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I love Stefan's handwriting. I think it's so nice for a first grader.
The other day he said, " I want to be an animal scientist, but I also want to be a rockstar. Can you be more than one thing? Because I know this is a little weird, but I also want to be a cheerleader."
"President Bush was cheerleader," was my response, although MANY other questions have come to mind since then, but he doesn't want to elaborate. Is it a way to meet girls? Or the spangly costume?
Oh, just another weekend when you hire a guide to lead a group, including the Ambassador, on camels to a village famous for its pottery, watch someone make pots from the river clay, look for hippos as you float back in boats, then have lunch of grilled capitaine on the bank of Niger river. Same old, same old.
And the kittens are two weeks old.
One of my favorite things about living in Niger is the quality of the tomatoes, and the produce in general. The tomatoes are this gorgeous in January. The produce here is just super fresh and hasn't been genetically altered to transport well, it's grown for flavor by small farms. Le Pelier, an Italian restaurant here, inspired me to make a salad they serve, it's just tomatoes with basil--we have it in the garden almost year-round--oil and vinegar, salt, pepper and pressed garlic.
Driving down one of the main roads in town, Camille pointed out that she'd noticed when walking that the clumps in the trees are not tangled branches, like I thought, but hundreds, maybe thousands, of bats.
Didja think I'd make it whole week without a kitty cat post? They are one week old today. The white ones are starting to show faint markings, but look mouse-like and aren't really as cute as the tabby one, don't you think? I'll think the white ones will get cuter. I hope. Or I'll never find anyone to adopt them. They haven't moved from this spot in about five days. They can't really walk yet and they're eyes aren't open. So the first week, they just nurse and sleep, --as Craig Fergason says, remind you of anyone?
And Stefan reading one of his favorite books, an animal picture encyclopedia. The puppet is afraid of the snakes.
Stefan had two bowls of sweet, ripe strawberries at lunch, he was so happy he did a little strawberry dance. We'll have them for about a month. We will make ourselves sick on them, because they are the only berries we will have until we go home to Portland this summer. I can't tell you how much it cheered me up to see these today. I bought a couple pints and they are already almost gone, I had to hide some for Camille. They are picked ripe, are delicious and go bad by the next day. This year I'm going to buy some to freeze for smoothies. Leopold knows where there is a farm and he can buy me a flat. Strawberries.
"The cat had her kittens!" Stefan came running into my room this morning, more excited than Christmas. She had them in the night under his bed. One, two, three, four. Three that look like her--yea!--and one funny striped one. Giselle is eating like a maniac and wants a lot attention herself. One of us sneaks in to check on them about every five minutes. "They're milking!" Stefan reports.
The best part of Christmas this year was having visitors. Ana, Elliott, Camille and Stefan decorated the tree, I had a control freak mini-attack, but they did a great job. They also made a fabulous gingerbread house that looked like it was inhabited by a family with a hoarding disorder. I made a plate of lemon bars and the kids ate them as fast as they came out of the oven, before I could snap a photo. Christmas morning I made my sister's orange-cranberry muffins, and some maple sausage I brought from Trader Joe's and had been hiding in the freezer in the land of no sausage. We enjoyed opening presents together--I especially love my pincushion Ana made. Here is Stefan loaded down with just some of his new swimming pool toys, then they tried them all out for the rest of the day. We keep marveling that next year, it'll be so different.
Our kitty, Mademoiselle Giselle, as we've been calling her lately, is getting huge. For two weeks I've been thinking she was going to deliver any day, but every day she just gets more and more inflated. We were certain she would have the kittens before Helen, Elliott and Ana head home, but with only one day left, I'm not so sure. If you rest your hand on her tummy you can feel the kittens in there wiggling around. It's so exciting, we can hardly stand it. I drempt she had to have an emergency c-section. Ana drempt her dog at home had puppies and kittens.
