Kindergarten!

I can hardly believe it, but Graham is in kindergarten! There were no tears here. I am just SO THANKFUL that Graham gets to go to kindergarten at all, and that I don't have to homeschool. It's all thanks to the Tyler International School. We are seriously so excited to be a part of it.

TIS has 12 students ages 4-13, and 3 teachers. Graham's class is pre-k and kindergarten and there are 6 students. His teacher, Miss Malinda, is very sweet and also very experienced. I am already so pleased with the progress he's made!

It's been a bit of an adjustment in our family for Graham to be away most of the day. Especially for Molly. She was very disappointed that she doesn't get to go to school too, and she misses him a lot during the day.

We are very grateful to our good friend Ty, who came to Mbale to start an international school two years ago. He is making it possible for people like us to live here without homeschooling. His school is blessing so many families in Mbale. 

Finn - 3 Months Old

Well, keeping up with monthly posts doesn't quite seem possible with a third child! However, I'm still trying. 

He's growing!

We all love having this baby around. He is incredibly sweet and smiley. Our first three weeks in Uganda (Finn was 3 weeks old when we arrived) were not so sweet. Finn was very fussy, and I had to hold him pretty much all day. Then I unlocked the secret to his happiness and started laying him down to sleep on his tummy. Almost immediately he started sleeping 10, 11, even sometimes 12 hours straight at night. Success!

Since then things have been much more manageable, especially with big brother starting kindergarten. Now that Finn is 3 months old I'm starting to feel like my old self again. Those first 3 months are just hard, right?

Finn is my smallest baby so far. I don't know how much he weighs, but he is wearing size 3-6 month clothes. Molly was already quite a chunk by 3 months.

Oh yes. We love it. 

Graham and Molly love having a baby brother. They are (mostly) very sweet to him. They love to hold him and try to make him smile, especially Graham. Graham loves to talk about all the things he's going to teach Finn to do. And he talks a lot about how they are going to share bunk beds. I still have to watch Molly carefully around Finn. She loves him, but she's still a 2 year old. I once caught her trying to put a small lego in his mouth. Yikes!

We are very very thankful that God has blessed us with this baby. He is so handsome and sweet, we are just as in love this time as we were the first two times!

Finn Christopher Allen

It's been a few months since I've written on my blog, and I wonder if anyone still reads it. But this is a great way to keep track of my kids' milestones and I really want to keep doing it.

On June 16 at 1:53 am, we became a family of 5! Here's the story:

As with Molly, I was scheduled to be induced a week before my due date (because of some of the issues I had when Graham was born). I went to the hospital at 6 pm on June 15. The midwife planned to give me medicine overnight to prep my body for labor. However when I got hooked up the monitors, they discovered that I was already having contractions 5 minutes apart, although they weren't painful. And I was dilated 3 centimeters. So the midwife decided to go ahead and start pitocin. 

For the first few hours, my contractions continued to be pain-free and I watched TV. The nurse came in periodically to turn up the pitocin. Suddenly, very suddenly, I had a very painful contraction. I immediately called the nurse and told her I was ready for my epidural. But it would take a while for the anesthesiologist to arrive. I was in hard labor, vomiting and writhing in pain. Finally he arrived and I got the epidural - sweet relief! I started to doze a bit. 

I've never before delivered with a midwife and I really liked it. I quickly reached 10 centimeters, but the midwife didn't ask me to start pushing. She took everything really slowly. I actually then dozed for about 30 minutes. I woke up suddenly, ready to push. I pushed 3 times and he was here! They put him directly on my chest and ended up leaving him there for several hours. The nurses did everything they needed to do to him right there on my chest. My mom and Chad were in the room for the delivery.

He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce, and was 21 inches long. He had the most beautiful dimples! And we immediately noticed his long fingers and toes. 

Graham and Molly LOVE having a baby brother. They actually argue over holding him! They both love to kiss him, sing to him, and touch him. 

I will upload pictures later, and I have lots more to tell about the last few months, but for now this will do. Stay tuned!

Graham's Birthday Questionnaire - 5 Years Old

This is the questionnaire I'm going to use for our kids each year on their birthday. You can see Graham's questionnaire from last year here. His answers are a lot longer this year. I sure can't believe Graham is already five!!!

1. How old are you? Five.

2. What makes you happy? When I turn five. And I like to play legos all day. And if I'm bleeding I put a band aid on. And when I'm grown up I'll put a band aid on myself.

3. What is your favorite animal? Giraffes and chimpanzees and birds.

4. What is your favorite food? French fries...no no no...hot dogs with bread. And my favorite soup is tato soup.

5. What is your favorite thing to do? Ride on an airplane. And my favorite airplane is the one that has a little tail on it and it goes up up high.

6. What is your favorite TV show? Daniel Tiger and Mighty Machines.

7. What is your favorite movie? Cars and Planes.

8. What is your favorite color? Green and blue and pink and red and yellow and orange and red and blue and green.

9. What is your favorite song? ABC's.

10. Who are your friends? Jackson and Lilly and John Mark and Riley and Grace and Joseph.

11. What do you like to do with Mommy? Do school.

12. What do you like to do with Daddy? Go to work. And play games.

13. Where is your favorite place to go? To our old house. And this house. And Mimi's house. And Nonnie's house.

14. What is your favorite book? On The Moon.

*Seriously, I have read On The Moon about 200 times. Graham has it memorized word for word.

15. What do you want to be when you grow up? I like to be a soccer player.

*Which, coincidentally, is what Graham's 12 year old friend John Mark wants to be.

16. What is your favorite bible story? David and Goliath. 

We are really proud of our big boy. He has really changed and grown a lot in the last year! He loves to do school, play with friends, swim, play outside, play games, watch cartoons, and look at books. He's a wonderful big brother. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Graham from the last year.

Easter

Celebrating holidays in Uganda is really different, and evokes a lot of bittersweet feelings. 

On one hand, I'm very thankful that my kids are escaping exposure to so much useless commercialism. I think we can all agree that the holiday commercialism in the states has gotten out of hand. My kids don't see any of the TV commercials, and they don't walk into any stores packed with big bright signs and a ton of candy and junk they don't need. Thankful.

However, it's really sad to think that a holiday like Easter could pass and my kids wouldn't have a clue that they are missing anything, unless I put forth the effort. I want my kids to have the same special memories of holidays that I have from my childhood. Easter baskets and egg hunts are nostalgic for me! For that matter, so are Christmas trees, valentines, and trick or treating. I love holidays.

So, like anything, there's good and bad.

We started out our Easter this year by going to church and celebrating the resurrection of Christ. At our church, the children's bible class meets during the sermon, and usually all ages are in one class together. Molly is too young to go by herself, as she still has a tendency to wander off. Sometimes I go with her, sometimes Chad, sometimes our friend Mebol. This Sunday I was with the kids in bible class and I enjoyed hearing the lesson on the resurrection and was pleased to see how much Graham knows about it, although he's too young now to fully understand what it all means. 

Sunday night we had a community barbeque and egg hunt. I'm SO thankful for the community of missional workers in Mbale! What a blessing that we can continue some of our cultural traditions in the midst of a completely different culture. 

Graham was a pro at hunting eggs this year, and had a blast. At one point he shouted out, "I love finding Easter eggs!" This was Molly's first egg hunt. Once I showed her what to do, she didn't need any more help and really enjoyed herself. It really is special and fun to see the kids enjoying traditions that I enjoyed as a child. Having a great community here makes that possible.

I didn't get any pictures at church, I really only took pictures at the egg hunt.

There were so many kids of all ages that we split them into two separate egg hunts.

Graham and Molly were both in the 5 and under group.

Do you like their matching Elmo Easter baskets? :)

And of course at the end they got to eat candy!

Nonnie's Visit

We were so blessed to recently have Chad's mom visit for two weeks!

We timed her visit so that she would be here while I was at the women's retreat in Kenya. I didn't get to go to the retreat last year and really wanted to this year, but knew Chad would need some help with the kids. He had to take the week before the retreat off from work for school and couldn't take another entire week off. Paula was gracious enough to be willing to help. 

Side note: the retreat was such a blessing to me. I got to get in a lot of extra rest and I really enjoyed spending so much time with friends old and new. There were two speakers who came from the states and everything they said seemed to be so relevant to my life. I just can't tell you what a blessing it is to fellowship with all kinds of women facing the same kinds of joys and struggles that I am. These 5 days were a huge blessing to me!

When I got home, we had about 5 days to spend with Paula in Mbale. We went swimming, took her to church, but mostly we just played with the kids at home. One highlight: one day Paula and I left the kids with my house help and I gave her a driving tour of Mbale. I took her to our favorite supermarket, called Bam, and to the local market. I think she really enjoying seeing where we buy our food and what's available. 

We drove Paula to Entebbe, and had an entire afternoon and evening there before her flight. We did something super fun that we have never done before and visited the Entebbe Zoo. Molly had never been to a zoo, and Graham hadn't been in two years and didn't remember it at all. We had the best time! The kids got to feed giraffes, and the most fun was watching a group of 15 chimpanzees play together up close. That night we ate Thai food which was really special for us. 

Thank you so much for coming Paula and we can't wait to see you again soon!