I Need More Hours in the Day

Even though all the clocks in our house are digital, I can hear them clicking, or perhaps buzzing, as the seconds roll by. The countdown to Dakar has begun.


PapaGus is in Dakar at the moment. He's gone on his first business trip and will have a chance to see our future house. It is by all accounts a home suitable for a large family with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a beautiful back yard (check out the pictures). The down side is that we will have a construction site going behind our house and that has a lot of (negative) implications. For starters, the old residents tell us that the garden has suffered quite a bit with all the dust. Also, that means a lot of people to-ing and fro-ing along with all the noise of the actual construction. PapaGus sees the house on Saturday so he'll have a better idea of how bad bad really is. I just hope it's cleaned before we get there. I can't imagine cleaning a 5BD/3BA house, much less with a toddler who's jet lagged and out of his element hanging on to my apron strings.


Here are pictures of the front entrance and the garden:




Looks like Paradise, doesn't it? Plus the beach is one block away!



This week my friend Vanessa is out of town and has let me borrow her nanny, Eva, for the three days that she usually works with Vanessa. I'm lucky that this coincided with PapaGus's business trip to Senegal. She is nice, good with Mateo, on time (one of my pet peeves is people who are late so this is a big + in my book) and oh, did I mention she looks like a young Sofia Loren? She's absolutely beautiful and sweeter than any of the nannies I had talked to previously. She entertains Mateo so I can go to the gym (since he hates the nursery there I refuse to take him there anymore), run errands and rummage through things that need to be purged from our attic. It is working out well but I find myself really needing to plan those precious, few nanny hours to the last second. I haven't been that kind of planner since I was working so it's a gentle reminder that I need to stay organized.


Yet there are still so many things that need to get done. For example, the "maintenance required" light blinks every time I turn on my car but then it disappears after a few seconds. Is this serious enough or can I hold out until next week when PapaGus is back in town? Last time it came on was also the first time and the mechanics at the shop said there was nothing they could find so it was just a computer glitch. Could it be another glitch? I hate dealing with mechanics so I'd rather just wait for PapaGus to come home so he can deal with them. And speaking of cars and mechanics, there's also the small fact that we will need a new car in Senegal. With that comes deciding: new vs used, 4WD vs 2WD, importing vs buying locally. Some givens are that it will be diesel and it will have air bags. But getting a car there means dealing with mechanic and that is an entirely different ball game in Africa. There, you always ask for the old parts they've changed out after they've done the job.


Oh, and since it's been a long time since I've blogged here are a few other updates:

• Gusi now has 3 molars and a fourth one on the way


• Gusi may be cutting his incisors as well


• Gusi is this close to jumping on his own


• Gusi is all about the AquaDoodle these days


• Gusi is wearing his sunglasses without protest


• Gusi has made two new friends, Henry and Addison, and can say both of their names


• Gusi is signing *cracker*, *book*, *shoes* and *hurt* (when he falls he can sign to where it hurts)


• Gusi gets that bye-bye = adiós = au revoir and can say all of them except adiós quite well