I'd been wanting some kind of shelving in the corner of the boys' room. We have rapidly run out of bookshelf space in our house (for which there is no real long-term solution since we are book people and I have a problem with acquiring books as much as possible), but having a shelf of some kind in the corner of their room was one small way to address the problem. It was also an opportunity to spruce up the corner which previously had a lamp on the floor and an old fan hanging from the ceiling with some old twine. It was functional but ugly.
So after many months of dreaming of something else, we finally changed things up. Our friend Nathan (who built our outdoor shed and has helped with several random projects along the way) cut some corner shelves and let Kai help him (because he is amazing like that). Nathan was also the one to suggest that I paint the tree on the wall. My original idea for the corner was different and apparently unrealistic, so we met in the middle and this is what we came up with. It turned out rather well and the boys love it!
I feel so good when a project is completed!
In other news, although creature discoveries are a regular occurrence around here, we recently had a new experience: seeing weaver birds up close!
We were given a bunch of bananas from our friends' house, but in chopping down the bananas, a weaver bird nest was dislodged and fell to the ground. Two baby birds were inside. They weren't brand new babies but were still in the nest. So on top of bananas, we received a weaver bird nest to learn about! Eli pulled out the birds to make sure they weren't injured, then let the boys have a turn to hold them before we put them back and replaced the nest near where we found it (on top of a hedge instead of on the ground where the cats would easily find it). The parents were still nearby and we weren't sure what they'd do with their predicament, but we did what we could.
Weaver birds are beautiful and fascinating birds. They live all over and are easily spotted because their nests are obvious in trees. They often live in colonies, so a tree could be completely full of their nests, which are basically big round balls of grass hanging like ornaments from the branches. And weaver birds build their nests while hanging upside down!
These are pictures I took a couple years ago of a weaver bird. It's so fascinating to watch them work.
The most exciting thing of the past few weeks, however, are the boys' new bikes! We debated for a long time whether to get them bikes in Kenya or not. Bikes can be expensive, and we could easily get old bikes at garage sales in the States next year instead, but we decided it was worth the investment. These boys all wanted to learn to ride. Lots of other kids on the compound ride bikes around and our boys were motivated to join them. So we went to a couple stores in Nairobi to find what would work, then hauled them back to Chogoria where Eli assembled them and began the process of teaching our kids to ride bikes.
My heart was happy! Biking is my favorite outdoor activity (and one of the things I can still do with my knee problems), and I miss my bike terribly. Teaching our kids to ride is a rite of passage but also an investment in the future. I would love love love to go for bike rides as a family. So we took the plunge to get our boys bikes here, and it's proven to be the right decision!
Asa begged for a bike with training wheels, which we adamantly denied, and within 5 minutes of trying to ride on his own, he was! That kid's been scooting around on a balance bike for awhile and had the whole balance thing down. He mastered riding without any help from us. It was definitely a proud parent moment!
Caleb and Kai needed more help (and still do even a few weeks later). But Caleb has begun to take off. He's got the balance thing down and is working on his turns. This is a huge victory because Caleb doesn't take to new things easily. He's often unwilling to try new things at all, but bike riding was something he was excited about and has been diligently working on mastering it ever since he started. Victory!
Kai has struggled the most to get his balance figured out, but he makes progress every time he rides. He falls the most but gets back up every time, which is a good sign that he'll be a great biker once he masters it.
And Eli has been amazing as he works with them. He doesn't have as much time as I do to help our boys learn to ride, but my lower back just can't handle the bending over much. After the first day my back was in pain, and it got worse by the second and third day until I had to give up helping the boys at all. (It's frustrating since I'd been doing really well in the back department this year and was hoping I was putting it behind me. But apparently not. Once aggravated, my back starts screaming at me again. Ugh.) But thankfully I have an all-star husband who gives our boys the time and patience they need to learn to ride a bike!
Although school fills up a lot of time, it's been good to have these other activities to capture our attention when school is not in session!
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