Emma Hadassah 24 months- 2 years

Emma turned 2 years old yesterday! I still cannot believe how fast time has flown by. She has grown into such a sweet, caring little girl who loves life and exploring all it has to offer. She is talking up a storm and putting more sentences together each day. She loves to be the center of attention which, can you blame her, she is an only child…at least for now J 

We are excited to share...Emma is being promoted to BIG SISTER December 2016! We are all excited for the Fogleman Tribe to grow!

This past month was full of fun! We traveled back to the States for Uncle Kurt and Aunt Annie’s wedding in Colorado where Emma got to be a flower girl. She greatly enjoyed her flower girl duty, especially getting to eat the chocolate cake and play with all the balloons. Funny story: Before the ceremony started, she kept using her little bouquet to sweep the steps outside the church….It was a little obvious she has been living in Africa J

We took a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC where Emma got to swim in the ocean for the first time. She loved it and kept wanting to go back in and jump in the waves. Even now she asked to put on her ‘bating uut’ to go swim.  

Emma fell in love with Doritos during this trip but didn’t like how the cheese would get on her fingers so she would ask you to feed them to her.

Her new favorite phrase is ‘Emma can do it!’ She loves to try and do things herself without help.

While in Oklahoma we had chocolate cake at my parent’s house.  When we got back to Kenya, Emma kept asking for chocolate cake to which I explained to her that ALL chocolate cake lives at GiGi and Pap’s house. So now she just ask to go there and eat cake.

She is still rockin’ her ABCs but can’t quit grasp ‘LMNOP’

Emma loves smoothies!

Anytime we ask Emma what she wants to name the baby she says ‘Blue’

When Emma pronounces a word with an ‘L’ in it she draws it out. For example, blocks is ‘baalllooocks’ and sleep is ‘saalllllleeeep’

Emma asked for a bath tub for her birthday.

When we asked her how old she was she said ‘6!’ Not quite yet kiddo….not quite.

Fun Things We Did This Month:

Emma learned to ride a tricycle at her cousin’s house and LOVED it!

We visited the Great Salt Plains in Oklahoma with family.  Emma enjoyed digging in the salt and jumping in muddy puddles like Peppa Pig.

Emma got to play with all of her cousins from both sides of the family while we were back in the States. She had fun with Zari in Colorado swimming in the hotel pool and had fun with Ian, Noah, and Eli in Oklahoma running around GiGi’s backyard, jumping in muddy puddles, and playing with all of their toys.

We got to celebrate Emma’s birthday all month long and had parties with both sides of the family which was extra special.

Tot School May/June:

Tot School was pretty much non-existent for this last month. At least an organized sit down class was. We did have fun learning about the ocean, sea shells, seeing the mountains in CO, and always working on counting, shapes, colors, and ABCs.

Fun Photos From This Month:

 

 

 

 

Emma Hadassah 23 Months

I cannot believe Emma will be two next month! She is starting to look more like a little person than a baby and is talking ALL the time.  Here are some highlights from this month:

-Emma is obsessed with Mickey Mouse.  While we were at a restaurant she kept calling the mango juice ‘Mickey Juice’ and would not let us call it anything else.

-She always ask ‘wat dat?’ and 'wook at me!'

-Emma calls her shirts ‘dresses’

-One day we were driving back from Nairobi in the rain (a 3 hour drive) and Emma kept singing ‘Rain, Rain, go away, Rain, Rain, go away!’

-She LOVES chocolate! Takes after her momma J

-Emma will ask for us to tickle her and she thinks it’s hilarious.

-She loves Peppa Pig and loves to ‘oink’ like Peppa does. She also request that we make the sound with her. She also has decided to start calling Mark and I 'daddy pig and momma pig'......

-One of our dogs, Satchmo, got in a fight with another dog in our neighborhood. When I told Emma she said ‘I kiss it (his leg) and all better!’ I said that was sweet of her but his leg is really dirty. So she just kept hugging him.

-Emma LOVES to sing her ABCs. They are still all over the place but she is trying.

-She is obsessed with jumping. One day she was playing with Mark in her room for about an hour and the whole time she was jumping and trying to get him to jump with her.

-Emma got to try cookies n cream ice cream for the first time this month and she kept saying ‘Emma wuv ice ceam!’

-She is terrified of bugs, especially ones that fly. She will say ‘Ahh bug! Daddy get it!’ After Marks kills it she says ‘All better. Daddy got it!’

-Emma loves animals and thinks they all love her just as much. We walked passed a sheep the other day and Emma wanted to pet it. We had to explain to her that the sheep was eating lunch and probably did not want to be interrupted. Plus it was covered in mud.

-While we were leaving a restaurant one Sunday Emma told Mark ‘watch out for cows!’

-Emma calls basketballs ‘bouncy balls’

-Emma could stay in the shower for hours if we let her. She now prefers all the washing to happen at the beginning so she can stay and play. We will ask if she is ready to get out and she will yell ‘no!’ and close the door.

-She doesn’t like to say hi and greet people anymore. This is because when she would shake people’s hand in Kenya they always try to pull her and hold her. She was not a fan of that and would scream ‘no!’ So now she just decided to not greet anyone.

-While we were in the Toronto airport I put Emma on top of a bag that was on her stroller and told her she was on top of the world. She then proceeded to yell "WOOK AT ME! I'M ON TOP OF DA WOOORLD!" for everyone to hear. 

Fun Things We Did This Month:

-Emma got to ride on a horse for the first time! She loved it and ask to do it again. 

-We visited a Samburu Village in Rumiruti. Emma did really well with being in the car all day. At one point we got out to talk with a Samburu man about his village and Emma only wanted to stand behind the car and practice her ABCs.

-We traveled back to America for the first time in 5 months. WOO HOO! Emma did great on the plane rides! She slept almost the whole time on the first flight and enjoyed watching Max and Ruby on the second flight. We are all excited for Uncle Kurt and Aunt Annie’s wedding and to see many friends and family!

-We got to have a mini family vacation at Myrtle Beach. This was such a blessing and Emma has loved playing in the ocean and in the sand. Emma’s first trip to the beach was last year and she wasn’t a big fan of the water. This time around, we couldn't keep her out of it. She even woke us at up 3am asking to go swim and jump in the ocean. Mark now has someone who will play in the water with him since his wife prefers to lounge on the beach :) 

Tot School April/May 2016:

-Tot School in April was super fun!  Emma loved learning the color purple and would point out the color anytime she saw it.  She loved making the flower hand prints with paint. It was one of her favorite crafts. She has come to love coloring, especially with markers and always ask to paint pictures. She is getting a lot better at saying her ABCs but still forgets a few.

-Tot School in May has been a bit different with our trip being right in the middle of the month. We finished learning about Y and Z before we left and also learned a little about ocean animals since we are now at the beach! She has loved the new songs and tries to teach them to her friends at church. This month we really worked on shapes with shape matching and played with some of her toys that involve putting shapes in the right place. In the moment she can say which is which pretty well but if you catch her off guard then mixes a few up.

Fun Pics From This Month:

 

 

The Expats Kitchen

One of the hardest things for me (Kenzi) to adjust to here in Kenya was definitely cooking! While I thought I was prepared to make a lot of things by hand, I learned that here everything is literally homemade. There is no chicken stock, salsa, or pancake mix unless you make it yourself. Which is what I have learned to do. I will say we can go to the American style grocery store that is 1.5 hours away from us to get a few canned goods, boneless/skinless chicken breast and cake/brownie mixes but they cost 4-5xs as much as they do in the states.  We may or may not buy pancake syrup for $8 every now and then…

The local Sokoni (Market) here in town is great! Farmers come from all around the country on Tuesday and Fridays for Market Day. You can get all kinds of fruits and veggies. I can usually buy all our produce for the week there for about $5. The one thing they do not have at the Market is lettuce for salads. I have missed salads the most here. Kenyans don’t really like raw veggies so just eating a salad is such a weird concept for them. Thankfully at Nakumatt (the American style grocery store) I can buy lettuce for a fair price so we have it every couple of weeks. At our local supermarket called Spear we can get lots of basic items including eggs. Eggs so fresh they still have feathers on them!

Spear Supermarket

In our town, the Hotels (restaurants) only serve Kenyan food. I guess coming from American I was spoiled with food from so many different places that I just assumed most places had a variety of foods. We can’t go get Chinese food in the middle of the night (which we never did in the states but at least we had the option), forget Mexican food (most Kenyans don’t like spicy food), and Italian…well let’s just say I have tried to serve some of our Kenyan friends spaghetti with meat sauce and they told me that wasn’t food. Needless to say we have been getting our fill of Kenyan food.

Since moving here, I must say I have grown a lot in the culinary department.  It is a blessing that the internet is full of great recipes because I accidentally left all my cookbooks back in America! At home we eat mostly American food. I have learned how to make (homemade) potato soup, cinnamon rolls, chili, bread bowls, mac-n-cheese, butternut squash risotto, crescent rolls, broccoli salad, soak and boil beans, chicken noodle soup (with homemade noodles), pancakes (from scratch-no ‘just add water’ here!) garlic knots, chicken fried rice, mexican tacos with chipati bread (like a thicker tortilla), pizza (including the sauce -which I learned how to make a whole pizza from scratch a few years ago so this isn’t really new but still noteworthyJ).  We also get our milk straight from the cow so I have learned how to boil, strain, and store the milk.

Each week I decided I would try to make two knew recipes. I have actually really enjoyed playing in the kitchen.  I learned that cooking or baking is a big stress reliever for me.  Plus, when the food taste good then there is one less thing I have to worry about J

**I am sure some of you saw the post about butchering and cooking a whole chicken (pictured below).  I would just like to say that that experience was a little traumatic for me and probably won’t be happening again…*hashtag*WhatWasIThinking  *hashtag*IAmAMzungu *hashtag*IAmNotACountryGirl *hashtag*IGrewUpInTheSuburbs *hashtag*ThoseLegsStillKillMe

Emma 22 Months

Since we live so far from family and friends back home, I wanted to start a monthly blog about Emma and how she has grown each month. I'm sure the grandparents will love this the most but it will also be fun for us to have to look back on some day.                                                                                                                                       Emma is growing like crazy and saying new things everyday. It is starting to be a mixture of English and Swahili words now. Her favorite Swahili word is 'tuanane' which means 'see you.' She says it all the time! 

She loves to play in the dirt. It doesn't matter where we are either. She runs to the backyard to play in it, if we have car trouble and stop for a few minutes she gets out and looks for the dirt, if we are at a children's home and we tell her to go play with all the kids she then looks for dirt and plays with the kids in it. It's pretty funny. 

In the morning, Emma likes to come into our room and wake us by saying "mom, hey mom, hey hey! Dad, hey dad, hey hey!" It was fun the first time.... 

Emma loves books! Before nap time and bedtime we always read books and then she holds them while she falls asleep. I really hope this love for books sticks around a while.

Ever time we pray before eating or sleeping, Emma wants us all to hold hands, bow our heads, and she starts with 'Jesus' then wants one of us to continue. 

If we ask Emma to pray she sings 'Jesus Loves Me this I know, amen!'

Emma loves to dance and will randomly burst out in song (that's my favorite).

Her favorite song is 'Jesus Loves Me' and 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman'. She even goes to our backdoor to sing that last one :)

Mark was holding Emma on one of our walks and he asked if she wanted to walk and she responded "No thank you. Hold you (me)."

Emma played in her little pool for the first time this year. 

She loves to eat peanut butter from the jar with a 'poon'.

Emma loves to brush her teeth and ask to do it about 5 times a day. 

She asks us constantly "what doing?" And "who dat?" 

Emma ran 77 laps through the house one night while I was cooking dinner. Mark faithfully followed her and made sure she drank some water :)

She has started to get a little car sick on our roads trips. We think it's either her molars coming in or just getting sick from the winding roads here. Either way, we now bring a change of clothes, lots of bags, wipes, and essential oils on our trips.

Emma is now sleeping in her own room, in a big girl bed, without her paci!! 

Fun Things We Did This Month:

This month we had the chance to visit The Maisha Project in Kisumu. Emma loved running with the kids and playing in the dirt. On this trip we also got a fun care packages suitcase full of goodies from family and friends back home. Inside was a new baby doll for Emma. She instantly fell in love and plays with it all the time. We even have to keep diapers on the baby. 

On Easter Monday we had 15 kids from The Father's Delight over for some pizza and to watch a movie. Emma loved showing off her toys and how she isn't afraid to play with our 3 dogs. She also showed them how to carry dirt in the frisbee.

We visited Lake Olbolosat for the first time. 

Tot School (March/April 2016):

Emma is doing amazing in her Tot School! This is the first month since we moved here that we have been more on a schedule and get her school in most days. She learned the verse (Matt 28:6) pretty quickly. I added motions which I think really helped. After about 3 weeks she was able to say 'green' (our color for the month) without me saying it first. She does great at matching colors and shapes but still needs a little help with matching numbers. Craft time is her favorite and she ask to do that part first. 

In April we have been learning that we are a new creation in Christ. The first few weeks we slacked a little in Tot School due to more meetings, a women's conference, and a little sickness but we have had more free time on our weekends to catch up. Emma loved learning about the letter 'dubblewoo' (W) and making a 'bobberelen' (watermelon). She is having a harder time sorting her shapes this month with learning the difference between triangles and diamonds but each day she is doing better.

We spent the week before Easter just learning about the resurrection. Emma really loved the Resurrection Scavenger Hunt and the Resurrection Rolls! 

Fun pictures from this month: