This Week In Pictures

This past week we've been having so much fun with Brett's sister Brittney and her boyfriend, Mitchell.  Baylor has especially loved all the extra attention.  But it's also been a busy week, so my post is just going to be some pictures.  I figure that's what everyone really wants anyway.  

The First Word

Baylor has officially said her first word.  By that I mean she consistently uses the correct word for the object in question.  She's been talking non-stop for the last 8 months, even saying mama and baba and all kinds of other things that are actually words without knowing their meaning.  She sounds a great deal like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.

But for the last week or so she has said "dog" every time she sees a dog or hears it bark.  This seems a bit unfair to Mama and Baba after all the hard work they've done.  I mean, what has the dog done?  I don't even remember spending a great deal of time trying to get her to learn the word dog.  She doesn't even like them that much.  If they get to close she gets scared.  Oh well, i figure other words are soon to follow and eventually some of them will be "Mom, you're the most super thing in the whole world, even more super than cheerios and bananas."

Holidays and Things

I've been trying to get this post up forever, but between internet failings and a stomach virus making its way through our family over the last 8 days, I seem to have been defeated until today.

We had a nice Christmas.  Brett and I stuffed each others' stockings with random things we found in Geita, including fruit magnets, actual fruit, a bicycling jersey, snickers bars, a panda bear toothbrush, and tic tacs, among other things.  Baylor enjoyed opening up her cheerios and safari truck, complete with animals.

That afternoon our team came over for Christmas dinner and a silly gift exchange.  The kids exchanged real gifts and Baylor got this truck from the Groen girls, which she loves.

While the adults played Balderdash the older kids watched a movie and Baylor and Jude played on Baylor's new banana tree bark table and chairs.

All in all, a nice Christmas, even though it was weird for it to be 80 degrees and not a single shopping mall Santa in sight.