A trip to the Cape.

A much-needed trip outside the realm of Kigali is still underway, and I felt it necessary to post at least one picture. Now, if this isn't doing the Cape Town chamber of commerce a favor, then I don't know what would qualify. This place is so gorgeous, we keep finding ourselves looking at each other, as if we're about to wake up at any moment. The picture above is in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, just on the back side of Table Mountain (a dramatic mesa formation that Cape Town is situated under). More photos to follow!

Counting Rocks

A day on the front porch at the end of September...counting rocks.

Pickin' up frogs.

Just another day in the backyard. Where we live, near a flood plain valley, there are thousands of the tiniest frogs you've ever seen. At night, they create a cacophony of ribbits you can only imagine. Ryder finds these little guys often in the back. We're practicing our 'gentle' grab, and he's got it down pretty well. It's just fantastic when he gets it and says "Baby pick up!"

School Time

As life gets settled here in Kigali, all of us here at Jones/Baker east started to think, maybe we should give this 'school' thing a try. Just two mornings a week would be a good start, right? We found a great Montessori school called Little Bears (nice) that takes kids as young as a year and a half for their Tiny Tots program. We visited a time or two to check out the scene, which was all about primary colors and playtime. It's about 10 minutes from our house and is going pretty well. While Ryder isn't completely on board with the whole 'lady I don't know telling me what to do' scheduling for the morning, we're taking baby steps and making progress. I thought everyone back home would like to know where he's having his first taste of school and what it looks like. Oddly enough, this place makes me want to paint a lot of things yellow, blue, or red.

The grounds have a lot of nice playing space...

...and fun stuff to climb on (that's Ryder in the hat).

The first day of school. Ginger eased him into the building.

With his one playtime buddy in the group (Orion, above, across from Ryder), the first day of school wasn't too scary. But, as you can tell, Ryder was more interested in the crowd, instead of what the crowd was paying attention to. Baby steps...