9 years old!

Happy Birthday, Juma! You have brought so much fun into our lives, and you are such a great kid to hang out with. You love to do so many things:

You are a board game champion,




you have a great imagination and love pretending to be different characters (here, a 19th century Hehe chief),




you are the best at being a silly head,




a great rock hunter,




a cave explorer,



iPad gamer,




an excellent rock climber,




and a budding biologist.



Happy Birthday, buddy!

monkeys and bullfrogs and butterflies, oh my!

Juma jumping (Iringa, Tanzania)

Disney

As part of a Beckham family reunion in California, we took Juma to Disneyland with his cousins. Juma is a perfect age for Disneyland, and had an absolute blast, especially playing with Rylee and Tristan.





Some of his other cousins were a bit young to quite enjoy it...but they were very cute all the same.

Juma at after school care with two of his friends

He created this and asked his teacher to take a picture of it.

Juma's questions at bedtime

Why do we exist?

Why do we have to learn?

What does gravity look like? What is it? Like, is it a gas like oxygen or what?

Why do we have to learn math. What good is it outside of school?

Why do we play sports?

frumpy

This morning I was feeling stressed from school and just felt like just wearing something comfortable, so I put on a hoodie. I walked into Juma's room to say good morning to him. I popped my head in, but he asked me to come in all the way.

Juma: Why are you wearing that?
Sarah: Because I felt like it.
Juma: It looks too big.
Sarah: That's because it is. Does it look bad?
Juma: Yeah, kinda.

And because I'm visiting Juma's class today to talk about our pioneer ancestors, I changed into something he wouldn't be embarrassed by.

We've hit a new stage: Embarrassed by Parents.

Ugh.

DC, Gettysburg, and Philly

Justin's sister, Andria, and her husband, Matt, and their baby, Amelia (aka Millie, Miller, Mills) came out to Baltimore to visit us for Thanksgiving. We took the opportunity to go see some amazing sights in Baltimore, Washington, DC, Gettysburg, and Philadelphia. (Well, I went to work the day they went to Philly.)

The long walk along the Reflecting Pool in the freezing cold wind up to the Lincoln Memorial:







The man himself:




The White House! There were a bunch of presidential-looking black SUVs out front, so we guessed Obama was inside. Did you know you have to request tickets from your representative at least 30 days in advance to see the inside of the White House? We didn't either. So we didn't see inside.




Lincoln at Gettysburg:




One of the many cannons and memorials throughout the 25 square mile battleground:



We got politely chewed out for letting the kids climb on this cannon, by the way.


Juma climbing on part of Philadelphia's Washington Monument

Juma's new hobbies

I'm amazed at how Juma is now a big kid. No more toddler, no more little boy. He's big now. He reads music and plays the recorder; he can bounce a tennis ball off a wall and catch it; he can balance on a skateboard. I can remember being able to do all that stuff when I was in 3rd grade, too, but it just seems unbelievable that Juma has reached that age.

All his friends at school introduced Juma to skateboarding. So we had to get him a (used) skateboard, and a couple skater shirts to go with it, of course. Skating is a complete package, after all. Still holding out on the Vans shoes, though.




He conducted a science experiment all by himself at the Maryland Science Center. Out of four mystery powders, he figured out which one was sugar by using iodine and vinegar.



And he experienced what it takes to survive an Antarctic winter.



Justin's also been taking him rock climbing. Juma's steadily and quickly progressed from climbing using any old holds to following specific tracks, marked with their difficulty levels. He's up to 5.5 now!

halloween

fun in the city

On our very first day back to the States, we got a family membership to the aquarium--of course. Juma still wants to be a marine biologist. The downtown area that is full of museums, shops, and the sites of the Inner Harbor is within walking distance of where we are staying. (Walking distance for us, anyway; it's a good 15 blocks. Juma gets to ride his scooter for such big walks.)



At the aquarium, we saw awesome jellyfish, these among them:



Lots of sharks and rays:



And also a dolphin show. But mostly we just enjoyed being together. Also, Juma has gotten to the stage where he can't take a normal picture.

cute old picture of Juma with his best friend when they were 2

Death, of rats

Juma is 8 years old!

Juma turned eight! It was the last day of school, too; what better birthday present is that? Well, even better than that is that Justin came down from Pemba, suffering two awful ferry rides on a choppy sea, just to be here for two nights to celebrate with us.

On the first night, Juma's actual birthday, we ate out at an Italian restaurant (pizza! gnocchi! three types of bread!) then had a birthday cake (unfrosted, at Juma's request).





The next day we took a boat ride with some of our friends out to Changuu Island, about 30 minutes away, for a relaxing picnic and swim at a little beach.

Abdul, who lives downstairs, and Najesh, who lives across the street, came along. Juma's known these kids since we lived in this same house in 2004, when they were all just toddlers. They had a blast playing in the ocean and then in the sand.






And of course Juma's namesake Juma came along, and helped him stay warm in the wind after his swim.



Our newest friend, Chase, also came, for her very first trip to one of the outlying islands in the archipelago. (That's me, Sarah, in the picture, by the way, the one with the shaved head and sunglasses.)