Puppies!

Yes. We have puppies, AGAIN. Unfortunately none of the last litter survived. There are a variety of reasons why, but this post is not about that. It's about the fresh new week old puppies huddled together in the dog house. So far all 7 seem to be healthy and Eames seems to be doing a better job of taking care of them. Yesterday, we let Jude hold one. 

Here is his initial reaction.

He warmed up to it though.

And then got kind of bored with it.

He'll enjoy them a lot more when they are a little bigger and a little more active.

Project 52: Laundry

For this week's Project 52 photo I thought I'd show you how I get laundry on the line while taking care of Jude. That's a bouncer seat he's sitting in. He loves being outside so he stays pretty happy long enough for me to get half the laundry up. Then, I talk to him a lot while hanging up the second half. Sometimes, Nevin and Amosi (neighbor kids) come up to the back fence and talk to us which helps keep him entertained.

In other news, we just got back from Mwanza where I went to the dentist for the first time in three years. We also stocked up on food, had lunch at the Chinese restaurant, and dinner with friends. On our return trip I came down with the stomach bug that our team has been passing around, but thankfully I'm already on the recovery side of it. The rains have finally come which is great for our garden and bad for our laundry! It really cools things down which is a nice change of weather and Jude is getting good use of his Tennessee hoodie.

10 Months

At 10 months:

Jude is very mobile. He gets around pretty fast via crawling and walking alongside furniture. He took his first steps last week and we got him to do a repeat performance a couple nights later. He's still a bit too cautious to walk on his own, but he stands without holding onto anything often. 

Jude is in the early stages of developing temper tantrum skills. Oh dear.

Jude is a Titans fan thanks to Mimi and Grandaddy.

He has 3 teeth that have poked through the gums and one more that is close. If you look close you can see the top tooth in this picture.

Jude loves to be silly.

Jude can hold the camera and take a picture of himself. Ok, just kidding, but isn't that what it looks like?

Jude is ready to play with power tools. He ate a little bit of saw dust off this thing the other day. 

Mom is ready for the building that will hold power tools to be finished so they will no longer be in the house!

Jude is 17lbs of fun, except when he is sick and teething. Poor baby had a rough week, but today he has been just giddy. He also loves to drink out of a real cup and sometimes refuses to drink out of anything except the cup one of us is using. He loves to eat off of Daddy's plate, occasionally Mommy's but usually Daddy's. Elizabeti suggested that this is because he knows he is a boy and should therefore eat the same things as Carson! He loves to explore and keeps me running!

Sick Boys

After the last 24 hours, this was a welcome sight:

Yesterday, Carson came down with a stomach bug and after not feeling great all week, Jude started running a fever last night. We spent much of today in the rocking chair. This evening the fever had dropped and he was happily playing. I'm not sure if he's over it yet, but I hope so. Carson is feeling much better today.

I've decided to participate in Project 52: Glimpse into Motherhood, which is being hosted by a blog I follow. Each week I'll post some sort of picture that is a glimpse into my life as a mom. I figured you guys wouldn't mind an excuse for an extra picture of Jude. 

 

And I couldn't resist posting a couple of extras:

I love those eyes! 

Hanging on Daddy's legs

Christmas 2010

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our little Christmas here in Geita.

Jude opening presents on Christmas morning.

Our team had a Christmas meal together. There aren't alot of "real" gifts to buy in Geita so we played Dirty Santa with a variety of interesting things being exchanged. The kids, however, exchanged "real" gifts. Here are Jude and Baylor slowly opening there presents and wondering why we are all staring at them!

We had a great day and shared great food, but of course we missed our families. It's a difficult time of year to be so far away. 

For New Year's the entire Mwanza team joined us for the "Geita New Year's Extravaganza". We had a lot of fun. In fact, it seems I was having too much fun to take any pictures. You'll just have to imagine the merriment that takes place with 14 adults and 18 kids all in one place!