relocating via airplane

For those of you who don't follow Maisha Kamili, we have reached our initial fundraising goal and will be moving to Kenya on February 29. Fundraising is ongoing, as we don't yet have enough to buy land or build the children's home. We do have enough to establish ourselves in country and begin looking for a location.

We looked into the cost of shipping a palette or crate of our stuff over there. We learned that it is cheaper to buy all new furniture (and stuff!) in Kenya. Our luggage allowance is 2 51-lb checked bags each for Rodgers, Nate, and myself and 1 20ish-lb checked bag for Ben (he doesn't have his own seat). All of us get one carry-on bag and one "personal item." This sounds like a lot of bags until you consider that this will be *all* of our possessions that we're taking with us. I much prefer traveling light, with only bare minimum essentials, but our bare minimum is quite a bit more this time than if we were just taking a trip.

As the mom and wife, it is my job to organize, plan, test, and pack. We have 2 checked bags planned, test packed, weighed, and repacked. We have 2 checked bags that are partially packed, but not completely because we are still using some things that will go in them. And the remaining 2 checked bags plus the carry-ons are thus far only planned. We aren't planning to use Ben's checked bag allowance, but we do have a bag set aside just in case we have an extra 20 lbs of stuff we want to take with us. It's also possible we may prioritize one or two bags as "nice to have" rather than "essential" and leave them with someone to bring to us. This would make transferring terminals in Nairobi less stressful.

Three scenarios for when we arrive:

Scenario 1, which has been our Plan A, is to have a rent house waiting for us when we land. Our nephew will secure it on our behalf and put a bed and a case of bottled water in it for us so that we can survive the first night (we arrive around midnight). Day 1 in Kenya, we have to get phones and internet connection, buy a refrigerator, stove, beds for the boys, basic cookware, dishes, cutlery, and linens. The remainder of the week would be spent shopping for the next-highest priority appliances, furniture, and furnishings.

Scenario 2, which is looking better and better, is that we go to a hotel when we first get there. In this scenario we don't have to do so much shopping right off the bat, but we would have to move again once we have a rent house, and of course we'd have expenses for the hotel. However, we would be able to see and choose the rent house ourselves. We could stay in the hotel for the first few days we have the rent house so that we can get essentials moved in before we move ourselves in.

Scenario 3 would be like scenario 2, except that we'd live with someone. Living with people is not preferred, but it is cheaper than a hotel!

results are in

At his birthday party, trying to make a 2 with his fingers.

With Nate and Ben being exactly 20 months apart, their 2-year and 4-months (respectively) well child appointments were due at the same time. Since we've moved, we had to get a new doctor, who fortunately had two back-to-back appointments available so that we could do them both at the same time.

Nate screamed the entire time anyone, nurse or doctor, was touching him, regardless of what they were doing. We talk about these things, we watch videos of Sesame Street characters getting checkups, we weigh and measure him at home (on the bathroom scale and the wall), the doctor talked to us for a long time before attempting to interact with Nate, and he tried to interact with Nate several different ways before touching him (and Rodgers was holding him the whole time), but outside of Nate's comfort zone at home, he's having nothing of it. At least I don't worry that he would quietly wander off with a stranger/kidnapper at the store. He has a stranger alarm, and it is loud.

He is growing great, still a roughly average boy, though he is a bit tall compared to his weight. His head remains 95th percentile, and we expected nothing less. He still outgrows the neck-hole of a pullover shirt before it's too small.

I found this formula online: Girl's height at 24 months x 1.92 = her adult height; boy's height at 24 months x 2.04 = his adult height. Based on this, Nate would be 6' 0.5" as an adult.

I don't know why, but I love this serious expression on his face.

Ben loved all the attention he got from the nurses and doctor. He got two shots and an oral vaccine. He thought he was playing with the nurse until she gave him the first shot. Then, he looked at me, confused and betrayed. He only cried a little.

Though he started out life much smaller than Nate did, he has now outgrown his brother in all three dimensions. (This is comparing their 4 month old sizes.) He is slightly bigger than average in weight and height. He has the same 95th percentile head that his brother does.

The doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solids anytime. We haven't started yet, but we will in the next couple of weeks. Though he noticed Ben's teething symptoms, he said we're probably still 2 or 3 weeks away from the tooth actually coming in.

The doctor was impressed with our kids and our parenting skillz, which makes me proud. :)

No sir, Ben!

Ben is grabby these days. He grabs on to anything he can. He holds his paci, burp cloth, and toys. He grabs my shirt and hair. When I'm feeding him, he holds on to the back of the chair with one hand and my fingers with the other. He grabs Nate anytime Nate is within range.

Nate is in a "No! It's MIIIIIIIIIINE!" phase. You'd think the whole world belongs to him. We are working on the words "share" and "take turns" and things like, "No, Nate, that's Mama's but you may use it."

Today, after eating, Ben was sitting in my lap. Nate came over and gave Ben a big hug. Ben loved it, giggled, and grabbed Nate's arm. Nate did not like that.

"No it's MYYYYYYYY arm! No sir, Ben!"

He shook his finger at Ben.

"No sir! It's my arm! It's my clothes! No sir, Ben!"

Poor Ben, being scolded before he's even hit 4 months old.

Ben

I feel like I tend to say more about Nate than Ben, so here is a Ben update post.

Ben is nearly 4 months old (will be on Sunday). He continues to be an easy-going, happy baby. He is content to be held by anyone.

sitting with Gigi

He loves to be worn in any baby carrier, any style, as long as it's on my front. I've tried to put him on my back, and he cried the whole time. Maybe my back is awkward. Or bony. He is especially enjoying outward facing positions (either a kangaroo/Buddha carry or outward facing in the Baby Bjorn), so that he can see everything that's going on in the world. If he is overly tired for his nap, often the only way I can get him to sleep is in a front wrap cross carry.

Ben taking a nap while I watch Nate throw the frisbee

My favorite Ben thing at the moment is that he loves to stare at me. Creepy, maybe, but very sweet. He took a nap in the swing the other day, and woke up without a peep. I had that sensation of being watched and looked up from what I was doing. There Ben was, just staring at me from the swing. Seeing Rodgers walk into the room usually evokes a giggle. He is fascinated by watching Nate and their cousin play together, but it wears him out!

staring at me...

Ben doesn't roll over yet, but he is tolerating tummy time more and getting better at the mini-push-ups. He loves sitting up. He will sit in my lap, supported only by holding on to one of my thumbs.

exercising

He chews on anything he can get into his mouth. His and my fingers seem to be the easiest things, but he tries out toys, too.

He drools. A lot. I call him Slimer.

magnificent string of slime

He is quite a wonderful kid.

I break it.

We had a hard time taking Nate off the bottle. He drank juice and water from sippy cups just fine, but milk had to be from a bottle. Eventually, we just put all the bottles away and let him deal with it. By then, he was eating enough to not need the milk anymore. About a week or so after we put the bottles away, he drank milk from sippy cups.

Then he started getting his 2 year molars, and he got attached to one special cup for milk.

from Amazon

The Nuk Learner cup - with handles. He didn't eat as much when he was teething. The spout of this cup is soft like a bottle nipple, but it's shaped like a sippy cup. He liked chewing on it. When his teeth were hurting and he was hungry, he wanted his special milk cup.

And one day he stopped drinking milk out of anything besides that cup. We bought a spare spout because his teething efforts were wearing out the original. I threw away the original spout in November. We started trying to get him to drink milk out of other cups, but he would not.

The week before Christmas, not long after we opened our Christmas gifts, he broke the replacement spout. He has not drank milk since.

It's a bit inconvenient because when he got fussy before, a cup of milk in his milk cup settled him down like nothing else. On the other hand, it's good because he has not been constipated since he stopped drinking milk.

It is sad, though. He will occasionally ask for milk, then remember and say, "Where's your cup? I break it."