Language

A lot of people have asked us what or how many languages our son will speak.  Lamine speaks 7 or 8 languages, and I speak 2-ish (English, French, and smatterings of a couple Senegalese languages).  Honestly, I'm not really sure about the answer to this question. Senegal has, I believe, 18 official languages.

Lamine and I mostly speak French with one another, though we're trying to be better about speaking English.  So, I'm sure he'll speak at least French and English.  Lamine has also been trying to teach me Manding, but I've honestly been a terrible student and haven't picked up very much. In any case, Lamine plans on speaking Manding with our son, so I better start picking up more.  I have a feeling he'll also speak Wolof since every time he talks with his family in Senegal, it comes out as a Manding/Wolof/French hybrid.  Who knows. I'm not too concerned about it.  Some people have warned us about language confusion, but Lamine turned out all right and he had many more languages bouncing aroud than our son will. 

Lucky

When Lamine and I were doing the whole long distance thing while waiting for the visa, we would talk for as long as we possibly could every day, but at 25 cents a minute, it was never long enough.  We would write each other little letters throughout each day, and every couple weeks we would receive thick wads of little bits of paper with scribbled love notes.

I was bar tending for several months of this time, and I would write notes on the back of my orders.  One side of the paper would say "Grey Goose Mart. xtra dry, Cutty S. dble, Tang. G&T" and the other side would have my sloppily written notes-usually dreams of our future and what it would be like when we could be together again.

A couple days ago, as I was cleaning, I found my old order booklet and in one of the pockets, I found an unfinished love note. In this note, I told him how I couldn't wait for him to be able to come to the United States and how I couldn't wait to hold hands with him while walking down the street.

This morning, as we walked to work hand in hand, I felt so lucky and so blessed.

It's official

We're moving!  I'm really excited for the move, but I'm still a little sad to be leaving our apartment. It's the first place that Lamine and I lived in together. While we were waiting for him get his visa (9 months that dragged and dragged), I spent so much time dreaming about what our life would be like in that apartment.  I imagined us waking up together everyday, us getting ready for school/work together, cooking meals together, etc. Mostly, I was just so excited over the thought of the whole long distance hell ending.  And, now, he is here, and we've had a beautiful year or so in this apartment.

Learning to negotiate

I'm kind of a push over. I'm not very good with putting my foot down.  This makes the whole subleasing negotiation a little more difficult.  We need to be in the new apartment December 01, and we would like need someone to take over our lease on December 01 and pay December's rent. We can't afford to pay rent on two places.  The problem with this is that most people don't want to move in until January.  Trying to talk someone into paying December's rent stresses me out.

Oddly enough, I rocked at bargaining in Senegal.  I was better at Lamine than bargaining with taxis (no joke-he agrees with me).  I don't know why I'm having a hard time with this.  This morning, though, I  basically pitted two different people who are interested in the apartment against each other, and I got exactly what I wanted---someone who will pay all of December's rent and they won't actually be in the apartment until January. Woot-woot!

Moving when your 8 1/2 months pregnant.

Yes, really. I can't believe that we decided that this would be a good idea. Did I not just read my own post? Ugh. Well, we're probably moving. And I am really excited about this new place. It has two bedrooms, a dishwasher, a washer dryer, a back deck, and a garden. And-it's within our price range. I love it, but I can't believe that we're taking on this task right now. I'm going to talk with our rental company today and discuss subleasing our current apartment.  So, here it goes....

overwhelmed

So, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by everything lately. There's just so much to do, and it feels like things are simultaneously coming together/falling apart, and I don't know what to make of it. Lamine, who kind of failed on the anniversary front (more on this later), has really stepped up to the plate and become the constant Stephanie-cheerer-upper.  This basically dwindles down to lots of back massages, cooking dinner and cleaning the house, and lots of "I love you's."  I'm feeling very pampered, and it's not too shabby. 

Chili Cheese Fritos

My morning sickness (which lasted until about week 26) has come back. Come on! Really? The only thing I can manage to stomach in the mornings-don't even ask my how-are these bad boys: