Baylor's First Bike

We decided while we are in Dar, we should take advantage to look for a bike for Baylor.  She's always loved those little bikes with no pedals you just scoot around on, and we figure she will soon be ready to pedal.  There are a couple of places you can buy used bikes from here and this one place happened to have this little purple Trek.  Brett being the bicycle snob that he is, insisted on a good brand, so we were lucky to have found it, as none others came close to his standards for his two year old daughter's bike. She should be able to use it for at least a couple of years before having to move up to a bigger one. Baylor isn't so good at riding it yet, but she still loves trying and I'm sure will be zooming around before we know it.  

The Hospital and Such

We were fortunate this time around to be able to go to the best hospital in Tanzania for Harper's birth.  This was not the case for Baylor's.  The facilities were very nice and the staff was knowledgeable and friendly.  The food was excellent as well.  Brett actually likes to go there just for the breakfast.  They make French toast.  Though things are still never quite the same as home.  For example, one nurse kept trying to make me drink hot tea throughout my labor.  She thought it would give me energy.  When we lived in China people always seemed to think wearing more clothes would solve all physical ailments.  Here, apparently, it's drinking tea. Sorry, I just didn't want any hot tea.  Another time the orderly who brought my food just picked up Harper without asking when she came in.  But still, we were extremely pleased with our experience.

Baylor is enjoying being a big sister.  She always wants to know where Harper is and what she's doing.  She's very concerned when she cries.  She finally decided she wanted to hold Harper, but she still seems pretty scared of her and prefers to just sit next to her.

After the first week of constant eating, Harper has gotten into a more normal schedule and is actually one of the easiest babies I've ever been around.  Hopefully it will stay that way.  She is generally always content and only cries when she's hungry, has gas, or is naked.  She does not enjoy bath time.  She typically only wakes up once a night to eat so we're even getting a fair amount of sleep, which is nice.

All in all, as long as the electricity is on and we aren't dying of heat exhaustion, things are going great and we're one big happy family.

Introducing Harper Mae

I don't know how many of you have ever been pregnant, but if you have, you probably understand why I didn't feel much like blogging recently, being every day more and more past my due date and also in the land of million degree weather here in Dar Es Salaam.  We came here ten days before my due date in order to see the doctor here, make sure everything was in line with the hospital, get somewhat settled into the house we've rented while we're here, and just to be around decent medical facilities in case the baby should come early ( Though I never for a second expected her to come early, as Baylor was two weeks late).  Our doctor here is Dutch and we like her a good deal.  Upon our ultrasound at 39 weeks, we were told that the amniotic fluid was low and there was a good chance we'd need to induce, but that we would at least wait a week and see if there was any change.  The next week (on my due date), we saw that Harper was still growing a little and seemed in no hurry to come out, despite the lack of liquid around her.  Because she was still growing some, we decided to let her bake in there a little longer and see if she came out on her own.  However, she did not, and by 41 weeks, she had stopped growing, so the doctor decided that an induction was indeed necessary.  Oh joy.

So, on Saturday, February 4th, Brett and I headed to the hospital to begin the fun that is birthing a child who doesn't seem to want to come out.  After five hours of labor on pitocin with no pain medication ( I can't say I recommend it), Harper Mae joined us in this world of ours weighing in at 6 lbs, 12 oz, at 20 1/2 inches long.  This whole labor and delivery experience was much better than it was with Baylor, for which we are quite thankful.

Harper and I are both still a little sleepy but are recovering just fine.  We are happy to have her join our family; even Baylor... I think.  Here are some pictures for you gaze at fondly.  

Two

About a month ago, Baylor turned two.  I completely sailed over this event in my blogging due to our busy-ness settling back into life and work here after furlough.  I promise we did celebrate though.  Our team came over for jello jigglers and Baylor got a new Elmo lunch box.  Fun times for all.  

Baylor has been such a blessing to our family.  She's smart, fun, and a little bit stubborn.  She loves to climb, swim, and twirl.  Her favorite color is yellow.  Her favorite foods are fruit.  She doesn't like to sleep or to be told what to do.  She likes pointing out every animal she sees as well as any mode of transportation, especially big trucks and tractors.  She's starting to be able to count and pick out letters and can speak using complete sentences more and more every day.  Her favorite word is "No." She is two, after all.  We love having her in our family and are excited to see her become a big sister, hopefully in just a few weeks.  

This is one of my favorite pictures of her, taken this past September in Duck, North Carolina, on vacation with my family.  My mom decided we needed Christmas early so she stuffed our stockings and Baylor got this great ladybug swimsuit, which you can see she is obviously very excited about.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday morning I was awakened at 6:30am by an ecstatic Baylor, who had run into our room yelling, "Mama! Mama!"  I opened my eyes to find her with two suckers in her hands and a kit kat in her mouth, squealing "Candy! Candy!"

Upon reaching the living room, I saw several presents unwrapped and Baylor's Uncle Brian's stocking completely ransacked.  I suppose that's what kids do.  So I took away her suckers (not without protest), rewrapped the presents, restuffed the stocking and Brett put everything out of reach.  A couple hours later we were joined by the rest of the household for breakfast and fun presents time.

I hope you had a holly jolly Christmas.  

We're Back

We've actually been back in Tanzania for a full month now, but I decided to continue blogging for a while about our furlough since I did such a bad job of updating while we were actually in the States.  The flights back to Geita weren't so bad. Baylor did well, though we were all exhausted by the time we got home.  And to be honest, we're still a little exhausted.  Baylor has had difficulty sleeping ever since we returned and only in the last few nights has she actually slept somewhat normally.  By normally, I mean she hasn't woken up screaming like she's being attacked by mutants multiple times a night often for hours.  She's not sleeping as late as she used to, but I think that might just be her getting older and not needing as much sleep.  I'm not a big fan of getting up before light.  Fortunately, Brett usually gets up in the early morning with her.

We've been super busy, trying to accomplish as much as we can in a short period of time, knowing we're leaving again in the middle of January for Dar to have Harper.  Our team currently has three apprentices working with us; a single guy and a married couple, all recently out of college, who are interested in learning about missions in Africa, helping our team, and perhaps moving somewhere on the continent to work in the future.  We've had the couple living with us and we've enjoyed them all immensely.  Four player games are so much more fun than two player games.

First Fall

When we first moved to Tanzania, we had originally planned on taking our first furlough after two years, which would have put us there last spring.  However, Brett and I both love the fall and it's something we miss while in Tanzania.  No leaves changing colors, no college football, no sitting in sweatshirts by a fire sipping cider (though as much as I love fall, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't trade my year-round 75-80 degree weather).  So we pushed our furlough back 5 or 6 months so that we could be home for all those things.  The leaves are my favorite thing.  We made Baylor play in the leaves for the first time.  I say made because she didn't seem too keen on the idea.  Once in, she had fun, but only for a few minutes.  I think the fact that it was 85 degrees that day in Alabama and she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt made it less fun and more itchy.  But we had a great time watching her (and throwing her in).