Catching Up With Leah

Here she is after she discovered how to climb onto the coffee table.

After a very long time of trying to introduce a "lovey" so she'd sleep better she finally attached to this blanket a little. Unfortunately, she is a lot more attached to it when she first wakes up than when she goes to sleep, but I swear she does sleep better now that she has a friend to go to bed with. She actually makes it through the night most nights now. It's a day I feared would never come.

I saw in the Flake Family Cookbook a recipe for homemade play dough and remembered my Mom used to make clay for us to play with. More for my own curiosity I made some. The first day Leah wasn't too interested, but she has had a few more days of a lot of fun with it. I have to lecture her every time before we play that it is not for eating and one day she did sneak in a pea size amount. There is nothing toxic, but TONS of salt. She didn't seem to mind, but hasn't eaten it since either.

Our friend Spencer teases Leah about being Oxford bound. He's the one that helped get the letter "a" off my finger and told her you can't get into Oxford with a mother like that (or something less mean than that.) Don't you think Leah looks Oxford bound in this picture? When I picture Levin going to school at Oxford with some C.S. Lewis type professor this is the look I imagine on his face. Don't you? Ha! Leah does love to climb in her book basket and read her books. One of the first times she did it Lucy was here and declared Leah a genius!

Do you have to learn how to use a spoon before you can go to Oxford? We're still working on that, but she loves yogurt and neither of us have the patience for me to feed it to her so this is what we get. Usually a bath follows.

Grandma Flake sent Leah this for Easter. She once saw an indoor cat at a friend's house and freaked out when it suddenly moved after sitting still for a while. She yelled and yelled at the cat and thereafter yelled and screamed at stuffed animals. Apparently those are days of the past because she LOVES this thing!

Big Girls Do Get Morning Sick

Last night we watched American Idol (we get it a day late on AFN so don't tell me who got kicked off!) Last night was the most boring night I've watched this season where I truly felt like just wasted my life. In addition to that I got to experience a bad memory.

Katie sang the song Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie. As soon as the first chords were played I instantly felt morning sick. By the end I wanted to throw up and I just knew the judges were give her negative feedback. I was shocked when they didn't because I was ready to run for the bathroom.

Here is the background to Big Girls Don't Cry. Levin and I loved that song! So for Valentine's Day 2008 I made him a cd and included that song. When I was morning sick with Leah we listened to it every day on our way to work I think partially because we kept forgetting to take other cds out to the car. You should have seen us driving around both of us singing at the top of our lungs! Then I got pregnant! At the time I was most morning sick with Leah they were doing construction on the main road and it was also rainy season. There were a lot of bumps! And maybe because of the nice beat of Big Girls Don't Cry, Levin would fly over those bumps. All the while I'm holding my stomach and praying to make it to work.

Every once in a while Levin will rotate back to that cd and if I am in the car with him I have to forbid the song, but usually I am too late and already hear the first chords and my stomach turns. So, maybe Big Girls Don't Cry, but big girls do get morning sick and I'm sorry Fergie, but I will never listen to that song intentionally again.

Warning: The Alphabet Can Be Dangerous!

Since I told Levin's pants splitting story, I figured it is only fair I should tell my own embarrassing story. Sunday morning while we were cooking breakfast I started playing with Leah's little magnetic letters that are on the refrigerator. I stuck the little "a" on my pinkie. I've done this before and it comes right off. Well, I guess since the last time I have done it, I have turned into Fatty McButter Pants because this time it got stuck. It was seriously stuck! Ice water, a hot shower, butter . . . NOTHING worked. Unluckily and luckily, our friend Spencer had come over to watch the BYU game in the middle of the night and was still around to witness my humiliation, but also to help Levin pry it off with pliers. This was nothing simple and I thought many times they'd break my finger. But two pairs of pliers, a pair of scissors, a butter knife, and some matches were all needed to free my poor little pinkie finger and save me the embarrassment of attending church that way and explaining to people why my finger was turning purple and had a strange yellow "ring" on it.

I learned my lesson.

As a Post Script on Levin's pants. He brought them home and they were not quite as bad as I'd envisioned. Lucy took them out yesterday and got them fixed for less than a dollar. Sweet! I am going to miss Lucy!

Picture in your Mind

If I had a picture of this, it'd be really cute. But I don't have a picture of it and I don't think I'll be able to get one.

Two years ago I bought Levin a Wii for Christmas. Usually people have the idea that a man with a video game system plays while ignoring his wife and children. I gave it to Levin and said the rule was he could not play without me except when I was gone. At the time I was in America after the birth of Leah so we got him a war game and he played that while I was gone.

He has never once brought that game out since then. In fact, Wii has become quite a family affair. Levin and I have always played together and often the loser of a Grand Prix on Mario Kart changes a diaper or something. Sometimes women seem surprised and say, "you play with him??" Yes! It's not like we're playing Grand Theft Auto or something.

Anyway - now that Leah is older she plays too. We hadn't played Mario Kart for quite a while until the last 2 nights. Leah sits right on the couch between us with her wheel (we have an extra) and even yells sometimes when we crash. She gets quite into it. That's the picture I wish I had - all of us playing Mario Kart together.

In the mornings sometimes I do Wii Fit and Leah stands in front of me and runs in place. Sometimes if I know I have no chance to win the obstacle course I'll even fall off on purpose because it makes her laugh. We have such a good time that yesterday she kept bringing me her Wii remote (no batteries in it) and pointing it at the TV and begging for me to play.

So video games, fun for the whole family, not just the addicted husband.

What Will It Be LIke

Two weeks ago on American Idol the judges used the term, indulgent a lot. That performance was very indulgent. Anyway, this blog post is very indulgent. Maybe for me, and not necessarily for you, but it's things I've been thinking about.

Time is not on our side. That's what Nigerians say when we are running out of time. Leah and I, and pretty much Levin too, though he will be here longer, are running out of time. What will it be like to live in America again?

• What will it be like to clean my toilets? Lucy comes once a week to clean and well, I guess I just don't think toilets need cleaned more than once a week.
• What will it be like to not have my bath water come out tinted yellow like it has for the last 2 weeks and has occasionally our whole time here.
• What will it be like to load up dishes in a dishwasher instead of wash them all by hand?
• What will it be like when Leah reaches out to every black man we see and says, "up, up?" For the record black men are her favorite, white men her least favorite. We can't wait to see who she marries.
• What will it be like for Leah when she is not adored by all? She has always been so special because Nigerians LOVE babies and especially being the only white baby at church, etc. She is so used to everyone she says "hi" to acknowledging her and loving her. Maybe it will hurt my feelings too when she is no longer so special.
• What will it be like to not have beggars outside my car window and you can very visibly see that he is in fact missing a hand?
• What will it be like to not sweat to death at church and to not "hold it" until you get home to a clean bathroom with running water?
• What will it be like to not have things in our house break all the time? This is hopeful thinking - PLEASE don't let our house in Maryland break as much as this one.
• What will it be like to have to pay for my house to be repaired when it does break instead of just putting in a work request and have 5 men show up and supply all parts and labor for free.
• What will it be like to go outside and be cold in February instead of heading for the swimming pool?
• What will it be like to get in my own car and drive where I want to, when I want to, and without having to put in a request, round up a driver or wait for Levin to come home?
• What will it be like to go to Wal-Mart and not think of how much of these groceries/toiletries will fit in my suitcase. I'm actually a little worried about the hoarding mentality that I've developed here. It will be a strange to buy just one of any item and not worry that you will never see it grace a store's shelves again.
• What will it be like to go to the mall, try some clothes on, and not feel like well it's now or never so you better buy it even if you don't love it.
• What will it be like to not have a guard call you to announce your visitor's arrival?
• What will it be like to go to sleep without the comfort/fear that outside your compound gate is a car with two policemen with AK-47's? In all honesty, I will miss the security.
• What will it be like to not be able to blame a bad night's sleep on the malaria medicine?
• What will it be like to get on an airplane and think that there is a 99% chance I will never return to the continent of Africa? There is a part of me that says, "oh you'll be back honey." I kind of fear that part, but am kind of sad to think I'd never come back.
• What will it be like to not have Leah pointing and shouting more, more and I have no idea what she's talking about? Oh wait, that part won't change when we move, but wouldn't it be nice if it did? Either her pointing skills, talking skills, or my figuring it out skills need to be improved.

LOL

In the texting world LOL means, laugh out loud. Two times recently I've wanted to use LOL as my response to a text and a Facebook message I received even though I don't use texting lingo. Unfortunately, LOL is overused in my opinion and I didn't feel that responding with LOL would let the sender of the message know that I REALLY DID laugh out loud. Here are the messages I received.

1. A post on my Facebook "wall" by a guy I served my mission with. It said, "you should probably know that when we sing true to the faith I always think about how much you hate it . . . . which has made me hate it as well. nice job."

Now you may not have thought that was so funny even though I did. However, I think you will find the next one funny because who wouldn't?

2. A text received this afternoon from Levin read, "I just split my pants crotch to crotch and have had to try to hold a suitcase in front of me before I can get away and go to the hotel!!"

That one still makes me laugh out loud. But as you can see, I couldn't just respond to these with a little "LOL." That would have not let them know that I really really laughed out loud.

Permissions: I did ask Levin's permission via text message if I was allowed to post this on my blog. He agreed. I did not ask Elder W. if I could post his, but since he already posted it on Facebook and hence the world wide web has access to it, I figured I didn't need to.

Nigeria in the News

You may have heard Nigeria in the news lately. Here is all I have to say about it. I'd post a link to the news articles, but I can guarantee your internet connection is faster than mine, so you go find it. Google Jos Nigeria and you'll get this story.
Jos is a very nice city, so I hear from Levin. Some say, the best city in Nigeria. The recent killings were a retaliation for fighting that happened in January. The difference is back then, it was mostly kept to young men and this time it was women and children included. Levin had a conference scheduled this week with some people from the U.S. Jos is in the best agricultural land of Nigeria so they wanted to do their conference/training there. Levin said no, and they picked two other different cities. They should thank Levin as they would have been in Jos the night these murders just 3 miles away happened.
Today I went out to do some errands and borrowed our friends' driver. They're out of town. He was a Christian, then after a drunk driving incident converted to Islam, and now no one is sure what his religion is. So I thought he'd be an interesting person to ask about the incidents in Jos. FYI: It is Muslim vs. Christian but also "ethnic" fighting in Jos. It was the Fulanis doing the killing. He said, "the Fulanis are the most wicked in Nigeria." I asked how things were feeling in Lagos. Because Lagos is like New York City of Nigeria it is the "melting pot" I guess you could say. And although tribalism is still a big deal, I guess no one feels strong enough to take on the others was basically his answer. I specifically asked about the Fulanis and he said they were "small small" in Lagos so they'd never start the fighting here and if people felt like retaliating against them here, the Lagos government had "mo pol" in the Fulani areas. Mo Pol is mobile police. The other interesting thing he said was that the Fulanis were in the cow business. I thought that meant they sold beef or something. Then he continued, they slaughter people like cows with their knives. Oh.
Question: Why do Africans always go for the machete? Is that normal for developing countries and I just know more about Africa than other developing countries? And I wonder, does every Nigerian own one or two? Like the people we go to church with, do they?
Tribalism: Today I had an insight into the Book of Mormon as I contemplated tribalism in Nigeria. Tribalism sometimes doesn't seem a big deal, but other times I realize just how deep it runs. And I suddenly saw just how plausible it is in the Book of Mormon where both the people fought each other until the last man standing. I'm not saying it will happen, but I'm saying, I will not be too surprised if some day that is how Nigeria goes down.
Racism: There is all kinds of talk in America about racism, but as we live in Nigeria and are preparing to move to Russia (apparently they don't like darker skin) we realize it could be MUCH worse than it is in America.

Nigeria has also been in the news for their President who is MIA so to speak. In some regards no one really seems to care and we've gone on so long without him now I'm not too scared of what will happen (at least before I leave). I said no one really seems to care, but that doesn't mean every Nigerian doesn't have an opinion. One man told me he thinks we need a strong military leader to take over, but just or a short time and then turn it back to democracy. Nigeria has already had to military coups . . . . do we need another? When I was getting my hair cut in Abuja (see a previous post) I brought it up and got the two barbers arguing. One was from the north (where Yar'Adua is from) and one from the east. Most Nigerians we've asked just say they know he is alive and will come back. Wishful thinking? Who knows.
The best part of the story is about the Vice President. Apparently the President didn't write a letter to give him power before he left to Saudi Arabia for treatment so it was a big process to get him power. Anyway, as for the best part, it is the Vice President's name. Goodluck Jonathan. Where do they get these names? I love it!