You Put Your Right Foot In . . .

Hokey Pokey Homework

A fun and funny thing happened the other night. Our "building guard" lives on the roof of our building in a very small apartment with his family (they are not locals, they are from the country we lived in before). His job is multi-faceted--he does everything from cleaning the stairwell weekly, to running errands for residents in the building, to collecting the money for the generator from all the tenants, to taking everyone's trash down the street to the dumpster and so much more. He is very helpful and kind (any time he sees any woman carrying anything, he stops whatever he is doing and insists on at least getting you loaded into the elevator, and he always helps unload groceries from our car up the stairs to the elevator, and then helps unload from the elevator into our apartment). He and his wife and family are not seen as being of the same class as the people who live in our building and many times I have seen the wife especially be snubbed by the women who live in the building, but we really love this family (probably because they are so much more friendly than most of the people who live here) and we have visited in their home and they have visited in ours. All that to say, recently we had a fun opportunity to be helpful to them in a way we've never helped them before. The dad and his oldest daughter (we'll call her princess because that's what her name means) and his little boy rang the doorbell, and we discovered that they had come asking for help with Princess's English homework. (kids here usually study in either a French language school or an English language school, or at the very least, study English as a subject from the time they are very little, and school is very hard and very demanding and sometimes parents do the homework for the children) When we looked at the pages they were having trouble with, we were very surprised to find that the lesson was the words to the Hokey Pokey! So, matt started out reading through the lyrics (many, many times) while guard man and Princess learned to pronounce any new words (and I tried to keep the little boy from destroying my house or injuring me--he's a bit of a tornado). After about 15 minutes of going over the new words over and over, and having Princess read the words over and over, it was time to teach them the dance. One of our American friends was over at the time, and she happily joined in the fun with us as we all did the hokey pokey (except guard man, who followed along reading the words from the book). We discovered that between the 3 Americans, we all had learned different hand motions to the line, "That's what it's all about". I ended with a snap, Laura ended with a double high five to the person standing next to you, and matt ended with something else that I can't remember at the moment (oh, it just came to me--it involved a clap under the leg somehow). Wish you could have been there. Wish I would have thought at the moment to take a video clip instead of just pictures. It was fun to be needed in a place where we are usually the ones who have the need, and to be needed for something as fun as the Hokey Pokey!

Looking for Advice

Hey guys. I need your help. I'm thinking about doing something for Christmas that involves either a family photo card type thing, and/ or doing some personalized gifts (i.e. calendar or something of the sort) that features our family (more like features our impending child, but we may make the cut on a few months of the year . . .). Do any of you have suggestions about who you have used for this kind of thing? There's just a lot of choices out there, and I was hoping to not be shooting in the dark deciding who to use. Thanks for your expertise!

14 days and counting . . .

Uh, i'm kind of surprised that i can still stand and walk upright. How does gravity not just take me down at this point? Although I'm still pretty nervous about delivery, I'm also feeling more and more ready to get the show on the road and get Maya out of my body and into the world. I keep telling her she can go ahead and come any time. So far, she's content to chill it inside. She just doesn't realize she will have so much more space to play out here! She is head down but at my last appointment I wasn't dialated at all yet. Still out walking several times a week, and the object of many many stares. For about the last week i've felt a lot more discomfort (not to mention having to pee constantly) and sleep has been more difficult, but I would take this over the early months of puking ANY day! My parents are getting all geared up to come and I am getting soooo excited to see them. They arrive here late on the 4th and Maya is due the 7th, so it will be interesting to see how the timing of it all happens. . . we'll keep you posted! :)

Not a Pound

After my most recent OB appointment (the one where I had gained 4 kilos and got scolded and laughed at for where I was tipping the scales) I was determined to do as the Doctor ordered and walk for at least 30 minutes every day and try to bring this mad weight gaining spree to an end. Well of course, every day was a little unrealistic (and on some days, 30 minutes was unrealistic), but I did manage to get a lot more exercise over the last two weeks than I have gotten in a long time, and today it paid off! At my Dr's appointment I was happy to see that I hadn't gained any weight. Based on the amount of food I have been eating, I am certain that Maya gained the weight she needed to over the last two weeks, (I'm acting like a hungry teenage boy!), it just happened that maybe I got rid of some weight that I didn't need! Anyway, i just thought I would share my victory with you. All looks well with Maya and the Dr. said she still has plenty of fluid that she's swimming around in. She is weighing in around 3.4 kilos now (that's 7.48 pounds) and the Dr. expects that she will go to term and weigh 8 pounds! I'm getting more and more uncomfortable and I keep whispering to her that it's okay if she wants to come early. . . . we've just about got everything ready for her. We still need to figure out how to put the base for our car seat into our car, but they don't exactly check your car seat out at the hospital here, like they do in the states. . . .

35 weeks and counting

"Holy Cow" and "God Wills It"

I need to post a new picture so you can marvel at how ginormous I have become, but just to give you a hint I'll share this little moment from my OB appt. on Thursday. There's one little nurse who is always moving at light speed, going from one exam room to the next, taking blood pressure and ushering women in and out. She's very enthusiastic, and I think she especially likes us because we are the token foreigners who can (sort of) speak the language. Thursday she had me step up on the scale and as she kept moving those little slider things further and further over, she finally blurted out, "Ma'sha Allah!" which is kind of a combination of saying "God wills it!" and "Holy Cow!". Then she said my weight out real loud, and then burst into giggles. We use kilos here and I had reached the 100 kilo mark (I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many pounds that is!). Apparently she doesn't weigh a lot of women of my size (women here are TINY!). The story goes down hill from here (i had gained 4 kilos since my last appointment, my Dr. kept saying, "I expect you to PUSH! This is gonna be a BIG baby!" and then my blood pressure was high (again) so i had to do (another) urine and blood test and go buy a blood pressure cuff so i can take my blood pressure at home twice a day). The Dr. also scolded me for not exercising ("You must walk AT LEAST 30 minutes EVERY DAY!) . . . but she did say that Maya looks fine, she still has the right amount of fluid around her, etc., etc. And, after taking my blood pressure 3 times during the visit, it was back down to normal before we left the office, so I'm still convinced it goes up just being in the hospital, surrounded by a waiting room full of irritated pregnant women who have had to wait way too long, and then hearing the nurse say "Holy Cow!" when she weighs me. . .