random things

It is a little after 7 in the morning in the US, and Dexter will be heading shortly to UMDNJ to start his day of touring, exploring, interviewing, learning, etc. at UMDNJ.  I feel so very far away and removed from this momentous event, and so I need to distract myself.  I've got monster cookies baking in the oven for a game night tomorrow night {another distraction} and I figured while they bake, I could post some random pictures that haven't yet been seen.

In no particular order. . .

This elephant quilt was made by a friend and given to me at my shower in November.  My mom and I looked for a rod to hang it from when she was here, but the cheapest we could find was for $100, so we opted to wait. She found this rod at Bed Bath and Beyond, and I brought it back with me.  We finally hung it in September. I love it.  Kyalo loves it too, as he's always grabbing for it. {Perhaps we hung it too low}.  And, if you look closely in the corner of the changing table there are some wooden animals that were my brother's when he was a baby.  30+ years old!

You may remember that the borrowed Johnny Jump Up was a huge hit while I was home, so Mom insisted I take one back with me.  This, too, took a while to hang.  We don't have moulding over the doorways, so needed to be creative: Dexter had to chisel into the door frame itself.  It has been up about a month now and has been a great place to plop Kyalo. He's recently learned how to walk as far back as possible and let go and swiiiiiiing.  Not a bad $20.00.

Now that we're in the eating-real-food stage of life, we whisked out this chair that was given to us by the Riches.  It is great because he sits right next to me while munching on (and making a mess of) the things we give him.  I love that middle photo.  So far, he's eaten:  {baked} sweet potato, broccoli, banana, watermelon (seeds removed, of course), avocado, tomato. I think his favorite thing so far is the apples I let him suck on.  I do give him cereal every now and then, but that doesn't seem to fare any better than the other stuff, so I just stick to the real food as much as I can.

The best toy that we have for him at the moment, is my little basket of clothes pins. He loves to dump them out, play with them, chew on them, etc.  Not a bad toy to have around!  Also next to him is a book "Going on Safari" that we got at Amani Ya Juu, made by women who have survived conflict (Rwanda, Congo, the post-election violence in Kenya, etc). It was a good investment as he likes that, too.

We had a few days last week of many wake up calls in the nights and abbreviated naps, which made Kyalo very fussy all.day.long. After two or three days of this, I was at my wits end, and so Dexter took him out for a bike ride.  They didn't go far (or fast) but it was enough to lull Kyalo to sleep, and to give me a much needed break.  Dexter enjoyed it and will likely do it again, we'll just make sure Kyalo is better bundled up for that.

This was another hand-me-down from the Riches, and it has been sitting in his closet all this time. I was excited to pull it out yesterday, because we really don't have that many toys, and I thought he'd like to see something new...something that lit up and played music.  Boy was I wrong! I think it must have scared him. Twice.  Because both times I gave it to him, I got the same reaction.  Which was this:

Yep, I took pictures of my kid screaming. Is that wrong?  I actually found the whole situation hilarious, if I'm being honest.  I've put the toy away for another day. Maybe it is more of a 9-month-old toy.

8:30 am in NJ now, and Dexter should be getting started!  Kyalo's awake from his nap, and the sun is shining {we've had some much needed rain the last few days, but I'm glad the sun is back}, so we'll go for our afternoon walk. Then I'm home to come up with something other than popcorn for dinner. I'm sorry this is such a long post...but I needed the distraction!