1st full day with the boys

Blog: day 2

we sang together before bed last night the boys and I.  Johnny missed his auntie at bedtime but only a very little and then the 2nd night (tonight) not at all.

the boys each have a cough, they kept me up w/their coughing last night. When I woke up they were each standing in their pack n plays grinning at me! What a nice way to start the day! We got up and ate some animal crackers which once I showed them that they were animal shapes became more of a fun treat. The wonderful spacious room the boys and I are staying in lined on one side with built-in closets and big wide drawers. So I have the boys things all in drawers. The highest being the snacks and the lowest being the toy box/drawer. They have free access to anything in the bottom drawer but must ask about things in the top one! And they are no shy about asking...constantly for “sweeties” which means snacks of any kind. 

We had a great morning playing hard in the yard chasing the balls “mococahs” (motorcars/toy cars) and also playing with stickers a bit. After lunch we went up to our room and did some drawing and coloring before “Jaja” aka Grampa and I agreed they looked very much in need of naps. So the boys picked up all the toys happily and took a nice bath before settling in for a nap from 2:30-4ish. Grampa was quite happy about that because he was slated to babysit starting at 3:30 when I had a boda-boda (taxi) lined up to take me to my appointment with my lawyer at 4pm. The appointment went well and we found out that my hearing is at 12noon on Tues aug 23^rd which is 5am for those on eastern time in the USA. It was an adventure riding on the back of a small motorbike through the city streets of Kampala but obviously I lived to tell the tale and I was a bit nervous before we left so I asked dad to pray for me and that helped a lot.  At the end of the appointment, I asked the lawyer if we had anything to worry about and he replied “I never get worried because if I worry then you will worry.” I called and gave him my number once I got home and loaded the minutes. On the way back from my lawyers appointment I bought a SIM card and phone minutes for my cell phone that I am borrowing from the people I am staying with. 

The boys were happily coloring with Grampa when I returned and had been up only an hour or less. We played a few more minutes before dinner and then happily cleaned all our toys into the box/drawer and this time momma remembered the lovely bibs that her dear friend Dorothy made for the boys and we put those on first and took lotsa pictures!! super cuteness. After super Johnny has started a tradition of getting his cars and bringing them in to play with the while the big people finish eating. [btw while I am typing this I can hear the chants of the Ramadan evening prayers. You can hear them everyday throughout the day] Johnny tends to like to snack and picks at his food at dinner while Benny eats off he is given and then a 2^nd helping of no matter what you give him and then cleans Johnny's plate of the leftovers. 

Then we had a special surprise of Herb (the man of this house) coming home with a new puppy!! he will eventually be the guard dog here. He is SO SMALL and cute. The boys really liked meeting him and as we were going inside from that excitement we lost power for the first time since we arrived. Herb had predicted that we would tonight since it had been about 3 full days w/o losing power and that is rare here. The generator is running now as I type this. So far I do not have access to the internet in my bedroom so while I waited for the boys to fall asleep which they have done, I am writing this for you all. So we finished off our day w/a 2^nd bath during which I got some great footage of the boys singing and playing and washing eachother. 

Johnny came up with a great joke (in his 2yr old mind it is hilarious so you have to picture that in his delivery of the phrase) I have a sing-songy way that I say the boys names to them “Ba-by John-ny, Ba-by Ben-ny” and they both usually join in the chant and say each other's names but tonight Johnny started saying ““Ba-by John-ny, Ba-by Ma-ma” and they both thought it was so funny that they could not stop themselves laughing and then they were doing all permutations of the names they could come up with all in the same chanting rhythm ““Ba-by John-ny, Ba-by Ben-ny, Ba-by John-ny, Ba-by Mam-ma, Ba-by Dad-dy, Ba-by Mam-ma, Dad-dy Mam-ma, Mam-ma Ben-ny” etc and giggling as they thought of each new one and then repeated it several times as I feigned being upset with being called a baby each time they said “Baby Mamma”

At once point earlier today I was saying holding Johnny and saying “Johnny Wange” and he would answer back “Mamma Wange” over and over. It was a pretty sweet moment and this is only day 2! They have both warmed up to Grampa very well also and have no trouble playing with him etc without me there. They were climbing on him and taking turns kissing his scruffy face tonight. They like to look at the “daddy book” that Uncle Andy and Aunt Peg made them with pictures of home and family in it. Tomorrow we have nothing planned so I may have time to up load videos etc. Dad is preaching this Sunday at a church where the pastor was in a car accident this past week and needs a fill-in. He will be speaking with a translator and he is quite excited about the opportunity.