Today Eden had her hair braided for the first time. A woman named Josephine came to our house and Eden watched movies, ate cheerios and cookies and sipped juice while having her hair braided. She did pretty well; she only squirmed a little bit. Her hair is very cute and she is quite proud of it. She has a little mirror that she is carrying around and she stops to check herself out every other step. 🙂

Andy is now 7 months old! He is really starting to move around a lot more and interacts with all of us. He desperately wants to crawl and be able to chase Eden around. He lays on his belly and wiggles and squirms, following her with his eyes while she plays. He really loves anything that Eden does. He gets so excited when she comes in to get him up in the morning or after naps and likes to jump in his exersaucer when she is jumping near by.

Andy loves being outside and playing peek-a-boo. He laughs a lot and has started rolling from his tummy on to his back. He is really getting in to the baby food but pretty much refuses to eat anything green. He’s a great snuggler and decided about a week ago that he would like to get up at 3am every morning for a little snuggle time. Last night was the last night for that, though! 🙂 His first tooth is about half way in (note the slobbery clothes) and he has been a trooper throughout the process.

We have several events coming up and will be posting a bunch of pictures over the next few weeks, so check back often!

While I was away for 3 weeks in Africa Eden had the audacity to go and grow up on me. She is now using “sentences” regularly. Meghan overheard her looking at my picture last week saying “Dada, home, please”. She has started to talk in the third person and refers to herself as “Edie”. If she wants me to not carry her anymore she’ll say “Edie walk”.

Eden loves to mimic everything we do (without being prompted). If I slap my knee, so will she. If I clap twice, so will she. If I groan loudly, so will she. Its very cute.

Eden was upset with me when I first got home yesterday. She gave me the cold shoulder for half the ride from the airport…but then for the last 10 minutes she was very talkative, wanted to show me everything, giggled uncontrollably, and wanted to hold my hand. (Andy sat on the other side of me just staring and smiling at me the whole time). Then this morning when we got up she didn’t want anything to do with me. She wanted “Mama” to feed her the oatmeal, take her to the bathroom, give her juice, etc. But then 30 minutes later she was her bouncy self and was bringing me things, etc. I hope she doesn’t hold this temporary grudge for too long!

Tomorrow you can start to vote for Andy on the Gerber website. You can vote once per day per computer/email address. To vote, you click on Andy’s picture, fill out the requested info, and then vote. Then it sends you an email and you have to click on the link in the email in order for your vote to actually go through.

Andy is on a yellow background and you can search for him on the website.  Just click on ‘Vote for Andy’ below and it will take you to the website. Thanks! 

Vote for Andy

How is it possible to both hate and love the Kenyan court system at the same time?!!

I met our lawyer (Daniel Were — pronounced “Wear-ay”) at the lower courts at 9am this morning. We were seeing a new magistrate because our previous one was transferred to Nakuru back in the spring. The new magistrate’s office was all business and very quiet. There were 3 other lawyers in the room and about 12 clients like myself. There was a very small amount of Swahili spoken back and forth before Were started things off by announcing our case, etc. After some shuffling of papers Were stepped out and beckoned me to follow. (Uh oh, not good!) He tells me we somehow fell off the docket! The problem with that is our official file is off in another building and not in the magistrate’s chambers! 🙁 Some disorganization with the changeover of magistrates must have caused it…so frustrating! Argh!!! Kenyan courts drive me crazy!!

Because I leave on Monday and because I was not able to stay in the courts all day we had to be seen this morning if I was to attend. …and now Were thinks its very important that I be there because “Baby Eden” is not. So Were started to work his magic: He called an assistant to go and fetch the papers and bring them to us at the building ASAP. Only 15 minutes later we go back to the chambers and see everyone waiting outside because the magistrate received an important (and private) phone call. Were chatted with some of the other lawyers there in Swahili but otherwise everyone is perfectly quiet while we wait in the tiny crowded hallway. We’re let back in a few minutes later and I found out that Were was getting himself pushed back to the front of the queue! So he just reads off what the magistrate should say while she hand writes it out for our file. She doesn’t even bat an eye at any of it! Were suggested April, she said mid-April was fine, and we’re done! I love the Kenyan courts!

We slip out and now I’m back at the training I’m giving this week with an hour to spare! I had arranged for several other guys to give all the talks this morning so I had plenty of time to type up this prompt update for you all!

Our unofficial “backup lawyer”, Milkah, was one of the other lawyers in the room because she had other business with the same magistrate this morning. So if Were had not been able to convince the magistrate I am sure Milkah could have! 🙂