man of my dreams

Four years ago (on the 27th) I married the love of my life. 

Special days are let's say....different in Africa. What would we have done in America for our four year anniversary? Probably dropped Zoe off at the grandparents, gone out for a lovely dinner at Olive Garden, maybe caught a movie, or perhaps just walked the mall holding hands. What did we do in Morogoro, Tanzania?? Well, for starters the power was out from about 8am until about 5 pm. Kinda ruins sleeping in when its 80 degrees inside the house and no fans are running. So we got up, Nate did a little work on the laptop before the battery died and I took care of some house work (we are in the process of packing and moving). Then we went out to lunch to a little restaurant. There was nobody there so the waitress held and played with Zoe the.entire.time!! Yep, so me and Nate got to have a little lunch to ourselves (kinda). Of course, the power was out when we got back to the house and it was cooler outside than inside...so we put a blanket outside in the shade and all sat around outside for a while (including Chester). That was nice and Zoe had fun.

Finally, a little later the power came back and we all breathed a sigh of relief! Nate picked up some take-out for dinner, we put Zoe to bed, and watched a scary movie in bed together. The movie wasn't spectacular, but it was nice to snuggle in bed with my love (especially since he had been out of town for a week and came home especially for our anniversary!) I am so thankful for my wonderful husband. He even got the book that I have been wanting for SO long. A book that he thought was too expensive. But it is so cool...it's drawings and captions all about Dar es Salaam (our new home!) I LOVE him. I will leave you with a picture of my new book and a picture of how it all got started...

my baby is 9 months old

Wow. This little girl is into everything! It's a good thing we are about to move, because almost every day I have to pack up stuff that's been sitting on the bottom shelf so that she doesn't get into it. So it helps me to make progress on packing at least. Hopefully when we move in, I can unpack in a way that is more baby-friendly.

Zoe has been up to quite a bit this past month. She learned how to clap (we weren't even trying to teach her, she just picked it up at church one day); she has tried to get up and crawl on her knees a few times, but has decided that it's much easier and faster to just push off with her feet and do the army crawl thing; she is now pulling up, although she is not good at letting herself down easy; and she survived her very first cold. It was my fault--I gave her the cold , but she handled it pretty well and we are almost over it! She now has 4 teeth...the two on bottom are almost all the way in, and the top two have broken through.

Nate has been gone this week, so it's just been me and Zoe (and the biggest baby of all-Chester). Needless to say, we all miss Nate terribly!! Zoe looks at me all the time and says "dada"...like she is wondering where he is. The dog is in constant whine mode. Between both of them, the laundry, giving Chester a bath (yes I did!), and trying to pack up stuff for our move...I can't seem to get a moment to myself. Just to get out of the house, I strapped Zoe on yesterday and we took a walk into town--it will be the last one, it was blazing hot! We will all be so happy when Nate gets home later tonight :)

up, up, and away!

Yep, Zoe is now pulling up. Aah! A few days ago, she was just playing around the floor and I was sitting in the recliner with the computer, I look up, and she is standing--holding on to the coffee table with the biggest grin of self-satisfaction. She was so proud of herself. She isn't quite sure how to let herself down easy...so she is requiring quite a bit of attention these days. Her favorite thing is to get on the couch and pull up against the back and pull the curtains back and yell out towards the street or at the kids if they are out playing.

And here is a video...

our new library...

Here is our reading material for the next several months...courtesy of the Holmes Family

Kara was so sweet to spend almost $50 just to SHIP this package, not including the price of all the goodies inside! I had mentioned to her a while back that Christian reading material and devotionals were one thing that me and Nate both really missed out here, because we don't have much opportunity to get fed. So her and Trey (and of course, their sweet little girl Kate) gathered up all these great books and sent them to us. How amazing are they, right?! They also sent some adorable onesies for Zoe and a book for her too. Here she is reading it:

So thank y'all so much...you have blessed us more than you can know...we love you guys!

8 months

Eek! That is 2/3 of a year old! So hard to believe...but then again I say that every month. So this past month Zoe has really started to get on the move. She is doing the army crawl and can get just about anywhere...still no sign of getting up on her knees...maybe she never will. But she makes her away across our nasty floors pretty well and by the time she is done and I pick her up, her belly is filthy. I know "poor baby" right? But she is happy as a clam and doesn't mind getting dirty at all. We have had to move all our stuff from lower shelves up high. The "easy days" of her just laying around and playing in one spot are so over.

She also has figured out her little scooter seat (I'm not really sure what they are called.) But she flies around the house in that thing with no concern for what is in her path...toys, our feet, or Chester. Poor Chester hates that chair and avoids it at all costs...she will seriously charge at him with it! She loves to roll up to the mirror and really gets a kick out of herself. Here is another video of her in her chair:

I'm still making all her food...carrots, avocados, bananas, potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini. We have tried giving her a little bit of french fry and she is not a fan. She better learn to love them though, because we have eaten more "chips" in the past 2 years than I have eaten in my entire life! She is getting her bottom 2 teeth. She has been a little fussy at night, but all in all, she is handling it really well. She can say "dada", "mama", "baba" (swahili for daddy), and she is starting with the "t" sound...it's sweet because she says it like a whisper. She still sleeps like a champ and we are sooo grateful for that! She has the attention span of Nate so nothing holds her attention longer than a few seconds. She actually gets everything from Nate...including her good looks!

what im loving: catching zoe sleeping

Ok, I promise I'm not just going to post only on Wednesday for the rest of my life. It just seems like I always remember today. Oh well...

So on Sunday we go to church and then usually come home for a little bit and let Zoe take a nap before we go out for our usual Sunday lunch. This past Sunday, she was sooo sleepy we had to wake her up to go eat. I can count the number of times we have seen Zoe asleep..most of them were when she was a tiny baby. We usually lay her down in her crib and she will fuss or cry for a little bit and then put herself to sleep and we almost never wake her up and if we do, the door is so loud it wakes her up as soon as we walk in. So it's a rare occasion to see her sleep. But this Sunday she must have been super sleepy and she didn't even hear us come in to her room. And we found her sleeping in the most precious position. Nobody probably cares to watch this video except us and maybe grandparents :)

what i'm loving: making baby food

Let me first just say...it is not an easy or quick task, but I am loving making all Zoe's baby food. I also cannot lie and say it's purely motivated by my love, or by trying to make sure it's all organic...if we lived in America right now, I most probably would not be doing this. But to my dismay, when we walked in the grocery in Dar-es-Salaam to pick up some solid baby food jars, they were going to cost around $3 a pop! For those little tiny jars...unbelievable. Fresh fruits and veggies are so cheap here...I couldn't force myself to pay that much. So that is how it happened. But I do love it, I know it's healthy and organic and all that...but it sure does take a huge chunk of my time. This is what I do...

First, I wash everything in water mixed with potasium permanganate (it's what gives the water the purplish color).

Then I peel (if needed) and either boil or steam:

Then I mash it all up in the blender:

And put it in little containers to stick in the fridge:

I usually do it once or twice a week. I wish I could do it less often and just stick everything in the freezer, however our freezer is tiny (did you know the rest of the world makes fun of americans for the size of their refrigerators?? they do) and even if we had something bigger, our power is not reliable enough for me to defrost it in the microwave when Zoe gets hungry. Anyway, it's hard work but I like it, and so does this little girl...