Night and Day

All my pictures of Leah are on computer/discs in Nigeria so I can't post them as a contrast here, but I wish I could. Here is a comparison of Leah and Oliver.

NIGHT AND DAY

Leah was born at 11:00 PM. Oliver was born at 11:00 AM.
The epidural with Leah didn't work more than 30 minutes. The epidural with Oliver worked so well I was literally falling asleep once when the doctor came in. I wished I'd asked for it sooner!
With Leah we had 8 hours of labor before she was born. With Oliver we had 3 hours of labor. Leah was 9 lbs 13 oz - I was amazed at how big she was. Oliver was 7 lbs and 2 oz and I felt amazed at how small he was.
Leah's a girl and Oliver is a boy. :)
I love Leah more because I sacrified for her more OR I love Oliver more because he was so easy. Hmm . . . . Maybe I'll love them the same.

More Oliver Pics

Our camera takes really bad pictures indoors. My sister-in-law took some that are better. I'll try and see if I can steal them somehow and get them on the blog.

Oliver Flake

I have been trying all day to get pictures to load. One day I'll have a good internet connection. I'm just not sure when. I'll try to keep loading, but it looks like I can only do 2 at a time if I want them to load.
Oliver Lee Flake was born at 11:37 on June 15th, 2010. He's 7 lbs 2 oz. 20" long and cute!

Fruits of Our Labors

We finally got something out of our garden. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do with banana peppers. The yellow squash we are starting to get a lot of, but I thought we only bought one yellow squash plant and the rest were zucchini. I know more what to do with zucchini, but turns out they are all yellow squash I guess. Hmm . . any recipe ideas??

I don't know if we'll get anything else from our garden. We've kind of not been the best care takers. All the plants are getting blossoms or putting out fruits, but they are soooo short. We can't figure out why they're not getting taller!

Feminity

Whenever I see this picture of Leah I think of the song from the movie Summer Magic - "You got to walk feminine, talk feminine, smile and be girl feminine . . . that's what every girl should know, if she wants to catch a beau."

We've been working on getting Leah's hair a little more feminine. These barrettes took about 100 tries in the hair before Leah left them in long enough for me to take this picture. Don't think they lasted long after the picture, because they didn't. Leah loves to have them put in, she just also loves to pull them out. One day we had about 10 barettes scattered in her hair. A few survived to the car, but none to our destination.

However, Leah spent a few days with her Aunt Amber while we were in the hospital and doesn't seem as determined to pull barettes out now! I don't know what Amber did, but it's a good thing.

Baby Arrival!!

Today we got some babies. Unfortunately, they're of the poultry nature, and I am still quite pregnant and quite hot.
The Post Office called and we were off to pick them up. Who knew you could ship live animals through the mail. The instructions that came taped to the box said, "turkeys are known to be dumb . . . " Isn't that encouraging!! Pictured below we have chicks on the right, turkeys on the left.

Levin built the brood in our barn yesterday.

Here is Levin with his other new prized possession. It is his new truck. It is a '94 F-150. It seems to run great or at least passed the inspection with flying colors. Of course the inspector was the brother-in-law of the guy working on our house and we're not sure how much of it was "under the table" but he does actually work at Mr. Tire and did fix a couple of things so we think it's all good.

You should hear him mocking the other small trucks on the road. This from the man who drove around Lagos in a 2-door Honda Civic. Our netbook is kinda small so from my perspective you can barely tell in this picture that the door is actually a different color. But for the sweet Craigslist price we paid . . . we'll take it!

Things I Miss/Don't Miss in Nigeria

Things I Miss:
1. Levin - but that is soon to end! He comes tomorrow morning!!!
2. Lucy - I feel like I am constantly cleaning and it is only Leah and me making messes. Well, some of it was initial cleaning of a house that has been abandoned so to speak, but still! I actually had to clean my own toilet the other day and I vacuum all the time! Whereas before I'd just calculate how many more days until Lucy arrived and if it was worth me actually doing it or not and well, let's just say a lot of times I decided not worth it.
3. Leah's toys, especially her book basket she'd climb into and read by herself. I have a lot more entertaining to do now.
4. The chair in Leah's room. Our night-time ritual of reading is a lot less comfortable when I sit on the floor and sometimes I fear I won't be able to get my large body off the floor.
5. Mangoes. I bought one the other day and it was disgusting and very small in comparison to the ones I was getting in Lagos.
6. Settlers. Levin keeps playing with our friends and I'm so jealous because I miss it.

Things I Don't Miss
1. AFN - our military TV. I actually didn't mind that so much, but I'm loving my DVR. So nice to start a show late and fast-forward through commercials and dumb performances on American Idol.
2. Entrapment. I get to get in my car and drive and go where I want and not wait for a driver. Though I do miss some of the friendly drivers I had - i.e. Ade.
3. The smell. Last night I drove home in the evening from the church and could smell "farming" not exhaust fumes and other smells I probably don't want to identify. Fresh air!

This isn't something I miss or don't miss, but just an observation. Now when I go to church I blend in with the other whities and there are only a few black members. Not always, but at least in church, I started to just feel blended in and not like the glowing white lady, but other times I was very aware of my whiteness. I sometimes want to go sit next to the black members here in Maryland and ask if they feel like they blend in or do they notice the difference. I've lived on both sides now and appreciate that sometimes it does feel awkward to be different.
There was a picture in the church in Lagos taken one of our first months there that somehow never got taken down. I was at a Relief Society activity and we took a group picture. I was the only white woman in the group. I always wished I had a copy of it, but don't. If I did, it would be posted here. As Sesame Street says, "one of these things is not like the other one" and sometimes you feel weird.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like a huge relief when I go to church now that I say, oh yes, all these white people. It's not that way at all. Just observing the difference. . . . .