(no subject)
Well, I do have an excuse for my infrequency of posts. I've been a bit preoccupied. Just with something pretty small, though it is getting a bit bigger these days.
Yes, I am pregnant, due at the end of February!
Generally speaking, the first thing that people ask me (well, people who don't live around these parts) is if I'm going to move back to the USA, or at least into town. My answer is a resounding hell no. What a gift to give a child! To grow up with the songs of the veldt luring him to sleep, the noise of the jackals and the zebra and the lion softly roaring at night? To wake up to the symphony of thousands of colorful birds, of waving grass stretching out, to see a Kudu making its way into the thicket? I want to give this baby the kind of childhood where he can catch tadpoles in the pond out front, watch them grow into frogs, ride his bike down the dirt road, go fishing for dinner, climb trees, ride horses, and be able to build a good fire by the age of ten.
We had a little cottage by a lake when I was growing up, a weekend house. My sister and I would wake mom and dad up at six on a Sunday morning, and they would sleepily tell us to go pick enough blueberries for breakfast. We would go out (ages six and eleven) with a bucket, jump on the little wood canoe, and pick berries from the bushes around the little lake. Yes, I know that you would lose custody for your kid by doing at these days. But my parents weren't worried. We had devilishly tricky canoe tests, even at age five, could swim for shore with a capsized boat, wore our life jackets, and weren't allowed to canoe unless we could steer the boat around the lake on a windy day paddling - with no help! - only on one side of the boat.
I want to give this little one that kind of childhood. Maybe it will be fetching fruit and eggs from the orchard, with no boats involved, but I still won't allow a TV in the house, I still don't believe that I suffered from not having video games, and I still think kids should play outside.
Anyways, it isn't like people have never had babies in Africa. As far as I know, it has been done before, for quite some time.
So, here's to the next five months or so passing fast! I'm eager to meet this little adventurer to be.
Yes, I am pregnant, due at the end of February!
Generally speaking, the first thing that people ask me (well, people who don't live around these parts) is if I'm going to move back to the USA, or at least into town. My answer is a resounding hell no. What a gift to give a child! To grow up with the songs of the veldt luring him to sleep, the noise of the jackals and the zebra and the lion softly roaring at night? To wake up to the symphony of thousands of colorful birds, of waving grass stretching out, to see a Kudu making its way into the thicket? I want to give this baby the kind of childhood where he can catch tadpoles in the pond out front, watch them grow into frogs, ride his bike down the dirt road, go fishing for dinner, climb trees, ride horses, and be able to build a good fire by the age of ten.
We had a little cottage by a lake when I was growing up, a weekend house. My sister and I would wake mom and dad up at six on a Sunday morning, and they would sleepily tell us to go pick enough blueberries for breakfast. We would go out (ages six and eleven) with a bucket, jump on the little wood canoe, and pick berries from the bushes around the little lake. Yes, I know that you would lose custody for your kid by doing at these days. But my parents weren't worried. We had devilishly tricky canoe tests, even at age five, could swim for shore with a capsized boat, wore our life jackets, and weren't allowed to canoe unless we could steer the boat around the lake on a windy day paddling - with no help! - only on one side of the boat.
I want to give this little one that kind of childhood. Maybe it will be fetching fruit and eggs from the orchard, with no boats involved, but I still won't allow a TV in the house, I still don't believe that I suffered from not having video games, and I still think kids should play outside.
Anyways, it isn't like people have never had babies in Africa. As far as I know, it has been done before, for quite some time.
So, here's to the next five months or so passing fast! I'm eager to meet this little adventurer to be.