almost a year!

Well, Toby’s almost 1! The worst thing is, I leave for Sudan on the morning of his birthday – Wed April 25^th. But I’ll be back on Saturday, so we’ll have a little celebration on the weekend.

He’s been playing football and running around at the Impala Club, a “members-only” (ooh!) sports club I just joined. It’s just up the road, and has football fields, a swimming pool, karate lessons, and all kinds of stuff for the kids – plus a huge screen TV for the Arsenal fans among us. Not to mention a bar! Anthony drinks beer and watches football while I am working out at the brand new gym. And man, that is tough. I just tried aerobics there for the first time – here’s the ungainly white girl among a dozen fluid and coordinated Africans! I had to get extra coaching today after the class from the beefy Kenyan instructor – this HUGE guy prances and kicks like you wouldn’t believe. Anyways, I got some of the moves down… I’ve been going for the 2-hour Sweat Express on Saturdays at 11am, followed by a hot shower, steam room, sauna, and sometimes massage – hey, I need motivation!! Meanwhile, the kids swim and run, and then they have karate at 4pm. Anthony’s 19-year-old cousin Monica has been staying with us for the past 4-5 weeks, so she’s in charge of the baby. It’s working out well (no pun intended)

Toby is very active – or should I say destructive! He shattered a beautiful terracotta vase I had, a lamp specially imported from Dubai, and countless other things around the house. He methodically empties any drawer or cupboard I leave open, and throws anything he can find in the toilet or bathtub. He’s still into dancing – complete with arms going up and down, head shaking, and butt swinging - and loses himself in the classical-music Safaricom commercials whenever they come on TV. He also loves reggae and “You are my sunshine.” He drinks from a cup all by himself, and usually manages to put most of his food into his mouth – though it’s also very fun to throw it all over the floor and grind it into his hair, typical I guess! He takes about 4 bottles a day, and still breastfeeds during the night – I guess it’s working, because he’s never had a cold, ear infection, or anything. I’ll keep up as long as he wants and I still have some for him! He has burnt himself now twice (the latest time on the lightbulb of the new lamp), but hasn’t had many painful accidents lately.

Toby babbles a lot, and has a few words - he says ‘baby’ all the time – everyone’s a baby to him – and ‘Baba’ (that’s Daddy in Swahili), and ‘puchie-puchie’ or ‘piki-pki’ (we don’t really know what those mean!). He also says “BA!” for peekaboo, and has started to learn a Dutch clap-your-hands song. He loves to read books – Goodnight Moon is his favourite bedtime story – so I got him a few more for his birthday. He’s very happy and social, and enjoys seeing the little bratty Italian kid next door, Jacoma (lord knows why), or any kid at Java House or the grocery store. He loves his brother and sister especially – they can always make him laugh, and they dote on him like crazy. He likes looking at us sideways, and tends to sleep on my head (he loves my hair). We try to put him down in the crib, but he’ll cry and complain until I put him on our bed – even if we’re not there, he falls asleep within seconds. He usually wakes up everything 3-4 hours – have never really been able to cure him of that - since he sleeps in our room, letting him cry simply does not work. But he goes back to sleep fairly quickly, so it’s not a big problem to us. He wakes up smiling in the morning, and gets busy scattering things all over our room.

All in all, it’s been a wonderful year, and we look forward to the next! Coming right up, the three of us - Anthony, Toby, and I – are heading to South Africa next month for 10 days to visit Renee and see the lay of the land. Anthony doesn’t have enough vacation time to come to Canada this year since he took 3 weeks for paternity leave last year and a month in Canada at Christmas, so we’ll use his ticket money for a South African vacation instead (YAH!)! Then Toby and I will head to Norway in June to meet up with Anniken, Sokoi, and little Alexander, and visit Finn and Aslaug at their cottage. I’ll put in a few days in the office while Anniken (or likely Sikoi!) babysits. We’ll be home by Canada Day for at least 3 weeks – the highlight of the trip will be Shannon & Philip’s wedding on July 14^th, and we’ll try and schedule a cottage party as well!

My mind is already home – it will be great to see everyone, and to leave Toby with his baby-starved grandparents while I meet up with my friends!