a little break

So Kevin went to Nairobi yesterday for a day of car shopping. He stayed the night w/ friends from college and is climbing a mountain w/ a team mate of ours and her friends today. The kids and I watched a movie last night and had pizza. We watched another short movie this morning before having a breakfast of leftover biscuits and cinnamon rolls. My goal for the day has been to stay in our pajamas and, possibly in bed, watching movies all day. After breakfast, the kids and I played Go Fish and then I laid the littlest down for a nap. The two big kids decided to play a game of Indians and Africans (???) so I got on the computer to check out for a bit. The kids have continued arguing and bickering this morning, so I have developed a new game plan for today: I will stay in my pajamas all day while letting the kids get dressed and go to our neighbor's house for a few hours. While there, the kids will likely eat sweets, drink chai, and watch cartoons. E often says I should let them go next door so I can have a little break; today, I think I'm going to do that! :)

kid updates

i thought you might like to hear a couple things about the kids and what they're up to now.

m is 20 months old now and likes to think she's as big as the other kids. she loves her baby and was super excited about a recent hand-me-down toy of a doll carseat and baby carrier. she enjoys carrying her baby around in the carrier and singing to her. her newest songs include twinkle, twinkle, little star, circle, triangle, square, and jesus loves me. she also sings rock-a-bye baby on a regular basis. she's still taking two naps a day but we usually wake her from her morning nap after 1-1 1/2 hours to insure an afternoon nap. she's still sleeping in her pea pod (LOVE this!!) and we've been contemplating moving her in with e soon. the issue is j's inability to be quiet and the fact that he gets up several times a night to go to the bathroom. right now, m sleeps through the night and i like that more than her sleeping in the same room at j and e. m is running and talking like crazy. she loves to play coffee party (no tea for her) and actually likes the real thing as well. she's still not tolerating milk so she gets soy milk. she's happy and pretty easy going. she doesn't know the difference between swahili and english so sometimes it's asanti and sometimes it's thank you....either way, she knows what she means. thankfully, she enjoys riding on my back when we go to town and greets kenyans with "jambo" although they usually don't respond.

j enjoys being outside and kicking, throwing, or hitting a ball. he and m play really well together as do he and e. j enjoys chasing the monkeys who visit our house. he is enjoying school, especially anything science related. he knows all his letters and the sounds they make and is also pretty good at math. he does most activities with e although he sometimes gets bored or frustrated at which point he can color or go outside. he continues to whine a lot and we haven't figured out how to help him stop this. he's often quiet and shy in town, refusing to greet anyone. he likes our househelper a lot and misses her on the weekends when she doesn't work. he loves his new bed and getting to sleep on the top bunk.

e is enjoying school and learning new things. she is reading new words with ease and knows all of her sight words. her favorite thing about school is reading. she enjoys spending time at our neighbor's house (they're all adults) and they've also said to others that they enjoy her company. she enjoys going to town and seeing her friends, which i think she has at every place we stop. sometimes she gets frustrated because most people don't say her name correctly. in swahili, words don't end with r so it's hard for kenyans to pronounce her name. she's figuring out how to say it though so they can understand her better. she's also started meeting with my swahili tutor once a week for swahili and is beyond excited about it. she continues to be out-going and social regardless of language. her recently request has been for chores and although that sounds like a good thing, it's kind of hard. she's always wanting to help and finding something for her to do is a little difficult. she also really enjoys our househelper and often wants to help her with things as well.

so that's our kids right now. they seem to be doing well. they're growing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. we are blessed by them and enjoy their presence in our lives.