The Number Three

What is significant about the number three?

3 - the number of times Levin proposed.
3 - the number of weeks we were engaged.
3 - the number of times Levin and I stayed in a hotel together before we were married and therefore had to pay for separate rooms. New York, London, Albuquerque. Some may say it was a waste of money, but hey, you can't put a price on virtue. :)
3 - three million that is, the number of times Levin told Nigerians he'd told me he was going to take me on a three year honeymoon to a tropical island. Ha ha as Lagos is tropical, we lived on an island, but it is anything, but honeymoon-ish.
AND FINALLY . . .
3 - the number of years Levin and I have been married. Happy anniversary Levin!! I love you!

PS. 1 - the number of anniversaries Levin and I have been in the same country. We'll celebrate when he gets home.
PPS. I wish I had a lovely wedding picture, but I don't have any with me here yet. Just imagine us all beautiful and smiley.

What's It Like?

Someone asked me a while back to do a post on what it's like to be pregnant and have a toddler. I tried several times to post about it, but it always turned out boring. Well, being pregnant with a toddler was never what I feared. I feared a baby (out of the womb) and a toddler. A scene at our house tonight illustrates what I feared.
Mommy needs a shower before church. Baby is in his bassinet in the bathroom. For some reason he always seems calm in this room. Plus, he is in eye sight so that toddler doesn't . . . um . . how to say this nicely . . attack him. Toddler is sitting outside the bathroom door eating a box of raisins. The raisins are meant to distract toddler so that she does not realize she is not allowed in the bathroom. She's not allowed for multiple reasons, but one is that she has recently discovered how fun it is to play in the toilet. Mommy is shampooing, toddler is screaming her guts out to get in the bathroom and baby is screaming because apparently he only likes the bathroom before his bath, not during Mommy's. Mommy has to wear a skirt tomorrow and in her rush to shave she cuts herself, something she hasn't done in years. I'd just skip shaving and wear a long skirt except baby has left me with a few extra pounds and none of my long skirts . . ahem . . fit right now.
I'm sure there are many worse stories out there, but I just thought I'd share a moment for all my friends who only have one child. Enjoy the one child days - but have a second one anyway.

Summer Vacation Day

This morning I declared summer vacation day! It started with Leah watching an abnormal amount of TV while I fed the animals and talked to Levin on the phone. Then we went outside. . .

Oliver chilled on the porch swing . .

while Leah and I blew bubbles and I gave Oliver an occasional push on the swing. That is until Leah spilled the bubbles. I decided since she was soapy she might as well wash up and go swimming. Note the bubbles liquid all over the back of her skirt here.

Here she is having a grand ol' time. She loves using the hose to fill it up as much as being in.

Oliver and I watched from the porch swing. FYI: This pacifier in his mouth is glow in the dark! What will they think of next? Having used it just last night for the first time I can say - it is a great idea.

As mentioned last time - Leah's diapers really absorb the water!

She loves to throw herself down in the pool. She does the same thing in the bath tub. I think her kerplunking herself down was too much for the diaper to handle and I think the top part exploded!

We took off her diaper and let her swim . . . diaperless. I was scared she'd get cancer or something swimming in all that gel stuff! Not so modest with nothing under the skirt, but laziness won and I still haven't bought Little Swimmers.

After that, I read my book. Now don't think I'm having marital problems by looking at the title. My mother-in-law had it (she's a counselor) and I am reading it. It is amazing! First, it makes me think Levin and I ain't doing to shabby in our marriage. But more than that, it is full of insights and great things on not just your marriage, but so much more! It's religious by-the-way. I am really enjoying it. So much better than a Mars and Venus book. Okay, I've never read those, but it is better than I imagine those Mars and Venus books to be.

The book must have been too boring for little O because he fell asleep.

The only thing we needed to make today complete were sno-cones. Maybe next time.

Counting My Blessings

A couple of days ago Levin shared some really sad news with me from Nigeria. A friend of ours had recently had a baby boy. He went one morning to the hospital to visit his wife who was still recovering there after having a c-section, only to be told she'd passed away in the night. From what we understand his baby boy will probably go to another family to be raised since he is a single father now. That's the Nigerian way. So, essentially, he lost his entire family that morning. Maybe because we had a baby so recently, I'm not sure, but this has really upset me.

Not, to depress my dear blog reader further, but while we were in Nigeria one of Levin's employees had a baby due around the time Leah was born. His baby didn't survive birth. One of my employees when I worked at the GQ had a daughter caught in a fire at school. They threw her out the window to safety, but she wasn't caught and passed away. These stories are just so common there.

I have been pretty critical of the doctors I had this go-round of having a baby. I didn't like the office, I didn't like always seeing different doctors, I didn't like that the doctor showed up hours late to discharge me, and mostly I didn't like the doctor giving me an unnecessary episiotomy. But, some things are put into perspective when you hear of and are reminded of other's tragedies. However messed up the American medical system is, I am so grateful for what we have. How did we get so blessed?

Big O & Little O

I actually don't know when this picture was taken, but here is Oliver with his uncle Oliver. We live about ten minutes away from Big Oliver.

Here is Leah with her cousins, Joel & Natalya. She loves all of Uncle Oliver and Aunt Amber's kids.

Oliver At One Month

Daddy's Lil' Farmer
He has a little bit of an acne problem. Just when we think it's going away he seems to break out more. Poor little boy! But he's still my cutie. Check out that cleft chin.

He doesn't love his swing as much as I wish he did, but we try.

I don't have a picture of Oliver's first bath, but the other night while I gave Leah a bath I put him in his tub and he was so calm and happy! He is my little grunter so when he is awake he is usually not super calm, but he was that night.

Farm Life Update

My pictures aren't in very good order here, but here we go.
#1 As you can see the chicken coup now has poultry wire all the way to the ceiling so no more having to say it flew the coup. Thanks to Levin's Dad who fixed this. He also fixed the turkey coup so it is in the same state. Thank goodness because Dani and I didn't enjoy catching a turkey with a bucket every morning. Though I'm sure it was quite humorous from an outsiders perspective to see me with my shield (a metal trash can lid) and Dani with her bucket. She'd throw it on the turkey and I'd scoop it up with my shield and carry it back to the coup. Unfortunately, that bad turkey got out the first morning my father-in-law was on animal duty and he didn't notice and well . . . turkey lurkey is gone forever. I can't say I'm too terribly sad. About day 3 of Levin being gone theses turkeys went to town and started going through water and food like crazy! They are literally eating us out of house and home. I just watched Food Inc the other night and I guess this is what happens when you breed animals to grow fat quickly.
#2 The sheep have their own little paradise in the center of our pasture. Levin built this while he was at home. Unfortunately, southern Maryland is in a serious dought so they are now eating hay and sheep feed.
#3 Milky Way is growing up. Levin with help from nephews who came all the way from Canada and his brother who lives nearby with his sons, plus Levin's Dad, all worked and we have a real fence to keep Milky Way in the pasture so no more living in panels that have to be moved regularly and he's no longer in part of our property I consider yard so I don't have to be uspet he's poohing on my yard. Unfortunately the yard part I'm speaking of now has natural fertilizer and needs to be mowed up and cleaned still.
#4 The turkeys mentioned while I was talking about the chickens. One day when one of the Turkeys was out Leah was out with me to water the sheep and kept getting close to it and saying "turkey!" I was freaked out and kept yelling at her, get away or he'll peck your eyes out! She didn't listen and we had to have a little discipline. She saw Dani and I throw the bucket on top of it and freaked out. I was hoping I was raising an animal hater like myself, but apparently she is going to be an animal lover like Levin. If she only knew Levin's fate for these turkeys is Thanksgiving dinner for everyone in our county (well, it seems like with 9 turkeys we ought to be able to feed that many people.) I had stopped being scared of the turkeys when it was my duty to tend to the animals. Now that my father-in-law is looking after them I have to say just looking at that picture of the turkeys gives me the heebie jeebies. I hate birds . . yuck!
In memory that I had to capture those dang things I think I'll go buy myself something nice tomorow. Love you Levin!

Swimming Pool Fun

My parents-in-law are here "babysitting" me for a little while since Levin is in Lagos. They have been lots of help and my mother-in-law and I decided today was the day to tackle the flower beds out front. I was at True Value buying a rake and decided to get this "kiddie pool." Luckily it shoved into my Explorer okay. This way Leah and Ryan (my nephew that we are watching during the day this week) could play outside while we're outside and we could keep an eye on them.

Ryan has a bigger pool at his own house so I'm sure this was very non-impressive to him, but Leah had loads of fun. She went inside when Ryan went in, but she wasn't done. Later she escaped and jumped right back in the pool in her clothes. The third picture is so you can get an awesome idea of how absorbent diapers are these days. In Lagos we had Little Swimmers, but I thought what's the point of buying them at our own house. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the girl had ghetto booty. Am I allowed to say ghetto booty?

I apologize for picture quality. I am a lame-o with a camera. I need Levin! I miss you!

Oh, and if you're curious about the flower beds - they have so many weeds with strong roots! And so much crap in them. They're clean now, but not planted, etc.

Oliver's Blessing

Yesterday July 4th, 2010 we blessed our little Oliver at church. Right before we left for church I made Aunt Dani snap this picture. As you can see we didn't spend a lot of time or even bother to move out of the sunlight on Levin's side, but at least we got something to document the event. Too bad Oliver is the least represented in this picture with his face all hidden.

Those that helped Levin were Uncle Oliver, Uncle Moema, Grandpa Flake, and Levin's friend John. Oliver didn't cry during the blessing hurray! It was a very nice day!

Unfortunately, last night ended our family togetherness with us taking Levin back to the airport to head back to Lagos. We miss you Levin!

Sibling Love

I vowed to not be one of those parents that talks about how much the older sibling loves the new baby, if in fact the older child didn't love the baby. Luckily for me, Leah honestly seems to really like having a baby. I'm sure it's an excuse to try and not go to bed, but she makes sure to say night night to the baby before she goes to bed and is always very excited to see Oliver. For a couple of days whenever I laid him down she wanted to come lay her head by him on the blanket. So sweet! Unfortunately, I can't leave him on the floor much because I'm scared she'll come running into a room and step on him. She tries to give him loves while he's in his bassinette, but it doesn't work very well because it's deep and she can't quite get at him.

We have to remind her to be soft, but for the most part Leah is a great big sister.

Looking at this picture I realize how much my little boy is already growing. He looks so skinny in this picture!

Another Fan

I didn't think Leah really liked TV, but one day I was recording Dora for when my niece and nephew come over and Leah who was playing in the kitchen suddenly jumped up and shouted Dora! Ba Pa (that's back pack) and ran into watch TV. Ever since she has been in love. I think she'd watch it all day long if we let her. I have to admit it came at a convenient time right before Oliver was born. It's been nice to give her something to do while I feed him or as is the case right now, write on my blog. Here's to another Dora fan.

PS. That is my nursing apron she's got herself wrapped up in, not a weird fashion statement skirt.