The Goods

This morning, I finally found a little time to post the pictures that many of you have been waiting for.


Such wrinkled little feet.


More feet


Big sister checks out the situation


I'm a serious little baby.


Is this my good side?


Four more pictures, and then we're done.


All this posing wears a little guy out.


Yawn!


A little snooze

He's Here!

Cohen Robert Hide arrived at 2:55 A.M. on the morning of January 24th, 2007. He weighted 3.5 kg, or 7lbs 11oz and measured 50 cm or 20 in.

Mom and baby are in hospital doing well. They may come home today, or if not, tomorrow.

Woohoo!

Happy Birthday Ka.....

We have interrupted this program for a fast breaking news flash. Beginning around 8:30 P.M. local time, early signs of labour were detected.

We will carry updates as the become available. We retun you to your regularly scheduled program.


...rla

Baby Yet?

No.

Boys and Balloons

Yesterday was Aysha's birthday party. It was a success. When Aysha woke up this morning, I asked her if she liked her party and she said, "Boys and balloons." She must have really enjoyed the party.

Karla invited the kids over a little before the adults. Julian and Matthew arrived early and were busy playing by the time the rest of the staff showed up. The kids didn't let the rest of us get in their way. Balloons were batted around. Toys snaked their way through the crowd. They just kept playing in between the adults, sometimes finding an adult that would join their games for a few minutes.

Here are a few photos from the celebration. I made use of some of the suggestions from the digital photography book that Karla got me for Christmas and took lots of pictures - 104, that I narrowed down to 24 of the party. You get seven.


It's my birthday. I'm a happy girl.


Everyone gets hats.


Sometimes you wait for the train. Sometimes you wait for the tracks.


Matthew loved to drive.


Gabriel was really concentrating on having fun.


Aysha got a couple more presents.


There was cake an singing too. Aysha was unsure how to receive the sudden focus of attention.

Happy Birthday Aysha

Today is Aysha's second birthday. Yesterday, we went to Aysha's first birthday party for the neighbours' daughter Sylvana, who is one year and one day older than Aysha. It was an extravaganza at a little amusement park not too far away. Lots of kids were there and the decorations were amazing. They had a table set up with a wrapped gift for every child who came and another covered with an all-you-can-eat candy bar for the kids. It must have cost a fortune. Even though Aysha could only go on a few of the rides, she had a great time. Here are a couple photos of mine of her on the trampoline.

Aysha inside the protective netting around the trampoline.

With the help of the trampoline, Aysha can almost get off the ground.

The whole birthday event tires a girl out.

Here is a picture from one of the "kids' games". The object was to follow a treasure map and find a puzzle, then put it together. Note how the nannies (the women in white) are doing the work on the floor, while the kids are coloring.


We'll just have a quite day today: a swim and maybe a trip to the park. When all the other teachers get back, we'll plan a little party for Aysha. I'll fire up Skype when Karla gets up for birthday calls.

More Christmas Pictures

Here are a few more photos from the pre-Christmas in Fernie.

Aysha loves grandma's cookies.

The little baker (mouth full of dough)

Aysha examines the cookie cutters

A Blue Christmas (this one is from Humblodt)

Sledding in Muenster

We all enjoyed Aysha's first day of sledding. Despite a bit of trauma from snow in the face on the first run, Aysha had a great time sledding with uncles, aunt, and Grandma G. Mom and Dad looked after recording the event for posterity.

Thank You

Here we are, relieved to be back in Cartagena safely - no going into labor on the air plane! As I reflect on the holiday, I am profoundly thankful for my family. Both Moms made the trip more relaxing for us than if we had stayed in Cartagena. There were many delicious meals prepared and cleared away, grocery shopping done, and extra hands to take care of Aysha. I was able to relax and recover from my cold. It was wonderful! Grandpas, brothers, and sisters also helped so much to entertain and care for Aysha. It was a joy to see Aysha bonding with family. She is a lucky girl to have so much love and attention. I appreciate your care for her more than I can say.

Thanks also for all computer contributions! I am writing this blog from my new computer, which I am so excited about! And the web cam is great! We've already used it to call both grandmas and grandpas, as well as aunts and uncles.

We've been back in Cartagena for two days, and I've been busy getting ready for the new baby, setting up the bassinet, organizing baby medicines/toiletries, baby clothing (washing and ironing), and baby bath materials. I've also been voraciously reading about labor and pain management. If this baby comes as early as Aysha did, then I have until next week Tuesday! Jamie keeps reminding me that I also need to get my grading done, but I know I will feel better able to do that once I am prepared for the baby. I still have to pack my bag for the hospital, but may do that tomorrow. Then I'll tackle those final exams!

Well, it's Aysha's bed time (actually it is past her bed time - she is on a new, altered holiday bed time schedule, which means she gets to stay up until 9:30 or 10:00pm, and sleeps in a bit later too). I need to go and put her to sleep. "Aysha, are you tired?", and her response, "NO!" But I know she is.

Love to all.

This is Christmas

After decorating the gingerbread, we took a couple of portraits of the family in front of the fireplace.

Something Else to Do with Your Money

We found out about Kiva.org on an episode of Frontline called Uganda: a Little Goes a Long Way that we saw(and you can watch online by clicking on the link). It's a microcredit organization based out of San Francisco. It allows people to loan money to small business owners in the developing world. The small business owners use the money for whatever they feel they need to improve their businesses. Some build a new house as a headquarters for their work, others buy machinery, and some just buy more stock. The organization in San Francisco uses non profit organizations in a variety of countries to evaluate and support the people requesting the loans.

Most loans are between $500 and $2000, and are provided by several people. The loans are repaid over 6 to 18 months. Once the loan has been repaid, the money you loaned is returned to you to withdraw or to loan again. So far, the organization has a 100% repayment rate.

Karla and I made our first loan. I was hoping to make a donation to a Nigerian or Cambodian, but as no loans were currently requested from either of them, I chose a widow from Mexico who prepares and sells food to care for her 6 children. It was only $25. At the time of writing this, she still needs $200. There is a link in the sidebar, to her (and after all her money is raised, to others).

In other family news, we are now only one week away from heading back to Canada. I sent an email to Jocelyn, the owner of Fernie Academy, to set up an interview to talk about working at the school next year. I hope that by the end of the vacation we will know what wwe are going to do next year.

It's our last weekend in Colombia, and so we've got to get everything finished off. Karla is relaxing tonight watching Anne of Green Gables. I'm doing a bit of work and posting to the blog. Tomorrow and Sunday, we have a busy schedule of work. Good night all.

Holiday Photos (or Photos of Aysha in New Places)

Hi everyone!

Nice doggie...

Moooooooooorre?

Let's roll!

Karla, Aysha, and Jamie - under the wax palms

The wax palms (under Karla, Aysha, and Jamie)

Aysha hikes the Andes

Whew, that was a great trip, but it's time for bed.

Thankful

It is the American Thanksgiving weekend here. We had a scheduled holiday yesterday, but the sea came up on Wednesday and flooded the road that the school is on. School was cancelled on Thursday, leaving us with a four day weekend. It's Saturday morning, and I'm almost done everything I need to do for the weekend.

Today, I am finally getting around to taking a look at our holiday photos. Hopefully in a little while I will have them ready to post to the blog.

Karla has been in touch with the airlines and has it all sorted out. She has written a letter that satisfies all their requirements to allow her to travel over the holidays. It was translated into Spanish at the school. The doctor took a look at it at the last appointment and said that she would be happy to sign it.

Karla is feeling increasingly large and uncomfortable. She is slower than usual, but still is getting everything done. Stairs don't agree with her, but once last week she came up to my floor to get me at the end of the day. She managed to get out to do some Christmas shopping yesterday too.

Aysha is telling us more and more about what she wants. This morning she got out her puzzle and sat down on the floor. She patted the floor on the other side of the puzzle and said, "Dad." She wanted me to sit with her on the floor. She is starting to put words together, too. She says things like, "This is a book."

A couple of her favorite games at the moment are putting the ball back. I run and put the ball somewhere, and Aysha goes and picks it up and puts it back in its place. For a while she has been playing the Pina-Papaya game (Pina is the Spanish word for pineapple). When you say either word, she says the other. After a few rounds, you change your word and she changes hers. The game can be prolonged by adding other words, like mango or manzana (apple).

Well, I'm getting back to editing. I will try to post some photos soon.

I've Fallen Behind and I Can't Get Up

Aysha is sitting in her little chair babbling away and drinking juice. We've barely left the apartment this weekend as we've been busily working away to try to get ready for our departure in three short weeks. We only have two weekends left after this one and we have course grades to finish off, exams to write, and reviews to plan for our absence.

Ever since last week I have been trying to sort through the photos of the holiday to post a few. Today I got a chance to do a few of the Halloween night ones. Aysha went out trick or treating with Julian. She left behind her cork costume for a Cinderella one that Sylvana, our neighbours' daughter, lent to her. We gave special instructions to our colleagues to only give healthy treats. Aysha came home with a bag full of crackers, veggies, and yogurt.
































You ready?
I'm ready.
Good, let's go.

















Come on, people, we haven't got all night!

Family Halloween Fun

Well, we might not have had time to blog lately, but now you can see why - we've been working on making these costumes. Here we are:


Can you tell what we were? There are a couple extras of Aysha since she is changing faster than Karla or I. Aysha is saying more and more everyday: not only more words, but combinations too. This week she even whispered for the first time. We peeked at Karla through the bedroom door and Aysha whispered, "shh, momma."

One less desirable development in Aysha's communication is that she has begun to cry for everything that she wants. Gone are the days of the rising tone "Moooooore?" Now, she repeats whatever she wants more and more urgently until she breaks into sobs. The whole process takes only a few seconds - from realizing what she wants until despair sets in at the realization that she doesn't have it. Usually, she recovers from her misery quickly, but not always, especially not when tired.

Karla's last doctor appointment was last week. Everything seems to be progressing well. Karla is larger than she was with Aysha and hot all the time. The AC runs night and day here.

It's almost 5:30 and Aysha is napping right now before her first night out trick or treating. We have set up all of the other teachers with instructions to provide healthy snacks: fruit, crackers, cheese, etc. We'll only have four or five stops on the rounds tonight. We need to go wake her up and work off the post-nap grumpies before the trick or treating.