Beach Baby

Noah first arrived in Gabon at age 2 weeks and was kept indoors for a solid week before we finally decided to attempt an initial beach outing with him.

It was only once we got to Cap Lopez, the windy Atlantic coast, that I realized how delicate Noah really was and how mad I was at myself for bringing him out to a place where the sand would tarnish his perfect little newborn skin. I quickly wrapped him up from head to toe in a towel and took the following pictures as proof for him later in life that he really was at the beach at 3 weeks of age.

This one I quickly realized proves nothing,

so, trying desparately to keep him from being unnecessarily exposed to the elements out there, I snapped a shot with beach background,
and then one of his dad and siblings playing off in the distance. (Double click for more detail)As time went on though we got more daring. When Noah reached 7 weeks of age, Olivier and I decided he was plenty ready for his first boat outing.
The best safety precaution we could come up with was Baby Bjorning him underneath a lifevest that I would wear while on the boat. And off he was to our weekend island gettaway! (See the below for experienced older siblings waiting patiently in the boat)
By the time we reached the island and our cabana, the rather loud roar of the boat's motor had coaxed Noah into a deep slumber, so he was set up on our dining table in his anti-uv baby beach tent bought back in France with this exact outing in mind.
Unfortunately, at his age he couldn't fully enjoy the view overlooking Jourdain and Cecilia playing in the sea.
We eventually woke him up for a diaper change, but I'm still not convinced he was terribly interested in the new beach setting. Maybe with time he will learn to enjoy life out here in Gabon as much as the rest of the family does! (Not that he's complaining)

By Popular Demand

Printable pics of family members with Noah:

Mango Mania

As summer approaches here the mangoes start to drip and droop down from the fabulous tree in our back yard. From late October through to Christmas we tend to collect between 15 and 30 of the things a day. And that's not including the ones the neighbor kids reach through the fence to steal or the few Amadou the guard saves for himself before giving us the day's collection. I've been freezing most of them to use throughout the year in my banana-mango bread.

I'm told that snakes like mangoes a lot too and that we might want to pull the swing set a bit forward so as to avoid an unwanted snake-on-head-while-swinging type of incident, but then there just wouldn't be any shade for the kids. And doesn't the American swing set just look so pleasantly out of place under a mango tree?

Here's a bunch I'm just waiting to grab when they fall:

Every morning Amadou strolls around and picks up the masses of mangoes on the ground. If you're in the vicinity you can hear them fall when they hit. I guess it's just a matter of time before one bonks a swinging kid on the head. Will make for a wonderful childhood memory, though. (The best story I myself have is of a bird pooping on my head while walking to school one day - much less exotic.)

Here he is with a few from the morning's harvest:

And this is what we got this morning. Yummmmm. Definitely worth dodging the mosquitoes for!

Birthday Guy 2007

African Halloween

I'm a bit late in writing this up, but this year we actually celebrated halloween with trick or treating!! Last year when I tried to organize something with the French neighbors on our street most answered that they weren't American and it wasn't their tradition. I guess they forgot to notice that we weren't in France either, and that as a multicultural community it can be nice to celebrate new tradtions with others...

This year however, Deanne, a very motivated young Texan mom whose French hubby works for the French oil company Total, single-handedly organized a halloween party followed by good ol' trick or treating on the Total compound where they live. All were invited and we weren't going to miss it!
Noah and I had just flown back from Paris the night before, and that morning I surprised Jourdain and Cecilia with the news that it was Halloween. They were more than excited to dress up, and quickly invited our housekeeper Ines' two boys to come and join in the fun. Boy were THEY excited to come along when I told them they were dressing up as a pirate and a king. I still don't think those two boys have the slightest idea as to what it was all about except that a whole lot of French people gave them candy when they knocked on doors. Their mom says they're not complaining though, even though she made them give most of their candy to other less fortunate kids in their neighborhood the next day.

Yann the king (or knight I guess since we had no time to make a crown!) went home a happy boy.

And Etienne took his role as a pirate (with American flag bandana no less) quite seriously.

At age 4 Cecilia has reached the pink princess stage in life.

And Jourdain was just happy to wear whatever his mom gave him! (No time to get a cowboy hat and the gun's all wrong, but hey - what does he know? He lives in Africa.)

The climate at the party was a few degrees warmer than what I grew up with, allowing many to go barefoot.
Deanne had the great idea to teach everyone the about bobbing for apples. I think I was the only guest who'd ever heard of such a wacky idea!!
The evening wound up with trick or treating in the Total apartment buildings. I sure hope Deanne sticks around Port-Gentil for a few more years! (Creepy eye effect on mom in picture here is not Halloween related - I just don't know how to fix it in my picture software.)

In the end we were so busy having fun that we never had time to carve up watermelons. I just may have them do it this week anyway.

And After School...

It's Friday night and Jourdain has karate with his buddy Yann!

Noah's Halloween Trick

So Noah enjoyed his very first Halloween this year, as can be seen by the smile on his face and the inscription on his little suit (a present from Kristy, our Floridian-American friend in town).
Well, at least everything seeeeeeeeemed to be going well for him on the 31st...
....until he began to get that little pensive look in his eye. I could tell he was up to something.
Definitely planning something devlish. Something he had most likely been planning out for a long time that day. Something to both scare and surprise his mama, maybe. A Halloween baby trick, perhaps? Hmmmmm........
Yep. Trick or treat. Let's hope there's more treat next year.

Sunday at the Beach

Yay! The Blogger people have made it easy for me to post a film now!

Here's a scene of Olivier and Jourdain from our day yesterday at Cap Lopez beach on the Atlantic coast. Next weekend we'll head over to our little island off the other coast (the calmer bay side) and I'll try and get a good clip of what our Sundays are like there in our cabana.

Broken Toe

I must remember to never again brag about how men can't manage more than one activity at a time while we women are great at multitasking and can change a diaper, write a business email, talk on the phone and color with Cecilia all at the same time.

Owch.

I blame motherhood.