May 19, 2011 - Play Time

In our last week of vacation, Bibi and Jen came from NYC to visit. The weather was unfortunately cold and rainy so we couldn't do the fun outdoor things we had planned, but we did find an indoor playground to go to, ate a nice lunch out, and even managed a quick stop at Plymouth Rock (which should be called Plymouth Pebble!). Grace was a bit shy with Bibi - sorry about that Bibi! Noah impressed these New Yorkers with his sweet smile and easy-going nature. Next time we are home, we hope we can make it to New York to play with Bibi and Jen in Central Park! Thank you for coming to Plymouth to see us!

LMW

May 18, 2011 - Family Ties

Over Mother's Day weekend, my family had a lot to celebrate. Sean, my sister's second child, made his First Communion and my brother, Mark, sister, Christine, and my mom's best friend, who we still call Mrs. Duffy, came for the occasion. We missed Carrie, Matthew, Nathan, and Kevin too, but it was still a great weekend. We started by waiting outside - on a rare nice day of weather - for Meghan's older kids to get home from school on the bus.

My two guys

Nora, Meghan, Mark, Grace and Christine at varying levels of interest in sidewalk chalk.

Grace and Auntie Tine - who is expecting Baby Phelps in September! - took a little walk to look for the school bus.

Noah and Uncle Mark compared hat sizes. Turns out they both have a big head!

When the big kids came home there was a lot of fun playing - but no time for taking pictures :)

The next day was Sean's big day, and he was a very proud, handsome First Communicant.

Here, with Nene and Pops.

The whole O'Brien clan!

My dear friend Abbey, who I haven't seen in about 3 years, came home for the weekend and made a visit to us at Meghan's house. It was a short, crazy visit but it was so nice to see her and catch up. I think she was a bit shocked by the fact that the last time she saw me I had no kids and now I have two kids!

On Mother's Day, I was a little bit sick with a sinus infection, but Auntie Tine put those mama-in-training skills to work and helped out a lot with Grace and Noah. This boy is all smiles!

For my mom, it was a real treat to be with all four of her children!

When Christine's baby is born, she will become a grandmother for the 9th time!

We decided to let my Dad pose with his family too. Kristoffer for some reason decided to take our picture from the floor. Mark and Meghan could not be contained!

Molly showed Grace the movie, "Pete's Dragon", an old favorite in our family, for the first time!

Uncle Tim took Michael and Sean to spend the day with his mother and family, so it was just Meghan and the girls with us.

Noah was just taking it all in.

I think Mrs. Duffy was trying to avoid the camera, but Kristoffer caught her! She is just one of the fam and we were so happy she came up to visit from Doylestown while we were home. When Grace wanted to find her she would yell out, "Duffy! Duffy! Where did Duffy go?"

Grace and Nora are 9 months apart. Nora is very much the youngest of four and Grace is very much the oldest of two. Nora loved baby Noah so much and was also interested in playing with Grace at first. But Grace was one tough cookie and gave Nora a really hard time until the last day of our trip. Here, though, Grace had a nice moment of not hitting Nora and actually taking turns in the little rocking chair. Good job, girls!

What a lovely family weekend!

LMW

May 17, 2011 - Hello Fish!

About two weeks ago, we went to the New England Aquarium in Boston with my cousin Reid, who is Grace's Godfather. The aquarium has long been one of my favorite spots in Boston and I was hoping Grace would really like it. She was very excited on our drive in to the city and gave Reid a running hug when we saw him coming our way. She couldn't believe that the seals were right outside and eagerly watched them swim and play.

The NE Aquarium may very well be one of the worst places in the world for taking pictures - it is so dark inside! So we don't have that many great photos, but here are a few of Grace's new friends...she just loved the penguins!
Grace would also point to some fish in a tank and say, "Hello, Fish!" Right about that time Noah turned into a chatterbox and seemed to be mimicking her. Here he was literally telling me, "A-gooo!"
It took a little while for her to brave the cold water, but Grace did eventually pet a starfish with Far. There was also an amazing exhibit on small sharks and sting rays and she actually got to "pet" one of them!
At the very end of our visit, Grace had a great time doing one thing she always loves to do: shop! While we didn't buy her anything, she was thrilled to walk around the store and show Reid all the things she liked, including "some onesies for Noah!"
Reid treated us to a lovely lunch at Legal Sea Foods before saying goodbye, so I got my New England Clam Chowdah fix. It was the perfect outing!
LMW

May 16, 2011 - Home Again

We arrived in Nairobi on Saturday night after a wonderful the second leg of our trip, four weeks in Massachusetts. We were able to see many our of family and friends in that time and appreciated all of the traveling that other people did to accommodate us. We're sorry to those of you we missed and hope that our next trip to the US widens our net a bit further. I have a few blogs and pictures to post of our time in the US which I will do so over the course of the next week (now that we're back in Kenya, pictures takes A LOT longer to upload!).

In the meantime, we were really happy to arrive back to our own house after being away for six weeks. Grace and Noah were excellent on our 24-hour trip and there were no glitches getting home at all. Charles was waiting at the airport with our car and Rose had cleaned our house the day before in anticipation of our arrival. Grace kept exclaiming yesterday, "I'm at Grace's house!" Unfortunately, our old foe JET LAG has set in. Grace had a pretty normal schedule yesterday but woke up at 10:00 pm last night, after only 2 1/2 hours of sleep, and didn't go back to sleep until 2 am. So now, it is 9:00 am and I have not been able to wake her up. Looks like she won't be going back to school just yet. We'll try again tomorrow!

Last night Grace and Noah had their first bath together, with Noah sitting in the Bumbo seat. He initially seemed against the idea of bathing with his sister, but after a few minutes he settled in and she loved it: "I'm taking a bath with Noah!"

The "next big thing" in our life will be finding a new job for Kristoffer, whose contract with WFP ends in November. We've got six months to land a new job and relocate, and are currently pursuing any and all possibilities. An international move with two little ones? I'm sure I'll report on several anxiety attacks in the future. For now, your best wishes and sending good "job karma" our way will be appreciated. Stay tuned!

LMW

May 2, 2011 - Blessed Boy

Yesterday, May 1, 2011, Noah Dean was baptized at St. Augustine's in Andover, MA (the church where I made my First Communion, my Confirmation, where Kristoffer and I were married and where Grace was also Baptized). The day before that we had a party for him at my parents house and were happy to introduce him to many friends and family members. It was actually quite a busy weekend, and I don't feel I really had the time to stop and reflect so much about the significance of Noah's baptism. But after some quiet time this morning I am able to not only post pictures of our weekend, but also to reflect on what a big day it was for all of us.

During a difficult pregnancy with Noah, there was more than one moment when we thought that we would lose our baby. At 7 weeks pregnant, all signs indicated that I was having a miscarriage and I was even offered a surgical procedure to clean out my reproductive system. One week later, though, our little guy was still fighting. When I was 25 weeks pregnant and bleeding heavily, we thought the worst was happening, but again, Rocky was a fighter indeed. After that hospitalization I had infection after infection after infection and was even hospitalized once more. Noah was born healthy and one of the first things Kristoffer said to him was, "I didn't think I was going to get to meet you!" Unfortunately he was incredibly sick from two to three weeks old and gave us the worst scare of all! Given all of that, for our family to stand on the altar of the church yesterday and have this beautiful boy be baptized...I just feel it was a miracle! Nothing short of faith, hope and a lot of love brought Noah into this world, healthy and happy, and we are so grateful to God for this blessed boy.

Noah meeting Aunt Nina and Uncle Jack

Grace's Godfather, Reid, holding Noah

Grace decided to help Noah open some presents

My friend Julie came to meet Noah and sign his Baptism portrait

Our dear friend Gabe and his family also loved the little guy

Meghan and Matt, who visited us in Kenya early on in my pregnancy with Noah, were happy to see the baby on the outside

We had fun playing with the Andersen Family (with Brady - age 2 - and Jack - 5 months)

Keilah Noel held Noah too (her mom Cheryl was my music teacher for many years!)

Me with my babies, Cheryl with hers

Uncle Tim - Noah's Godfather - got some snuggles when the party quieted down

At the church, my Godmother, Aunt Linda, holding Noah

Fr. O'Leary asking us what we wish for our son

Godparents Auntie Meghan and Uncle Tim

Grace was a very serious sister during Noah's baptism and Noah was nothing but sweet smiles

Molly loves Grace!

Thank you to the Noon Family for coming (and to Joanna for taking all these pictures!)

What a special, lovely weekend we had. God Bless Noah Dean!

LMW