Mosquito Massacre

In most places I have stayed since moving to Tanzania, there have not been an abundance of mosquitoes.  We get the occasional bite, but nothing too annoying.  Of course you are aware that malaria comes from mosquitoes.  But what you might not know is that the only mosquitoes which carry malaria are nocturnal.  Hence the reason it's important to sleep under nets, but not so much to carry on your daily errands in a net bubble.  We aren't overly concerned with getting malaria; it's not as easy to contract as you might think.  And unless you get the really bad kind, which is rare, it's a lot like having the flu.  Get the right medicine and you're fine after a few days.  We are however, much more concerned about Baylor getting it, as she's so little and can't fight it like we can. So she pretty much stays under a net from dusk til dawn unless one of us is holding her and defending her from any possible biters.

To get on with my story--we are currently staying in Carson and Holly McNeal's house while they are in the States to have their baby until our house is finished.  The other day Brett went into our bedroom at about 7:30 at night and discovered a bazillion mosquitoes buzzing about. Upon investigating, he discovered one of the screens on the windows had popped open in the wind.  Fortunately, the McNeals have netting draped in their doorways, so the critters were basically contained to our room.  The weapon of choice here to kill mosquitoes is a small electric tennis racket.  You just swat at the things as if it were a ball and zap! no more mosquito.  Brett and I took turns in the bedroom with the racket, and after 3 hours or so, we'd killed 70 or 80 mosquitoes and considered our task complete--at least enough to sleep there.  We did decide, however, to put Baylor under her net in her little pop-up bed in our bed under our net, so she'd have double protection.   It looks as if we have been victorious, because none of us seem to have a lot of bites and the mosquito population in the house is virtually non-existent.  We give thanks for the inventor of the electric tennis racket.

Two Months Of Baylor

Today our cutie patootie daughter is 2 months old.  I thought I'd take a few minutes to update everyone on her wonderfulness.

First, a few statistics:

Length -- 23 in. (72%)
Weight -- 11 lbs. 10 oz. (68%)
Head circumference -- 39 1/2 cm. (68%)

So our little girl seems to be quite proportionate, but growing quickly, as she was born in about the 50%. She's got long legs and big feet, so we're guessing she's going to end up tall like Brett.  Her hair has turned a lighter brown and her eyes a lighter blue.

In the last two months she's learned to smile, roll over from her tummy to her back, follow objects with her eyes, stick her hands in her mouth--sometimes both at the same time; lift herself up on her arms, hold her head up, and stand up holding her own weight.  She's not so good at balancing, but she can do it if we just hold one hand.  We're also excited that she seems to know who we are and actually smiles when she sees us.  She seems to be on the verge of sleeping through the night, because there have been three nights in the past week that she's slept 6 or 7 hours before waking up. That has made me one happy camper.

Overall, Mama and Baba are very pleased with their baby girl.

This post would not be complete without several new pictures of Baylor.  Enjoy.