Jeff and Anne take Rwanda!



To sit with Jeff and Anne at our house in Kigali was a serious treat that will not be soon forgotten.  Wow!  They arrived late on a Saturday night/Sunday morning.  The morning gave way to excited kiddos, and unpacking of the traditional 'goods from the West' part of most of our guests' first day.  The rest of the first day was chill - unpacking, catching up on life, driving around Kigali, naps and taking it all in. 

 

 

Sweet Potatolicious!

 

Aspen meeting (again) Uncle Jeff and Aunt Anne on the first morning.

Jetlag sinks in its teeth on Sunday afternoon.  

The next day, we set off for Akagera National Park with Jimmy Bilima, guide extraordinaire.  Jimmy has now met pretty much all the adults in our extended families.  Monday afternoon, we took off after lunch, headed east.  After a brief stopover at our friend Adam's home in Rwinkravu, just outside the park, we were treated to a nice sunset drive up to the lodge, where we saw a lot of great wildlife.

Lilac-breasted Roller



Black-headed Gonolek

 



Waterbuck

 



Cape Buffalo

 



Mama & Baby Baboon

 



Spur-winged Plover

 



African Fish Eagle

 



Black Mamba

 



 

Impala

 



Ruppell's Long-Tailed Starlings

 



Bare-Faced Go-Away Bird

Warthogs

 



African Sneaky Behind-the-tree Elephant

 



Hippopotamus

 



Crocodile

 



African Jacana

 



Topis

 



Baboon Car Valet

 



 

 

Aspen's Brown Chair - 6 months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aspen's Brown Chair - 5 months

Back in Kiagli for Round 2

It's been a month or so now since we stepped back into the world of Kigali, Rwanda, and we are back to feeling settled in.  There are still the great things we can count on, like gorgeous sunrises (of which we see, well, all of them).  Coming from San Francisco, where we saw approximately 2 sunrises per year, this is one of those things that we appreciate around here.  Thanks to our ever-consistent curly-headed alarm clock, we are sure not to miss any.  How is it that he can even rise before a 4 month old?  Believe me, I wish I knew.

 

But I digress.  Our Round 2 in Kigali is blooming with new changes.  We are now a foursome, as you know.  Aspen seems to like her new surroundings.  We've had to make a few arrangements, mostly in her room, to insure she doesn't get as many mosquito bites as her brother did in his first few months here.  Nets within nets is the deal - you'll see the pictures below.  Ryder is now in school until 3, which is a big jump from 12:30, and isn't napping anymore.  Well, that's not completely true.  The ride home from school and subsequent plop on the couch for 45 minutes is the new nap.  So it goes. 

 

Below are a number of pictures of the kids doing things, and we sneak ourselves in there a few times. 

 

sunrise in Kigali

 

 

Angie and Aspen having some quality time.  Angie loves spending time with Aspen, speaking Kinyarwanda sweet nothings with a few French 'mon cherie's' thrown in there.  Adorable.

 



 

George missed Ryder very much while we were away, and they are making up for lost time.  He recently taught him how to eat passion fruit with your hands.  Ryder loved it.

 

 



 

 Aspen's room - the "net system".  One giant king-size bed mosquito net that encloses a small 'room', as we call it.  In it, a fan, the brown chair, the exercise ball for soothing, and her crib, complete with it's own mosquito net, just in case.  Oh, and there's some pink here and there.

 

 

Our superhero crashes on the couch after another day at school.

 

Someone is always quite comfortable in his Batman jammies.

Reading his favorite new book from the Baker boys!

The morning wakeup ritual - Ryder makes his presence known, usually jumping into the middle of our bed.  I'm not quite awake in this one.

 

Aspen and Mama.

 



 

This was our moment of truth last week.  The picture on the baby monitor that showed our little lady finally finding her favorite soothing friend... her thumb!  We love this thumb.  Love it.

Aspen's Brown Chair - 4 months