Baking with Blaise

I love how this little guy has such a sense of wonder for everything. Mama's stirring a bowl full of interesting gloop? Let me see! I got him a chair so he could stir the dry ingredients for the muffins I was making, and he did really well. Only spilled maybe a tablespoon and tasted even less than that:) What fun.

Valentines Banquet

Last night we enjoyed the Valentines Banquet at our church. The inviation said 6 so we left around 6:20, and still things didn't get started until around 7. It was Blaise's first time being put to bed by someone other than Zaak or I, but he was in the able hands of Mariah and went right to sleep. So we had a fun time listening to musical numbers, laughing at the couples who played the "blow up your balloon and pop it hugging" game, eating a delicious meal, and hearing an encouraging talk about loving and appreciating your spouse. It was really nice to get out and remember what it's like to just be us, and why we fell in love in the first place:) In the photo the drink in our glasses is Grapette - a grape flavored pop. We had a good chuckle over being served grape pop at this romantic event.

Love Day

We celebrated Valentines Day as a family which was nice. Zaak only arrived home at almost 6 so he wasn't keen on going out again which I could understand. Plus we get to go to a Valentines Dinner on Friday night, so I'm content with that. And Zaak brought me flowers, donuts and some lovely posters to frame. Donuts from the capital are a big deal because they are actually good and sweet, unlike the ones you can buy here in town that look sweet but are barely sweeter than bread. This Valentines Day definitely beats last years as I was sick with a sinus infection and felt like my face was bruised, yeesh. I hope everyone else had an enjoyble Love Day:)

Mucho Calor!

I just have to gloat a little that we are enjoying 28 degrees weather and clear blue skies here today. So before you get green with envy, just buy yourself a plane ticket and come on over for a visit! I've got cold watermelon and horchata (a sweet rice drink) in the fridge too. This is perfect weather for letting Blaise run around the house with no diaper on, as I have great aspirations of having him potty trained before baby # 2 arrives. I'm not really holding my breath though, I don't think he's quite made the connection that he needs to pee on the potty. He will be happily playing away and then I hear him say "Pee! Pee!" and he's pointing to a puddle at his feet. Oh well, all in good time hey:)

Medical Clinic Adventures

Monday and Tuesday afternoon of this week I translated for the Canadian doctor here doing a medical clinic. It was a great experience and I now have a knowledge of spanish words for constipation, rash, dizzyness and the like. Most of the patients complaints are a result of them working so hard - I would have pain all over my body too if I washed clothes by hand or worked in a field all day! A few people said how they had pain in different parts of their body when they were angry:) Also there were some who complained of pain when they would eat fatty foods:) There were lots of Moms with little kids and babies, and one Mom's breastmilk had quit so she'd been giving her little boy coffee. He was 3 months younger than Blaise and as I translated to the doctor what she said about feeding her little boy coffee, I started to choke up. Milk and formula are too expensive here, so she gave him coffee. The doctor told her she needed to stop giving him coffee, that it has no nutritional value, but I wonder if she believed him or not. If it's coffee or nothing, what can you do?

Blaise is Better!

Blaise's fever finally started to go down at about 3 a.m. so I put him, and then myself, to bed. He cried again shortly thereafter so Zaak got up and took a shift. I was prepared to let him cry himself to sleep as I was starting to feel delirious from my lack of sleep. I think at around 6 Blaise went to sleep again, this time for 3 1/2 hours which was the most he had slept at once all night. He's back to normal now and I'm so thankful to have my energetic, talkative little boy back. The only good thing when he's sick is that he's snuggly:) When he's healthy he's just constantly on the go and too busy for cuddling.

2 a.m. Troubles

It's 2 a.m. and Blaise is sitting in the armchair across from me watching a Baby Einstein DVD. This is not a normal middle of the night activity for him, in case you are questioning my parenting skills. The thing is he's had a fever since late this morning and hasn't been able to sleep as a result! He drifts off fine and then jerks/twitches awake and starts crying. So him and I are both totally sleep deprived. We are mercifully letting Papa Zaak sleep as he has to be out with a team all day tomorrow. I'm hoping Mariah will watch Blaise for the afternoon and then I can snooze. Unless his fever finally breaks and he wants to sleep all morning, that's cool too. I'd appreciate your prayers that Blaise will be better soon and life will get back to normal. At least he's sick now, while there's a Canadian doctor here with the team AND before his new little sibling arrives and wreaks havoc of his or her own on our sleep. Hope this all makes sense as I am getting a bit fuzzy around the edges.

Mama's Little Helper

We FINALLY went and got some soil so I could plant my seeds that I bought months ago. It's spring here, with lots of trees blossoming, so in the spirit of spring I immensely enjoyed planting all my flowers and herbs. Now if only they would sprout overnight:) Blaise was very into the whole process and especially liked helping me shovel the dirt into the planters. I'm not sure now how to keep him from digging now that there's more than soil in my planters, but he's still pretty easily distracted so it should work out okay.