The rest of Mémère's visit

The fun continued while Mémère was here. I thought about making this several posts, but I decided to just do one really long one. So hold on, there's a ton of pictures coming...

Sunday, Anne went to the Bambara service to hear the music with Brett. Then she went again with me to the French service.

Brett with our neighbor kids that come to church with us. I don't know why the girl, Ami, has her head down. I don't think she was upset.

After church each week we always go and buy bread at the "bakery."

That evening we went to eat with one of the nurses' at the hospital so Anne could have a real Malian meal in the Malian way- with your hands!

A meal always begins with good hand washing.

Anne eating with the nurse's father, Batoma, and his wife Djenba.

The boys ate with the nurse, Esai.

Kenan showing off his really big belly after eating. He kept saying, "I'm full...okay, just one more bite..." The boys love nzamé!

Mémère watched Kenan build this masterpiece. It's standing on only two blocks- all those toys on top are not attached. I don't know how he did it.

We also had the pediatric nurses over on Tuesday night. No pictures, though, but it was a fun time. We actually watched Amistad in french. I think they liked it.

Then on the spur of the moment at 1 pm on Thursday, we decided to go to Teriya Bugu. Anyone who has been here knows that you can't just pack up clothes and get in the car. You must get water, food, blankets since the beds in hotels rarely have anything thicker than a sheet and many other items. Amazingly, we were out of the house two hours later and on the road.

As we were pulling into Teriya Bugu, Kenan just said, "look, a camel." It didn't register with me at first but then I looked and lo and behold there was a camel. Dawson was amazed and in disbelief, "how can a camel be HERE? Camels live in the DESERT! This isn't desert!" It's a little closer to desert than you think, D. But he is right in that camels are rarely seen around here so it was a fun treat.

Taking a picture by one of the many statues. All lined up by height. I'm wearing a sababu shirt by the way- you should check them out. www.sababuclothing.com Our friends started this company in Bamako.

We did all the normal things we love to do at TB- feeding Fast Eater...

playing on the playground...

feeding the monkeys...

and looking at the funny statues...

we also went and played games while waiting for dinner.

here we are at dinner

this time with Mémère

then the boys and Mémère had breakfast the next morning.

Brett had coffee and the boys "da" juice which they love.

We love TB! I think it is our favorite place in Mali. A home away from home!

On the way out we headed toward Segou instead of going home. We saw a lot of different things going the other way.

A lady cooking in her kitchen...

Then we kind of got lost. Here's the "road" we were following.

Pretty scenery sometimes, though.

though other times there were blocks in the road.

Finally, we made it to Segou. Anne and I went to the mud cloth place where they show you how they make their mud cloth.

A little town right beside Segou.

Then we went to eat dinner by the river.

We had a great time with Mémère and are sad that she has gone! Thankful for the time we had together and the opportunity to show her our life.

Mémère is here to visit!

Brett's mom, Anne, or rather Mémère, is here for a visit! She braved the bus from Bamako to Koutiala. There were a lot of people (and motorcycles and cars) all around so we couldn't get to her very quickly. She finally saw us as she went to take a picture of the bus...

Family picture (the ones in the house are blurry because the camera was on the wrong setting and we didn't realize it until later). Still a great picture...

The boys were showing her each room. To say they were excited was an understatement.

She came and picked the boys up from school on Friday (after a morning at the hospital which ended up just being an HIV day for her since I had many ladies as well as some doctors from Sikasso came and do an evaluation).

Playing with Dawson in the tree house.

Then we took her to the pig farm.

Happy family...no one caring that Brett's falling off the ledge...

Mémère and the boys

Then we went to Kaniko where my friend Sali lives. Silas of course, found chickens to play with.

And they once again gave us a chicken to take home.

Today we went to church- she went to part of the Bambara service as well as the french service. In a little bit we will be heading out to eat at one of the nurses' homes. More pictures to follow!

Kenan's 4th birthday

We are thankful for 4 wonderful years with our sweet Kenan. He is so special and different from his brothers. We love it! He is sensitive and kind, loves to cuddle and loves getting to be around other people. He is rarely shy but will talk to anyone. He is enjoying going to school, though his teacher says he is often in his own world. That sounds just like Kenan. He brings such joy to our life and we are so blessed to have him in our family!! We love you Kenan!

The past few birthdays, my mom or sister has been around so the boys have gotten theme birthday parties with a great cake. I tried to live up to that this year. He wanted a Green Lantern party. I made games with this in mind, even spent an afternoon making green lantern rings. I thought many times how much easier it would be to just go to the store and buy it but that's not an option. So alas, I made them. I was actually quite proud and was ready for his party. But his ear infections have been getting worse instead of better I started wondering if it would even happen. To add to this, his one friend invite, Hannah, was also sick and wouldn't be able to make it. So Friday afternoon it was decided the party was off, unfortunately I had already made the cake.

So here is the Green Lantern cake...

I made lots of mistakes. Nothing close to my sister's cakes.

In the middle of icing the cake, Kenan starts scratching his legs. By the end he had hives all over his legs. Not totally sure what it was fun and thankfully they went away fairly quickly with zyrtec.

He could still smile, though.

This is his actual birthday morning, Jan 1. He wanted blueberry muffins.

Soon after, though, he had to get his second round of shots since the oral antibiotics didn't work. He wasn't happy.

To make it better, we opened presents. He looked so sickly sitting in the chair opening his gifts.

He had a little energy in the afternoon, but then soon fell asleep as he has been doing everyday.

After some ibuprofen, he was up to eating some cake with friends. He took a couple bites, though, and said "my tummy says I'm full." Poor boy hasn't eaten in days.

took him forever to blow out the candles. I'm sure everyone was glad that he passed on his germs.

Some "family" over for the party. My parents and aunt also watched on skype.

One of my mom's packages had been late in arriving for Christmas. It worked out nicely, though, because Kristen, a new nurse here, brought it over when she came so the boys had gifts to open at the cake eating. Hopefully we will have the party games later once everyone is better. We shall see...

Sorry that Kenan was sick but thankful for his special day nonetheless. We love you Kenan!!

******

Here's the pictures of some of the games and things I had planned that they never did...

playing pin the ring on the Green Lantern...

The Green Lantern rings I spent way too long making...

another view

Snow in Mali!

Friends gave us a little bottle of snow the other day. You take the powder, add a little water and then watch it grow into snow. It even feels a little cold. It was so much fun! Here are some pics from our snow day!

watching the snow fall

Even Sali joined in the fun

While we were playing, Brett's friend Jo came by. He joined in the snow fight.

Never thought it would snow in Mali but it sure was a lot of fun. Can't wait to make more and do it again!

Christmas Day

Christmas day we went to church to celebrate. Really, the Malians celebrate and we try to endure the three hour service with three little kids and no childcare. The boys were already sick so it made it a little more difficult, though Silas did take a nap which was nice. We all wore the Christmas cloth but I didn't get a picture of the whole family. That night we celebrated as Dawson's teacher, Mrs. Julie, had her little baby, Caleb. What a great Christmas gift.

We celebrated our Christmas on the 26th. This is about the only picture we got this year because as I mentioned before we had sick boys with throw up in the midst of presents.

We had a wonderful day, actually, even despite the sickness. Jake came over for a late breakfast of omelettes and hash browns. I had made a pie the night before but because of Julie's delivery, I didn't get to cook it. So we cooked it that morning and had hot apple pie for lunch. :) The boys played with their toys and since they weren't feeling great were pretty low key all day. So that meant we got to hang out with Jake and just watch tv and have a day that was truly relaxing. I think I was in the hospital twice that day and Brett was there once, but somehow it still felt like a fantastic day. I guess our expectations are finally lower that even just a little time of relaxation is considered a huge gift. :)

A month of sickness

The MacLean house has been full of sickness this last month. If you don't like hearing about throw up, stop reading now. We've had coughs, fevers, strep, rotavirus stomach bug, and ear infections. We've enjoyed it all. As the month has dragged on I'm getting a little worn out over it all. This is evident when we find Silas has thrown up in his crib and we just roll him over, change the sheet, and leave him in his already dried throw up pajamas until morning.

This is one night after a throw up incident.

It was all over.

I would say that we have had easily 40 vomits this month between the three of them. At least 30 have been in beds that we must then clean up. One was right onto a dresser. Another went into the drawers of one of the boy's bed. Maybe 4 made it into a bowl (thank you Dawson) and I think only 2 made it into the toilet (one for D and one for K). I feel like I always smell of vomit. Maybe today that's because today I'm still wearing the shirt from the night where Silas' leftovers on his face made it onto my shirt. But regardless, I seem to smell vomit all over our house...hopefully it will leave. Never thought I'd wish to be able to smell the pee in the boys' bathroom. :)

This is after Christmas when he threw up right in the middle of opening presents. He was asleep soon after.

This was this morning, after an almost sleepless night with Silas who was up with a ear infection through the night. Neither he nor I were looking too hot.

Kenan has really been the one suffering the most. His ears infections (which we were slow to recognize) weren't being treated with the oral antibiotics. He was in bad shape. We've just finished three days of antibiotic shots for him and he is now showing signs of life again, even though he's just put himself to sleep on the couch as I write this.

We are hopeful that healing will come soon and the stench of vomit that has permeated the house for the last month will soon fade away. Can you just drench the whole house in lysol?