Life in Transition

February 14, 2012 - Sibling Valentines

2012-02-15T06:19:00.001+03:00

Grace and Noah are a serious duo-in-the-making. Noah adores her. Everything about her. He walks to her in an all-out attack to give her a big hug (especially in the evening before bed) and doesn't even mind when she totally freaks out and runs away, dragging him behind her. He is a sidekick to her superhero, although in time we'll see if those roles remain or reverse! Grace loves Noah most of the time - except when he steals her cup (one of his favorite things to do) or goes in for one of his hug-attacks - and she tells him so often. She is always thinking about him and what he's doing. She talks to him and bosses him around; sometime she mimics me so accurately in an attempt to parent him that she is also a mini-mother! She is usually very sweet to her brother.

On Valentine's Day it is easy to remember romantic love, but today I choose to highlight pure, innocent sibling love [maybe because my romantic love is across the ocean in Tanzania right now - more on that later]. One of the cutest things this duo likes to do is "muscle" (we call it that, anyway) - or wrestle around on a bed or the floor. Noah is a particular fan of rough-housing with his sister. As you can see.

Thank you to Kristoffer for the beautiful flowers he sent and some delicious Godiva that he hid for me to find today. An even bigger thank you, though, for these two crazy kids...who are a testament of love on Valentine's day, and every day.

LMW

February 2, 2012 - Top Ten List (!)

2012-02-02T23:43:00.003+03:00

Top Ten Things You Can Find in Tanzania

10. Malaria (and various other tropical diseases)

9. Tanzanite, the precious gemstone found exclusively here

8. Proper Kishwahili (as opposed to the slang-ish Kenyan version)

7. Around 130 ethnic groups and languages

6. Dar es Salaam, one of the world's largest natural harbors

5. Zanzibar, a famous island getaway

4. Ngorongoro Crater, the largest complete crater in the world

3. The Serengeti National Park, considered to be the best wildlife reserve in all of Africa

2. Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa

and the #1 thing you can find in Tanzania...as of February/March 2012...

The Welsien Family

Congratulations to Kristoffer on [finally] officially accepting a position with The World Bank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where we will be living for the next 2-3 years. Kristoffer will begin working in about 10 days and the rest of us will join him once he finds us a great house (fingers crossed!) and gets all of our stuff from Nairobi. In Kristoffer's gig as Country Officer for the World Bank, he hopes to work with the new Country Director in Tanzania to secure and implement positive, sustainable development solutions in the country. It has been a 9 month+ process from applying for the job in April to signing the paperwork today, and we are very relieved.

We are excited for some new perks of living in Dar, such as greater security and being right on the beach. We are also interested to see how we handle some new challenges, such as insane heat and rampant malaria. Rose, our beloved housekeeper/nanny from Nairobi, will continue working for our family in Dar and we are so thrilled that she'll be with us to assist our transition. Particularly for Grace and Noah, it will be great to have her around for some added consistency in their daily lives.

Making our second logistical move will be easier in many ways than our first time around because we know so, so, so much more than we knew in 2007. But in some ways it was easier last time because it was just the two of us carrying a lot less precious cargo than we have now.

We hope you'll keep reading to learn along with us as we begin our new Life in Dar.

LMW

January 31, 2012 - January Rewind

2012-01-31T17:32:00.001+03:00

This month was surprisingly busy for us and I can hardly believe it is over. I have not been in picture-taking mode at all, so the pickings are slim, but here are a few shots of our January.

First, we rang in the new year in Dayton, Ohio with Uncle Mark, Aunt Carrie, Matthew (almost 15) and Nathan (12 1/2). It was really fun to play games at their house. During an epic game of Hide-and-Seek, Nathan won "Best Hiding Spot of 2012" when he sandwiched himself between the mattress and box spring in Matthew's room. My favorite thing to do was sing classic rock hits on the Wii Guitar Hero. I loved it that when I proclaimed our band's name to be "Chick Rock" because we were singing Joan Jett, Matthew said dryly, "I would so not be in this band."

Next stop: Silver Spring MD to visit Auntie Tine, Uncle Kevin and Baby Zoe (also Nene and Pops were there)! The bad news is that this is when the plague struck so I have absolutely no pictures of being at Auntie Tine's house. We did take a field trip to the Museum of Natural History where we checked out dinosaur bones (Noah was good at pointing things out!), mammals and butterflies. We loved seeing Auntie Tine's house and playing with Baby Zoe...but we really hope that next time everyone is much healthier!

When we got home from Auntie Tine's we had a few days taken up by Noah's surgery. Then our good friends Omar, Domenica, Luke (4) and Maia (2) came to visit us from New Jersey. We had such a great visit despite the fact that Noah was not 100% and Omar was also a tad bit under the weather. Omar is both a teacher and photographer and took some amazing pictures of our family (mostly Grace and Noah. Please check out his pictures of us here and his general photography website here.); we are so grateful for the photo shoot!

A few days later as we got ready for Noah's birthday party, we had a bit of snow, which Grace happily helped shovel with her Far.

Bibi & Jen came from NYC for Noah's birthday, Brooke & Dave came from Connecticut and Auntie Meghan's gang came over too. Noah's 1st Birthday also turned into celebration of the Patriots' big win and the kickoff to Super Bowl countdown. While Noah might not have cared, it did add a lot of excitement to his birthday party!

PHEW! Did you get all that?!

I think we're hoping February brings a slightly slower pace and maybe some more news about our future. Although we are a bit antsy to move on with our lives, we are also grateful that we were able to see so many loved ones this past month. What a great way to start a new year!

LMW

January 27, 2012 - Sleeping Beauty (or Foodie)

2012-01-28T05:32:00.001+03:00

Last night was a historic night in our family. Noah slept through the night FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. 7:45 pm to 6:35 am. That is almost 11 hours, which he has never been even close to before.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know we've been a little bit out of touch lately. Mostly I'm just too unhappy with our lack of official news about our future and so I haven't been online too much (I won't even tell you how many emails are waiting to be answered in my usually immaculate inbox)...so I will try to catch you up on Noah's news right now.

On January 11th, Noah had surgery to remove his adenoids. It was a very routine and brief procedure that went very well. Everyone was fascinated to learn about our life in Africa (I think they heard there was an African family in for surgery...and then they saw US and...well...maybe they were a bit disappointed?) and we were beyond pleased with the care we all received from hospital staff, doctors and especially nurses. Children's Hospital Boston is the best in the world for a reason.

Noah looked like this before his adenoids came out:

And like this after his adenoids came out:

He was in the hospital for a little over 24 hours. The only thing that ended up being slightly complicated was that he had a nasty stomach bug before the surgery and continued to have it afterwards. This means that they kept him quarantined from other patients, and so we had a private room in the hospital. It also means that even as they were discharging us from the hospital, he was still vomiting and having diarrhea! YUCKO! From start to finish he had it for 8 days (other members of my family also got this plague...it was violent and nasty...luckily, Kristoffer, Grace, and I were spared...my theory is that we have some serious antibodies and/or parasites from Kenya that fought off this American bug) and we felt really bad for him. The bug did not interfere with the surgery or his recovery from the surgery though.

We were told that it would take 2 weeks for him to be officially recovered and for us to necessarily notice an improvement. For the first couple of days he still snored and was not sleeping any better (due to the virus? post-op pain? habit?). He also had a horrible, horrible, horrible stench coming from his mouth and nose. But everything started to improve within a few days and once that stomach bug went away.

He started doing longer stretches of sleep and Kristoffer was usually able to get him back to sleep without him nursing from me. He also started eating without choking for the first time in his life. He is now self-feeding all kinds of food with no problem at all, whereas before he was choking on absolutely everything - sometimes even smooth food! So, we've been really happy about the better eating and better sleeping. We felt comfortable training him to put himself to sleep without nursing now that we know he can breath well (remember, before up to 70% of his breathing was obstructed). It took three nights of him crying a bit before he started putting himself to sleep with no problem at all (at bed AND for both of his daytime naps...seriously, this is unbelievable!).

Then came the true gift. Last night, 2 weeks and one day after his surgery (at the ripe old age of 340 days!) he went to sleep at night and woke up in the morning with nothing but (what I assume were) sweet dreams in between. A M A Z I N G.

And so begins a new life for us. Of course this doesn't mean that he will sleep that well every night for the rest of his life or anything...but it does mean that he will be able to rest and grow so much better than before. His sleeping coupled with his new ability to eat are a recipe for a healthy boy!

I know I am biased, but Noah is just the sweetest, most charming little guy I've ever known. He is so happy - always smiling, laughing. Curious beyond belief and getting into everything with a glimmer in his eyes. His favorite toy after all his Christmas and birthday gifts is the remote control to my parents' TV. He is obsessed with it! He is an explorer. I suspect in the near future he will be an instigator with Grace. All he does now is sleep, eat and play. He rarely cries. He rarely fusses (except now when he wants more food!). His sounds are getting more and more expressive. He hates to sit still (oh, how I dread our next plane rides). He can take steps on his own but is not yet walking. His super-crawling is just too fast!

Having that surgery was the best thing to happen to him and I think us too! We will all be so much happier and more rested as we head into the next chapter of our lives.

January 22, 2012 - ONEderful!

2012-01-23T05:04:00.001+03:00

Happy, happy, happy birthday...sweet baby boy. Your first year has been both challenging and fulfilling. We have been inspired by your charm and loving nature...your huge smiles...your giggly giggles. You may have had a rocky start, but you have been a true fighter and remind us every day of how blessed our family is.

We love love love you, buddy! We hope you enjoyed your first birthday and wish you many, many more throughout your life. Here are just a few shots of our little guy on his big day!

LMW

December 31, 2011 - Year's End

2011-12-31T08:59:00.000+03:00

LMW

December 29, 2011 - Testing

2011-12-30T04:47:00.000+03:00

This blog is a test. I am trying to determine whether I need the keyboard Kristoffer got me to go along wit my iPad or not. It is a cool accessory, but is not that small or cheap. So if I feel I can comfortably write a blog without making too many errors or without being slowed down, then I think the keyboard will go back to Best Buy and I will use those funds to buy cool apps and a nice case for it.

So far I only made two errors that I think were related to writing on an iPad versus a keyboard, and so I think the keyboard will go. Love it - and we'll see how it helps with toddler air travel tomorrow when we fly to visit my brother's family in Ohio. I've loaded it up with toddler friendly apps!

LMW

December 27, 2011 - Christmas Cheer

2011-12-27T08:53:00.037+03:00

We had a VERY Merry Christmas!

The festivities began on the 23rd when we visited my Aunt Nina's house for a lovely dinner with some of my aunts, uncles and cousins (on my dad's side of the family). Grace was psyched to hang out with her Godfather, my cousin Reid, and his brothers, Ben and Jon, were also excellent playmates.

On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt Judy's to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. We had a lovely dinner and went to a really nice Christmas Mass together. Grace was very well-behaved and Noah didn't do too badly (although did end up in the sound proof baby room). I especially love going to church on Christmas Eve, as a reminder of what the holiday is about.

We had time for a picture of all the smaller (second) cousins together...

...and for a family photo too!

Noah and Grace got into some brand new Christmas jammies and we headed to my sister Meghan's house to wait for Santa.

Auntie Meghan and Uncle Tim's tree was ready...

...and Molly made sure to leave a special note for Santa with snacks for him and his reindeer (and a picture of herself, of course).

Noah's first Christmas pile was generous...

...as was Grace's. There was a lot of fun in store for them on Christmas.

Grace and the big kids were waiting patiently to come downstairs in the morning (OK, really Grace and Noah woke up in the basement before the big kids and Nora...but we snuck Grace upstairs to wait with the big kids so they could all come down together!).

Noah was very happy with his Busytown Activity Center.

It was a hit with Grace and Nora too!

Grace got her beloved CAR SHOES!

But perhaps the biggest "hit" of the day was a special gift Kristoffer got Grace. He called it "instant joy." For $10 at Staples, he bought Grace 30 feet of bubble wrap. When she opened it - she was so excited!

She didn't open another gift for about 30 minutes, and all morning and throughout the day she kept going back to her bubble wrap. It was hysterical! She is a serious bubble popper!

The big kids had a fun Christmas morning as well and during the last few days have been super sweet with Grace and Noah. Molly is an especially good helper!

There was a lot of fun playing with cousins and new toys during the day.

It was really nice to be home with Nene and Pops this Christmas.

We think they had a great day too!

We actually hung out with Auntie Meghan and the gang until today. It has been a very fun, long Christmas weekend. And, I think this happy little boy enjoyed his

First Christmas very much!

We hope everyone else's Christmas was as special as ours was.
LMW

p.s. an extra special thank you to my sweet Santa who delivered that shiny, new amber necklace (above) and a shiny, new iPad! Wowee!

December 22, 2011 - Hold the Phone

2011-12-22T19:40:00.004+03:00

Eleven months old? No way!

In the past month Noah has changed a lot. He has two new teeth sticking out, he says the word "hi" with a bit more regularity and purpose, and on December 16th he took his first official steps. He is not walking by any means, but he can take one or two steps (usually towards me!) when he really wants to. He continues to be great at waving and clapping, loves music and dancing, and wants to be with the big kids when possible. I'm also happy that he is still a bit of a Mama's boy - still looking to cuddle with me pretty regularly!

Despite his sleep problems and the fact that he must be very tired, he remains so smiley and sweet. He is really a charming, happy boy. He is not strange with strangers but also has favorite people that he loves, including Grace, regardless of how she treats him. He increasingly tries to emulate exactly what he see her do, and his actions indicate that the wheels are turning fast inside that little head of his.

I can't believe our baby is almost one year. I hope to treasure this last official month of his babyhood, because I know that someday soon I will really miss these sweet baby days. Today's pictures feature Pops' old cell phone (which I put through the wash by accident so it no longer works) and the TV remote control. It still looks like he's going to be a gadget guy!

Scenes from his first week in America...

LMW

*Note: the sleep study went well. He had a terrible night so they should have gotten a lot of good data. And when it was all over, he was still smiling! We are really hoping his surgery gets scheduled for next week or ASAP.

December 21, 2011 - Sweet Dreams

2011-12-21T22:15:00.000+03:00

Yesterday Noah had a doctor's appointment at Children's Hospital with an ORL specialist (that is Otolaryngology which is a fancy way of saying an ear, nose and throat doctor). We got this appointment because of Noah's sleep issues. Basically since he was about 5 months old (or earlier, I suppose), he has had some kind of sleep apnea where he stops breathing for up to 8 seconds at a time in his sleep, often many times throughout the night. The poor kid has never had a REALLY good night's sleep! In Nairobi an x-ray showed that his adenoids are enlarged, but the small treatments we tried there didn't help.

So we saw this specialist - an experienced, Irish doctor who is the head of the department - and he could tell through a camera up Noah's nose that his adenoids are obstructing 60-70% of Noah's air passage. We also learned that his eating issue - choking on everything! - could be related. The doctor prescribed a sleep study to determine what is going on throughout Noah's body when he has apnea and then he will remove the adenoids. We were hoping to get all of this done ASAP since our next international travel is looming in the new year. Luckily, when I called the sleep lab at the hospital this morning they let me know that they had an opening for tonight.

So...

Noah is asleep in a hospital crib next to me right now. He has about 25 different wires attached to his head, face, chest and legs (note: he was not thrilled about this). To keep him from pulling the wires off, his whole head is wrapped in gauze so he looks like he has a head injury. Poor little guy. There are cameras and microphones in the room and every move and bodily function is being monitored until 6 am tomorrow. Kristoffer is sleeping in the room next door since they don't have a full house tonight, because I didn't want to come in with him by myself but only one of us is allowed in the sleep lab. (Grace is at home with Nene and Pops; she got to help Nene make Christmas candy tonight...so all is definitely well there.)

We hope the study gives useful and accurate information - the technician said a LOT of parents report that their children sleep unusually well for their study, and we really hope this is not us. It sounds crazy, but I hope he has one of his worst nights so that they can really see how serious the situation is. Sometimes he wakes up 10 or 12 times a night. We also hope that they are able to schedule the surgery as quickly as possible so that this boy (and, ok, us too) can start getting some really good sleep. We are all tired!

He is 11 months old tomorrow and his first Christmas is just a few days away. I hope the little sleep he gets tonight will be full of very sweet dreams...and even though I hate to put him through the upcoming surgery, we really look forward to getting his adenoids out!

LMW

December 18, 2011 - Ode to Air France

2011-12-18T06:15:00.000+03:00

Oh Air France, how I loathe thee,

You really are such a tease.

Our trip started out so great,

On our first flight the children slept straight.

The 4 1/2 hour layover in Paris wasn't so bad,

In fact, my husband bought me a massage - that made me so glad.

But then...

Our second flight was delayed for over one hour,

And we started to wish we could have a shower.

I was promised that I was sitting where Noah had a baby seat,

Only to find out that was not at all the case - what a treat!

Our seats weren't all together and this made me sad,

But the nice girl next to us gave her seat to Grace & Noah's dad.

8 hours on a plane with a boy on my lap,

Who couldn't sit still and barely took a nap.

But finally, finally, finally we landed on the ground,

And were happy to be in Boston until our luggage couldn't be found!

What's that you say, you lost 8 of our bags?

With almost a 6 hour layover you should have read the !@#$% tags!

ARGH, I tell you...between this trip and the last

We will NEVER FLY YOU AGAIN because you are surely not fast.

Happy Holidays to you, Air France, we hope you enjoyed our business,

Because if we can help it, it's the last time you will ever see us!

LMW

p.s. The kids were actually pretty amazing on the trip - as usual, actually! Noah was a squirmy worm but never cried and Grace did great until the last hour when she just desperately wanted to be off that plane (and boy did we agree with her)! We did get our luggage and car seats the next night at 2 am and have been having a nice time with my family otherwise. Jet lag in the kids seems just about gone and they are both over a brief 1/2 day long stomach bug they had. Phew!

December 13, 2011 - Early Christmas

2011-12-13T00:14:00.001+03:00

We have taken fewer pictures this trip to Denmark than ever before, and NO video because our camera is on the fritz :( I guess in our stage of transition, we just haven't been that into the camera. But luckily, some of the pictures we have taken are good ones, and capture some really happy moments we've had with our Danish family. I particularly love a Danish Christmas and am grateful that Farmor and Hans went so far out of their way to put on a "full show" for our sake this past weekend. Kristoffer's brother and his family came to visit and we celebrated just as if it was December 24th.

Leading up to our Christmas weekend, Noah was spending a lot of time with his best buddy Hans, who has helped him get even closer to walking - now only holding one hand!

On Friday morning to prepare for Christmas, Grace helped Far and Farmor decorate the Christmas tree. Let's just say that the bottom half of Farmor's tree is highly decorated this year :)

That afternoon, Farmor got tickets for us to take Grace to see her first live show put on by the library. It was a "Cirkeline Christmas" (Cirkeline is a Danish cartoon character that Grace knows and loves) and was very sweet. On our way out Grace got to shake hands with one of the characters, Frederick (a mouse).

After the show we went home in time for everyone else to arrive. Noah continued his fascination with Danish beer, and both of our kids loved, loved, loved playing with their cousins for a few hours!

Uncle Rasmus was also a popular guy :)

Then came a delicious Christmas dinner...

While we waited for the Christmas tree to be lit after dinner - yes, in Denmark a tree is lit by candles, not electric lights! - Grace showed everyone how a Kenyan Simba ROARS...

Then the tree was a glow and we danced around singing Christmas songs. I always find this to be a beautiful and emotional tradition, and I loved watching Grace around the tree with her cousins.

We gave out our gifts and also received lovely, generous gifts, Grace's favorite of which were some Cars Legos from Farmor and Hans (note: Grace has never seen the Cars movies and doesn't even know they exist...she is just really into Cars!).

After gifts - yes, there's more! - we played "Pakkeleg" (pronounced pack-a-lie), which is also one of my favorite Danish Christmas traditions. There are a bunch of Christmas presents (a mix for all ages and lots of funny ones too) in the middle of the table and everyone takes turns rolling a dice. If you roll a 6, you get to pick a gift. When all the gifts are gone, you play for another 10 minutes and can "steal" gifts from other people. Then everyone opens up their surprise gifts (and can swap if they want). This year, our family sponsored "Pakkaleg" and it was really fun!

It was such a wonderful night and we loved spending time with Kristoffer's brother's family; the fun continued the next morning when Noah was awake to open his gifts.

We bustled off to Kristoffer's uncle's house on Saturday for his 60th birthday party. It was great to see his grandmother, uncle and aunt, and his cousins and their kids. We tried to get a picture of Oldemor with her 8 great-grandchildren. THAT was not easy, but you get the idea...

And despite it being a very busy couple of days...this little Christmas boy was still smiling at the end of it.

We have had a lovely month in Denmark (wow! where did that month go?!) and fly to Boston on Wednesday morning for the American leg of our life in transition. An American Christmas and hopefully playing in the snow are on the agenda, as well as visits to Ohio and Maryland.

Please wish us an easier journey to the US than the one we had to Denmark from Kenya. And stay tuned for our next Christmas updates!

LMW

December 9, 2011 - The Christmas Story

2011-12-09T15:54:00.001+03:00

Our dear friends in Nairobi, the Burt Family, produced this totally lovely and wonderful version of the Christmas Story, starring their beautiful girls Charlotte, Hayley (Grace's age) and Emma (Noah's age). It is too special not to share and a great reminder of what the holiday season is all about. Enjoy!

LMW

December 4, 2011 - Christmas Spirit

2011-12-05T00:04:00.000+03:00

Today Grace, Noah and I went with Farmor and Hans to pick out a Christmas tree (Juletræ). There were many to choose from...

but this is the one that came home with us...

Grace mostly looked like this...

While Noah was doing this (in the car the whole time)...

And the Christmas elves (Nisse) were all around us...

When we came home, we wrote a letter to Santa Claus so that he would know exactly what Grace wants him to bring her (she dictated, I transcribed).

A relatively modest request, I think, and I really hope the North Pole is not out of rocks already this year because it would be a shame if she didn't get one. She even drew a picture to mail with her letter...it started out with the pair of red car shoes that she saw at a store last week. You can see them below (and based on the picture it seems that one of her feet is bigger than the other!)...but then she started adding various other elements to the picture so they got a little bit lost. I hope Santa gets her the right ones!

And the out to the mailbox we went so that her letter gets to Santa in time.

I used to think Christmas was the best when you're a child...but now I think Christmas is the best when you have a child. It is a magical time of year!

LMW

November 27, 2011 - First Week in Denmark

2011-11-27T22:15:00.000+03:00

After surviving phase 1 of our move (Operation Leave Kenya) and our journey to Denmark and after having some nice days with Farmor and Hans, Grace got really, really sick with pneumonia this week. She is not 100% yet, but is at least much, much better. We nearly had her admitted to the hospital after she kept getting sicker, but somehow this morning her high fever broke and she just quickly started to improve. I guess the second attemp with stronger antibiotics kicked in. She is breathing easier and coughing less, and is generally much more herself. PHEW. It was a sad and scary few days, and we are very relieved that she is on the mend!

Noah is sleeping worse than a newborn (between the two of them, Kristoffer and I are not sleeping much at all), but is otherwise having a good time at Farmor's house. Nikoline and Josefine visited us this weekend; they are such wonderful cousins and I have nicknamed Nikoline "Rose Jr" because she is so great with Noah! As you can see below, he looks very sweet and innocent. But I think that crate of beer knows better :) SKÅL!

LMW

November 24, 2011 - A Thanksgiving Prayer

2011-11-24T18:55:00.000+03:00

I've recently been thinking about all the things I'm thankful for this year. The list is sooooooo long that I could never properly blog about it. Like you, I'm thankful for my health and my family and friends and my wonderful children and my loving husband and the food on our table. I am just a very thankful person, so I wanted to find a prayer or something to post for today...but in the end, the one prayer that keeps coming to mind is one that I know Grace says at her school before lunch. It doesn't quite cover everything, but sometimes simple thanks are just enough.

Thank you for the world so sweet.

Thank you for the food we eat.

Thank you for the birds that sing.

Thank you, God, for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!
LMW

November 23, 2011 - Kwaheri Kyuna (Moving Part 8)

2011-11-23T22:47:00.000+03:00

As I have recently blogged about, saying goodbye to Grace's little school - Kyuna Kindergarten - was one of the harder things for me to do as we left Nairobi. So I started going there regularly during the school morning to take pictures of Grace doing some of their different activities.

I already blogged about Mondays when they would do horse riding at school.

I went to school last Tuesday, when Grace's class has both a "musical instruments" lesson with Miss Joy and swimming lesson. Sadly, Grace refused to swim because the water was too cold. But, as they say in Kenya, she tried. And at least she had fun during the musical instruments before the swim.

I also visited on a Wednesday, when she had a "physical education" lesson with Mr. Cooper.

Sadly I did not make it to school on a Thursday for "music & movement" with Mrs. Ichihashi (the headmistress) or Friday for her weekly visit to the library...but I know these are routines she will miss in the coming weeks.

This past Friday, our last day in Kenya, I brought in snack to Grace's class for a goodbye party. It was really just a chat with her class about how Grace would be moving and an opportunity for her to give everyone in her class a "thank you for being my friend" card. She also brought cards and flowers to her teachers and assistants from last year and the office staff. I just wanted to make sure she had some proper closure on her first school. She seemed fine, but I was a weepy mess! I will make a photo album for Grace will pictures of all these activities and one photo of each child in her class that I took last week. On the eve of Thanksgiving, I am extremely thankful that Grace spent one year at such a wonderful preschool.

~ with Mrs. Wanyaga ~

~ with Miss Alice and Miss Carol ~

~ her class waiting patiently for their yummy cinnamon rolls ~

~ with Mrs. Ichihashi ~

Kyuna, you will be missed!

LMW

November 22, 2011 - Double Digits

2011-11-22T19:50:00.001+03:00

Another month down and our boy is now even closer to his first birthday. That is very hard to believe! He survived his first 10 months in Nairobi and is now enjoying some holiday time in Denmark.

This past month has been a busy one for all of us as we prepared to move from Nairobi. Noah spent a lot more time with Rose than ever before as Kristoffer worked a lot and I both rushed around like a crazy woman and kept a closer eye on Grace who was processing a lot about our transition. He seemed to do well throughout all of this, and his bond with Rose was both strong and sweet, thankfully.

In the last month he has really improved his drumming skills - I swear he is going to be the musician in the family! He is a good climber and is more Curious than ever (note the capital C!). No new teeth - although they must be coming! - and no new improvements in the sleeping department. In the last few days he has eaten more small finger-foods than ever before without choking too much, which I think is great progress. His personality is still very sweet; he seems to be quite a Mama's boy these days (not sure if he is clinging to me because I've been so busy the last month, or because he misses Rose and I am a good substitute!).

This boy has a wonderful little laugh and continues to look up to his big sister - nobody makes him laugh quite the way she does. It melts my heart every time.

Noah celebrated his first Halloween, his first time swinging, his first wave (which he now does more regularly) and his first time standing on his own this past month. The question remains: will he or won't he walk before his birthday? Maybe the very cold weather will motivate him to walk or run!

Love this little guy!

LMW

November 21, 2011 - Leaving on a Jet Plane (Moving Part 7)

2011-11-21T23:02:00.001+03:00

This is how our departure from Nairobi was supposed to go:

Movers and everyone leave house by 6 pm. Somehow manage to eat dinner (note: this is the one part I had not figured out ahead of time). Two taxis will arrive to take us to the airport at 8:30 pm. Flight departs at 11:40 pm. 8 1/2 hours later we will land in Paris. 3 hour layover in Paris before 90 minute flight to Denmark. Arrive in Denmark at 11:20 am on Saturday. Grace and Noah will have wonderful reunion with Farmor and Hans in the afternoon; Mama and Far will sleep.

This is how our departure from Nairobi actually went:

Movers and everyone leave house by 6 pm. CHECK.

Dinner: never managed to figure that out but sent emergency text message to friend (thank you, Meaghan Wilson, if you're reading this) "is there any way you can facilitate getting us some dinner?!" 30 minutes later she shows up with a packed picnic of spaghetti and meatballs, in addition to Cheez-Its, pudding and juice boxes for the kids, and 2 large cold beers for me and Kristoffer. She was amazing!

Just prior to eating the dinner we get a phone call from Kenya Airways: due to fog in Paris our flight has been delayed by 3+ hours and now leaves at 3 am. We were expected to miss our connection to Denmark and were told that we had been put on the next flight which would leave 10 hours later, but that during the 10 hours we would be given accommodation. Awesome!

We ate, we bathed the children, we tried desperately to get them to sleep. Somehow that eventually worked; Grace slept in her empty bedroom on a bed made of towels and blankets in the exact same spot that her real bed used to be. It was an image that I will never forget. Noah slept for a bit in the stroller and then we managed to get him lying on another bed of towels and coats on the floor. Also very cute. What was NOT great about this situation was the absence of mosquito nets: both kids got seriously chomped on by mosquitos. About 10 bites each! Once they were asleep we were able to shower and properly re-pack our bags to go. Then we also slept on the floor of our very empty house.

At midnight the 2 taxis arrived. We locked up and slipped the key under the door. Grace said, "Bye bye house!" We learned that with absolutely no traffic you can get to the airport from our house in under 25 minutes! That had never been done before!

At that hour the airport was easy and breezy and calm and quiet. Totally not the JKIA we are used to. At "check in", I was told that the plane only has 2 baby bassinets and they were already given to other passengers with babies, even though I confirmed 3 times previously that I had the bassinet for the flight. I tried to be very calm about it (remember my last airport meltdown?) and did not pitch a fit. Also, Kristoffer's seat was not anywhere near the rest of us. Boo hiss.

We asked a very nice passenger to swap seats with Kristoffer, which he so kindly did. So we were together and the kids managed to sleep for most of the first 3 1/2 hours (or at least Grace did; Noah woke up like every 20 minutes and nursed back to sleep. It was not ideal.). Yes I had to hold Noah the whole time. Then the next 5 hours they were mostly awake. Grace watched DVDs - thank you God for inventing DVDs by the way - and Noah squirmed endlessly. Kristoffer and I talked about sleeping in Denmark.

When it looked like there might be a small chance of us making our connection, Kristoffer asked the cabin crew about it. They didn't offer to call ahead and inquire or tell them we were coming or anything, but said we should talk to someone when we deplaned.

So, after 8 1/2 hours on that plane, we got off. We were denied our gate-checked stroller because there is a strict rule against that in Paris, which we were NOT told about in Kenya. So we ran, ran, ran, each of us carrying one child and some bags, to try and catch our flight. We were given various bad or wrong directions by different people as to where to go/how to make our flight. We could see it blinking on the screen - WAITING FOR US NO DOUBT - but we couldn't seem to get there in time. Before we even figured out how to get the bus to get to the right terminal, it was gone. Sigh.

Then there was some drama where we were told we had not been booked seats on the next flight to Denmark and that it was full and we might have to wait until the next morning. We were told to go to the Kenya Airways office in another terminal because they were the only ones who could sort the problem out, except then we found out that there is NO Kenya Airways terminal in Paris. Obviously.

While the children passed out and slept on the floor - see picture below - I managed to find an extremely lovely and competent and wonderful Air France customer service person who did actually serve this customer. She got us booked on the flight and checked us in so that the only thing we had to do was wait for 8 more hours for our flight. And, by the way, there was no accommodation provided to us because our layover was not overnight. Basically, everything the Kenya Airways person told me on the phone the night before and at the airport was wrong.

When the kids woke up again we took the bus to the correct terminal, we found a row of seats and camped out for the next 8 hours. Grace watched DVDs and made up games to play. Noah squirmed and crawled and nursed (that is ALL he seemed to want to do for the entire trip, by the way), and repeat. Kristoffer and I still talked about sleeping in Denmark. We really don't remember how we managed to survive those 8 hours sitting and laying on the floor in a very small Parisian airport terminal. But we did.

At 8:10 pm our flight left for Denmark. All four of us slept on this small commuter 90 minute flight. When we landed, our luggage came out promptly. Farmor was waiting for us with warm winter jackets and yummy snacks. It was wonderful.

Noah cried for most of the 45-minute drive home...because really after 24 hours of travel already, who wants to be buckled into a car seat for even 1 more minute!!! Grace was pretty tired and calm and happy to be with Farmor (I don't think I have yet given Grace enough credit for being amazing throughout this travel saga). Then we sort of hit a deer on the road! We just grazed him (or her) as he (or she) was running across the road. Scared the heck out of us (or me, at least), but no damage was done...and really it was a climactic t ending to our dramatic day.

We arrived home to a waiting Hans with more yummy food and sweet gifts and the most comfortable beds to sleep in ever. Pretty much after 1 week of sleeping only 4 hours a night MAX, I think we've never been happier to go to sleep. In Denmark.

Now we've had two great days of rest and relaxation and home-cooking. It might not be Life in Nairobi, but Life in Transition is so far so good!

LMW

November 21, 2011 - Packing Up (Moving Part 6)

2011-11-21T22:26:00.000+03:00

Thursday and Friday were jam-packed, stressful, intense days, but I think everything went as smoothly as it all could have gone. The moving company was efficient and we were pretty happy with them; they had 85% of the house packed and loaded into the truck by the end of Thursday. Rose was on Noah duty, I was on Grace duty and was the Logistics OIC (officer in charge), Kristoffer was on work duty, Charles was on run-errands-as-Madame-requests duty and make-sure-the-movers-don't-steal-anything duty (he really liked that power of that last job).

We were really impressed with Grace because we expected some kind of total meltdown when she saw the house packed up, but it didn't come. I had told her that there would be many people at home when she came back from school to help her pack up the house. When we got home later she kept saying, "There are so many people here to pack up!" She was inspecting what they were doing and even told them, "Don't forget my mattress!" She loved watching them carry all the boxes up the big hill to load the big truck. They left all of our beds unpacked for Thursday night and Grace slept great in her own bed, despite having a complete empty room otherwise. Wesat amidst boxes and luggage on Thursday and ate pizza for dinner. It was surprisingly cozy!

Friday was also a bit crazy because in addition to the movers finishing up we had Grace's goodbye party at school, Kristoffer's goodbye lunch with his office (to which I was invited and expected to attend), we had to hand over the car to the car broker, and tidy up the house.

And then we left Kenya. But that story is for another blog. Here are a few scenes from our move.

LMW

November 17, 2011 - A Crazy Haze (Moving Part 5)

2011-11-17T06:15:00.007+03:00

I think this is my last blog from Nairobi because at some point in the next 24 hours we will have to pack our wireless internet router.

It is 6 am on Thursday. I've been up since 4, when Kristoffer also woke up to go to work to get a head start on finishing up "handing over" all his projects before his last day tomorrow. We had a late night, but made some progress related to moving: agreed to terms with a broker to sell our cars after we leave, possibly agreed with our property manager about "fixing up" the house after we go before the new tenants arrive, and some packing for the Denmark/US portion of our next adventure.

I am beyond emotional at this point because I'm so tired. It is just about getting everything done now and getting on that plane at midnight on Friday (that's in 42 hours, by the way)! The movers get here in 2 hours and for some reason all I can think about is making sure that Grace has finished making cards for all her friends to give them at her "goodbye snack time party" at school tomorrow morning! Noah is pretty much permanently attached to Rose's hip during the day, for which I am very grateful because I wouldn't be able to get much done if he was permanently attached to mine.

A special thank you to a small group of American friends who took me our for coffee yesterday morning (with two brand new babies in the group as well!) and for my friend Miriam, who brought me the most delicious sandwich I've ever eaten for lunch yesterday. Those were the only moments of calm in my entire week - and I am grateful for them!

Everything will work out. Everything will get done. We will soon be at Farmor's house. And I am sure in the coming weeks as we wind down from this segment of our move, there will be lots of time for reflection on this transition in our life... but right now I just feel like I'm in a crazy haze!

I can hear Grace singing in her bed right now, which means it's time to go and officially start our day. Wish us luck!

Goodbye, Life in Nairobi!

Kwaheri Kenya!

LMW

November 16, 2011 - Things I Will Miss (Moving Part 4)

2011-11-16T07:22:00.004+03:00

There is a lot about Nairobi that I will not miss, namely our lack of security these days...and, the cheese counter at Nakumatt, of course. But I've been trying to remind myself of all the things I WILL miss about Nairobi because despite some inconveniences, it has mostly been a great four years here.

In order of no importance, some of things I will miss (aside from my friends, of course!) are:

Grace's school, as previously mentioned
our house
the flowers - such beautiful, beautiful flowers!
our house
the garden cafes and general ease of being outside
our house
the weather
the cheap local fruit
our house
Dr. Nesbitt, Grace & Noah's pediatrician. I've said goodbye to his office no fewer than 4 times over the last few weeks, but then I keep popping in to have them look at something. Yesterday I took Noah to have his skin checked because I thought he had ring-worm (turns out just weird looking eczema) and I did finally say an official we're-not-coming-back-before-we-leave-on-Friday-I-pray goodbye. When you live in a country with various unfamiliar and/or contagious diseases, you REALLY want to trust your child's doctor. And we do. Completely. Through Grace's weight issues and Noah's hospitalizations, he's just been great. He knows us. He knows them. I will really miss him, his nurse, his receptionist. The whole lot of them.
our house
local shopping at some of the places I've written about on the "Best of Nairobi" part of this blog
our house
not being new: it is HARD to be new! And I felt "new" here for such a long time (ok, occasionally still), but when you've been in the expat community of Nairobi for four years, you are actually "OLD"! I recently learned that some of my friends think of me as the one who knows where to go and what to do, which I can assure you is not how I think of myself! This came as a surprise to me, but then I thought of it and I do often have advice or contacts for "newER" people because I've lived here for so long now. We know short cuts to take, when to avoid traffic hot spots, where to get X, Y, Z, etc. We are simply not new! It's a very strange phenomenon to not be new, but to still (always) be foreign in a place I think. And while excited for our next adventure, I don't look forward to being completely and totally clueless again.

and, last but not least...

LMW

November 15, 2011 - Grace's Goodbye (Moving Part 3)

2011-11-15T10:22:00.001+03:00

We told Grace that we're moving about 3 weeks ago. There were just too many people coming and going (Poachers & Co) and too many of our things were being sold for her to not notice. She's a pretty sharp little girl. When we told her she reacted pretty well - we told her she'll have a new house, a new school and will make new friends at our new destination. Her first question was "Can Mrs. Wanyaga come?" Ok, I pretty much started crying on the spot - she loves her teacher SO MUCH she wants to bring her with us to a foreign country! Then she started packing. She went around picking up all the things that she wants us to not forget and then she put them all on our front hall table. Since then, we keep tidying up, and then suddently the front hall table will have a whole new batch of individually bagged toys.

Yesterday on the way home from school she told me, "Mama, I have to say goodbye to all my friends because soon I'm going!" I don't know if those were her words or someone else's, but I thought that was pretty darn articulate. We've made a calendar to count down the days until we say goodbye to our house and go on a big airplane to Farmor's house. She keeps reminding me of who is coming: Mama's coming, Far's coming, Noah's coming, my lamb is coming, my baby lamb is coming, my suitcase is coming, etc.

I basically think she is doing a great job handling the move. Given all that, she wants to be held almost all the time, she has regressed in her potty training (suddenly, lots of accidents!), her eating has once again declined, she has started waking up at 5 am again, and she is more hostile towards Noah like she was circa August and September. So, while she is mostly OK, she is not without stress in all of this. We are trying to help her verbalize what she's feeling and to include her in everything that is going on. We are trying to be very loving and consistent in our discipline. We know logically that she will be fine and that she is not yet 3 years old and will not be scarred for the rest of her life just because we're moving. We know this. But I am still worried about her! And I fear for the possible meltdown when the movers are here all day Thursday and Friday and our house starts to look like just an empty-other-person's-house instead of Grace's house!

For me, probably the hardest part of our move is leaving Grace's school. It is just the most loving, well-rounded, perfect little place for her. She has had the most wonderful introduction to "school" that I could have ever hoped for. She has friends and adults who she knows well and loves, and who know her well and love her. I've been going to her school pretty often in the last few weeks to take pictures of her doing all their various activities so that I can make her a proper album of memories from her school. I always leave in tears. It has been a wonderful community, for both of us.

I know she is not yet 3, but so far in her life she seems to have a pretty good memory. And I really, really, really hope and pray that for the rest of her life she has some special memories of her Kenyan life. It has been so very sweet.

LMW

November 13, 2011 - Poachers (Moving Part 2)

2011-11-13T11:21:00.002+03:00

There's a lot of stuff to do when you move, internationally or otherwise. But when you leave an expat duty station there is something that you definitely expect to deal with that is not such a big phenomenon when moving at home. I call them "Poachers" and basically everyone you know is a potential Poacher.

First you tell a friend that you are leaving to go to X place where your husband will now be doing Y.

The friend says something along the lines of, "Wow! Such great news for your family, but so sad for us to be losing you!"

You say something like, "Thank you! It's true. We're happy to be going but saying goodbye is definitely hard."

The friend will then definitely say one of the following:

Can I ask, have you found your driver a job yet?
Has anyone seen the house yet?
Who is taking your nanny?
Will you be selling the cars?
Are you bringing your refrigerator?
What furniture are you getting rid of?
What about that great bookshelf in your living room?

Even our staff asked the following:

Can I have your curtains?
Please, I'll take any clothes you aren't bringing with you?
Do you really want to take that carpet?

And the thing about the Poachers when you are the expat who is leaving is that you are not at all offended that the first or second thought people have when they hear you're leaving is to snatch up all your stuff. You are, in fact, relieved because you know that the Poachers will help make the process a bit easier. I myself have been a Poacher in our time here!

So with the help of the Poachers and my Nairobi mom's group on Facebook, in two weeks time we sold everything we wanted to sell (except the cars, for more complicated reasons), found Charles a fantastic new job, and got Syprose (the cook) some new contacts. Rose is a different story for another blog, but will basically be joining us at our next destination (thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God).

LMW

November 12, 2011 - Saying Goodbye (Moving Part 1)

2011-11-12T20:57:00.001+03:00

A few weeks shy of our fourth anniversary of living in Kenya, we're moving!

I'll talk more about the details of our next stop in another blog because right now we are processing the reality of our upcoming departure on Friday night. Four years is not a small amount of time. It's the amount of time I was at Syracuse, the amount of time I was a teacher in New York City, the amount of time we've lived here. Nairobi - for all it's good and all it's bad - has really become our home; our children were born here; we've become a family here. Even though we are quite happy to be moving, it is also sad in many ways to be leaving this place.

We've known we were moving for about 3 weeks and in that time we've been REALLY busy! Grace's way of dealing with the move has been really interesting and warrants a blog of its own; obviously Noah is unaware. I've been dealing with all things related to getting out of Nairobi and Kristoffer has been dealing with all things related to finishing work at WFP.

Today was a very special day in our process. We hosted a small party at one of our favorite garden restaurants so that we could properly say goodbye and "thank you!" to all of our Nairobi friends. While not everyone could make it (you know, it's always tough to get everyone!), those who were able to join us were really the people who have been most important in our life here. Grace may or may not have thought it was her birthday because there was a bouncy castle and face painting (and in Nairobi, bouncy castle = birthday party!). Rose and Charles came too and had a wonderful time.

The food was good. The drinks were good. The chocolate cake was REALLY good.

But the friends...our friends...were the best.

In the last 3 weeks it occurred to me that the people who are most important to us at home will likely never meet the people who are most important to us here. And that's weird! But, for those of you at home reading, I'd like to introduce you to the people who have helped make our four years in Nairobi memorable and special. And for those of you here in Nairobi reading, please know that you will definitely be missed and will definitely not be forgotten.

LMW

November 7, 2011 - Mondays

2011-11-07T20:44:00.000+03:00

A lot of people don't like Mondays, but Grace is not one of them. And because today was a UN holiday and Kristoffer didn't have to work, we basically followed Grace around all day taking her picture throughout a very happy Monday.

First, on Mondays Grace has "horse riding" at school. You can see her class all lined up waiting their turns to ride the horse.

And then it was Grace's turn!

We came back a few hours later to pick Grace up from school and a very happy girl came running for us!

Then in the afternoon Grace had Monkeynastix. There are nine girls in her class, but only 3 were there today for a 1:1 student-teacher ratio. Awesome! Grace learned that it is hard to kick a ball while wearing gumboots (but she likes to be ready for the rain at all times and you have to respect a girl with a strong footwear preference)! She was running, jumping, and stood on her head for the first time.

I hope everyone else's Monday was as fun as Grace's!

November 6, 2011 - Swingers

2011-11-06T14:27:00.000+03:00

Noah's first time on our swing!

Elmo also had fun.

Other firsts this week: Noah stood by himself for 5 seconds and he waved for the first time! Big boy!

LMW

November 3, 2011 - Snow or Hail

2011-11-03T14:02:00.000+03:00

We received a huge downpour yesterday: elephants and hippos (aka cats and dogs)! Our WFP driver Joseph and I were standing under a shed waiting for the rain to slow down before running to the car that was parked outside at a distance. When it started hailing hard, like small stones, it set off car alarms and the sound made talking impossible.

Joseph picked up one of the hailstones and said “Look! snow!”

The hail finished and I said, “That is not snow, it is hail.”

He looked at me, "What is snow then?"

"Snow is soft," I told him, “like a feather.”

"But it is wet, no?" he asked. “It is only wet when it has melted,” I explained.

He struggled to understand.

We ran to the car and drove off. In the car he asked, "After the snow season, you have a dry period?"

I was struggling to explain. "Well you know, where I am from there is always rain. It rains every month….like Western Kenya."

"But what about the cows? How do they survive the winter?" he wanted to know.

"Oh, we keep them inside all winter."

"What do you feed them then?"

...and the conversation went on.

I love these interactions; I realized that the concept of four seasons is very difficult to comprehend if not experienced.

October 29, 2011 - Halloween Safari

2011-10-29T21:08:00.000+03:00

Our wonderful American friends invited us for Halloween on their compound (everyone who lives on the compound works for the US government) this afternoon, so we actually got to "trick or treat" door-to-door for real! Once Grace warmed up she was so "into it" and such a cute lion (approriately, since she was named Simba before she was born). Noah took a little nap while Grace was raking in the (American!) candy, but was an extremely sweet giraffe for his First Halloween (just like Grace was for hers). Trick-or-treating was followed by yummy snacks and drinks and playtime with our friends, and overall we all had such a great time. Thanks, Wilson family, for a great Halloween!

If you could go on safari with this giraffe-boy and lion-girl everyday, I think you would!

LMW

October 26, 2011 - Mulligan

2011-10-26T10:07:00.000+03:00

I decided to take a "do over" (or "Mulligan") on Noah's 9th month picture. Granted the sign says October 24th and I really took the picture on the 25th and am now posting it on the 26th...but still. The pictures are much better than the ones I took on the 23rd in my crazy-mother's-haste. And I doubt he's grown THAT much since Saturday :)

His new favorite games are "peek-a-boo" with the curtains and dropping stuff while you're holding him to hear you say "Uh Oh" (and repeat).

Just can't get enough of this baby!

LMW

October 25, 2011 - Little Typist

2011-10-25T07:05:00.000+03:00

Grace asked me this morning if she could "do the letters", by which she meant "type on the computer." So I opened up to a new blog and below is what she had to say. She seems to have a thing for the letter Q. /LMW

``1111123344567890-,l ;yt;’;p[

“T’’’’’’ffff

QBBBAaqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqf qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqazvj8uhbygknrtn be,t,,,,,,,,,,,,

Jnk g,F÷B.W .N ,MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ QQQQASQQWEDEERTYUIOOP[]\ASDSDFGHJKL;’

ZXCVBVBNM,./

GEW (Ok, Mama typed that one)

October 23, 2011 - Forgetful Mama

2011-10-23T20:51:00.000+03:00

It's not that I didn't know that Noah was 9 months old yesterday. It's just that I sort of...forgot?

Actually, to be more accurate I was thinking that he was born on the 26th (that's Grace!) and I even told a nice woman at church this morning who asked his age, "He'll be 9 months old in a few more days." Or yesterday! And so, yesterday was the 22nd and I didn't take a picture of Noah with his monthly sign, or write in his baby journal, or acknowledge his age in any way whatsoever. I guess that's what happens to the second-born: he has a lot more bruises on his head than his sister ever did and I forgot his 3/4-year-birthday. At least he'll have something to tell his therapist when he's older. And, to be fair, if you've watched the news lately or read Kristoffer's previous blog, you'll know that we sort of have a lot on our minds over here right now!

But about Noah...

He is really curious and really mobile. A dangerous combination if you ask me! He loves to climb up the stairs now, pull himself up, and do a bit of cruising around the furniture. He also likes to walk around holding our hands or fingers, but we think walking is another month or two away yet. He falls down A LOT because he doesn't know his own limits and is constantly pushing them (or because I don't pay enough attention to him). He says Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga now. He crawls to see me with the biggest smile on his face if I enter a room where he already is. He follows Grace around like a puppy dog. Cries when she cries. Doesn't understand why she hoards things that he wants to play with.

Noah likes to have his teeth brushed, likes to be tickled, has an amazing laugh. He is not sleeping well anymore (oh the ups and downs of this boy's sleep!) and he now has two front teeth up top to match the ones below. He wants to feed himself but absolutely gags or chokes on anything that isn't smooth (except cheerios, which we are now out of, or small pieces of banana), so meals have become a bit of a fight to get him to be spoon fed still. I won't even go into the story of how he swallowed a not-small-at-all toy the other night, choked on it, and then vomitted it up again...because it was insanely traumatic for me and Kristoffer. In general, this guy is doing great AND keeping us on our toes!

Kristoffer says: He is progressing everyday. It is quite amazing. Every day last week he could do something better. It's actually unbelievable.

Even though I didn't acknowledge it yesterday, we love this little guy so much and find it hard to believe that he is already three quarters of a year old. Today's pictures are pretty terrible - sorry Noah! where is my head?! - and I'm thinking of re-taking them tomorrow. But if I'm being honest, here they are...and he is still cute, regardless of my terrible-rushed-guilty photography. What a guy!

LMW

October 21, 2011 - The Kibera Incident

2011-10-21T07:08:00.000+03:00

I went to Kibera last week, which is the largest slum in Nairobi if not all of East Africa. Over the last four years I must have gone there at least 30 times for project monitoring and project implementation purposes. Lately I mostly go there during donor visits; like recently we took Vice President Joe Biden’s son there and a few other visitors. For this visit we had like 6-8 Secret Service Agents.

Last week it was a Chinese delegation and we were just visiting one school in the inner Kibera. During the visit the children had prepared an impressive performance and everything was going quite well. The visitors saw the kitchen where our school meals are prepared and my manager took them to the food store, which was a small dark room. Most of us were standing outside as there was no space for all of us in that little room. I noticed several young men entering the school compound looking around. Suddenly two of them had guns out and came directly for us. We have been trained for these types of situations so we did exactly what they asked us to, which was to lay down and hand over our money, cameras and cell phones; I also had to part with my wedding ring. At no point was a gun pointed directly at me and the whole thing took 2-3 minutes; then they where gone. My manager had managed to hide the highest-level delegates in the storeroom: she just stood in the door blocking the entry. I think the robbers were too scared to move inside the rooms so that went well.

Afterwards everything was reported to the police and UN security and I think we will go with a lot of (armed) security next time.

The day after I attended a group counseling session at the UN and a quick 20- question survey indicated that I was between normal and mildly stressed by the situation. The following days I have been very tired and unmotivated but that should be a normal reaction. A wife has proven to be particularly helpful in this situation : )

I plan not to go back to Kibera and now that Kenya is at war with Al Shabab (terrorists in Somalia), we basically just stay home and avoid malls, cafes, and any place that a lot of people might be.

Looking forward to a Christmas holiday.

October 20, 2011 - Stair Master

2011-10-20T12:39:00.000+03:00

Noah started climbing our stairs on Sunday, and we finally got it on tape this morning

(K is home from work for a Kenyan holiday - yay!).

He's a little more than 2 months ahead of Grace when it comes to stair climbing. He is also cruising now, so we think he'll walk before his first birthday (but really, who knows). Better dust off the baby walking shoes!

LMW

October 19, 2011 - Sun Salutation

2011-10-19T08:12:00.000+03:00

Grace likes to do yoga with her Far.

(Sorry it's not the best view, but I was trying to be discreet so she wouldn't stop doing it.)

For "directions" on how to do the Sun Salutation yourself, you can visit here. Kristoffer doesn't do a lot of yoga these days, but it is his favorite yoga exercise and one that he does regularly. Looks like Grace might be a yoga girl (unlike her Mama)!

LMW

October 17, 2011 - Rain

2011-10-17T12:28:00.002+03:00

This picture speaks a thousand words.

October 14, 2011 - Someone's Getting Big

2011-10-14T10:57:00.000+03:00

Big Boy Noah can sit at Grace's table in the kitchen now.

Which causes Grace some stress when, for example, he tries to take her yogurt.

He increasingly wants to feed himself...

...and looks like he is "getting away with something" when he does.

Almost looks like he thinks he is the star of a Gerber commercial...

who taught him about product placement?!

And perhaps you'll remember the pictures of Grace in a basket from here or here...well, we just thought it was only fair that Noah had a basket photo shoot as well. Grace kept filling the basket with toys and he kept throwing them out. Turns out it was fun for everyone!

Boy boy!

LMW

October 12, 2011 - Best of Nairobi

2011-10-12T13:40:00.000+03:00

I am experimenting with a new page on our blog. You can see it as a tab next to "More About Us", called "Best of Nairobi". It is just sort of a rambling list of recommendations or contacts that people coming to visit or live in Nairobi might find useful. It is not complete, more of a work in progress really, but since I've been meaning to get it up for MONTHS I figured I should just put something up there to get started.

Have you been to Nairobi? What do you think I should add?

Thanks!

LMW

October 11, 2011 - Best Part of My Day

2011-10-11T20:48:00.000+03:00

The best part of my day came at a seriously unusual moment.

Grace skipped her nap today and so by 4:00 pm was being extremely difficult. Dinner didn't go well, post-dinner play time didn't go well. Lots of crying involved. We came upstairs for baths and during some tantrum about something Grace grabbed the camera strap that was hanging over the desk and pulled our camera on the floor. We, her parents, did not react so happily and Grace ended up in a "time out" in her room with the door closed. Screaming.

Then, one of the cutest things we've ever seen happened.

Noah super-crawled across the living room to Grace's door, got up on his knees and leaned against the door, and cried.

He wanted her! Or he wanted us to let her out! Save my sister!

"Precious" does not even come close to describing that image. They were both crying and miserable, and Kristoffer and I were really, really happy.

LMW

October 10, 2011 - Great Exploration

2011-10-10T08:02:00.001+03:00

Noah is at an amazing age of exploration right now. He is a really fast crawler and is improving his climbing and pulling-up skills everyday. When he sees something of interest to him, he just goes for it.

This particular exploration involved a ball that had rolled under our bed:

Grace got a little bit stressed that Noah was under the bed and after demanding that I remove him, which I refused, she tried to talk him out: "Come out, Noah! I said COME OUT!"

The exploration ended when Noah decided that the camera looked more interesting than the ball and he super-crawl-chased me down!

Love this age!

LMW

October 9, 2011 - Bouncy Castle

2011-10-09T19:47:00.000+03:00

Grace loves bouncy castles and they are usually one of her favorite parts of a Nairobi birthday party (the other favorite parts being singing Happy Birthday and sometimes eating the cake). Today, Noah went into the bouncy castle for the first time at a birthday party for our friend Max. Noah started laughing when we put him in it and smiled, bounced his head, and crawled around for quite awhile.

He looked like this...

...while his big sister was catching some sweet, sweet air!

LMW

October 8, 2011 - Parent's Day

2011-10-08T13:56:00.002+03:00

Yesterday was "Parent's Day" at Grace's school. The first half of it included a psychologist facilitating a discussion about discipline and the second half of it was in Grace's classroom with her teacher, learning about her goals and methods and their "curriculum" for the year, etc.

Within the first part, I liked being split into small groups to discuss a discpline-related question. I met some new parents and thought that our discussion was interesting. The psychologist herself made some good points, but I was not a huge fan of her delivery. I thought she made a lot of generalizations and was trying too hard to be funny; she also seemed to hope that our discussion would be more dramatic than it was. Most parents seemed pretty happy with a "no drama" afternoon though. She started off by saying that she didn't like teenagers, the population I happily used to teach. I kept telling my friend next to me that I better not make any comments or else it could have quickly turned into my own lecture!

Time in the classrooms was, I think for all parents, the real reason we were there. It was nice to hear about the structure and routine of Grace's morning at school and all the reasons why her teacher is or isn't doing certain things. I genuinely think she has another fantastic teacher this year, who is both loving but firm and aspires for all of her students to be very independent and well-mannered. I was also so happy to hear that Grace's behavior has been great for the last two weeks. It seems that the bully has left the building! PHEW! I truly believe that most of that "acting out" was related to Noah' increasing mobility in our home and, perhaps, some competition with another child in her class (I didn't blog about it, but two weeks ago I actually had a meeting in the Headmistress' office because Grace not only pushed and hit other children that day but also talked back to the Headmistress!). I think communicating regularly with the school and remaining loving but consistent in our discipline at home helped get Grace through a sort of developmental "crisis". Let's hope we have a break before the next one comes along :)

It struck me as funny - although not that surprising! - that of all the parents in Grace's class yesterady (her class has 15 students and we were 8 parents), the only people asking questions were me and the other American mother in the class! I think I am still getting used to being the parent and not the teacher, but I really enjoyed some hours at Grace's school in that role.

LMW

October 6, 2011 - Learning about Hunger

2011-10-06T08:55:00.001+03:00

Just read this great article about an episode of Sesame Street (airs in the US on October 9th on PBS) that teaches - or makes a great attempt, at least - about child hunger (thanks for sharing the article, Karen Dahl). While the issue is complex, the article praises Sesame Street for calling attention to it because it is a difficult one to talk about with young children. I know it is a topic that I am increasingly trying to broach with Grace, within her realm of understanding. For example, when she refuses to finish her food I will say, "Grace, there are many children who don't have any dinner tonight. We don't want to be wasteful so eat everything on your plate." Maybe she is too young to "get it", but if I say the words often enough perhaps it will sink in. Given that this issue is close to our lives in Kenya, particularly because of Kristoffer's work, I think it's great that Sesame Street has touched on it. Just wish we could get it on TV here!

Maybe you can watch on our behalf?

LMW

October 5, 2011 - For You are a Kenyan Child

2011-10-05T08:54:00.000+03:00

My children received gifts in the mail this week, sent from my sister Christine. They each received their own copy of this hardcover picture book:

It is a very sweet story about "a day in the life" of a Kalenjin boy growing up in a traditional village (Kalenjin is one of Kenya's 46 tribes). The day it describes doesn't mirror a day in the life of our children, but the pictures are spot-on, the bits of Swahili dialogue are authentic, and it captures the "real" Kenya quite well. Grace and Noah aren't Kenyan, but they were born in Kenya and it is their home. Grace already loves the story (we've read it five times since yesterday; her favorite pictures is the one of a dung-beetle because it reminds her of a special memory she has with my dad) and I like that our kids will always have this special book about the country of their birth. Very cool.

Thank you, Auntie Tine!

LMW

October 1, 2011 - Thank You, Followers for Food

2011-10-01T13:52:00.000+03:00

In less than a full month's time, the number of people publicly following our blog went from 16 to 82! I also know of at least four people who are following the blog privately. If we're at 86 followers at least, we gained 70 followers in September.

We will double that number and donate $140 towards famine relief in the Horn of Africa this month - thank you for your vote of confidence in our blog and for helping those who need it most.

LMW

September 30, 2011 - Unusual Allergy and other stories

2011-09-30T09:19:00.001+03:00

Two weeks ago Charles was sick with a cough and some wheezing when he breathed. We sent him to a doctor at a clinic that he likes to go to, who apparently said that Charles was allergic to the cold.

Me: "I'm sorry, you're allergic to coal?"

Charles: "He says I am allergic to the COLD. He gave me three medicines to take and I have to go back to see him next week. If I am not better I have to get a chest x-ray to see if I have asthma."

Allergic to the cold. Chest x-ray to diagnose asthma. These are things I've never heard of before. It is hard to know whether that is what the doctor really said, or just what Charles heard. Honestly.

Charles' cough stopped right away and he said he was feeling better, although not quite acting like himself. He went to the doctor last week who told him that he was better but not completely fine, and he should take one more week of medication, get a chest x-ray because he might have a serious condition of asthma, and then come back. I have to admit, in these situations with Charles I have to try really hard to keep a straight face. Further conversation revealed that he is really afraid of having asthma. I don't know where the fear came from or if he even knows what asthma is! I tried to explain to him the things I know about asthma and how it is diagnosed ("Maybe it is different in Kenya but in our country asthma is not usually diagnosed with a chest x-ray."), and that I'm sure that's not it because he is already so much better since taking the cough medicine.

But still, he was really worried and went for the chest x-ray, which revealed that he has pneumonitis (which is some inflammation in his lungs, but is not actual pneumonia). The story gets murky after that because he told me that the doctor said he needed two weeks of (very expensive) antibiotics. After discussing it with Kristoffer, I told him that we thought that was extreme considering that his symptoms were gone. I said one week of antibiotics is something we would consider, but that we were not going to buy two weeks of antibiotics for a not-that-serious condition. Then he came back and said, "Actually, the doctor said one more week of cough medicine and THEN a week of antibiotics," which of course makes absolutely no sense. I told him, "Let's just see how you are next week."

Please don't think I'm just really mean - Kenyans and Kenyan doctors are known for over-medicating. They believe antibiotics will cure everything when, as we learned when I was very sick and was incorrectly given antibiotics in the ER, that is not the case.

So this week. Charles tells me that he has pains in his chest when he breathes.

Me: "Do you want to go back to the doctor so he can check you out and see if it is related to the pneumonitis."

Charles: "Yes. I think it's because you didn't buy me that other medicine."

He then goes back to that ~~quack~~ doctor who supposedly tells him, "if you still have pains tomorrow come back and I'll know exactly what medicines to give you". Note that for some reason the doctor didn't charge him for the visit and that what he supposedly said makes absolutely no sense (Kristoffer wonders if Charles was really taking care of "other business" during working hours with our car). Charles goes the next day and is given one week of (very expensive) antibiotics and one week of painkillers.

This bizarre medical drama coupled with the collapse of Charles' stove business, means Charles is sort of in the dog house of our minds right now. That stove story goes like this:

Charles told me, the same day as going to the doctor, that he had given his nephew, Steve, a lot of cash (about $150) to take to the bank to deposit for the purchase of more stoves to sell. This money came from the other stoves he sold (which we bought we our "seed" money). He said he was very excited to purchase more stoves.

A few hours later he tells me: "I haven't heard from Steve and can't get in touch with him. I hope everything is OK."

Then yesterday he tells Kristoffer that Steve was robbed of all of that cash and his cell phone when he was on his way to deposit the money at the bank.

---

We think there are 2 possible scenarios here.

Scenario A: It is a true story, and a terrible coincidence.

Scenario B: It is not a true story.

Sadly, we are leaning towards Scenario B. We suspect - as Kristoffer started to suspect a few weeks ago, actually - that Charles used his stove funds to help his mother pay for the land she wanted to buy with the money from the tree that that other guy chopped down, or for some other non-stove-related reason. We also suspect that Charles wants us to reimburse him that money to continue his stove business, which we will absolutely not do. It was his responsibility to save (and/or guard) the money and reinvest it into the business; regardless of how that money is now gone, we are not a bottomless well.

Last night we were really sad about it, because it was a fantastic opportunity for him and his family and we really wanted it to work out for them. But they'll have to find another way now.

I'm hoping next week is a better week for us with Charles.

LMW

September 29, 2011 - Hitchin' a Ride

2011-09-29T18:19:00.000+03:00

LMW

September 28, 2011 - Dadaab

2011-09-28T07:00:00.001+03:00

Two weeks ago I went to the Dadaab Refugee Camp on the border of Somalia. The Dadaab Refugee camp is the largest in the world, with more than 450,000 refugees. From May to July this year we experienced the most extreme influx of refugees to date: up to about 1,400 new arrivals per day. A few years ago I remember colleagues raising their eyebrows when we reached 200 per day.

During my recent trip I spent three days there and although it is still an emergency situation of course, everything seems calmer now, and things are under control with about 400 refugees per day and the numbers seem to be coming down.

I think this was my fourth time to Dadaab Camp since it is not a part of my usual responsibilities. But I am responsible for climate change activities in WFP Kenya and over the years have specialized in energy-saving stoves, which I know a lot about now.

A few months ago we received some seed funding (less than USD 100,000) and I decided to run a larger pilot for a new type of energy-saving stove in the camp. The stoves use firewood but reduce the consumption by around 50% and provide for more complete combustion, which means a cleaner air for the cook. For the last 20 years a mud stove production in the refugee camps has provided good quality stoves to the refugees. The stove technology has improved immensely over the last 10 years and it is time to try to introduce a new type of stove; not everyone agrees with me on this, but I have fought for it and due to the famine emergency and the lack of stoves in the camp, there is now willingness to accept new stoves.

We plan to purchase and distribute about 6,000 stoves over the next few months. Acceptance by the Somali ladies is key; they might choose to sell the stoves or not use them because they are something completely new to them. Luckily I have found a great NGO to extensively train all of the beneficiaries on how to use the stoves and understand their benefits. If we succeed we will have taken a big leap in the right direction.

We have more funding if the pilot proves itself successful so wish me luck.

September 27, 2011 - Hummingbird

2011-09-27T07:18:00.001+03:00

Wangari Maathai died on Sunday. She was a true hero in Kenya and around the world - an environmentalist and passionate advocate for women's rights, who faced many personal hardships fighting for both causes and won a Nobel Peace Prize. You can read more about her here or, even better, you can read her autobiography, Unbowed.

This video gives us just a small glimpse of the person she was -

it is well worth the two minutes it takes to watch the whole thing:

She was a hummingbird, and she can rest now.
LMW

September 26, 2011 - 50 lbs of "Home"

2011-09-26T06:27:00.019+03:00

On Friday we received a 50 lb box from my parents in the US. I had requested some "groceries" and they bought them at BJ's (a wholesale warehouse where everything comes in bulk), so everything was huge! We got:

2 1/2 lb box of Cheerios (a few years ago we could find them here, but they were not plain cheerios and were very sweet)
4 boxes of various size ziplock bags
2 large jars of Welch's Concord Grape Jelly (have never seen grape jelly outside of the US)
2 large jars (that's 5 lbs!) of JIF peanut butter (of course we can get PB, and sometimes even Skippy PB, but never JIF...and I wanted it to go with the grape jelly!)
24 boxes of Kraft Mac 'n Cheese (sometimes we can get it here, but it is almost $5 a box)
4 different kinds of Gerber baby snacks
3 bags of mini-marshmallows (there is a type of marshmallow here, but they're disgusting)
5 lb bag of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chips
1 enormous bag of Chex Mix (like almost 3 lbs)
4 lb box of Goldfish

Additionally, they threw in a few extra treats:

10 sleeves of Oreo cookies (we can get them here sometimes, but they are not produced in the US and have a funny taste)
2 bags of Swedish Fish
2 bags of Halloween candy corn
2 bags of Dark Chocolate Flipz (that's chocolate covered pretzels)
Halloween presents for the kids: a new Dora DVD and stickers; a Halloween onesie and teething book

It was a joy to open this box with Grace; she kept saying, "This is for me!" and wanted the Cheerios and marshmallows right away. I planned to take a picture of everything unpacked, but then we just started eating and I never got around to it. The Cheerios, PB & J, mac 'n cheese, and marshmallows have been opened and the Flipz are long gone! Noah picked up and fed himself Cheerios for the first time on Saturday.

Now you have an idea of the crazy things that expats miss from the US. And, just to clarify that we do not have the world's worst diet, we do get and eat a lot of healthy food here (fruit, veggies, brown rice, etc.) so it is really just the junk from home that we especially miss (and by "we", I mean ME). The two healthy foods that we can't get here and greatly miss are edamame and portobello mushrooms. If someone can find a way to ship us some of those, we'll have it made!

LMW

September 25, 2011 - Tillykke Med Fødselsdagen, Far!

2011-09-25T14:24:00.001+03:00

So far it has been a great day to celebrate Kristoffer's (34th) birthday!

We went to the Windsor Country Club for swimming in the morning - it was Noah's first time! - and a nice lunch before taking two sleepy kids home.

Kristoffer will play squash late this afternoon and we'll get Ethiopian for dinner (one of his favorites!). Thanks to Nairobi for warming up for a nice summer Sunday!

Happy birthday, Kristoffer - we really love you!

LMW

September 24, 2011 - A Nairobi Birthday Party

2011-09-24T20:26:00.000+03:00

We went to a third birthday party for one of Grace's friends and classmates today. It was really lovely and we were happy to celebrate Jesse, who is a really nice little boy.

There was face painting (birthday boy, Jesse, on the left).

There was a puppet show.

(for some reason Grace wanted to stand for the puppet show!)

There was girls against boys tug of war (with a little help from some parents...).

There was a bouncy castle.

These two shots are my favorites - even though they are blurry - because they show Grace with her "best friend" Andrew (who had a birthday party two weeks ago, but we forgot the camera!).

Grace was very well-behaved at the party and seemed much more comfortable than she has been at parties in the past. After a somewhat challenging week with her, it was really nice to see her play and socialize and be happy. Kristoffer captured some sweet shots when she was in the bouncy castle by herself.

There was also yummy food and cupcakes, nice friends, great weather, and lots of cute kids. It was a great afternoon!

LMW

September 23, 2011 - Reminder: Followers for Food

2011-09-23T19:10:00.001+03:00

We started September with 16 followers of our blog and are now up to 66: great job!

Kristoffer doesn't think we can get to 100 followers in the next week, but I am still hopeful. If you, or someone you know who likes our blog, have not yet become an official follower, now is your chance! For every new follower we have by the end of September we will donate $1 towards WFP's famine relief here in East Africa.

AND...if we hit the magic number of 100 followers, we'll donate $2 each!!

So, either click on the word Follow in the upper left corner of the screen OR click to the right where it says Join this Site.

Help us make a difference, today!

LMW

September 22, 2011 - Eight is Enough

2011-09-22T14:04:00.000+03:00

Last night, Noah had his BEST NIGHT OF SLEEP in his entire life. The previous three nights included about two hours of crying each because we are trying to teach him that when he wakes up at night he can put himself back to sleep without nursing. Our struggle paid off last night when he slept for 9 straight hours, from 7 pm to 4 am. I nursed him then and he slept two more hours. A huge success for us and while I think it comes about 2 months late: better late than never. We had had some success sleep-training Noah around 6 months old but when he got really sick his sleep patterns were disrupted, of course, and we have not had much success training him again before now (some of that due to our own inconsistency). But for two nights in a row he put himself to sleep at bed time with no crying at all, and then last night he just slept and slept and slept!

I wonder if it is because he is now eight months old?! At Noah's check up this morning, Dr. Nesbitt was very pleased with his overall health and development.

Weight: 8.26 kg/18.2 lb = 25th percentile
Height: 71 cm/27.9 in = just above 50th percentile
Head Circumference: 45.1 cm/17.75 in = almost 75th percentile

While we thought he might weigh even more, the important thing is that he has been on the same weight curve for a few months and has gained back the weight he lost when he was sick (and then some). If he turns out to be tall and slim, we'll know where he gets it!

Noah is crawling all over the place. He can pull up to his knees and is trying to pull up to standing but doesn't quite have the strength yet. He loves to hold our fingers and walk around. Of great frustration to Grace is the fact that he wants to be near her and playing with her at all times. He still loves things that make music or noise. He seems more interested in reading books than he used to be (although can't sit still for long!). He loves the song "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands..." He is a bit shy with strangers, but continues to love his girlfriend Rose. He is curious about what he sees and hears, and continues to experience the world by putting everything possible in his mouth. He eats solid food 4-5 times a day - seems to love bananas right now, but new foods in the last few weeks have been white fish, spinach and prunes. He makes a lot of noise, but nothing "official" like "mama" just yet (working on that!). While he is usually happy sitting at the table with us, for the last two days he HATES being put into his chair. He contorts his body in all kinds of ways to prevent us from sitting him down! Kristoffer maintains that Noah is an old soul; he seems to pick up on our moods and adapt to us; he seems to be sweet and somehow "in the know" quite often. He loves it when we are having a dance party :)

Did I mention that he slept for 9 hours straight last night?

Noah is at an age where he is growing so rapidly, expanding his skills and understanding everyday. He is almost always happy or happy-ish. It is pretty rare for him to be crying during the day, unless he is somehow injured (have you read about the bully in our house?). He has the most charming belly laugh and still smiles with his whole face. I think he is at a sweet, cute, fun age (although increasingly high maintenance because: WOW he can move fast now!) and I would be OK if we froze time a bit so we could enjoy it a little longer. Let's hope nine months takes awhile to get here (because this past month went by way too fast)!

LMW

September 20, 2011 - Not Fast Enough

2011-09-20T22:06:00.003+03:00

Many Kenyans walk to and from work, some for more than one hour each way. Pick-up trucks or other open vehicles are kind of a wild card. If Kenyans are walking and a pick up truck passes them in slow traffic, many will use the opportunity to jump in the back and get a quick, free ride home.

Today I saw two men walking while we were driving in slow traffic behind a pick-up. The two men started running for it. Five or six guys who were already sitting in the back of the truck were cheering them on. The younger of the two men managed to run up and jump in…but the other guy was maybe in this late forties…and he ran all the way until just a few feet behind the truck…but as he got closer we reached a hill and the traffic picked up….tough.

September 18, 2011 - There's a New Bully in Town

2011-09-18T20:20:00.001+03:00

Yesterday was "Family Fun Day" at Grace's school, which included playing some games together and an international potluck lunch. It was nice to socialize with the families that we know and to meet some new families as well. The camera battery died, so I don't have any good pictures :( But it was a really lovely little event.

The most interesting part of the day was talking to Grace's teacher, who informed me that Grace is now HITTING OTHER CHILDREN in her class and sat in "time out" on Friday for the first time. Ugh. Just a few months after she was nervous to go to school because there was a boy picking on her, she is now the bully!

I was not surprised to hear this news, because she is really challenging us at home these days: disobeying us, hitting Noah, stealing Noah's toys, purposely going "pee pee" when she is put in "time out", and the like. The hitting actually started when Noah was born (doesn't take a psychologist to figure that one out) and got better for quite a few months, but seems to have flared up again lately. We thought: as long as it is just at home, then we know why and will continue to deal with it (using time outs, rewards, etc.). But now the hitting has spread, and so on our "date night" last night we spent some time discussing strategies for improving her behavior (don't worry, we talked about non-child-related things too).

We also made a big deal of talking to the parents of her friend who she was hitting on Friday (she seems to confess her crimes so even though at school they've only seen her hit one child, I'm pretty sure there have been others). Luckily, they are friends of ours and have a much older daughter too, so they aren't freaking out about it. But, I remember from when Grace was being hit and pushed that I was disappointed that his mother never reacted when the teacher told her what happened, and never let us know that they were addressing the issue at home. So we DEFINITELY wanted our friends to know that we're taking the issue seriously.

Some degree of hitting is normal in toddlers and a lot of Grace's behavior might be standard two-year-old stuff - or at least the books and websites I'm reading say so - but of course we don't want her to be a hitter! What concerns us is that a lot of children hit because they don't have the words to express themselves, which is definitely not the case with Grace. She has a lot of words and expressions - in two languages! So now we're trying to focus on positive reinforcement, pre-empting the hitting when we see it coming, and making sure we are consistent with her consequences for bad behavior. We're also trying to get away from teaching her to just "say sorry" because we're finding that she does it without really meaning it or without changing her behavior.

When I put Grace to bed tonight I asked her what she was going to do at school tomorrow and she said, "Ride a horse." (that's true, they do that on Mondays) Then I asked her if she was going to play nice and she said, "I will hit Isa." (which, of course, led to a much longer conversation!) AHHHHHH! Looks like we're in for an interesting week!

LMW

September 16, 2011 - Yay for DK!

2011-09-16T08:21:00.000+03:00

Out with the old and in with the new! Congratulations to Denmark on a fantastic and historic election! A female Prime Minister - woo hoo ! Kristoffer is still away but I just KNOW that he is beaming :)

Read about it here!

LMW

September 15, 2011 - A Story of Hope

2011-09-15T07:01:00.000+03:00

Nicholas D. Kristof is a New York Times journalist who recently visited Kenya, I think primarily to report on the Dadaab Refugee Camp (where Kristoffer is right now, actually). It is the largest refugee camp in the world and receives hundreds of Somalis everyday. But today his column is about the challenges faced by Kenyan women (and probably many other African women, as well) and the story of one woman's way out of poverty. It is an inspiring story.

Kenya has been in the news a lot lately, for two very sad reasons as I wrote about before, so it is nice to find a story of hope in the mix as well.

LMW

September 14, 2011 - Little Drummer Boy

2011-09-14T07:00:00.000+03:00

OUR FINEST GIFTS WE BRING, PA RUM PUM PUM PUM.

Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum, on my drum?

Then he smiles at me, pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum.

LMW

p.s. Now he can take this show on the road; he crawled forward last night for the first time, while on Skype with Farmor and Hans!

September 13, 2011 - Sad News in Nairobi

2011-09-13T08:52:00.000+03:00

We woke up this morning to several emails checking on our safety. Thank you so much - we and everyone we know are fine. The fire in Nairobi which you've heard about in the international news was caused by a leaking fuel pipeline; hundreds of people rushed to the leak with jerricans to collect free fuel and it is unknown whether a flicked cigarette or embers from burning trash caused the explosion. Over a hundred people died with just as many severly injured. You can read more about it here if you are interested. Since we have lived here this is the second time a major oil fire took place; in 2009 an oil tanker overturned, which again brought hundreds of people to collect the fuel. The truck then exploded, killing 113 people.

Kenya also took a hit on Sunday when a boat full of Somali boatmen kidnapped a British couple from the luxury resort on the coast just south of the Somali border. The man was killed and the woman was kidnapped; unfortunately, she has not been found yet.

All of this amidst the worst drought in the last 60 years in Northern Kenya and Somalia. I think the country is ready for a break.

LMW

September 13, 2011 - Not Noah's Ark

2011-09-13T07:40:00.009+03:00

Kristoffer (and Grace...in theory) built this big Lego ship over the weekend. Then Grace filled it with all of her Lego animals, many of which are in duplicate (so two cats, two dogs, two penguins, two baby polar bears, etc.). When I said something like, "Oh look! You built Noah's Ark!" I was immediately corrected, "This is NOT Noah's Ark!" I tried to remind her of the Noah's Ark story, which we have read often, and that I didn't mean the ark belonged to her brother (God forbid!). Still she insisted, "This is NOT Noah's Ark!"

But you see the resemblance, don't you? Although maybe she is right...I don't think the original ark was built with a giant cupholder for "special milk."

LMW

September 12, 2011 - Remembering a Hungry Childhood

2011-09-12T06:20:00.000+03:00

This opinion piece, reposted below from The New York Times, is written by a Kenyan man who comes from Charles' tribe and his region of Kenya. It is a reminder to us of how serious things are in this part of Africa right now. It is a reminder that we all must do what we can to stop hunger, what Kimeu calls the "unforgiveable disease". LMW

OPINION

Remembering a Hungry Childhood

By PETER KIMEU

Published: September 10, 2011

Peter Kimeu is a small-scale farmer in Machakos, Kenya, and a technical adviser for Catholic Relief Services, a humanitarian organization.

Enlarge This Image

Matt Rota

Machakos, Kenya

DROUGHTS are cyclical in Kenya. Before, they came every 10 years, but now they seem to be hitting us more often and for longer periods of time. My community remembers events and birthdays by times of hunger. We give the droughts names: “longoza” was the drought when many animals died; there was the drought of the “planes” because food was dropped from the air by planes, and one particularly bad drought was called “man who dies with money in his fist,” because, even if there was money, there was simply no food to purchase.

I was born in 1951 in Machakos. From what my mother tells me, that year there was a serious drought. My sister was born in 1961, and I clearly remember the terrible weather and the prevailing hunger throughout the region. I can’t tell you how many times I went to bed without eating. “I slept like that,” is how we described it, which means we went to bed with nothing to eat. I can’t count the number of days when “I slept like that,” or describe the feeling of going to sleep hungry knowing I’d wake up and there would still be no food for breakfast.

Hunger is an unforgivable disease because it is the easiest one to cure. It is devastating to wake up in the morning and look east, west, south and north and see that there is nothing green that you can chew. During a drought everything goes yellow and dry. I would walk the roads and search the ground to see if someone had spat out a bit of chewed-up sugar cane. I am not ashamed to say that I would re-chew what I would find.

Hunger is dehumanizing. It gets to a level where you do not know how you will survive and you will do anything for a simple kernel of corn.

The thing about drought is that it does not just affect farmers and their crops; it affects everyone. If you think about it, during harvest time farmers hire local farmhands to help with their crops. But when there are no crops to harvest, not only does the farmer lose his or her income, so do the laborers the farmer would have hired. There is a ripple effect that affects the whole community. Few have food and even fewer have money to buy food.

My parents did everything they could to feed us. My father would leave early in the morning carrying a little basket to beg for food or ask for food on credit. Each night he would return home around 10 p.m. My mother, after a fruitless day attempting to find food, would try to encourage us by telling me to keep the water in our pot boiling so that when my father arrived we could quickly cook any food he brought in the already prepared water.

I would keep the fire burning and the water boiling. As the hours passed I would watch the water level slowly go down, along with the hopes that we would eat that night. More often than not, however, my father would arrive frustrated and empty-handed. And I would sleep like that.

It is a traumatizing situation as a young child to be without food. You see the fear in the faces of your mother and father, despairing that they cannot feed their children. You feel afraid, too, because your parents can’t provide for you. Your stomach is so empty that even when you are thirsty and you take water it makes you dizzy. You get so nauseated your body wants to vomit, but you haven’t eaten. I think about this now as East Africa faces another drought. I think about all the children who are suffering as I did. We see terrible images of hunger, but I fear that we have not yet seen the worst.

We are experiencing really serious stress. At the moment, the magnitude of the hunger facing Kenya is not well known.

It is incumbent on all of us to band together and fight this very curable disease. No child on earth should ever have to sleep like that.

September 11, 2011 - 14 Cows for America

2011-09-11T21:48:00.001+03:00

I have been thinking for a couple of days about what I wanted to write on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I kept coming up blank because really, what could I possibly say that would be significant enough? I have the same emotions of sadness and fear and loss that most other people have about that day; I worked next to Ground Zero for four years, walked by it every day, looked down into it from my classroom. But everyone has a story or connection to that day, so what could I share that would be meaningful at all?

Then just as I was about to shut down the laptop tonight and go to sleep, a former colleague of mine posted this story on her facebook, about a young Masai man from Kenya who desperately felt that he wanted to do something for America after 9/11, because of all that America had done for him. And he did find a way to gift America what the Masai value most: a cow.

Because I live in Kenya, because I feel at least a little bit close to the Masai (because Rose is Masai), and because today is 9/11... I think it is the perfect story to share.

It is a long article to read, but very worthwhile. Especially on a day when you really want to find all the goodness you can in this world; there is goodness here. The first quote you see on that website reads:

"Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort."

LMW

September 9, 2011 - Staff Stories

2011-09-09T18:04:00.000+03:00

I haven’t written about our staff in a long time; that is a good thing because it means I have nothing to complain about, right?

Things with Charles have been good, although because of the drought and rising food prices, he has not had very much business for his stoves. Some of Kristoffer’s colleagues have bought stoves from him, but mostly times are tough and Kenyans are not buying non-essential items. There was an incident at his home when one of his neighbors cut down a huge tree that Charles’ father (who is deceased) had planted many years ago. When Charles found out about it he brought the issue to the elders of his tribe and there was a hearing with the Chief. Everyone agreed that the tree belonged to Charles’ family and so the man had to pay Charles’ mother for the tree (equal to about $500). That was a significant amount of money for her to receive and she really wanted to buy a piece of land. So now Charles’ family has new land on which they can grow food. His wife is back at school for the last term of 2011 and his son is waiting for the teacher’s strike in the country to end so he can go back to school as well. He seems happy and yesterday Grace told him, “I want to talk to you, Charles! Don’t go away!” That really made his day.

Rose is wonderful and I like to call her Noah’s Girlfriend because he really loves her. He is at an age where he is a bit awkward with other people – separation anxiety and all that – but he is almost always happy when he is with Rose. She had a death in her family a little while ago, her uncle passed away, and just this week her cousin committed suicide after finding out he was HIV+. Of course we are sorry for her at these times, but she continues to work hard at our house and we can’t remember what we ever did without her here.

Syprose is another story. She is a good cook (despite the Kenyan way of using way too much oil in her food) and we appreciate the arrangement we have where she comes one day a week to make 6 meals that we can freeze and eat throughout the week. Aside from this, though, she drives us kind of crazy. She is extremely loud and we often think the things she says to Grace and Noah are inappropriate. She is also very slow. One day when Rose was gone for her uncle’s funeral, Syprose finished all her work almost 3 hours earlier than other days because she is talking to Rose so much. But alas, it is time consuming to cook and wash dishes here, so I am grateful for her help.

This week there was a conflict between Syprose and Rose and, of course, I’ve heard 3 different versions of the story.

Rose’s version: She was in her room having her break when Syprose came screaming at her accusing her of turning off the oven and ruining the food and threatening to tell “Madame” (that’s me). Rose showed her that she hadn’t touched the oven and that Syrpose had just forgotten to turn the knob all the way to be on. Syprose apologized, but Rose was somewhat devastated (she had also just found out about her cousin) and cried for a long time.

Charles’ version: He had to calm both ladies down because they were so worked up. He says that they joke around too much and this is what happens; one day, somebody doesn’t think the joke is funny and maybe Syprose was a little mean to Rose, who is a person who never wants to do the wrong thing and takes her job very seriously. He said Rose was sobbing and he had never seen her so upset.

Syprose’s version: She was just kidding around with Rose, never yelled or screamed, and didn’t understand why Rose was so upset. But she apologized to her a lot because Rose got her the job with us (and I have since gotten her several other jobs) and was very helpful when Syprose’s mother died and so she was sorry that she got Rose so upset. But still she was just kidding and Rose shouldn’t have taken it so seriously.

In the end, Rose’s happiness working here means more to us than Syprose’s cooking, so should another incident occur that makes Rose uncomfortable we would let Syprose go. Without saying that exactly, I told Syprose that I think she should be more careful with Rose’s feelings and that we are cautious about the way we talk to each other in our house because it is very important for everyone to feel comfortable. I told her I was disappointed to hear about what happened, and she did apologize to me saying that she would not do anything like that again and that she would apologize to Rose again because she is a very good friend.

It was an awkward conversation to have with Syprose, but I’m happy I did it. Add another notch to my belt of managing staff at home. And hopefully Rose feels okay about it when she is back on Monday. When it comes to our staff, I definitely prefer “no news is good news”!

LMW

September 8, 2011 - Comfort Items

2011-09-08T06:58:00.003+03:00

When Kristoffer read my "Phases" blog, we started talking and laughing about Grace's comfort items that she keeps in her bed pretty much at all times. She can always tell you exactly which of these items is missing, if any. She is very particular about these items, but we can't quite figure out her selection criteria or why some things make the cut and others don't. In her bed right now are:

2 taggies
a book about the sun and moon that came with her night-lite
the instructional manual for setting the clock on her night-lite
Dr. Seuss' mini-ABC book
her family book (with pictures of everyone in our family)
4 individual pages of animal pictures from a book that she destroyed a long time ago
2 pillows
1 blanket that my mom made her
1 duvet
her Dora beanie baby doll
her baby doll from when she was newborn (a beanie baby doll named Simba)
her lamb stuffed animal
a musical stuffed cloud (from Tina; technically Noah's)
2 Lego sheep
6 spoons
one pair of tiny, pink baby shoes from when she was a baby
1 sippy cup of water

I think soon we'll need to get her a bigger bed!

LMW

September 7, 2011 - Followers for Food

2011-09-07T07:43:00.046+03:00

In an effort to enhance my status as a blogger, as well as the possibility of pursuing external writing opportunities in the future, I am asking something of YOU, person-reading-the-blog-right-now:

If you like Life in Nairobi enough to read it somewhat regularly, would you please be so kind as to officially become a Follower of this blog?

All you have to do is click to the right where it says Join This Site. You need to have a Google, Twitter or Yahoo account to do it...but you have that, right? It will give you these options:

I would appreciate it if you would publicly follow the blog - that's like telling the world: this blog is not lame and I am not ashamed to read it! - but if you would prefer to keep it to yourself, it's OK to follow us privately too. I don't think there is any pain, cost or annoying harrassment related to being a Follower, so please do it!

AND....as an extra incentive...for every new Follower the blog has by the end of September we will make a donation to WFP for famine relief in the Horn of Africa*. So you can follow our blog AND do something good for the world. Get to it!

Also stay tuned for some new elements coming to the blog as I try to update and improve it!

Thank you for your readership!
LMW

*there are currently 16 followers, so anything over that will add to the donation we give WFP. We will hope to donate at least $1 per follower.

September 6, 2011 - Back to School

2011-09-06T10:19:00.002+03:00

This little girl went back to school today for her second year at Kyuna Kindergarten.

A little secret about Grace is that she is actually very shy when she isn't at home with just us. So she was totally silent and stone-faced when we got to her new classroom with her new teacher, Mrs. Wanyaga (from now on called Mrs. W), and even when she saw many familiar faces from her class last year (Look, there's Isa! Andrew! Matias! Jesse! Hawi! Patrick! Yama! Emmanuel!). Eventually she gave her "old friends" some high fives but she didn't really relax until I suggested we go back to her old classroom to give Ms. Mbata a big hug. You could see the tension drain from her body when she walked into her old room. She was so happy to hug Ms. Mbata and Miss Lucy and told them, "I'm wearing big girl underwear!" Ms. Mbata told Grace she looked forward to seeing her outside for play time and I think that really made Grace's day. When we went to her new classroom again she told her new assistant, Miss Alice, that she had to go pee-pee on the potty and happily went off to the toilet with her. She didn't even cry when I hugged her goodbye (and, surprisingly, neither did I!).

Grace woke up at 5:15 today so I warned Mrs. W that she might be a little sleepy during their whole-school assembly this morning. But here's hoping she has a great day back to school with her new teacher and many friends, both old and new.

And when Grace is at school in the mornings now, I hope to get a little more one-on-one time with this guy (Unless he's napping, of course, in which case I guess I'll have to have some time for myself. Twist my arm!):

LMW

September 5, 2011 - Phases

2011-09-05T12:52:00.000+03:00

All kids go through different phases at different times and, because they are unpredictable, it is an interesting part of parenthood to see what/when those phases are.

For instance, right now Grace is in a "spoons" phase, where she likes to carry around many different baby spoons at the same time. She finds ways to use them in her play, gives Noah lectures on why he can't use them, and sleeps with them in her bed. Today she brought 4 spoons with us to the store to buy more potty-training-reward-chocolate and bird seed for our feeder. She is now taking a nap - thank God (she's been up since 5 am) - with 6 spoons.

For the last few weeks Noah is stuck in the "almost crawling" phase, which seems increasingly frustrating for him. He can do everything except move his arms the right way and isn't happy about it. He is also in a "who wants to sleep through the night?" phase, of which I am not particularly a fan.

Not quite a phase, but definitely new to Noah, is sign language. Sometime before Grace was one she had mastered about 5 or 6 signs for communicating with us (I was never committed enough to do more than that, although I think it's wonderful, and because she could talk early I didn't feel like she needed more than that). I can't remember if she could do any of them this early, but they were all done, more, water, milk, eat, thank you/tak for mad.

We realized yesterday that Noah had started to do the sign for "milk" (usually when nursing or eating solid food). So now I've upped my game and am trying to use all of those other signs more regularly so he can learn them sooner.

As I said, these phases are a pretty great part of parenting and I look forward to seeing what phases come next for each of them. Fingers crossed for a "sleeping longer than 2 1/2 hour stretches at night" phase for Noah and a "I'm no longer going to scare Mama half-to-death during the night by standing next to her bed staring at her until she wakes up" phase for Grace.

LMW

September 4, 2011 - The Pomegranate Incident of 2011

2011-09-04T20:02:00.004+03:00

This blog could also be titled, "My Love/Hate Relationship with Nakumatt".

In case you don't know, Nakumatt is the largest supermarket chain in Kenya. It sells everything from groceries to appliances to cosmetics to books to furniture and more. It is basically like a Kenyan Walmart, except it is an expensive store, catering to middle class and wealthy Kenyans, as well as the expat community. And really, the "love" part of my relationship with Nakumatt is that it does, in fact, have a lot of things that I need or want to buy, including imported goods like Bisquick (pancake mix) and (as you will read below) pomegranate. The "hate" part of my relationship stems from a number of "incidents" regarding their policies and procedures or staff. I can't think of any expat I know who completely loves Nakumatt, because if you shop there regularly (or maybe even once!) you are bound to be frustrated by something or someone at some point. Rose even told me that her previous employer said that the thing she would miss the least about Kenya was Nakumatt! So anyway...

Some of the "incidents" I've had at (or issues I've had with) Nakumatt are:

you pay a deposit on your 20 liter plastic water bottles and when you return the bottles, they give you store credit. BUT they won't let you use your store credit for anything other than more 20 liter water bottles AND the water bottles have to be the SAME BRAND that you bought before. So if you don't ever want to buy more water bottles they won't let you spend your credit AND if the water bottles you bought before are currently out of stock THEY WILL NOT LET YOU use your store credit to buy a different brand of water! I have argued with various staff about this policy many, many times. I can feel my blood boiling just writing about it. IT IS STORE CREDIT! JUST MONEY! DOESN'T MATTER WHAT I USE IT FOR! IT'S ALL THE SAME TO YOU! The last time I fought this battle was two days before Noah was born, when I pretty much threatened the manager that I would give birth in the checkout aisle if they didn't let me use my credit for diapers. It was not pretty (and Charles was waiting to take the shopping cart to the car and was SOOOO embarrassed I'm sure to be seen with the crazy, pregnant, mzungu Mama who was yelling at everyone).

they price their cheese at the deli per 100 grams but they will almost never let you actually buy 100 grams of cheese! I have had more than one fight with people who work at the deli when I've wanted to buy 100 grams of a particular cheese and they will say, "I can't cut it that small..." or "it's already cut and priced at 200 grams..." Ok, that's fine: BUT THEN DON'T PRICE IT PER 100 GRAMS! I can't even tell you how annoyed it makes me that they want me to buy more than I need, particularly because imported cheese is sooooo expensive in the first place, which my father learned when...

one day he asked for a few slices of turkey at the deli. They gave it to him. He came home. I discovered, when I went to make a turkey sandwich, that they had put someone else's price sticker for (more than 100 grams of) imported cheese on his turkey package because he paid the equivalent of $20 for his turkey. Lucky for the person who went home paying about $3 for their huge block of cheese!

the people who are "experts" in a particular section almost never actually know what is in their section, where it is in their section, or what the heck you are looking for. I know Kristoffer's mom has been sent on a wild goose chase for something that they didn't even sell in the store, because people kept telling her it was in a different section.

Lately, though, I've been a pretty efficient Nakumatt shopper and aside from the occasional cheese fight have not had anything new to complain about. Until today.

Grace and Noah fell asleep on our way to run some errands, but Kristoffer and I managed to get what we needed at Nakumatt pretty quickly (Noah in his car seat, Grace in Kristoffer's arms), which included one pomegranate. Pomegranates are imported here but have been "out of season" or something because we haven't seen any in about half a year. Today we saw some! And because we like them a lot and Grace is excellent at getting out those delicious little seeds, we bought one (even though they are pricey).

When the cashier had scanned everything, I noticed that the pomegranate was even more expensive than I expected. I mentioned the price to Kristoffer, who said it shouldn't be that much. Sure enough, the sticker on the pomegranate was less than the price in the computer. The cashier at first didn't understand my polite question: "Shouldn't the pomegranate be Ksh 265 instead of Ksh 318?" He seemed puzzled and then mentioned something about it not being his fault. Riiiiight, I don't care whose fault it is, I just want the price on the pomegranate. So he had to call someone else to go back to the produce section and check the price. That guy came back saying the Ksh. 265 price was right. The register guy didn't know how to fix it because the computer is in charge and said the price was Ksh 318. So he had to call someone from the produce section to come look at the computer. She also said that the Ksh price was correct but nobody knew what to do or how to fix the problem. The register guy mentioned that it wasn't his fault, it was produce's fault that the price was scanning incorrectly. Again, I didn't really care about the blame - I just wanted to buy the pomegranate (and yes, all of this over 53-freaking-shillings).

So I asked him something like: "Can't you override it and manually put in the correct price?"

To which he replied: "No, I can't fix it."

My next question: "So, I can either pay too much for the pomegranate or not buy it at all?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Paying the actual correct price of the pomegranate is not an option?"

Him: "Right."

Me: "Wow, that's a great way to lose a lot of business."

During this time, Grace woke up and needed to go to the bathroom, Kristoffer took the other groceries to the car, and the Dutch guy behind me in line was encouraging me to just steal the damn pomegranate. I ended up asking the register guy to just take the pomegranate off my bill because my 2-year-old needed to go pee-pee on the potty. He had to get a manager to do it, OF COURSE, so we were still waiting; when Kristoffer came back I left him to pay for the other groceries while I took Grace to the potty (and, sadly, she had an accident just before we got there, thank you very much, stupid register guy). And I wonder how much money Nakumatt makes when stuff like that happens and people aren't watching carefully as their items go through the scanner. Seems like a gold-mine to me!

We came home without a pomegranate, sigh, but with another reason why, like Rose's previous boss, I too will probably not miss Nakumatt in our next life.

LMW

September 2, 2011 - Overheard

2011-09-02T07:00:00.006+03:00

Monday afternoon. 4:45 pm. I'm getting dinner. Kristoffer is on his way home. Grace and Noah are playing with Rose in the living room. This is what I hear from the kitchen.

Grace: Here, Noah. This is a toy for you. Do you want to play with it?

Noah: ---

Grace: I'm asking, do you want to play with this toy?

Noah: ---

Grace: Noah, you have to say "yes" or "no".

Noah: ---

Grace: Or do you want me to play with it?

Noah: ---

Grace: I'll count to five. One - Two - Three - Four - Five. Okay, I think this toy is for me.

Rose: Grace, what happens when Noah can talk?

Grace: --- --- --- I think he can want to share his toys with me.

I can't even tell you how much I look forward to hearing more conversations between these two. Especially, when they aren't so one-sided!

LMW

September 1, 2011 - Happy Birth-day!

2011-09-01T12:24:00.000+03:00

Welcome to the world

Zoe Elizabeth Phelps!

August 31, 2011 11:38 am

8 lbs 11 oz

21 3/4 inches

Congratulations to Christine and Kevin!

We can't wait to meet Zoe!

Love,

Auntie Lisa, Uncle Kristoffer, Grace & Noah

August 30, 2011 - Progress?

2011-08-30T06:09:00.036+03:00

Sometime during our first year in Kenya, we saw lane lines being painted on the road. By hand.

Almost four years later, we saw lane lines being painted on the road again this past weekend. With a sprayer (takes less time to do and might even last longer)!

So maybe that is not the greatest technology in the world, but it IS a technological improvement and is also just one small sign of the development happening in Nairobi right now. A huge highway bypass system is being constructed, parts of it already in use, along with more office buildings, apartment buildings and housing compounds than we can count. Roads are being improved (at least somewhat; some of K's colleagues used to commute for 90 minutes to get to work and now it only takes 30 minutes, which frees up 2 hours of their day to either be productive at work or spend with their families) and lighting for night time driving is also better. One of the newest and definitely fanciest malls just opened a KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) and a Yogurt Planet (which I think is a little slice of heaven). Since we moved here, Kenya has also established itself as a world leader in mobile phone technology and banking (see M-Pesa or this article or this article) and is far more advanced than the US and Europe. Kristoffer is even using this technology in many of his development projects at WFP. At Nairobi's biggest (only) toy store chain, you can now get many high-end toys from the US (if you are willing to pay three or four times the American price).

Grow grow grow. Develop develop develop. Progress progress progress.

It's great.

But...

The problem with all of this development, as I see it, is that it targets the middle and upper classes - including a large population of financially stable expats (guilty as charged) - BUT it neglects the poorest and most disenfranchised members of Kenyan society, including those 3 million or so people who are currently starving. I suppose that is not all that different than in any other country where there are rich and poor populations, it is just that for some reason it seems even more criminal in this context. The poor here are a type of poor and a type of hungry that you and I can't even possibly imagine (and when I write that I am remembering a time in NYC when a homeless man was begging for change, and I offered him half of a sesame bagel with cream cheese and tomato that I hadn't touched and he turned it down because he didn't like sesame seeds).

So yay for Nairobi: grow! develop! progress! But boo for Kenya: start taking care of ALL of your people (and a new social movement called Kenyans for Kenya is requesting the same). In a country that has as much wealth as Kenya has (much of it in the pockets of just a few people I believe), there should be a focus on helping all Kenyans put food in their mouths and not on bringing an expensive American fast-food chain to the mouths of a few. Progress is great, but let's get our priorities straight first.

LMW

August 29, 2011 - The Car in Front

2011-08-29T07:39:00.015+03:00

On Saturday we were out driving with the kids and I saw a model of Toyota that I had never seen or heard of before. That led to a discussion about how many different Toyota models there are in Kenya (I said 50 - of course because I tend to exaggerate - and Kristoffer said 20 - thinking that maybe that was even too high). The discussion led to us making a list of every kind of Toyota model we saw while out and about that day. There were 40 different kinds of Toyotas in all - so I wasn't that far off, and Kristoffer was (note: I really like winning these types of bets). We often see cars that have spare tire covers with the slogan "The Car in Front is ALWAYS a Toyota"...and in Kenya, that is almost always true! How many of these models have you heard of in the country where you live?

Allion

Caldina

Carina

Coroa

Corolla

Corolla (a different model - didn't get the name)

Estima

Fielder

Fortuner

Hilux (truck)

Hilux (SUV)

Ipsum

Landcruiser (there are actually quite a few different kinds of these)

Landcruiser Prado

Lithace

Lucida

Mark II

Nadia

Noah

Opa

Platz

Premio

Probox

Pruis

Rav4

Runx

Sienta

Spacio

Sprinter

Sprinter (a different model - didn't get the name)
Townace

Unidentified Toyota Matatu

Unidentified Toyota Truck #1

Unidentified Toyota Truck #2

Unidentified Toyota Truck #3

Unidentified Toyota Truck #4

Unidentified Toyota Truck #5

Vitz

Voxy

Wish

That's a lot of Toyotas! And, for the record, we love our Toyota Ipsum :)
LMW

August 28, 2011 - Too Close to Home

2011-08-28T07:48:00.045+03:00

On Friday, the UN in Abuja, Nigeria was attacked by a suicide bomber. Information about casualties and deaths is not final yet, but needless to say it is a horrible tragedy and many UN staff members lost their lives. I know that horrible tragedies happen all over the world everyday and that a lot of people live with suicide bombers and terrorist attacks on a regular basis. But, when something like this happens - on a UN compound - I have a bit of a "Oh my God! Why do we live here? Why does he work there?" moment.

It happened at a UN compound in Somalia when I was pregnant with Grace. We had not yet lived here a year. I was in Nairobi and Kristoffer was in Uganda for a conference; I couldn't get in touch with him and had a completely irrational panic attack [note, in case you need to brush up on your African geography - neither one of us was anywhere near to being anywhere close to being even in the same country as the bombing]. I was almost hyperventilating and my UNICEF colleagues had to calm me down - fearing an early labor or something I'm sure!

It happened again on Friday, although to a smaller degree. I just started having visions in my head of a bombing at the UN here in Nairobi. How will I know? How will I get in touch with Kristoffer? How will I tell our families? What will I do if I am alone in this country and I need to get to some "family crisis response center"? What if I am at the UN to do some banking when it happens? What if Kristoffer is not even on the compound at the time but I can't reach him to be sure? As you can see, I have a hard time stopping my "what ifs" from spiraling out of control.

It also happens if, for some reason, I don't hear from Kristoffer during the work day at all (usually we text) or if I try to get in touch with him and can't. One time both he and Charles happened to have the ringers on their phones off and I was trying to reach one of them. I feared, of course, that there was some kind of attack at the UN just as Charles was picking Kristoffer up from work.

Most of the time, I don't allow these thoughts to consume me and I am happy with our life. Terrorist attacks happen, as we know, even in the US and Europe. We simply can't stop living our life out of fear or, of course, the terrorists win. We are still more likely to die in a car crash than in a terrorist attack, but it's not like we don't get into our car everyday. But I do live here - a place that is mostly fine but also has a dark side that we don't like to write too much about - and we don't have a huge network of people who would be able to help us in a major emergency, particularly if they were also dealing with that same emergency (as most of our friends here would probably be). I feel like there is a small percentage of my brain and heart that is constantly worrying/thinking about our security. I am not always aware of it, but it is always working in the background.

So, it's really just that the news of Friday's bombing hit a little too close to home for me. As usual, I pray for the UN staff who lost their colleagues, the families who are grieving and the Nigerian community that has to rebuild. And I pray that we are never in that situation. I pray.

LMW

August 27, 2011 - Easy Target

2011-08-27T07:41:00.000+03:00

On Thursday night I met two of my friends for dinner (yay for me!). I took a taxi to get there after the kids were in bed and while stopped at a roundabout, we got hit from behind. There was no damage to the car and thankfully not much damage to my neck (which I feared big time because I definitely jerked forward quite a bit and I have had whiplash before) BUT the reason for the crash is quite interesting. In the car behind us, the driver was talking on his cell phone with his window rolled down...and a man just walking by (yes, Kenyans walk on the highway) grabbed the driver's cell phone out of his hand and ran away into the night. So the driver got really flustered and didn't stop, obviously, when he got close to the taxi I was in. What have we learned from this? When in Nairobi, do not a) talk on the phone while driving - seriously, drivers are crazy enough when they aren't distracted with a phone call; and b) have your window down all the way at night (even during the day, actually) because if you are in traffic you are then just inviting theft! It was crazy! Luckily, I wasn't too late for my dinner and my friends had a glass of wine waiting for me when I got there :)

LMW

August 27, 2011 - Addendum

2011-08-27T07:34:00.000+03:00

Just to add to Grace's 2 1/2 year old update: her physical abilities now include being just tall enough to open the doors in our house by herself, which I discovered at 2 am last night when I woke up and she was standing inside our mosquito net, right next to me in bed, with her face very close to mine. She wasn't talking or crying - maybe coughing a bit to get my attention - but she was wide awake and...right there! She's never done that before. Normally she would cry if she woke up and one of us would go resettle her. This was new - and a little spooky! Not only did she crawl out from under her mosquito net and open her door, but she also walked across the house in the dark and under our net! Impressive for 2 am. But here's hoping she doesn't make it a habit!

LMW

August 26, 2011 - Quarter Decade

2011-08-26T13:58:00.001+03:00

Gracie Girl is 2 1/2 years old today. CRAZY! She really shows us her "big girl"-ness everyday. Given her recent growth spurt, she is physically able to do a lot more things than she could do before - such as getting in and out of her chair at the table by herself (which, you can imagine, does not help us on the eating front at all!) and doing a somersault (75% success rate). She can REACH a lot higher so we often find ourselves trying to figure out where she has hidden our stuff. She loves, loves, loves to jump on the trampoline and to climb, swing and slide at any playground she can get to. I think she is getting a lot more confident and physically active now that she has grown a bit. Grace is also doing great with her potty training. She only wears diapers for sleeping and has, on average, only one accident a day in her big-girl underwear. This is an achievement because she was doing great before we all got so sick, and then completely regressed, but has gotten right back to where she was in the last two weeks.

Her imagination is exploding - she does a lot of "pretend" with her toys and puts her "friends" in a variety of situations that she herself has been in (example: "Oh no, Mama. Doggie Doggie doesn't feel so good. He has to go see Dr. Nesbitt for some medicine."). She also is socializing her toys - having her Lego people play with her Fisher Price people's house and having her Fisher Price people play with her cars. She loves to do puzzles and lately especially likes to play the game "Memory", which we call "matches". She gets really excited when anyone makes a match - not just herself - and will sincerely congratulate us: "Great job, Far! You did it!" (with a big pat on his back). Additionally, she is really interested in the alphabet and counting. She can correctly identify many letters (A, B, G, H, L, M, N, and O - with about 90% accuracy) and when I read to her before bed she often wants me to spell out the words (you can imagine that I'm choosing really SHORT books these days). She loves to count things and will do so in both languages. Because language acquisition peaks at the age of 3 (for real), we know that the next half year is really critical for her Danish. We might need to get to Denmark soon for some full-immersion Danish.

Grace, as I know is true with all toddlers, says the cutest and darnedest things. Just a few examples:

Last night I went out to dinner with my friends after the kids went to sleep - for the first time in over 8 months. I was getting ready while Grace was about to go to bed and she saw me dressed up and said, "Wow, Mama! You look so cute. I like those shoes!"
Putting her in the car today after grocery shopping I told her, "Grace, you behaved so nicely in the store today. Thank you!" to which she replied, "You too, Mama! Great job! I'm very happy with you!" (Charles thought that was hysterical).
At the playground the other day she kept saying "I'm a psychic!" instead of "I'm excited!"
She has recently started calling Rose, "Rosie Rosie"...and there is no way to describe how cute it is when she calls her friend to play: "Rosie Rosie? Where are you?"

Grace is also growing into her role as big sister nicely. She likes to pile every single baby toy we have right in front of Noah so he has access to all and she encourages him when he is trying to crawl. She is still jealous sometimes, still acts out because of that jealousy sometimes, but she has more and more sweet big sister moments and nobody makes Noah laugh or smile the way she does.

Happy Half Birthday, Grace!

You really ARE amazing!

LMW

August 23, 2011 - Drew (take two)

2011-08-23T19:22:00.002+03:00

LMW

August 22, 2011 - Lucky Number Seven

2011-08-22T15:13:00.000+03:00

Noah is 7 months old today. Big boy! In the last two months (actually the last week) he has gotten his first two teeth. This month he also learned to play peek-a-boo and is very close to crawling. He can actually get on all fours and rock; he can also do the plank position quite naturally (that is a yoga position - it looks like he has just done a push up - he is really strong!). As of one week ago he was 7.7 kg (16.94 lbs), which means he has dropped down to the 25th percentile after having been sick quite a bit the last two months. We are hoping to see his weight perk up a bit in the next month (but are also trying not to freak out that he is following in his sister's weight "footsteps"). He is 68.5 cm long (just about 27 inches) which puts him in the 50th percentile for length.

Despite having been quite ill, you wouldn't know it to look at him. He is all drooly smiles, particularly when watching Grace. Today he seems to have begun the season of "separation anxiety" because we were at my friend's house this morning and when I went to take Grace to the bathroom, he cried when I gave him to my friend. That was a first! He is not sleeping well - sigh - and all of the progress we had made with his sleep training seemed to go out the window when he got sick. Think we'll have to start over from scratch sometime in the next couple of weeks. He is eating three solid "meals" a day and continues to breastfeed. He tried green beans last night for the first time and liked them a lot, but his all time favs seems to still be apple/pear and sweet potatoes. Just as his sister did, he seems like teething on a whole, peeled carrot. Unlike his sister at the same age, he does not like to be read to (he does like to teeth on books though - just doesn't want to sit still to hear them read aloud).

I expect before his 8th month is over he'll be crawling and into everything, following Grace around. He continues to make us so happy and grateful for him, every single day.

LMW

August 20, 2011 - Just Saying Hello

2011-08-20T06:09:00.001+03:00

NDW & GEW

August 19, 2011 - Water Bottles

2011-08-19T07:00:00.002+03:00

This video is likely to be of no interest to anyone except maybe me, Kristoffer, and Grace's grandparents, but here it is anyway. I was at the spa for my birthday, Kristoffer was home with the kids. He filmed Grace when she didn't know (or didn't care), until the very end that is, and I love how you can just see her little mind working. You'll also notice her "Danglish" - mostly English sentences with Danish words thrown in - is pretty funny.

LMW

August 18, 2011 - Safari Shots

2011-08-18T07:05:00.018+03:00

We may have had the shortest safari ever, but we managed to capture a few nice moments in the wild before everyone got too sick.

Inside our lovely tent at Tipilikwani Camp.

Lions playing by a watering hole.

Watching them try to get our hot air balloon up.

A young lion.

Morning parade of elephants.

My favorite shot - this guy getting ready for a morning nap.

An angry bird?

The Great Migration: Wildebeest

LMW

August 17, 2011 - Drew Barrymore

2011-08-17T16:04:00.001+03:00

Drew Barrymore is a WFP Ambassador Against Hunger and over the last several years had donated $1 million to the School Meals Programme at WFP Kenya, where Kristoffer is a Programme Officer. It has been his job over the last few years to actually spend Drew’s donation and she wanted her money to go for more than just food, but also to improve infrastructure and the school communities. So Kristoffer became an expert on various things that are not typically in WFP’s mandate, such as building schools, classrooms, latrines, kitchens, boreholes and, his pride and joy – providing energy-saving stoves.

Drew came to Kenya for her second or third time this past May, and because Kristoffer implemented and managed her projects he was tasked with showing them off to her during a three-day trip in the field. Drew also brought a team from the Conde Nast Traveler Magazine, in which she is featured this month. In addition to her cover shoot, the article inside in the magazine – which you can find here – highlights the work Drew’s money has done in Kenya. It is particularly timely, given the crisis here now, and Kristoffer is also pleased to be quoted in the article. We hope that her advocacy increases donations to WFP at this time.

Kristoffer’s overall impressions of Drew Barrymore were that she was very down-to-earth and really passionate about helping make a difference in Kenya. She was easy to talk to and asked a lot of questions about her projects. The Kenyan children in the schools she has helped have no idea how much money she has and have never seen one of her movies, but she is famous to them for even more important reasons. It sounded to me like she was very impressed with the work Kristoffer did with her money; she hugged him many times to say thank you (which did make him blush, yes. She was in ET after all!).

I think Kristoffer felt rewarded to show her his work and to introduce her to his colleagues in the field. In the village where they built a revolutionary new borehole, not only did the Samburu people honor Drew in a meaningful way (see the pictures below, where the woman painted her face and put her in traditional clothes to dance from the school to the borehole), but they also honored Kristoffer. Because he fought so hard to bring them water and didn’t give up when it looked impossible, he was given the tail of a wildebeest, which is an honor usually reserved for tribal chiefs. I can tell you, it is an honor that he will never forgot.

So even though we’ve had to keep it a secret since May (until the magazine came out), please enjoy a few of the (hundreds of) pictures from Kristoffer’s days with Drew. And, remember, if you haven’t made a donation yet but would like to help alleviate hunger in the Horn of Africa, it is not too late to visit here.

LMW

August 16, 2011 - Latest

2011-08-16T13:24:00.000+03:00

After last week's drama, I am so behind on all sorts of things that I would like to be caught up on: bills, paperwork, baby books, activity planning for mornings with Grace, blogs, emails, etc. One of these days - hopefully before Grace is a teenager - I will get caught up. But for now just a few of my latest notes/thoughts:

Noah got his first tooth on Sunday August 14th! It seems there are more on their way because the last two nights he has been awake screaming for hours :( I keep reminding myself not to forget how cute his baby face is without teeth, because I know once that little tooth becomes visible he will start to change into a little boy! (tear...yes...doesn't take much to get me weepy these days.)

At the doctor's office this morning, where both children received clean bills of health following their illnesses, we learned that Grace weighs 11 kg on the dot (that is 24.2 lbs) and is now above 5th percentile for her weight. Again, I fought back tears, which the doctor could obviously see when he wrote me and Kristoffer a prescription for a bottle of champagne. Of course it is Grace's victory, but I feel that we have fought hard to help her gain every gram so I am very proud of all of us and hope her success continues. (I'm also praying that we have no repeat of the same weight issues with Noah!)

My mother-in-law is in New York City with her best friend, staying with our dear Bibi Jean and hopefully not being washed away by all the rain. I am jealous of her for having two weeks in the city I love so much. I hope she has an amazing time!

We are a few weeks away from having a new niece or nephew. Baby Phelps will be here no later than September 1st and we are really excited for his or her arrival. While I know Christine and Kevin are in for the exhaustion that comes with a new baby, I envy them the newness of it all and the special time in a family when there is just one little baby in the house. Their whole world is about to change.

Speaking of being exhausted: I am!

LMW