Kiddos

Mommy's big boy and Leah in her "house" as mentioned in the previous post.

I begged her to smile, but anyone that has been around Leah lately knows Leah is her own person and no matter of begging, pleading, bribing, or threatening works.

Can you believe how big he's getting? He must be learning from Leah's bad example and refuses to smile for the camera too. He's a little more somber than Leah was as a baby so they're a little hard to get anyway, but when they come, they're gorgeous . . . or should I say amazingly handsome and masculine?

Christmas in August

There are many advantages and disadvantages for moving a lot. One disadvantage is that I have been living here for 4 months with nothing more than what i could bring in mine and Leah's suitcases from Nigeria. The advantage though is that when your shipment does arrive it is like Christmas!

Friday our air shipment arrived. We get 500 lbs of air shipment and the rest comes by sea - it only left Nigeria on Sunday so it may be a while. It's probably better this way so you don't get overwhelmed by getting it all at once anyway.

It is so fun opening up our 3 huge boxes and seeing what was inside. Especially since Levin packed it without me. We had a little miscommunication about what should be included in this part, but all that mattered to me was that I got a lot more of my kitchen things, including my KitchenAid of course, some of Leah's toys, my real computer and towels so we can be better hosts in a few weeks for the big Flake reunion. It got a little tedious unwrapping since the packers wrap one hot chocolate mug in a million layers of paper. You should have seen the trash piles! I got it all put away before Levin arrived on Sunday. I was proud of myself for that.

When we went to Nigeria it was even more like Christmas. Levin and I had just gotten married and we had tons of things we'd bought with wedding gift money that we'd never even used yet. We'd both been living with roommates and didn't own some things so we went nuts at Wal-Mart and Target. Because of port issues, i.e bribery problems and just plain incompetence it took longer to collect it in Lagos. We received our air shipment then on December 23rd. We were leaving for South Africa on Christmas Eve so we opened our Christmas presents on the 23rd, cleaned up the wrapping paper just in time to receive our shipment. No shipment may exceed the Christmas feeling and excitement of that one, but this one felt pretty good. It feels pretty good to get your belongings!

We only had one casualty and it was our knife block and it's not really dead, just wounded.

Leah and her cousins have been having the time of their lives with one of the big boxes. Levin even cut windows in it. It all goes back to my theory that you shouldn't buy your kids presents, just give them the box it comes in.

On a side note, as you unpack you seem items and realize you've lived just fine without and you realize how much junk you own! Some of my shoes Levin threw in at the last minute when we had more weight available and a couple I pulled out and thought, do I really want to wear these shoes again that have walked the streets of Lagos??? But thank goodness for Lucy she had washed up and polished up most of my shoes. Have I ever mentioned that I miss Lucy?? We think we have her hooked up to work for Levin's replacement. I hope it works!

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.