8 months!

So yesterday our little chunky monkey turned 8 months old. 8 months!! I feel like we just brought her home from the hospital and now she is crawling all over the house! On that note, 7 months brought a lot of milestones for Kendall.
Three days before her 7 month birthday she pulled up for the first time, then the day after her 7 month birthday she started saying "ma ma". Yay! I won I won! :) She had actually been saying "ma ma" for a few days, but it was on this day that we were certain that she was intentionally directing it at me. Ronnie agreed, so I'm not imagining it. Though in her limited vocabulary she still prefers to say "ba ba ba ba". On November 23, at 7 months and 2 weeks, she started crawling. We had just arrived in Scottsville for Thanksgiving. Mom and I were in her bedroom looking at Christmas presents and Dad was in the living room with Kendall. I came back into the room and he said, "Wow, she just crawled 3 or 4 feet." I said, "What?!" His eyes got really big as he said, "She hasn't been doing that?!" Needless to say Grandpa was really excited that he got to witness Kendall crawl for the first time, especially since I'd spent weeks on my hand and knees coaxing her with toys to crawl as she rocked back and forth on her hands and knees trying so hard to figure out how to move. She enjoyed her visit in Scottsville and Glasgow and appropriately enjoyed yummy sweet potato baby food for Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately she turned 8 months old sick with croup. On Sunday morning she started feeling really warm during church. We went out to eat lunch with some friends and she literally layed on me the entire meal. While everyone knows that Kendall always wants Mommy holding her, she never just lays on me. This is a child who won't even let me rock her. She wants to be held, but she is busy while held, always making sure she doesn't miss anything. When we got home her temperature was 102 and the croupy cough soon followed. She is doing better now, but is still kinda snotty and not sleeping too great. Hopefully it will pass soon. We're all becoming tired and cranky!
I weighed Kendall yesterday for the occasion - 18 lbs 6 oz. For comparison's sake, Ella weight 18 lbs 3 oz at 15 months. Wow! I've been going through Ella's 12 months clothes and Kendall can wear all of them. I keep saying to Ronnie, "Wow Ella was a lot older when she wore these clothes." Ha ha.

Kendall at 8 months

Overdue Jamie Update!

It’s been awhile since I posted a Jamie update. We have spoken with her several times since I last posted an update, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long. We’ve been really, really busy!
Dad spoke with her yesterday, which was the last day with her host family in Ha’apai. When she talked to dad she said that she was sitting in the back of a truck waiting to go back to the main island. She has a couple more weeks of training and will then be sworn in on December 15. She is very excited to get started.

She did find out that she will be spending her two years of service at an all boy’s school on the main island. Someone with the Peace Corps told her that she is one of nine women who work there, and the only unmarried woman. She was told she will be the “princess” of the school. We think she said that she will primarily be with 11 and 12 year olds. She will be teaching English, but one of the reasons they wanted to place her at this school is because of her background in sports and music. So she may have responsibilities in those areas as well. She will be living by herself in a house and the Peace Corps will give her some money to use to furnish her house. I’m hoping she will be able to get her hands on a TV and a DVD player so I can send her the seasons of her favorite shows. The last time I talked to her was the day after Thanksgiving. This was the first time we’d spoken that she seemed a little sad. I think being away during the holidays for the first time was kind of hard on her. Plus, she had an ear infection so that didn’t help things. She made several calls within those couple of days, to me, mom and dad, and Travis. She mentioned that she was nervous about being lonely since she is going to be living by herself. A couple of other volunteers are on the island, but won’t be close enough for them to see each other regularly. She said that in Tonga they have an excellent system for pirating DVD's, so maybe she can get her hands on some good movies to keep her somewhat occupied.

One of the last times I talked to her she mentioned that she had lost some weight. She said she noticed that her clothes were fitting more loosely, but didn’t really think much about it, but then several people mentioned that she looked like she had lost weight. She was excited about this because she was really afraid of going to Tonga and gaining weight, because Tongans are pretty large people. I didn’t think this would happen, since she would have a lot of dietary adjustments to make, but it was definitely something she was concerned about.

Dad remembered to tell her about our high school football team going to the 4A State Championship game. She was very excited to hear about that.

I will post her address again. I’m sure she would love a note or a Christmas card! Oh I will mention that it is taking a long time for her to receive mail. Mom mailed her a package the week she left and she just received it this past week. Laura sent her a Halloween card shortly after she left and she received it just a week or two ago. I haven’t mailed her Christmas gift yet, but maybe she will get it by Valentine’s Day! Better late than never!

Jamie Ogles
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 147
Nuku'Alofa, Tonga