Home again!

We are home again in Tanzania!  It's good to be back in our own house and although we're not quite in a regular routine yet, we're getting there.  Zarya seems very happy here and has adjusted well to her new life.  We are just now starting the hottest time of year here, and it does indeed feel pretty warm to us.  I had forgotten what it's like to be kind of sticky all day.  I am frustrated that the hot weather makes me not want to cuddle with (or feed, for that matter!) Zarya, since we end up with a layer of sweat between us.  Of course I still give her food and attention, but it's not as much fun as it was in a cold climate where we'd snuggle together to stay warm and cozy.

We're all over jet lag, which was an interesting experience with a baby.  It took a little longer than usual to get our bodies to adjust to a new time zone this time around, since we couldn't just sleep as we were able during the night if she wasn't asleep, too.  But after a week we were all well-adjusted and Zarya started sleeping through the night simultaneously, so we're pretty happy.  It's hard to complain when you have a wee one sleeping eight hours at a stretch at night!

Some things are a bit of a surprise all over again after being away for six months.  I'd forgotten just how dirty everything here gets.  I have to clean all the dust off my computer a couple times a day, and the chairs on our back porch are continually covered in dust.  Wiping off the dining room table is once again a daily job or else we get brown streaks where our arms rest on it while eating.

All in all, we're happy to be home again, despite the little annoyances that take some adjustment.  Our highlights thus far have been the fruit and friends.  We like our bowlfuls of tropical fruit and seeing folks we have missed during the past six months.

I'll leave you with a picture of happy Zarya on her playmat and one of me and her on our first morning back.

Pictures from December

6 weeks old

In the midst of our wild week of packing, good-byes, and last minute everything, I thought I'd take a moment to post a few pictures taken back in December.  Sherie Suter, a world-renowned actress, singer, and photographer (well, close but not quite - but she is a professional photographer and take amazing pictures, should you be anywhere around the Olympia area and want some wonderful wedding, graduation, or family pictures done) gave us the gift of family and baby pictures.  They are now three weeks old so Zarya looks a little different now, but they are still well worth admiring.

Christmas break

Andrew, Zarya, and I are all hanging out in Oregon for Christmas, soaking up some quality time with his family.  The week before Christmas we traveled to the east side of Washington State for a Smith family getaway, so we are already soaked up with quality time with that half of the family and are now absorbing the rest.  And so, my beloved blog readers, this is why I have not posted on our blog in a little while and why I will not be posting on it again for a while.  We leave the States on January 13 to return to Tanzania, and between now and then I don't plan to spend much time on my computer if I can help it.  I've only got a few more weeks left in America with our families before we go and I want to enjoy it to the fullest!

I will leave you with a few pictures of Zarya being her usual expressive self:

Blankets

Blanket made by Krista Gross

Blanket made by Mary Etta Zwart

Being a very un-artsy person myself, I appreciate other people's talents.  Several people have made Zarya some beautiful blankets, and thus far I have pictures of her with two of them.  These were taken yesterday and today, so she's 5.5 weeks old in these pictures.  Thanks, crafty friends!

Fun family games

 Are you looking for a fun game to give as a gift for a family with kids this Christmas?  If so, I have a couple suggestions!  I recently played two games that I quite liked and thought were very creative, fun games that worked well for adults and kids alike.  Both games are recommended for ages 8 and up, but I think that with a little help a smart six or seven year old could play them, too.  And there's no reason you couldn't play with just adults, either - as I said, they were pretty fun.

The first one is called "Walk the Dogs" and is available here: http://simplyfun.com/products/walkthedogs/
It has great little dog figurines that you line up in like a dog conga line in an attempt to get the most points, which you get by having several of one breed in a row and also just by sheer numbers of dogs.  You have to avoid the evil dog catcher and sometimes you can steal a dog from someone else's doggie conga line.  It's a quick game - each round is only 15 minutes or so, but you can play lots of consecutive rounds without getting bored.  For the family in your life that loves dogs and games, it's a winner.  Scorekeeping requires some basic math skills, but an adult or older kid could help younger ones.  There is definitely some strategy involved that is helpful and can give adults and older kids an advantage, but it's possible to play without it, if there are kids who don't really get how to go about it in a savvy way.  And since there are "dog bone points" for those with the fewest dogs, nobody ever gets too far behind in the points.

The second game is called "Dixit" and is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-5511302-Dixit/dp/B001OH9EDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1355025430&sr=1-1&keywords=dixit
This is a game that involves the imagination, but you don't have to be terribly imaginative to play (for example, Andrew, a very concrete thinker who is not prone to flights of fancy, did just fine when playing).  It's kind of like Apples to Apples with pictures instead of words, for those who are familiar with that game.  Every player has a hand of five pictures.  When is is your turn, you choose one of your pictures and make up a little phrase that describes what is happening in it.  You place your card facedown to start a pile.  The other players choose one of their pictures that could also be described by that phrase and add them to the pile, also facedown.  The original player then shuffles the cards together and lays them all faceup.  Everyone then votes for the one they think is the original player's card.  If everyone gets it, then that's bad news for the original player's points, as is if nobody gets it - the description has to be good enough for at least one person to get it right and creative enough that not everybody gets it right.  Points are awarded for guessing the right one or for having people vote for your card.  Because no reading or math is involved, it works well for all ages.  When I played it, I played with Andrew, his sister, my 10-year-old niece, and my 8-year-old niece.  We were all pretty even for points in the end, despite some of us being very imaginative folks and some of us not, and some of us old and some young.  The artwork on the pictures is great and there are plenty of expansion sets if you decide you really like the game.  It's fun and different!

Whom does she look like?

Misha

Misha

Zarya

Zarya

Andrew

Andrew

So, does she look like her mama or her baba?  ("Baba" is father in Swahili and "mama" is mother, and we've chosen those names for Zarya to call us.)  Judging by looking at us as adults, thus far just about everyone says Zarya looks like Andrew.  We think her mouth looks a bit like mine (especially when she's whining and sticks out her lower lip, in Andrew's opinion, which I don't think is a compliment to me...), and something about her eyes looks like Andrew.  Andrew thinks she looks like his sister Katie, but since I've never seen baby pictures of Katie, I can't really say much on that matter.  Today we looked at baby pictures of ourselves and now I think she really does look like her daddy!  Too bad we don't have color pictures of Andrew as a baby, but he's so old that they didn't have color photography back then.

What do you think?  Do you see family resemblance?

Smith Family Christmas Picture

This is my parents' family Christmas picture for 2012.  Featuring Greg and Madelaine Smith (my parents, the tall ones in the back) and the Johnsons ( the short ones spread across the front, from left to right: Lee, Lizzie, Rene, Jake, Margo, and Ava) and the Sandeens (you know which ones we are!), we comprise one good-looking family (we think).  The Johnsons aren't actually related to us, but we've been super-close family friends with them long enough it feels like we are.

We had a family fun day together the Saturday after Thanksgiving - food, games, and the obligatory family photo op.  Zarya wasn't thrilled with the idea of posing and smiling, but she managed to avoid totally ruining the picture by holding her screams back for a minute or two.  The red outfit doesn't help hide the fact her face is pretty red in the picture, either.  But she was a cute Christmas elf for a few minutes!  Oh, a very important side note on the aforementioned games: I was victorious in all three we played  - Scattergories, Walk the Dog, and Yahtzee.  I even got a bonus Yahtzee!

We'll be together with my sister Alyssa's family in mid-December, but that was too long for my folks to wait to get their annual Christmas picture taken.  Usually they have to skip us in the picture because we're far, far away, but this year WE were the ones who made it in and the Vikeslands in St. Louis were the ones deemed too far, far away!