Emma Hadassah 2 Years 2 Months

This month has been super fun as Mark’s parents and our friend Carolyn were in town. Emma LOVED having them around to play with her and chase her around the house with the broom. Here are some fun things from this month.

Emma talked her grandpa into coloring in her big box with her. She very much enjoyed doing this every evening while the rest of us made dinner.

We have been working on recognizing the alphabet while we sing it. I made a felt ABC board for Emma and she has really enjoyed it :)

Emma is forming more and more sentences. Her new favorite phrase: “There, that’s perfect!” And when she eats will say “Mmm, that’s good!”

While watching the Olympics Emma would look for the Jesus statue and say “Where did Jesus go?” When they showed it again she would say “There He is! I found Him! He’s Alive!”

Emma likes to put her hands on my belly and say ‘hello bubba!’ I love you!” and kiss it :)

She loves to take pictures of us with our phones and her play phone.  The majority of the pictures are of our feet, the ceiling, our hand….you get the idea.

She loves singing. Most of her songs are about what she sees while she is singing.

Emma is getting pickier about what she wants to eat. However, if there is ketchup she can dip her food in she will most likely eat it.

Her imagination is growing every day. She likes to ‘make’ us chocolate cake and tea and likes to pretend we are sleeping so she can cover us with blankets.

She is scared of my blow dryer and will close our bedroom door, the hall door, and her tot school room door (our house has a million doors) so she can’t hear it.

Fun Things We Did This Month:

We got to pick Mark’s parents up at the airport in Nairobi with a fun sign Emma decorated. We got to hang out with them for two weeks. Emma LOVED having them hear and playing with them.

We had our 20 week ultrasound and found out Emma will have a baby BROTHER in Dec!!

We had some friends over for a cooking day! Emma and her friend Mary enjoyed eating the cinnamon rolls.

We visited an orphanage and school and did medical checkups on the kids. Emma enjoyed helping Grandma and passing out the suckers at the end.

Tot School July/Aug:

This month we have been working on singing the alphabet and seeing the letters at the same time. We have also been working on color recognition. Emma is doing a lot better with her colors and 8 times out of 10 gets it right. We have started to count to 20. She generally tells us ‘no’ and makes us start back at 1. We did a fun science experiment this month where we got to watch yellow and blue make green! Emma loves to draw circles and loves to count just about anything. However, she usually only counts to 5. 

 

 

 

Dating Your Spouse without Leaving the House

Before Mark and I moved our little family to Kenya we greatly enjoyed our date nights. It was a time for us to get away without Emma and invest in each other and our marriage. We both knew that going on dates once we moved here was going to be a challenge as we do not have a babysitter and there aren’t really a lot of places we can go here on dates. Regardless of all that, we decided we were going to plan a weekly date night and get creative!

Our date night is generally on Wednesday which also happen to be our family day. We take turns planning the date which makes it fun and exciting as the other does not know what to expect. Our dates start once Emma has gone to bed, somewhere between 8pm-9pm.

We have had a lot of fun planning the activities and being creative. Our dates have included game nights, taking a ‘trip’ to NYC, London, and Greece, and camps-outs. We have done themed dates that were for F.R.I.E.N.D.S., the Divergent series, and St. Patrick ’s Day.  We have had food dates such as ice cream tasting and a wine and cheese night. 

 

 

Most of our inspiration for our dates come from TheDatingDivas.com. It is a great resources for people living abroad who cannot always go out for a date but also great for those who are able to get an evening away. 

While Mark's parents were in town we got to go on our first date in Kenya. They kindly watched Emma so we could celebrate our anniversary. Having the opportunity to go out just the two of us meant more to us than they probably know. We spent the afternoon eating delicious Italian food (that actually stayed warm for the whole meal), holding hands, talking about life, and investing in our marriage. It was an afternoon well spent! 

It's not always easy dating your spouse in another country due to lack of babysitter, restaurants/activities, or the fact that people in your host country do not really date their spouses, but it's 100% worth all the effort!!