encourager – Micah is often saying affirming things. He was trying to encourage Deron to progress in a video game they both enjoy. He advised Deron, “If you concentrate and practice…” To illustrate his point he did a long jump in the kitchen and then, getting an intent look upon his face, continued to do several more jumps. He then concluded his lesson, noting, “See! My jumps improved!”
He also recently touched my heart when he sent Deron off to work with a loving, “Bye Daddy! Hope you have a perfect day at work!”

The Obliging Helper – Every now and then when I ask Micah to do something, he answers me thusly: “I’d be happy to do that.” It always makes me smile to hear this rather charming turn of phrase come out of my five-year-old’s mouth.

The Perspective Changer – Micah and I were running errands together in a tuk tuk one morning in August. As we exited Nakumatt and made our way over to George, who was parked a bit down the street, a motorcyclist approached me about giving us a ride. Micah did not realize that this was a for fare ride and just as I was thinking that one thing I don’t love about errands is having to deal with all the offers for tuk tuks or motorcycles, etc., Micah said, “Wasn’t that so nice of him to offer us a ride.” He was so sweet about it and even though the mortorcyclist was looking for work rather than offering a ride, I did think it was nice and refreshing to see the world through Micah’s eyes.

The Budding Francophile – Micah is thrilled to be taking French at school. There is a weekly class and Micah loves to use the phrases he learns and sing the songs they sing. He has taken to saying “Au revoir! A bientôt!” when I leave him at school and even when I say good night.

A Few of His Favorite Things
• Micah’s hands down favorite color right now is orange. He eats out of an orange bowl, drinks from an orange cup, wears orange crocs and orange clothing whenever possible.
• Micah loves school and has lots of friends and happy times there. He is doing football (soccer), tae kwon do, cookery, and badminton clubs and enjoying them all. He is also still keeping up with his swimming.
• Cats! Micah continues to love the big cats and the wild cats, such as lions, cheetahs, leopards and cervals. He also very much hopes to see a tiger one day and keeps asking to go to India to so do. Along with the big cats, he loves his feline stuffed animal buddies and he hopes very much to have a pet cat one day.
• He still loves to line up his toys and will sometimes even ask me to take a picture if he thinks he has hit upon a particularly aesthetically successful arrangement. He will also sketch something he has built with blocks to remind him of how it looked so he can make it again after they have been put away (or in cases of being rearranged by his brother, etc.)

School Boy

After Labor Day, Micah began Year One. I think the British style uniforms are so adorable and I just about exploded from all the cuteness when I would drop him off at school and see all these kiddos in their very formal and very darling garb. The teen boys have long pants and really looked quite proud and distinguished. I was skeptical of the change from comfy (and practical) khaki shorts and blue tees. Having seen the kids and the way they carry themselves, I am now a believer! :-)

Yes, as you might guess, the white shirt requires daily washing. For this reason we have three sets. And, yes, those shirts are untucked come lunch time. But they look very "smart" indeed! It is also more in keeping with the style of uniforms all the other students in Kenya are wearing.

Above: Don't They Look Smart?!

Return to Kericho

Well, I see by the date of my last post that I did not manage a single September blog entry. With school starting, it has been busy here. Busy but happy! We went back to Kericho over Labor Day weekend. We joined another family and they have a two year old too. He is only two months older than Tiras, but very tall for his age, so they can look like Abbot and Costello sometimes. :-)

It was gorgeous and restful! Now that the weather is really heating up here in Kisumu, we may find ourselves returning regularly to enjoy those cooler temps!


Above: Our Trio of Explorers Enjoying The Tea Fields

On Structure, "Home Schooling" of Sorts, and And a Fun Link

I do really, really love me some structure. I think last year was a bit of a fog for me wherein I was just often a step or two behind and unable to feel like I was on top of just about anything. After a year of learning and a respite in the U.S., I am finding that I am much more efficient and comfortable here. I have lots of systems in place and systems make me such a happy, happy camper! (Systems can be as simple as figuring out "pick up sites" for objects that need to go up or downstairs; how to stay on top of menu planning, inventory of stuff like diapers, etc.,or a monthly day to deep clean and seriously organize the playroom. Basic, but EVERYTHING had to be figured out last year and now it all feels much more manageable and doable.)

As for home schooling, I am just referring to super cool materials I just ordered for Tiras. There are great resources for activities with toddlers. We have decided to keep him home one more year and I am really looking forward to having some structured activities with him! (Yep, there's that word again!) I even ordered a lesson plan book so that I can have each week's activities blocked out in advance so that all my good intentions don't simply remain intentions but actually turn into actions!

My Little Student To Be



As for the fun link, there is a missionary family that just moved here from North Carolina. They have four kids, two of which are pretty close in age to Micah and Tiras. They are keeping a blog and it has all sorts of fun and wonderful details about life here in Kisumu. Wish I had been so clever, but having missed that boat, am totally delighted someone else was and gave me the go ahead to link to their blog so you can check out everything from matatu names they've spied, to observations about the different foods here to typical moments they've entitled "Only in Kenya". It's definitely a slice of life here in Kisumu and really well done and fun to read. Enjoy!

http://www.theagapepages.blogspot.com

And, I just can't help but geek out over the fact that I am doing my first ever link insert. So very exciting! :-) Edited to add that my link did not seem to work so I just cut and paste their blog address. Hmph!

Weekend in Kericho

This past weekend we joined another family in our compound and drove up to Kericho. Kericho is the center of Kenya's tea industry and its rolling tea plantations made for a wonderful visual treat.

Our neighbor said that she grew up watching Indian movies where the male and female leads would sing love songs to each other in the rolling hills of tea plantations and I could well see how they make for a magical setting. They reminded me of wine country or hiking in the Swiss Alps and reminded Deron of driving through Germany--I think what they all have in common is a glorious pastoral vibe of blue skies and green rolling hills!

Another perk of our visit was that with its high altitude and daily rains, Kericho is significantly cooler than Kisumu. We even had a fire going in the evening and were snuggled in sweatshirts. It felt like autumn!

The kids had a ball together. Tiras has gotten so talkative and it's fun watching him hang out with "the big kids". It was an altogether wonderful weekend. Even the drive back was a pleasure as we made our way down the hills and back toward Kisumu.



Garden Entrance to our Lodging


Walking in the Tea Fields


Our Drive Back

Returning: Part 2

And after our trip to the U.S., we returned to Kisumu. And it felt like a happy return--Kenya really is home for us right now and I was struck by a few things. As different as it is from where I have lived all my life heretofore, it feels absolutely comfortable and like just where I am supposed to be. I was also struck by how far we have come since last summer. This time around we have our house up and running (albeit with plenty of surprise repairs and residents* with which to contend); we have friends and people we know; we have routines and a sense of how to function--Kisumu is now familiar.

And I was struck by the fact that we had not only survived travel with our young kids--it had gone fairly smoothly and that makes the whole world seem much more accessible. I think we are likely to do a lot more travel as the kids grow up than we might otherwise have thought to take on and I am excited about that.

And speaking of kids, we are at such a wonderful and fun stage with both of the kids. I was often reminded of the following exchange from Lost in Translation:

Bob: It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids.
Charlotte: It's scary.
Bob: The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born.
Charlotte: Nobody ever tells you that.
Bob: Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.
Charlotte: That's nice.

Tiras is talking so much now and Micah has long been talking. I feel like the talking piece opens up a whole new realm of personality and I love it. I thought I loved the boys when they were babies, but with both boys, a whole new exponential level of adoring and enjoying them came into play when the talking started. I am so with Bill Murray's character--these are two of the most delightful people I will ever meet! Things can get tiring, hectic, chaotic, and even frustrating, but underneath it all, this motherhood gig really is sublime. Truly sublime.


There is still so, so, so much more to explore and discover here in Kenya and about my two boys! I am excited to see what the year ahead brings.

*By residents I mean critters ranging from the cute (geckos and tiny frogs) to the less appealing (such as the bats who decided they wanted penthouse privileges in our home and whose aromatic urine and guano made us all too aware of their presence)

Returning: Part 1

In the months that have elapsed since my "Spring Cleaning" post, we have flown back to the U.S. to have Micah checked out for medical issues (he's fine); returned home for a week and a half and then flown to Spain to join Deron's family for a cruise honoring his mom's 70th birthday (it was wonderful); returned to Kenya with Deron's mom to visit with her here, share Kisumu with her, and visit the Mara (a happy, happy time with so many memories); and then flown back to the U.S. with Deron's mom where we hit Baltimore, Walnut Creek, and Atlanta (a whirlwind packed with many special moments).

Returning to the U.S. (without the underlying tension of medical issues, as we had with Micah) was a happy whirlwind--time passed way too quickly in each spot, but held so many wonderful moments and so many familiar and nice to see again sights. We came nowhere close to doing all we had planned to do or seeing all the people we had hoped to see. We probably underestimated how quickly a tri-city tour would zip past. If we saw you, it was fabulous and cherished and we thank you! If we did not, it was largely due to how quickly time zipped in Baltimore and Walnut Creek--we had large contigents of family gather to see us in each place--and we sure hope to catch you in the next wave!

Even beyond the obvious interpersonal connections, there were lots of things to love about being back in the U.S. There are way too many to list them all, so in no particular order, here were some often-taken-for-granted-but-newly appreciated aspects to being back:

Deron and I both loved the freedom of movement. Roads are so good in the U.S. (not to mention signage, police regulating how people drive thus decreasing the truly crazy and obnoxiously aggressive behavior that might otherwise ensue, rest stops, and roadside assist services should something go awry) and we loved the feeling that should we wish, we could jump in the car at any time and to be able to go anywhere (heck, I just loved DRIVING again!).

I had a giant grin on my face every time I stepped in Target. Whole Foods and Publix as well. There are products and produce items I have missed. There are ingenious products I did not even know existed but discovered. (Hello Munchkin diaper discs--looks like the start of a beautiful friendship! These little guys totally work on the diaper pail as nothing else ever has! We may be on the tail end of life with diapers, but what a happy note on which to end our run thanks to these brilliant little game changers in the fight against yucky smell in Tiras's room.)

I cannot possibly overstate how much I enjoyed having clean, running tap water with which to brush my teeth and wash my dishes. So nice! (And, yes, I do fully appreciate how lucky I am to have running water at all and to have the distiller for my drinking water. I am not marching for ages to a water source and then painstakingly carrying my water back to my home. I still have it easy and I am grateful. Still, clean water so easily accessible as it was in the U.S. was something I relished.)

Speaking of doing dishes, garbage disposals. Ahhhh...

Chocolate cream pie at Chow in Lafayette. Had it three (yes, 3!) times while we were in Walnut Creek. Also had fish tacos at Chow the day we arrived in California and they were so delicious. I basically ate whatever I wanted in the U.S. since I knew it would be a year until I would have access to certain flavors and types of food again. I savored and fully appreciated all manner of food and beverage.

And on that very sweet note, I will end my written reflections on the U.S. visit. I can't do it full justice, so just suffice it to say that it was a fun and refreshing time.

Below are some pictures of the kids enjoying Atlanta's Fernbank Museum (run, don't walk to see their amazing new children's exhibit on the top floor--so well done and so much fun even for an adult to explore) and Destin Beach in Florida (a road trip our family took during the Atlanta portion of our trip).

Spring Cleaning Interrupted

Last Friday, while gearing up to do one last push in the effort to get every drawer and shelf in our office organized and every scrap of paper filed or tossed (no recycling of paper here--yes, it hurts!), I was approached by Micah wanting to do something while Tiras was napping.

I tossed out to Micah, "can't you watch t.v.?!" (I know, great moments in parenting captured forever on the blog) and he looked at me quite soberly and said, "I don't want to watch t.v. I want to interact with you." And you know, when your five-year-old informs you that he wants to "interact" with you rather than be planted in front of a t.v., by gum and by golly you are gonna set aside your organizational plans and interact with the boy! And be sheepish and feel about two millimeters tall.

I remembered that my cousin had sent us gel window decorations for Easter and that Micah had been excited to try them out. I suggested that we decorate our window and he was thrilled and we had a ball decorating with those gel designs. Well, I was only tasked with the letters--all the rest was all Micah. He was very proud to have made sure all the gel decor was well out of the reach of his brother. It turned out really cute and festive. And was way more fun and memorable than getting my office tamed. (Many thanks, Darcy!)

Good Friday has always been one of the high points of the year for me. And had I not begun my day at 4:45 a.m. courtesy of a restless Tiras, I might even be able to articulate a metaphor about a flawed mommy finding redemption and second chances in Easter decorating with her son and a flawed world finding redemption and second chances in Easter and God's son. This weekend we worship and celebrate a patient and endlessly loving God seeing past our foibles and cherishing us enough to send his Son to pay the price for our every shortcoming and wrong act--from the silly and petty to the most dark and ugly. It is well, indeed!

Happy Easter weekend!

Happy Birthday, Tiras!

Spring Cleaning and Such Cuteness

My spring cleaning efforts are a slow but sure process. I have completed a whopping ONE (that is correct, 1) room. However, I have emptied every drawer and taken every item off every shelf and the room just feels organized and orderly and functional from the inside out.

Prior to this cleaning, a lot of our organization technique was driven by, "quick, get that item out of the reach of Tiras and/or Micah" or "don't want to lose it so will put it in this important drawer/shelf of importantness and thus be able to avoid losing it". Except for there are so many such drawers and shelves that all such items were promptly forgotten. It has been like having multiple kitchen junk drawers scattered throughout the house. Which makes me feel on edge and a little drained and defeated. (My surroundings tend to go a long way in affecting my energy level and I hit that point where order needed to be established STAT)

Having put my hands on every item in my room and having created a logical place for them is a great antidote to all that chaos and vague sense of thinking we had probably brought x, y, or z with us from the U.S. but darned if I was ever going to be able to locate it except by happenstance. And, actually, I am more like one and a half rooms as I am well into the process of working on our office now. With Deron gone this week, I made a really great dent in dealing with this room, so that is a silver lining to being apart for sure!

As for "such cuteness", I just am having such a ball being around our kids. A few examples of moments I want to remember:
*Micah playing with toys and sounding just like Andy from Toy Story. He has long had a great imagination and done this kind of play. However, at five years old, it has all gotten so much more elaborate and dramatic and it is so fun to overhear him in action!
*Tiras running after Micah and Aria (our almost four year old neighbor). He is totally hanging out with the big kids and seeing his purposeful little runs and swaggers just makes me smile every time.
*Micah's habit of coming over to me to confirm that a calculator got the answer right. Ah the faith in Mom at this age. Double check the calculator by making sure Mom agrees! (He loves numbers so while I work on the budget, he plays with the calculator and has a grand old time seeing the results of the sums and differences he creates.)
*Hearing Tiras sing "talkin' you" and "oh my" and "trying" when we do our duet of "Lucky" or watching Micah rock out to "River Deep, Mountain High". (I have been watching You*Tube clips from the "Duets" episode of Glee.)



A quintet of reasons why today is a great day:
1. Deron returns home this evening! Yay for this!
2. Friday Night Lights, the best show ever in the world, kicks off its fifth and final season tonight. My DVD is on the way and I will have plenty of Kleenex on hand because I suspect that opening credits of the first episode alone will have me in tears. It's just that good. You grow to love these characters and this town so very much and are inspired to be a better and more compassionate person.
3. Two years ago my parents flew out from California to Atlanta. The reason for this visit was extra special as they were coming to help us welcome Tiras into the world. I was so excited to meet this little guy at last! (And it just keeps getting better and better.)
4. Six years ago, we shared the news with parents and siblings that we were expecting a litte one in December 2005. Our plans to wait until after the first trimester to share the news did not exactly pan out--after almost six years of trying to start a family, we lasted six DAYS before sharing the news with our nuclear families.
5. Sixteen years ago, Deron proposed. It turns out that as sweet and together as I may have fancied myself at twenty-six, I had plenty of growing up to do and I am so blessed to have married such a wise and loving man who has loved me so generously over the years. We have grown so much together and I am smiling to remember that day in Santa Barbara when he quite literally rendered me speechless. I KNEW the proposal was coming but was still so overwhelmed by joy and awe that I would spend my life with this man that all I could do was nod happily. I am such a lucky girl!

Hoppy Days

For the past few months, we have had an increasing number of visits by these tiny little frogs. Initially, they just seemed to wash in with the rain. Sadly, a few seemed to get stuck in our kitchen and we would find their dead little corpses the next morning. But as time has gone on, it is a daily occurrence to have these frogs on the inside and outside of our kitchen window and in various spots in the kitchen. One lone frog (pictured above) even ventured into the dining room and somehow managed to scale its way to the top of a chair. I am curious how long we will have these little visitors and if they will return the same time next year. Stay tuned...

That was hoppy news and I also have news that makes me happy. One of my most favorite authors EVER, Louise Penny, has a new book coming out this summer!!! You can get a sense of her awesomeness from her website. Yes, she writes great mysteries. And, yes, she has me determined to visit Quebec. But what makes her magical is her compassion and insight into human nature--its foibles and its graces. She has created a village filled with characters I wish I could come visit every year. My mom and cousin are as ardent as I in their fanhood. The timing of the book's release will be our return back from home leave--I think it will be a terrific pick-me-up to have this book waiting for me and to know a couple of my favorite people in the world are reading it too!
http://www.louisepenny.com/

I am off to pre-order her book, A Trick of the Light. Yay for that! Deron is at a meeting and then off to Nairobi for the week to attend a conference. A happy little book order is just the boost my morale could use because I wish he did not have to go. I realize that the days zip along and he will be back before I know it and I realize the goodbye is the hardest part, BUT, yuck. Even the idea of chocolate is not cheery enough, so it is off to Amazon I go!

Just a Few of The Things That Make Me Happy Today

1. Today's date makes me happy! 4.4.11. Love how 44 is a multiple of 11 and love the symmetry of 11 and all its multiples.

2. I love this picture. Tiras is moving into such a fun and adorable stage (oh how the talking magnifies the fun of being a parent because you get to know so much more of their thoughts and personality!) I think it is cute and happy and funny BUT the main reason I now love it so much is that Tiras bursts out laughing every time he sees it. Something about it just cracks him up and that reaction is so very infectious and priceless!



3. I love that Internet is speedy and working so that I can actually do this blog during a Tiras nap! Whoo to the hoo for that!

4. I love that my super thoughtful and awesome husband who does not even get what all the fuss about chocolate is about CALLED me specifically to find out my favorite flavors of artisan chocolates so he can purchase them for me while he is in Nairobi. Yes, I am excited about the chocolate, but long after I have gobbled down the last delicious molecule of those treats, my husband's sweetness will remain! I am a lucky girl!

5. Almost six years ago, I found out that this wonderful, charming, smart, funny, sensitive, clever, kind, thoughtful, delightful little guy was on the way. My life has been forever richer ever since and I do not think an April will ever come and go where I do not celebrate the day I learned that happy, happy, happy news!!!

It's Been A While: 10 Month Review

Amazingly, ten months have passed by since we touched down at the Kisumu airport, loaded our pile of luggage and weary selves into the CDC vehicle picking us up, and drove through our new hometown for the first time. (Well, Deron had been to Kisumu before, but never with the added dimension of it being his home.)

I actually intended to do an eight month review, but internet was down that particular day, which seems only fitting since internet going in and out is such a prevalent reality of life here. I hope when we move back to the U.S. that I don't take things like speedy and reliable Internet for granted. Realistically, I suspect that much like breathing easily and sleeping soundly after a cold, ease of access to Internet will quickly become something I don't think much about.

Life here is really good. There are challenges, to be sure. And there are also moments that are pure magic.

An example of magic occurred this past week when Micah had Cultural Day at his school. Thanks to a high school friend of mine, he was able to don the orange and black of this year's World Series Champion San Francisco Giants! (Many thanks to Shannon for not only suggesting baseball and specifically the Giants when I put out a Facebook plea for ideas as to what Micah might wear to represent U.S. culture, but also for mailing us an awesome and wonderful Cultural Day care package!!!)



And once at school he was surrounded by fellow students and teachers in such wonderful and colorful dress--everything from traditional Ugandan to Indian to Masai to one of the Sons of Liberty from the Revolutionary War (the student I have been tutoring in U.S. history who has made it so much fun due to his interest and enthusiasm!) There was a traditional African dance done by the Year Two and Three Class (ages six and seven)--it was adorable and wonderful and I loved watching the mix of Kenyan and Expat students shake their hips and shoulders and wear the traditional garb all together. I loved the drums playing and the music and the sheer joy and exuberance of it all. The performance was followed by a circle dance done by all the students and teachers who cared to join in and it was great.

There was also a traditional Punjabi wedding dance performed by some of the students. After their performance, the teacher hosting the cultural day activities praised the performance and then asked how many people had enjoyed the music and would like to dance to that music. Upon seeing a massive sea of hands raised, she cued the music once again and invited the audience to do just that. To see a mass of students and teachers of all different nationalities race out to the field to dance together so joyfully was a sight I will always cherish. They were such a mix of ethnic groups and ages and I watched some of the Indian teen dancers helping younger girls learn their moves. I watched our neighbor bring her almost four year old daughter to the field and teach her some moves. I watched Micah dancing his heart out from his perch atop a hill. There was so much joy on that field and not to get all "kumbaya-ish" or anything, but there really was a wonderful unity amidst a celebration of this world's rich diversity. And it was magic! And THAT kind of moment is what I hoped for for our boys and for us and THAT kind of moment and day is why I am so excited we get to be here.

I feel like I am getting the hang of living here. There is still so much to explore and learn and discover. But it feels like home and I am sitting here typing with a giant grin on my face because I am still so amazed to find myself getting to have this experience.

Happy 87th Birthday, Tutu!

My very vibrant and wonderful grandmother turns 87 today! She lives on Maui and walks the beach daily. She has a zest for life and a spirit of adventure and inquisitiveness that inspires me!

For her birthday, I made a Shutterfly book with photos from her December visit to Kenya. I think it so exemplifies her to be visiting a continent across the world at 86 years of age. She is always learning and growing--a pretty great role model for living life to the full!

Click here to view this photo book larger

About the January 14 Post...

Yes, I realize it has punctuation issues and some glaring needs for edits. And yet, I think I will just leave it as it is. So often on the internet here I feel distracted by the possibility of power and/or internet going out and so I feel a rush to get everything typed and I can't focus quite the way I used to.

Maybe I won't be able to resist the urge to clean it up. But for now, it just felt good to sit down and catch my breath and remember the way 2010 ended. It was a year of huge change for us and in many ways we have felt like we are just flying along by the seat of our pants.

And now I feel a bit more caught up. Onward into 2011!

Back to School Week and A Look Back at December

January 22nd Note:For whatever reason, I cannot move forward until I recap December and even my start of 2011 feels off kilter until I just give myself a chance to sit down and write down some memories of that month, which I want to remember. Yes, I am compulsive sometimes. So be it. What follows is the blog I started on January 14.

The boys are down for naps and I am thinking about a nap for myself. The return to a regular schedule after a month of vacation definitely found us tired this week! Still, after a somewhat shy first day back, Micah has had a ball returning to school. He loves his teacher, learning new things, and seems to enjoy all his classmates. He has a best buddy, K, and it's all K's aunt and I can do to get our boys off the playground after lunch and head home because K and Micah want to just keep playing together. And this makes my heart happy!

I must confess to having major blues Micah's first day back because I love spending time with him and had gotten really used to having him around all the time during his winter break. He is funny and sweet and even when he is stubborn and debating me over something, he often entertains me with his logic and way of presenting himself. Still, he had loved school so much last term and as the week went on, I found myself feeling happy and upbeat about being back (as did Micah).

Tiras has adjusted fairly well to the new schedule. Although he seems very cranky after we leave Micah behind at school (though shows no sign of wanting to join him, just of wanting to keep Micah around), he and I are having some fun one-on-one time and also had a wonderful playdate earlier this week. A little girl who is two years older than Tiras came over and they got on really well together.

Tiras is talking up a storm these days and he's a lot of fun to be around as we can communicate more and more. He has a cute sense of humor and he can be such a little ham to make our neighbors laugh. He is not super tall for his age, but carries himself with all the confident swagger of an NFL lineman. He seems to be keen to begin the "terrible twos" with all their attending tantrums and attitude, so he keeps me on my toes.

So that has been our first week back to reality. Before I forge on ahead with the blog, I did want to take a little time to just reflect on December. It flew by so quickly, but was packed with a lot of wonderful.

And now, DECEMBER 2010
Happily, we rang in December with our Christmas tree up and decorated. It looked a little tiny in its new setting, which has much higher ceilings than we had before, but it was a festive and cute tree and the boys loved it. Sometimes the whole family would sit on the couch after dinner and just look at the lights and enjoy the tree and enjoy the chance to connect a little before dispersing for bedtime and the return to replying to work emails and the various "to do" items I always seem to have.

My parents and grandmother arrived in Nairobi on Friday morning, December 3. They came out to Kisumu the next day and it was just wonderful to have them here. They got to see Micah's school and ride the tuk tuk into town and shop at Nakumatt and all manner of slices of our life here, including the craft market and coffee shop!

A highlight of their first week was getting to see the Christmas show put on by Micah's school. Micah was a Jack in the Box and one of my favorite memories was of working with my parents to create the box portion of his costume. I found a really great sparkly gold paper and my dad worked like an engineer to create precise angles with a purple paper and that made for a Harlequin pattern on the box that looked really great! It reminded me of old times when my parents helped me with school projects and it was fun to have them join up with me now to help with a project for my child.

It was Micah's very first school musical. Don't have a photo of Micah in his wonderful Harlequin box. Happily we do have video coverage of the big moment, though less ideal coverage than we might have wished. Deron was as enthralled as I to watch Micah perform for the first time. So enthralled that he had eyes only for Micah during the "Jack in the Box" song. So it was quite a surprise to him to later review his video coverage and discover that in the frame was another schoolchild diligently and energetically picking his nose through the ENTIRE song. It's a bit of a distraction. But there you go.

School got out on the tenth and we then geared up for our trip to the Masai Mara. We had an early flight out to Nairobi and our connection to the Mara wasn't until the later afternoon, so we got to go to the Westgate mall. It was beautiful and so clean! I hadn't really consciously articulated that all the dust of Kisumu kinda gets to me after a while, but being in this pristine setting was a fun experience in and of itself. We had brunch at Art Cafe and I had a smoked salmon sandwich which had REAL cream cheese and an avacado and was one of the single most enjoyable meals of my life. We also got artisan chocolates that were as amazing as any chocolates I have eaten. Between the smoked salmon, cream cheese, and chocolate, I was really set and blissed out for a goodly number of months in the food category! (Still excited to eat New England clam chowder, scallops, and Mexican food when we visit the U.S. this summer!)

After several blissful hours at the mall, we drove to Wilson Airport to take our wee little plane to the Mara. It had 3 seats across and about 8 rows or so, so was not the most wee little of wee little planes. But it was wee little enough for Tiras to suddenly notice that one leaves the ground in an airplane and to feel all the turbulence and to wail and cry and protest in horror during the whole flight. Luckily wee little planes have very noisy propellers so our fellow passengers did not have to hear this outcry for the whole flight. It was quite poignant, actually, but he bounced back immediately once we landed.

We stayed at the Mara Serena again and it was glorious. There is no place on earth I would rather be if someone told me I had to live out my days in one and only one place for the rest of my life. The Mara Serena is set up high and looks down on the vast Mara which is beautiful and filled with glimpses of elegant giraffes grazing and baboons strolling along and so many other wonderful animals to behold. The Mara is too beautiful and vast and full of wonders of nature for me to do any kind of justice to them with my words. So I will leave this paragraph on that note.

It has been a lifelong dream of my grandmother's to visit Africa and suffice it to say that she was not disappointed. She and my parents fell just as head over heels with the Mara as we are. They saw all of the "Big 5" (so named both because of their size and the danger they posed to those who hunted them): lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, and rhino. They saw a zebra crossing. (And no matter how frazzled I may ever feel as I try to be a good mom to my boys, I never face crocodile infested waters and have to just hope my baby makes it across and helplessly cross along with it, unable to protect it from being snatched away. Nope. Nothing in my parenting duties is ever as poignant and horrific as that.) They saw baby animals. They saw the Tanzania border and looked out at the Serengeti on the Tanzania side. They savored it all and could have stayed on and on. It was a wonderful success!

Along with all the splendour of the Mara, we had another big event during this week. Micah rang in his fifth birthday. Half a decade with this fun, creative, playful, witty, wonderful, loving, funny, imaginative, sensitive, logical, changed our lives forever for the better kid. The wait staff surprised Micah with a birthday serenade and a cake with five candles. Micah had a wonderful day and has been planning both Tiras and my birthday trips to the Mara ever since.

We did have to depart from the Mara eventually and flew back to Nairobi. I believe what helped us ease the blow of leaving the Mara behind was getting to stay in the Tribe hotel. It is a beautifully designed hotel in a lovely part of Nairobi. There is all sorts of gorgeous African art and even though its main clientel are business travelers, the staff are warm and wonderful to our boys. In fact, Micah received a Dora holiday DVD as a birthday gift (I thought my parents' suite at the Mara had a DVD player but it was VHS) and they set up a DVD player in a conference room with a soft sofa in it and let Micah view his DVD there. (Turns out we had a DVD player in our room but the extra space of the conference room was nice for Micah and Tiras.) We were next to the Village Market and got to do some fun shopping, including taking in the Masai Market which comes through weekly with all sorts of crafts!!! Gorgeous crafts! Some the same as what we have in Kisumu, but because it is so large, many items that were new. It was fun to behold. I remain horrible at bargaining, but did pick up some tips when I saw Deron in action.

While at Tribe, we met a very nice woman with her baby. They had just moved to Nairobi from China and her little girl was younger than Tiras but very friendly and interested in Tiras. Tiras decided to play the shy card and just suck his index finger and stare solemnly at her or burrow his head into Dad's chest. I mention this interaction because of the "small world" moment that follows later.

We flew back to Kisumu with our treasures and many wonderful memories. Micah opened birthday presents and my dad did some cooking for us. Wish I had his talents because he can always take the food he finds and make something delicious out of it. I am reading Nigella Lawson's How to Eat and she talks about understanding food and food preparation rather than "slavishly following recipes" and I think I am definitely her target audience. I love to try recipes but have very little understanding of cooking. So hopefully an unexpected result of living here will be that I take the time to learn a bit more about good food prep and can become more like my dad in this regard.

We spent some low key but happy days with my parents and grandmother and they headed home on Wednesday the 22nd. Due to snow issues in London, there were some worries that their flight might be canceled. Even the day before their departure, the analagous flight to theirs was canceled. But apart from a mere two hour delay, all went smoothly and according to schedule. They made it home with many treasures and memories from their trip.

And what saved this next part of December from being a tale of how I plunged into sad despair at their departure and wallowed around for days in a funk of missing them is that we left that very same morning for Mombasa with neighbors from our compound. Going to the coast holds its excitement, but what REALLY distracts one from a tearful goodbye is travel with a toddler. Just cannot focus too much on your blues when you have an active kiddo who needs to be managed on a plane. So the transition was seamless and I am truly grateful because the day before my parents left I was already crying and blue and I think would have plunged still further into sadness if not for this trip not giving me a chance to mope.

We stayed at White Sands, a resort in Mombasa. We had heard good things and it really was gorgeous. Beautiful grounds and pools. Delicious food and warm and friendly wait staff plus super talented bands singing and playing music in the background of our meals. And the ongoing wonderful of being near the ocean and hearing the surf. The boys had a blast!

And here's the small world moment. On Christmas Eve there was a huge outdoor buffet and people had dressed up a bit. A very pretty mom and baby smiled at us and greeted us and we recognized them to be the mom and Baby CeCe from Tribe in Nairobi!

Deron and I felt a little homesick on Christmas day when we attended the service at the hotel. It was a nice service, but half of it was in Swahili (which makes sense, of course) and it made us miss being at a familiar church. And it does seem that holidays such as Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July can sometimes make the distance from home and friends and family there more acute.

We had a great last day on the 26th, which included riding out in a glass bottom boat and walking on a sandbar, and then headed back to Kisumu on the 27th. The rest of the week was quiet and low key. I did lots of laundry and unpacking and enjoyed cooking and cleaning and running the house with just our family. Rose is wonderful and nice, but sometimes the quiet of being just the four of us is a nice thing too.

Come December 31st, Deron and I talked long into the night and rang in New Year's long before most of our friends and family. We reflected on all that 2010 had held and imagine 2011 will be a quieter year. We look forward to seeing what unfolds.