Long Overdue Update!

Where to begin. I am so overdue to blog. Everytime you see (name) that’s who interrupted me while trying to write this! I am babysitting Lowen and Teaghan today.
Seth is 20 months and a putz and a half. He still thinks walking is optional and crawling is desirable. Two short termers, John and Jeremy had been eating dinner (LEVI) with us frequently (LOWEN). Every night when Ryan came home from work with the J’s, Seth started walking for the first time all day. He would take 20 steps in triangles (Caleb) from one guy to the other. Since they left the end of February, he quit. He walks for Ryan occasionally but that’s it. Every afternoon after naps, I take him for a long walk around the compound. He grabs my first finger and walks beside me, steering me in the direction he wishes to go. Happy as a clam. What a stinker.

(So I yelled at all the kids to GO OUTSIDE)

Levi’s vocabulary is amazing. All my kids can talk. A lot, and very articulate. Even Seth can jabber whole conversations with hand motions. Levi is independent in playing. He can go outside, find a friend, and be gone for hours. One neighbor boy, Isaac, has invited him over for dinner twice this week. He came home talking about ice cream. He rides (yell out the window at Levi to stop bossing Lowen) his bike with training wheels all the time. Stops on a dime, steers around obstacles. Etc. I think he is outgrowing his daily naps because him and Caleb talk way too loud and long after they are tucked in bed.

Caleb has only 7 weeks of school left. He whizzes through the history and science read-a-louds. We take math a bit slower to make sure he gets it, and to way lay frustration. (long break to supervise screaming). We are taking a break on reading and working just on new letters. He is not ready for putting sounds together and I am tired of pushing it. My instinct is saying, he’ll get it a lot quicker if I let him mature a little. He’s been building elaborate forts in the attic with his friends. He still skips rather than walks and bounces instead of runs. Compound living makes it easy for him to expend that energy.

Ryan and I are doing great. A friend gave us some money recently and we (actually I) decided to do something useful with it instead of putting it in the general fund. We got cheap round trip tickets to MOMBASA!!! So March 20-23 we are on the beach without the kids. Wanza is moving in for the weekend. So easy cause she knows the routines and where everything is. I just need to have a few meals ready for her. Friends from church who are missionaries have recently retired on the coast. They have a two story (knock on the door)(put the play dough stuff outside on the picnic table) house on the beach. They live in the upstairs and the downstairs is a self-contained apartment. Just for people to come and stay. For less than $30 a night. They have a pool.

We are taking a cab from the airport and stopping at a grocery store on the way. We are going to find out what it was like to cook for just two. We are going to eat dinner with out asking Caleb not to interrupt, telling Levi (Seth found me) to take a bite, scolding Seth to sit down in his high chair. We might talk over dinner, we might just enjoy the silence. We are going for long walks on the beach without looking at every hermit crab. We are going to fall asleep by the pool with out worrying about a kid drowning. We are going snorkeling a lot. We are going to miss the kids, eventually! (took picture of kids playing play dough.)

Tomorrow several of my friends are taking me out for lunch for my birthday. I picked an Italian restaurant that has a nice dining area outside. They also make pizzas in an oven heated with firewood, forget what that is called. But so good.
I think this gives you an idea of my lack of blogging recently. I used to take my computer to a restaurant to blog every Wednesday but than I felt to busy. But my Internet at the house refuses to blog so I send my stuff to my dear Sister Diane who than posts it. But just writing stuff coherently is difficult with the interruptions. I don’t even know how to rewrite the first sentence in the paragraph. Have a good day!