Sunday Morning

This is how I found Leah when I went to wake her up to get ready. This is the position she likes best for sleeping.
We put on our Nigerian outfits and went off to church.

Please excuse the bad hair day. Unfortunately, Catherine, who gave us this material wasn't at church to see our nice outfits.

Proof

Here is the proof that Leah learned how to feed herself something. The only problem is when she thinks the tennis ball is an apple and now figured out how to put everything else (non-food) in her mouth.

She Must Hula Hoop

So, I realized Leah was now 9+ months old and I still looked pregnant. I had to do something. Luckily, Levin and I are the proud owners of a Wii Fit. My stomach muscles were sore from doing "the plank." That one kills me! Then I went on to some of the fun exercises and did the Hula Hoop. Because my abs ached from the plank I could feel them being worked on the Hula Hoop. I have gotten so good at Hula Hoop that I've unlocked the 10 minutes session. Whoo Hoo! (You're supposed to be impressed here.)

The next time you see me and I only look 5 months pregnant instead of 7, you'll be thinking . . wow, look at her abs . . . she must hula hoop.

I also have a formal dress coming in the mail for the upcoming Marine Ball and there was some size confusion so . . . . let's hope I can fit or else the woman sent me the large size!

Finally a Friend

Sometimes Lagos is a little lonely for Leah and me. None of the people in our compound have kids and we don't really have any mommy + baby friends. On Sunday we invited our friends from church over. Unfortunately, we live 30 minutes (when there are no traffic jams, or go-slows as the Nigerians call them) from the church and they live at least 30 minutes on the other side of church. Because of that, this is only the 2nd time we've gotten together and the last time was over a year ago before the babies were born. Because neither Leah or Clamson have siblings we had so much fun watching them play together, i.e. cheering them on as they stole toys from each other. Clamson can walk, but that was to his disadvantage in the tug-o-war for toys because he was afraid to lose his balance and couldn't pull as hard as Leah safely anchored in a sitting position.

Here is Clamson beating on Leah's head with his babyfood pouch. Unfortunately, we missed the picture of Leah crawling away with a toy and Clamson grabbing onto her diaper and trucking along behind her.

I hope this doesn't sound weird, but this was also a unique experience for us because normally we feel a little embarassed at our "riches" when we have our Nigerian friends from church over. With these friends however, we are the paupers. Who has the money in a friendship doesn't matter, but it was definitely a different experience for us.

And I am happy to report that we had no food casualties (probably because Levin helped with the cooking.)

Mohawk

This is what happens to Leah's hair when she and Daddy are stuck at the GQ for 2 hours without Mom.

Here she is with Levin's boss's daughter playing on the swings.

"Sand"wich Bread

Remember how I said that I had a lot of baking problems? Well . . . Thursday I decided to make bread. My in-laws are coming to visit in a few weeks after we get back from a trip with them to South Africa. I thought I'd be on top of things and have some bread in the freezer. I've only made bread without a bread machine a couple of times, but I've made rolls and pizza crust, etc. I had some whole wheat flour that I bought a while back, so I added a cup. My mother-in-law is a healthy person so maybe I could impress her. I was so proud of my dough. It was so amazingly perfect in texture, etc. Levin was coming home from a 2 day work trip and I excitedly told him I'd just taken homemade bread out of the oven. Then I went and tasted it. It tasted like DIRT. Oh, and it crunched like dirt too. So . . . the secret to satiny, smooth, excellent textured bread dough? Just add 1/4th cup of sand.

Birthday Bash

Here are some pictures of my birthday party. We had homemade pizza, the Blue Bunny ice cream I mentioned in my last post, Levin made a cake, and thanks to the commissary we had A&W. I think we are the only people that buy the root beer.
The cake had a few problems and turned into a Pacman cake. I insisted Levin "build me a cake," even though he begged to buy one. I just don't think store bought ones taste as good even if a professional does frost it so pretty.
My cooking curse is I can never make something the second time and have it taste as good as the first time, and I am well known for leaving out ingredients like the baking soda or something. Whenever we have people over Levin cooks or at least is the main contributor because I am bound to screw it up somehow. Levin never makes mistakes when he cooks. I mean NEVER, except on my birthday cakes.
Two years ago I had this cake (blame the Nigerian powdered sugar.) The cakes he's made me may not be gorgeous, but they actually make me love him all the more because he tried and because he's so cute when he apologizes for them.

Leah doesn't feed herself. She'll just hold food and play with it until it is crumbs and wait for me to feed it to her. The doctor said maybe I wasn't giving her enough opportunities to feed herself and learn how. Well, here was her opportunity. You may see frosting on her lips and think she fed herself, but she didn't. That came from us trying to tempt her with a taste so she'd try to get more. All she did was smash it around in her fingers forever until she started to get tired and rub frosting in her eyes and we had to stop.

All in all, it was a good birthday party. Thanks Levin for all the work you put into it! He even cleaned up Leah's mess.

The Big 30!

Today I turn 30. If you've ever been in an LDS singles ward post BYU or past age 24 you realize that 30 is not the age to be feared, but 31 is. That is when they kick you out of the singles and send you to the family ward, aka graduating without honors. I was so worried that would be me.
Well, today I turn 30 and I am married and already have a 9 month old. What was I so worried about? I would still have another year before that dreaded day. So instead of feeling old on this day, I feel like a kid!
We are currently babysitting 3 children. The oldest is 11. Just imagine if I'd gotten married when I was 19. She could almost be my child and this could almost be reality.
Tonight, since it's a Friday, we are taking the kids and going back to our house to sleep in my own bed. Happy Birthday to me!
Yesterday I bought some ice cream for my birthday party. Guess how much I paid for a half gallon of Blue Bunny "Bunny Tracks" ice cream? About $30. But it's my birthday! Our birthdays are the only time we splurge on ice cream here. We've made our own and the boxed long shelf life whipping cream gags me and cost about $8 so isn't that much cheaper. Recently we've discovered making our own frozen yogurt which isn't half bad either, but I'm not at home to make the yogurt which takes about 24 hours to make and then get it cold, and about 1 in 5 times I fail and it doesn't set up anyway. So Bunny Tracks it is. Yum! I can't wait until tonight!

There is a First Time For Everything

Yesterday Leah and I were in the grocery store. She always attracts TONS of attention when we're out. Everyone wants to talk to her, etc. She has been going through a really shy phase where she always turns her head down when people talk to her. Being in the cart yesterday was rough because she kept putting her head down but then hitting the shopping cart handle. Her poor forehead was all red.
One aisle a couple of women asked me how old she was and I said nine months. I ALWAYS then here, "oh wow, she is so big!" When they said, "oh she is so small" I flinched. What? One of the women has a ten month old who is apparently twice Leah's size and is even too fat to crawl. Then when I said something about people always thinking she was a boy they said, "No way! Not when she is dressed in pink, and those eyes are so girlish and she has such delicate facial features." Whoa! I'm so used to hearing, "fine big boy" I didn't know what to say! By the end even Leah was smiling at them. Of course what female wouldn't smile at people saying you're thin and delicate.
I'm sure we heard fine big boy 10 more times before checking out, but we paid no attention.

Things I Enjoy About Nigeria

1. August Break - the month of rainy season where it gets cloudy but doesn't rain and there is a little breeze which keeps the mosquitos away. Luckily, so far September is seeming to be confused and thinking we're still in August Break.

2. Both Muslim & Christian holidays get Levin off of work

3. Going swimming in February and then coming in to read emails of people talking about shoveling snow.

4. Words/Phrases such as, give him a dash, is this a 419 [fill in the blank]?, sorry-o, fully armoured-o, no food for lazy man, you are welcome, shall I on the gen?

5. At night when I think I hear an unusual sound through the baby monitor and suddenly have thoughts of the Elizabeth Smart story I can say to myself uh . . . probably not. Do you know what the creep would have to get through? I guess I won't spill all our security secrets here on the blog, but bars on windows, alarm system, "safe haven,", not to mention the guards and barbed wire are a few. At nights locked in and tucked in our bed I actually feel safer here than I think I ever will in America. PS. Just in case you were wondering if I did her unusual sounds I would still go check on Leah.

6. Because there isn't much to do here I think Levin and I spend an abnormal amount of time together. Some people cursed our marriage starting out in "darkest Africa" (that phrase sounds better if you hear Steph say it.) Other people said it would bless our marriage. I like to think it has been the latter.

African Dream

A few months ago I decided I was going to learn to quilt so that I could have something fun and productive to do during the day. I read about it on About.com and finally decided to ask my friend Josie to teach me because she is crafty and I'm not and neither of us get out of the house much. And so Tuesday became sewing day at Josie's for a few weeks. We bought some fabric which Kelsey and I shared since you have to buy it in like 6 yards increments. Levin is always accusing me of not buying fabric that is African enough so I found a really African one and went from there just looking for matches. Unfortunately we weren't at a real fabric market so our choices were quite limited. I named the quilt African Dream. Hmm . . . at times it should have been named African Nightmare instead. WARNING: if you have had a history of seizures I would ask your doctor before looking at these pictures. I'm not kidding.

It is supposed to be twin bed size. Somehow it ended up a little long. I'm not sure how.

For now, it will be on our guest bedroom bed.

I'd like to thank the little people, that would be Leah, that helped me in this project. Here she is helping me pin it (just kidding). She also played by herself in the pack n play a few times while I worked on it. I think I convinced her to let me finish it by telling her we were not going to survive the brutally cold Nigerian winter if I didn't get this quilt finished. Also, thanks to Josie, Kelsey, and some lady I don't know that wrote Patchwork Quilting Made Easy and posted it on the web. That came in handy for the binding. That was the part I was most proud of because I did it on my own. Patchwork Quilting Made Easy had a little sampler quilt I have been working on while I took a long break from African Dream. I think I should have started with it first as it is much much smaller! And the fabric is a little less straining on the eyes. Maybe someday I will finish it and post a picture. I have to place an order to the U.S.A. before I can finish it though.