our lives in small town, East Africa

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Some evidence of all the fun and excitement Justin and Juma have been having together (while I study in Baltimore):


Kayaking and crabbing on Long Island Sound:




Finding a horse shoe crab floating in the ocean:




Riding a two-wheeler all by himself!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

home!

Home!

Safe and sound, but exhausted.

We've been singing in happiness all day.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

tomorrow

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow!

We'll see him

Tomorrow!

It's only a day away!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

another week down, 4 days to go

Juma enjoyed his summer camp this week learning about sea coast ecology and preservation ("Did you know zooplankton create oxygen?").

But the week was marred by illness. Juma started out the week with a sore throat and fatigue, and I finished off the week with strep throat, fatigue, and grumpiness. I'm still recovering, but I actually had the energy tonight to actually cook dinner. Well, to boil some pasta.

In better news, Justin's coming home on Thursday! We couldn't be more excited about his return. It's been a long, tough summer without him, and now we can say we survived it. Well, just four more days.

Four days. We can do it.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

summer camp 6: castles

This week Juma finished his very cool castle.



It comes complete with working draw bridge



and a shark to guard the moat




a jousting knight who can actually be knocked off his horse




and a variety of people--king, knights, a mummy--to guard, watch, and rule.






In addition to the bed and dining table featured on Wednesday, Juma also added a fireplace.




It was a really fun week.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

summer camps 4 & 5: sports and castles

After a week off summer camp while Grandma Wilson was visiting, Juma went to a week of sports camp--rowing, squash, basketball, volleyball, tennis, fishing, baseball, yoga, calisthenics, and kickball. He had a pretty good time, but didn't much like getting a wasp sting or a sunburn when his spacey mommy forgot to put sunblock on him.

This week he's back at the same camp as the first three weeks of the summer, building things. And, oh, he loves it. Now he's building a castle.

Day 2:



The beginnings of a drawbridge:




Day 3, with the complete drawbridge:



The bedroom with kingly bed:



The dining room:

Monday, August 03, 2009

science experiment of the day

Corn starch. Water. Food coloring. Stir.



Play.





Happy, busy child for 30 minutes.



Happy mom.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

birthday party

We invited friends over on Juma's birthday Wednesday for a Bakugan-themed party. (Good thing he let me know if plenty of time that he wanted Bakugan, because party items are not in stores yet; I had to order everything online, including the edible cake picture.)




I had the lucky fortune of having access to the great reception hall downstairs from our apartment, so the kids had a gigantic room to run around in, make noise, hide, and just be kids.

The video below contains some highlights of the party, including Juma opening presents from Justin, me, G'ma and G'pa Beckham, and G'ma and G'pa Wilson. If you think you hear Justin's voice in there, you do. He was on video chat while Juma opened the special present from him.

Also, you catch a couple glimpses of my mom--she flew all the way out here to visit during Juma's birthday. I just took her back to the airport this morning. We had a great time with her here, but I think she was missing Dad enough that it was time to go home.



And here is the birthday boy himself. Seven years old, four feet tall, and as great a kid as a mommy could want. I love you, Juma!



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

mom's in town

My mom came to visit Juma and me for 10 days, and we've been running to and fro seeing the sights and keeping ourselves entertained.

Friday, we dropped Juma off at summer camp and then saw Harry Potter 6, which was quite entertaining. Saturday, we dropped Juma off at a babysitter's and took the train into New York City to see Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Also quite entertaining, and I've had Abba songs stuck in my head ever since. We got back around seven, picked up Juma, ate dinner, then gabbed into the night (as mothers and daughters do).

Sunday after Mom went to church, we visited Yale's two art galleries, where we saw everything from portraits of the British leisure class with their favorite dogs to 5000 year old pots from China to Buddha's footprints to carved masks from southern Tanzania.

Next, we took an afternoon stroll around a lovely city park that used to be a private estate, and is still surrounded by a stone fence that seems to belong in a Jane Austen movie. I had to be home for work after that, so we relaxed and watched Nacho Libre, giggling our faces off at Jack Black's funnies.

Today we got a slow, summer vacation start on the day. Since this is Juma's only "real" summer vacation week where he doesn't have any summer day camps to go to, he took advantage of his leisure time by watching Sponge Bob Square Pants all morning. And I do mean all morning. I had a little work to attend to once again, but around noon we took a quick tour of the Yale library, then I sent Mom and Juma off to the public library while I had another appointment.

This afternoon we introduced Mom to the Peabody Museum of Natural History, a long-time staple of entertainment and education in our family. I realized we've been going there for six years, since before Juma could say much more than "Die-saur! Raarrr!" Now it's, "No, Mom, that's a mosasaur, not a plesiosaur," and, "Hey, they moved the triceratops skulls. But where's the torosaurus?"

After those trips, we were 10,000-step pooped-out, and just relaxed the rest of the evening.