Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
sending prayers up for senegal
There has been talk of riots in Senegal for a little while now, but they have now erupted in full force. I won't link to any pictures here as you can find them on any news site today. It breaks my heart. It is so easy to read stories of far away places and think, "another war in the Middle East" or "more violence in Africa," and not have any real emotional reaction. But these are people. They are no different than you or me. They just had the poor luck to be born in a poor country. As I scrolled through the articles this morning, I caught myself gasping at the violence. A few years ago,and that might have been Lamine demonstrating.
Anyway. My thoughts and prayers are with Senegal today and with Lamine's family.
Anyway. My thoughts and prayers are with Senegal today and with Lamine's family.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Six months
My sweet baby boy,
You are six months old. In another six months you won't really be a baby anymore. You'll be a toddler. It seems so unfair. So unfair that I only get these sweet moments for a few months. There is just this small, super brief period of time in which you are completely dependent on me, and I can already feel it slipping away. You have been sitting up on your own for a little while now, but you've really started to turn your concentration to crawling and standing. Whenever we sit you down, you immediately lunge forward onto your hands and knees. From there, you'll rock back and forth a few times. Whenever you try to move out of this position, though, it usually ends in a silly face plant.
You are so absolutely and completely the light of our lives. You have filled our home with so much more joy than we ever thought possible. Last night, I just held you for hours, looking at your chunky little wrists, running my hands over your fuzzy head, and just gazing deeply into your brown eyes. Six months. Wow. I can't believe that six months ago today, I held you for the first time. I can't believe how utterly and completely our lives have been transformed by your presence.
I feel like everything that I'm writing is totally inadequate. You are just everything to us, and I wish so badly that I could express how much we love you. With you, every day is precious. With you, every day is filled with meaning. With you, everyday is an adventure, and I can't wait to see where we end up.
We love you so much, Samory.
Happy Six months!
You are six months old. In another six months you won't really be a baby anymore. You'll be a toddler. It seems so unfair. So unfair that I only get these sweet moments for a few months. There is just this small, super brief period of time in which you are completely dependent on me, and I can already feel it slipping away. You have been sitting up on your own for a little while now, but you've really started to turn your concentration to crawling and standing. Whenever we sit you down, you immediately lunge forward onto your hands and knees. From there, you'll rock back and forth a few times. Whenever you try to move out of this position, though, it usually ends in a silly face plant.
You are so absolutely and completely the light of our lives. You have filled our home with so much more joy than we ever thought possible. Last night, I just held you for hours, looking at your chunky little wrists, running my hands over your fuzzy head, and just gazing deeply into your brown eyes. Six months. Wow. I can't believe that six months ago today, I held you for the first time. I can't believe how utterly and completely our lives have been transformed by your presence.
I feel like everything that I'm writing is totally inadequate. You are just everything to us, and I wish so badly that I could express how much we love you. With you, every day is precious. With you, every day is filled with meaning. With you, everyday is an adventure, and I can't wait to see where we end up.
We love you so much, Samory.
Happy Six months!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Food!
Ok. After the last post, I thought I better include some pictures of the cutie patootie eating his first food. Avacodo! Yum....
Peeved
I wasn't sure whether I should blog about this or not, but I'm so annoyed, that I think I'm going to just do it.
Yesterday, I was reading the BBC, and the front story was one about the UK pledging money to vaccinate kids in Africa so that children under 5 no longer have to die of preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. I thought to myself, "finally."
Then, I noticed that there were many, many comments on the subject, I scrolled down expecting to see comments saying ,"It's about time!", "Thank God", etc, etc. Instead, I saw comment after comment of people saying things about population control and how we shouldn't be helping these kids now because they'll just grow up to die in the future. "The planet is already overpopulated and now we have 4 million more mouths to fee." No joke.People were actually saying this stuff.
I have been fuming about this for about 24 hours now. Is overpopulation a problem? Yes. It is. It's a big problem. But who are we to say who gets to live and die. Just because they had the bad luck to be born poor, who are we to say that their lives are therefore worth less than our own? If we're concerned about overpopulation and sustainability, we better be recycling, cutting down our consumption, eating vegetarian/vegan, etc. But we do NOT have the right to say that 4 million kids in underdeveloped countries should die of preventable diseases. If we're refusing to vaccinate these kids, then I guess we shouldn't be vaccinating kids in the US and Europe. Let's stop putting money into cancer research or any medical research for that matter. After all it's just nature's way of thinning out the population, right?
On the other hand, why don't we vaccinate these kids? Let's cut down the death rate of children under five. It's proven that as countries develop, the birth rate goes down. People stop having 10 kids each because they no longer worry that most of them will die before they hit their fifth birthday. As people's basic needs are met, they stop having so many children and start focusing on education and career. If we're so worried about overpopulation, we should be doing everything in our power to help underdeveloped countries meet their basic needs (i.e. helping their kids live) so that they can have a chance to start developing. That's the way to stop population from growing at such an astounding rate.
Ok. I'm done. End rant.
Yesterday, I was reading the BBC, and the front story was one about the UK pledging money to vaccinate kids in Africa so that children under 5 no longer have to die of preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. I thought to myself, "finally."
Then, I noticed that there were many, many comments on the subject, I scrolled down expecting to see comments saying ,"It's about time!", "Thank God", etc, etc. Instead, I saw comment after comment of people saying things about population control and how we shouldn't be helping these kids now because they'll just grow up to die in the future. "The planet is already overpopulated and now we have 4 million more mouths to fee." No joke.People were actually saying this stuff.
I have been fuming about this for about 24 hours now. Is overpopulation a problem? Yes. It is. It's a big problem. But who are we to say who gets to live and die. Just because they had the bad luck to be born poor, who are we to say that their lives are therefore worth less than our own? If we're concerned about overpopulation and sustainability, we better be recycling, cutting down our consumption, eating vegetarian/vegan, etc. But we do NOT have the right to say that 4 million kids in underdeveloped countries should die of preventable diseases. If we're refusing to vaccinate these kids, then I guess we shouldn't be vaccinating kids in the US and Europe. Let's stop putting money into cancer research or any medical research for that matter. After all it's just nature's way of thinning out the population, right?
On the other hand, why don't we vaccinate these kids? Let's cut down the death rate of children under five. It's proven that as countries develop, the birth rate goes down. People stop having 10 kids each because they no longer worry that most of them will die before they hit their fifth birthday. As people's basic needs are met, they stop having so many children and start focusing on education and career. If we're so worried about overpopulation, we should be doing everything in our power to help underdeveloped countries meet their basic needs (i.e. helping their kids live) so that they can have a chance to start developing. That's the way to stop population from growing at such an astounding rate.
Ok. I'm done. End rant.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Please vote!
So, I hate to ask this, but the count was reset, and I would really appreciate some votes to get us ranked again! No pressure, but if you like reading, could you please click on the button on the right. A new screen will pop up, and you can click on the button on the left. That's it! All done! I went through and voted for all my favorite blogs this morning :)
Oh, and a message from Sam:
Oh, and a message from Sam:
Thursday, June 9, 2011
weekend at the park
This past weekend was nice and hot, so we packed up the diaper bag, stuck a sun hat on Sam's pretty head, and we headed out to the park for a fun and sun-filled day. Sam and I hung out in the shade for most it while Lamine soaked up the sun a few feet away. Luck guy! Never gets a sun burn.
PS. I LOVE these little overalls. His chunky thighs just kill me!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
blogging
Lamine and I looked back through the blog last night, and I have decided that I really need to get back into it. I can't believe only post 5-6 times in April and May and 20 times in March. I want to be able to go back through this blog and ooh and ah over how fast Sam is growing--to be able to see the day to day changes. That's why I started this blog in the first place. So, in the spirit of blogging more....Here's some pictures of the cutie patootie.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
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