It has been 1 year!

So I cannot believe it has been 1 whole year since I have posted anything on here. A lot has happened. First off, I graduated with my Masters. Secondly, Andrew and I bought a house. And most importantly, I gave birth to Jackson. I guess I stopped posting right before I got pregnant. Funny how that works. I wish I had blogged during my pregnancy, but oh well. Next time :).

So Jackson was born on 6/24 (his due date) at 10:50 a.m. weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz and was 20 inches. He has been growing great. His 2 week appointment he had gained all his weight back and was about 7 lbs 14 oz. At his 2 month appointment he weighed 11 lbs. 4 oz. and was 22.5 inches. He is in the 60's percentile for weight, 40's for head, and 50's for height (I cant remember the exact percentages.. I could look it up but I'm lazy!). He is a growing boy, that is for sure. Some characteristics of this little boy are

• He has blue/grey eyes, blonde hair, and dimples. One day I was looking at a Pampers box and realized that he looked very similar to the baby on the box. He's a looker, but maybe I'm biased. We think he is going to be a heartbreaker for sure.
• He is strong! Jackson rolled over at 3 days old and has been practically holding his head up since day 1. I always commented to Andrew that we never had a floppy head baby like I've seen before.
• He is very alert. Since he was born he was looking around at everything. He is still very observant of his surroundings.
• He is very active...always kicking kicking kicking. He never stops. In fact, he likes to kick me! He is going to be a very energetic and active child. Lord help me.
• He is very social. He loves new faces! He's always smiling at whoever will give him attention.
• He is happy. Although he cries (what baby doesn't), he is overall pretty happy. We have so many pictures of this boy smiling. I can't believe how early some of them were taken (we have one of him during his first week). He has been smiling consistently since 4 weeks and continues to do so daily. He also started laughing at 2 months 1 week. 
• He is determined. I will teach him something and he will focus on it intently. I love watching him learn because he will not stop until he gets it. He has objects on his playmat that he gets intently focused on (this toy monkey) and will not stop staring and fussing at it, but also playing with it at the same time. 
• He's a fast learner and has done things ahead of the curve. For example, rolling over, and also batting at objects.
• He's resilient. He had shots right after he was born and he didn't even cry.

Now that Jackson is 2 1/2 months he has already smiled, rolled over (from his front to back), laughed, held his head up, and grasped objects. He also has started to watch our every move. We can't get out of his sight! He recently started whining when we put him down. He loves to be held up against my shoulder so he is close and also can see whats going on. He loves to chew his hands and has also started to discover that he can put objects in his mouth. 

We are very excited for the next few months because we are really going to see him develop. We are excited for his next milestones: rolling over consistently and from back to front, sitting up, eating things other than breast milk, grabbing objects, playing with toys. I will try to make more of a conscious effort to update this so you all can keep up with his progress. Also, I'd like to have this on file for the future. I have already started making a baby book for him and have saved quite a lot of these details, but it is always best to have it somewhere else as well. Also, I have a very detailed account of his birth story which I may try to condense and post. I hand wrote it so it will take me some time before I'm able to have the time to write it out here. 

Until next time... Hopefully it will not be 1 year this time. Oh, and some pictures of the past year are posted below.

Jackson's 1st vacation- Lake Tahoe for the Weber Family Reunion. 1 1/2 months old.

2 weeks

1 day old!

My new hobby

Since I've been home from Africa I have been bored waiting for my final graduate semester to start.. so I have started painting and reupholstering dining room chairs. Random, I know. But it has actually kept me pretty busy. I have thus far completed two chairs. Wanted to post pics for you to see the process. This first chair already had a great paint job. I just reupholstered it with new fabric I bought at Walmart. My mom bought this chair at a thrift store for $25.00

This chair was more labor intensive. You can see the original chair before the paint job (brown with an ugly floral fabric). I sanded it down, used primer for the first coat, painted it white twice, and used 3 polycrylic finishes. Then I purchased some light fabric from Walmart and covered the seat. I think it turned out beautifully. What do you think ?

"Chop my Money" and "Facebook"

Since I am departing this place soon, figured I'd share two of the most important songs here in Arusha... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vC8qZILJE&feature=fvwrel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuiFJWEIpIo

Where I've been..

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

CHECKOUT MY OTHER BLOG

Started a blog for my trip to Tanzania... it is emmaintanzania.weebly.com 

Tanzania Trip Planning

So I have started planning for my summer in Tanzania. It's about time, right? Well, it is so hard to plan when you're going to Africa because a lot of the cheap hotels and buses cannot be booked online. But after religiously searching online for a decently priced hotel, I found a hostel that is called the Jambo Inn. Pretty awesome ratings, lots of "mzungus" in the pictures, and best part... CHEAP. One room with just a fan (no AC) is $20.00 per night. Can't beat that! Also, it is in the perfect location and they offer a taxi service to pick you up from the airport for $25.00. It's bad that I debated whether or not to pay that much... it really isn't THAT bad of a "mzungu" price.. but then again, I pride myself on my bargaining skills. I don't want to be THAT white girl that got ripped off. But I think since I'm not going to know anyone when I arrive in Dar, and I also will have huge luggage bags, it only makes sense that I would have someone there waiting for me. It makes me feel more safe since I am EXTREMELY nervous to be going to Tanzania. In Rwanda, I would travel months, heck, years, by myself. But Dar is a big city and it makes me nervous. I am still debating whether I should go to Zanzibar by myself. I think that I will see what people I meet at the Jambo Inn. I guarantee that there is at least one group of people just passing through Dar like me on their way to another destination, namely Zanzibar. If not, then I will just take the bus from Dar to Arusha... a 9 hour bus ride. I am super excited.. really nervous.. and anxious. Overall it will be quite the adventure.. traveling in Africa by myself. It is a big task to take on but I think I can do it. Just have to make sure I have plenty of Tanzania shillings upon arrival. Gotta work on that. And gotta get myself a phone upon arrival. If I learned one thing from my trip to Africa last time it's that it is nearly impossible to survive in Africa without a phone! Here in the US I could.. but not there. People are too reliant on phones to reach each other. Here's to praying everything goes as planned!

Here's a link to the hotel that I'll be staying in. Pretty snazzy,huh? I told Andrew that the bathroom was TOP NOTCH. Ha! I love how to me it is a luxury to have hot water and I haven't even lived months without hot water yet. What an adventure this summer will be...

http://jamboinnhotel.com/

Rwandan & East African popular music

I still jam out to lots of African music... probably weekly if not daily. Here are some popular artists and some of my favorite jams:

Kitoko- URUKUNDO

Kitoko- AKABUTO

Kitoko- IKIRAGI

Kitoko- YOU

Kitoko- AGAKECURU

Tom Close- BAZA

Tom Close- NDACYAGUKUNDA

Tom Close- MBWIRA YEGO

Meddy- AKARAMATA

Meddy- INKORAMUTIMA