bo's birthday bash

On Saturday we traveled to Long Island to see Matt & Erica.  We got a little lost in NYC and spent some time navigating the streets of Manhattan. (We only live about 15 minutes from the city, which is pretty great. Too bad Dexter's so swamped with school it will be a while til we get there!)

Anyway, the reason why we went was to celebrate this guy:

where's my cake?

Bo turned 1 on Friday, so they had a little hoedown birthday party for him.  It is so fun to have a baby so close in age with friends.  We share lots of stories and experiences.  You might remember Bo from his visit to Mass in September.  Both boys have grown so much since then.  It is fun to watch them together.

boys in overalls!

kisses/headbutts

Kyalo had a great time at the party. . . 

 soccer.

pony rides

and rolling around in the dirt. . .and chasing Moose, Bo's bulldog around.

After a sufficient time getting dirty, it was time to put two dirty boys into the bath!

lil bums

boys. buddies. baths. bubbles.

when babies take baths together, it ensures a life long friendship... right, Alisa?

It was a nice little excursion for us, a nice break from schoolwork for Dexter  and wonderful to reconnect with Matt and Erica.  (We were only gone about 30 hours, but still it felt like much more than that - and it felt wonderful!) We are only about two hours away from them...but they're moving down to Tennessee (jerks) in July so we won't see them too much.  Even so, I'm glad for the boys to have had another little bonding experience.  They're at a fun stage in life...so active and engaged in everything, and mostly willing to share and do things together.  

Kyalo really did love Moose so much, I'm afraid we're going to need to get a dog at some point! (I wonder if we can fake him out with a cat?!)

Happy Birthday Bo Bear! Can't wait for you & Kyalo to celebrate the next one!

bath time?

Kyalo loves his bath.  When we start the water he'll come running (crawling, as the case may be) from anywhere else in the house;  he'll stop crying or fussing -and start laughing - the minute it starts.  A bath at the end of the day has become a part of his bed time routine, which is a far cry from the early days in Kijabe when he was lucky to get a bath once a week!  But it was such an ordeal to give him a bath then...I'd have to boil water in the kettle a couple of times and fill a little basin. We didn't have hot water in the house, nor a stopper that fit the tub.  He was so young, I didn't think it mattered. . .

Yesterday morning as I was getting myself ready for the day, and -- I thought -- Kyalo was playing contentedly with some toys,  I turned around and found this:

 little rascal!

I'm just thankful he was still in his jamies, so I didn't have to change him a second time!

cookie!

* This post is dedicated to Auntie Evelyn and Uncle Franye who have been waiting for this moment!

I was pretty careful about not giving Kyalo sugar once he started eating "real" food.  I almost succeeded, too, except for the few times Grandma gave him a little something on the down low. "But he loved that ice cream!" Really?  I'm SO surprised.

So aside from those little infractions, I did it!

We didn't really do anything special for Kyalo's birthday.  We know NO ONE here in Belleville to celebrate with us, Dexter was at school late that day, and we have no money to put something fabulous together.  I wish I could have done something like this...she's a food blogger I read, and always does amazing stuff.  I'll pretend someday I can be that on top of things!

I knew I needed to do something, so I made my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe the next day, and gave him one.

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me...C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me. . .

I'd say he was a happy little guy!

looking back

With Kyalo turning one last week, I am feeling a bit nostalgic for those early days when it was all new and fresh (and I hadn't made any mistakes yet!). I can't believe that it has been a year since this moment, when I first saw Kyalo...

Can I tell you a little story about this moment?  I'll never forget how it was. Dexter had just announced, "it's a BOY?!?" {I think he was overwhelmed), and within moments, they brought him over for me to see.  But I was, literally, strapped to the table, the doctor was sewing me up so there wasn't much I could do. I wasn't exactly sure what, then, I should do. So I just kissed his precious little hand.  It wasn't until a little later that all those mothering and loving feeling rushed in with a vengeance! I'm so glad Dexter caught this millisecond of a moment because it is so special to me now.

I've been taking monthly photos of Kyalo, as you may remember. :)

Here he is, on day one:

{April 3. 2011}

And here's a little collage of all those months.  How he's changed!

I love this bright-eyed, dirt-loving little guy! Can't imagine life without him.

twelve months

It seems hard to believe, but we made it to twelve months with Kyalo!  Seems hard to believe it has been a year since I was giving you the play-by-play of his birth.  What a year it has been!  And, I would say the past month alone has been the busiest of the twelve.  I can't believe that we were still in Kenya for his 11th month "birthday." 

It was a busy month for all of us, and things were far from routine, Kyalo handled it fairly well, I would say.  He suffered through his first major sickness - several days of high fever. With no pediatrician in the area (yet) I was calling Evelyn back in Kenya, and a friend here in the US.  Kyalo got his fever as we were house hunting so that made for one dopey little guy -- which may have actually worked in our favor as we were in and out of the car (car seat) a lot for a day and a half...And, finally, finally, a couple of teeth broke through, which meant for a serious night of no sleep, but just makes him even cuter.  And if the two teeth that have popped through are any indication, papa needs to hurry up and get that Orthodontics Degree, stat! because we'll be in the orthodontics office a lot.

He continues to be a happy, easy going guy. He loves to clap and wave (in sort of an up-down, up-down motion,) play peek-a-boo, take a bath, and be outside.  We still have major sleep battles {and I have really been suffering lately, but you don't need me to talk about that}, but other than that, he's as perfect as can be!  He hasn't started talking any real words yet, but he is non stop "talking" any way, sometimes, it seems like he has full conversations with himself. I love listening to him!!  No walking yet, either, but he gets around just fine by crawling and holding on to our hands. I'm not in any huge hurry for him to walk.

For his monthly photo op, I took him back to the Cherry Blossom Park (because, let's be honest, it is the only thing in the area I know yet!) and we had a good time. 

 clap. clap. clap.

 studying the branches.

 pushing the stroller. a fun new trick!

April 3, 2012

Belleville, NJ

Happy Birthday, Kyalo!  We love you so much.

birthday eve

This week, Kyalo turned one year old. I truly can't believe it. It has been a great year! 

I wanted to get a few pictures of Kyalo right before the big day, so I packed him up and took him to the Cherry Blossom park. Turns out we're either in, or heading into, peak season so it is very beautiful there right now.  We walked around for a long time, and I took lots of pictures.

 {april 2, 2012}

showing off the teeth that have finally popped through!

That evening, he opened a little gift from Grandma. Dexter was going to be home late on his birthday so we wanted to do a little something together.  Of course, we haven't gotten him any gifts ourselves.  Still...

oooh! cds from G-ma. Thanks, Grandma!!

It was a nice day.

the house

We're back in Mass now, here for the Easter weekend. It took about five hours to drive here last night...and Kyalo slept the entire way, bless him.  While we're home, I'm going to take advantage of fast and unlimited internet, and multiple parties to watch Kyalo to hammer out a bunch of blog posts.

I figure the best is to start from the beginning, so without further ado, the house!

 There she is!

But, before you get too excited, this is actually a four-family home. We have one of the apartments on the bottom floor, which means we get those great bay windows.  This was the first place of the day that we looked at when we were house hunting, and since it was the first of several appointments, we wanted to keep an open mind...there were things we didn't love about it (a small kitchen, little closet space, etc), and thought we might find something better.

No.

It was leaps and bounds better than everything else we saw. This is a first floor apartment (though there are a few stairs to get into that), has hard wood floors throughout, a large living room/dining room space, and good light. Most of the others we looked at were second floor walk ups - up steep, narrow stairs, and I was envisioning trying to lug Kyalo (and groceries, other things) up and down those on a regular basis. Not fun.  The last one we looked at - which we looked at as we were waiting for our landlord to come from NYC - was awful.  In an industrial, run down neighborhood, a third-floor walk up (but it felt like six) and was so steeped in smoke that I felt like we'd get cancer just from living there.

Suddenly, the first apartment looked much, much better.

We feel so blessed to be in this apartment, with its good space, accessibility to school for Dexter, the walkability of the neighborhood, and a pretty great landlord. 

 our little sickie, checking out the apartment

 kitchen

* some day, I'm going to have a kitchen with all the counter space and storage that I want. And the outlets will all be perfectly placed, too.  Until then, I'm grateful for this.

This hutch thing is in the hallway and provides a lot of necessary storage.  I wish it could be a bit decorative, but right now it is serving as a bit of an office as our printer and computers end up there.

{a little dark} the bay windows!

 our $250.00 Craigslist couch (and white coffee table) which is, so far, the only money we've spent on furniture!

 moving in mess

 G-ma came to help!

off to church

The other great thing about where we live is that we can see the New York City skyline.  Not a bad place to set up camp for two years!

adjusting

We're getting reasonably settled into life here in Newark...Dexter had a week of orientation last week which was a nice way to ease into our new life - for all of us! He had shorter, easier days.  This week the real work begins. Already tomorrow he has a meeting at 5 PM and has to be in class by 7:30 am on Wednesday. Sigh.

The past few weeks have been running around getting things done: setting up the house, getting car insurance, finding the local library (and going to story hour!) getting our New Jersey driver's licenses and other mundane things.  But it feels good to be checking them off the list.

There are a lot of changes for us these days, the biggest being Dexter's 12 hour days, once you throw in the commute time. It feels strange to blow him a kiss goodbye when I'm barely awake in the morning and then not see him all day. I miss being able to walk down to the clinic to see what he's up to.

There are other, surprising changes, too.  When in Kenya, I dreamed of fast, unlimited, reliable internet, which we most certainly did not have there.  But, it turns out that fast, unlimited, reliable internet is expensive, and at the moment, internet in Kenya was better! Imagine.  That's one of the reasons the blog has been quiet - I have to be careful with my time.

I admit, last night I was feeling kind of cranky and overwhelmed about everything and was only seeing the negatives: I have no friends, no sense of community, nothing to do all the day long, Kyalo's not sleeping well (again, or - has he ever?), etc.  But then, today, it was okay! We were able to explore the local cherry blossom tree park, and are getting to know the area a bit more. I'm on the hunt for (free!) things I can do with Kyalo.

It will take time for this place to feel like home, but we're getting there. 

And, in other news. Today is the eve of Kyalo's first birthday! And my dad's birthday. Last year he sat by the phone waiting for news of the arrival of baby Mulandi.  Feels like just yesterday, not a whole year...