Emily’s Musings

Dear Hannah,

You are now 16 months old. You are growing and changing so fast, I can’t keep up! You are my favorite child, and I can honestly say that because you are my only child. You are such a happy baby. It seems the most common question I get from other people is, “is she always this happy?” I have to say, “YES”. You are so happy to be alive and play with your hand-me-down-Saba-toys. You love life, and I guess, what kid wouldn’t be happy to wake up on a beautiful island every day?

You love your sleep. Let me rephrase; you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your beauty rest. And I love that you love it! You are like clock work. You go to bed at 6:30 PM, you’re up at 6:00 AM, you go back down for your morning nap at 8:00 AM (for one hour), then you take your afternoon nap at 12:30 for two and half hours. Your dad and I read a book that taught us how to teach you how to go to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up happy. I always know when it is exactly 6:00 AM, and not because the sun is rising. You wake up singing, talking, or jumping in your crib. Ah, if we could all wake up with such energy and happiness. You love to sing “daddy, daddy, daddy!” I love it too because that obviously means that you need your daddy not your mommy to go into the room and get you. On the few occasions I go in to get you (sometimes you sing “mommy!”), I can bet you will say one of three things. You will say, “hi!”, “shoes!”, or “side!” because you want to put on your shoes to go outside! Sometimes, you will meet me with a huge grin and you will be signing the word “cookie”. You are one smart cookie yourself. You know I have to reward you when you sign words correctly. It’s a good thing I have convinced you that Fig Newtons are cookies.

You LOVE to go outside and you LOVE your shoes. Both bring you equal joy. You have equated going outside with needing shoes, so the two certainly go together. This is very obvious to us because it is the first thing you think about in the morning. You will repeatedly say, “shoes!” until I put them on you. When I am changing your overnight diaper, I have to assure you that I plan to put your shoes on as soon as you your diaper is changed. We can’t have you running around naked! The neighbors already think you’re an early bird; running around the patio pushing your stroller (your most prized possession) at 6:03 AM. I don’t need you flashing them as well!

Your dad and I aren’t always ready to “rise and shine” at 6:00 AM, so after you run a few laps around the patio, we pull you back into the house and we all watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. I love this show so much, I could watch it everyday. This is why we selected this movie. It helps all of us get the day started off right.

Your friends consist of our dogs, the neighbor’s kitty and your friend Deya. You learned how to say “dog” at 11 months old and everyday for the past five months, you have dutifully pointed out to to the dogs that they are in fact dogs. You walk right up to them and point at them square between the eyes and tell them, “DOG!” so they know exactly who they are and where they stand. They are most certainly clear on the fact that you are the “island princess” and they are the “island princess’ pets”. There is no question in their minds. You love the neighbor’s kitty, Marley. I think you mostly like to torture him, and he is small enough for you to pick up and chuck across the patio. The more you torture the kitty, the more you squeal. It’s kind of sick when you think about it. I don’t know why he keeps coming around.

You LOVE music. Anytime you hear music, you are compelled to dance. If you are sad (which happens when you fall down and get a BONK!) I can turn on some music and you can’t help but shake your thang. You are a great at moving your bootie and you are a great head banger. One of the grocery stores we go to, Big Rock, likes to blast music for all the shoppers. It used to annoy me because I couldn’t think over the loud noise, but now I love it because you love it so much! Everyone at that store knows you by name, and I mean everyone. You are greeted by every employee at that store and when the music is really loud, you don’t pay any attention to them because you are head banging in the shopping cart! All your fans are just waiting for your autograph, and all you can do is jam out to the music.

You also LOVE to sing. You would think that I, your mother, sing and dance ALL DAY LONG because that’s what you do! When you learn a new word, you try it out by singing it to your own tune. You sing it again, and again, and again. It is darling, but sometimes I wish you could sing two or three words! You are a doll and I LOVE how happy you are ALL THE TIME.

You love grapes. Actually, you LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOOVE grapes. You would eat them all day, for every meal if you could. You learned the ASL sign for grapes and you use it all the time since you don’t say grapes. You also LOVE apple juice, and you sign for it whenever you want a drink. When I give you milk, you are fine. But when I pull out the apple juice, you start to hyperventilate like I just pulled out the GOOD STUFF! You also like olives. Notice the word “like” isn’t the same as “love”. You are a doll when you eat them off your fingers though. You will eat almost anything except meat, and mashed potatoes. You now have your four top teeth, two bottom teeth, and three molars. Maybe you will like meat when your fourth little molar comes in.

You started walking at 11 months old. I remember on the fourth of July, you took four steps. You were quite the accomplished walker at 12 months, and at 13 months, you were running laps around the patio. You can walk the treacherous hills on Saba unaided. Your dad makes lets you walk up our STEEP driveway, (which is very steep) and I will have you walk up the steep walkway. It has been nice to not carry you all the time. It was starting to take a toll on my back.

At 11 months old, you started talking. In fact, you talk too much, I can’t really remember a time when you didn’t talk. I think you were born talking. You speak very clearly and articulately. Meaning, you don’t speak “baby”. Other adults, kids and strangers know exactly what you are saying. You speak that clearly. At 12 months you said, “oh wow!” and “hi!” ALL the time. And by ALL THE TIME, I mean like 80,000 times a day. You would say “hi” repeatedly, from the time you woke up in the morning, until you talked yourself to sleep at night. I could call Grandma Probst or Jenn and tell them, “Hey, Hannah says hi” and I was being very literal! You say the following words very clearly: hot, bug, uh oh, oh wow, hi, thank you, outside, side, tree, dog, moon, side, plane, boat, night night, bye, mommy, daddy, shoes, book, chair, hat, out, food, and bear. Notice how you don’t say the word “NO!” yet. Thank goodness! Your dad and I have really tried hard to use other words besides “No!” because neither one of us wanted to hear you saying that word all day, everyday. You can sign the following words using proper ASL: cookie, grapes, apple juice, milk, more, shoes, outside, light, brush teeth, finished and food. You also know all the actions to the song “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree”. You can positively identify your eyes, cheeks, nose, teeth, hair, shoes, hands, and tongue. You are so stinkin’ cute!

What is the indicator that we are leaving the house, to go somewhere? No, not the car keys. Not shoes, or my purse in my hand either. These things that would indicate to someone else that we were heading out the door mean nothing to you. It is when I put on my sunglasses that you come running and you know we are going somewhere! You grab your hat and out the door we go! Because I wear sunglasses, you have decided that you too like to wear your sunglasses. You look like a “Rock Star Baby” when you put yours on. Too dang cute.

Living right by an airport has really piqued your interest in airplanes. The plane takes off five times a day, and you better bet that every time you hear that plane engine start you drop everything and anything you are doing (including drinking apple juice which you never give up without a fight) to go out on the patio and watch the plane take off. You reach both arms up with your palms facing each other to any adult (and I mean any adult) in the house. Paul, who is in our Branch, learned quite quickly what to do when you extended your arms to him (he was the closest adult) in need of his assistance to watch the plane take off!

You have had a busy five months. Your Aunt Lydia and Uncle Daniel came to visit you. Lydia even tried to fit you in her suitcase to take you home! It was so fun to have them here. You showed them all around Saba, and took them to the top of Mount Scenery. They loved you so much, they decided to have a baby of their very own! You will now have a new friend to play with next year.

In September, you traveled with me to California to visit your favorite Aunt Jenn and her family. You had such a great time with your cousins Ike and Zack. They followed you up and down the staircase ALL DAY LONG. They were such great babysitters!

We then went to Utah to visit both sets of your grandparents and to Texas to visit Daniel and Lydia. We left your dad alone on Saba for five weeks. He missed us so much! He said I can’t take you to the states for that long again. It was too hard for him. I can only imagine how he felt. We love you so much!

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I have a problem. It is around 80 degrees everyday and I am cold. I know, how I am going to survive the winter? Not this one, but next year! Thank goodness I brought back some of my FAVORITE hot chocolate from Utah. It is Stephens Gourmet Hot Cocoa, and trust me, it is the best.

A few mornings ago, I drank myself into warmth as I watched the sunrise and watched as rain came down on neighboring islands.

This is the sunrise through heavy rain clouds.

This is a sheet of rain coming toward us on Saba. It’s fun to watch the weather. Who needs a weather man when you can just step outside and see for yourself what the weather is going to be like?

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Thank goodness Thanksgiving at our house is over! The actual event was great, but all the preparation for the event could drive an over eager, anxious person such as myself to an early grave! I had NO IDEA what I was getting into when I said to David, “Hey Honey, why don’t we have a big Thanksgiving Dinner at our house?” David is not one to turn down good food and fun, so he jumped on the bandwagon right away. I can’t believe people women do this every year. It is one thing to attend a Thanksgiving Dinner. It is a completely different animal to host a Thanksgiving Dinner. I learned a few things, like HOW important it it to have an EXACT guest count prior to one hour before dinner. You know, just minor things.

After slaving away in my kitchen, which boasts an entire THREE FEET of counter space, I realized why Thanksgiving only happens ONCE A YEAR. My cooking skills were pushed beyond their limits and comfort zone. I am somewhat new to the cooking world (um . . . I really started cooking like a year ago . . . you do the math . . .) and some of the cooking required me to check with Google, which I had to do with almost everything. I have NEVER cooked a turkey or a ham. I used to buy the ready made Thanksgiving Dinners from Kroger’s in Texas. They are delicious - and easy. After this experience, I will be doing that again. The turkey that comes with that meal is pre-cooked. This was my first time cooking a turkey, and hoping I did it right. I didn’t want to give everyone food poisoning! Then, I had to carve the turkey. The word carve is a nice word for GUT and RIP the turkey apart. It was GROSS. Need I say more? I REALLY hate stuff on my hands (sand, eggs, anything) and this only made the situation more unbearable. This is where David came in. He was the designated “turkey gutter and ripper” because gross jobs should be left for the “Y” chromosome.

I found all my recipes here. I made a pumpkin pie (which was delicious), coconut cream pie, cheery cheesecake, and a lemon “surprise”. I called it a surprise because I invented it (you know, didn’t have the right ingredients to make a lemon pie, so I improvised). It ended up being the favorite desert of the night. Too bad I don’t remember exactly how I made it!

Saba doesn’t celebrate American holidays (so rude I know!), so all the students had to go to school. We didn’t start dinner until 6:00. We had 18 guests and two little people (Hannah and Deya) on our patio for dinner. We (as in the “royal we” - aka David) were able to rig up a table to accommodate all of us. It was so nice to sit at one table. Next year, I will not be a stressed out novice, but an expert Thanksgiving Dinner Planner! I don’t think I will try to feed 18 though . . . I don’t want to gray early!

David, Hannah and others getting ready to eat.

Lee, Kendrick, Paul, David and Hannah. All checking out the mashed potatoes.

Beth, Lee, Kim, Kendrick, Paul, and David. Waiting to take thirds . . .

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As David puts it, I have have been “busy and important” this past week working on a couple of advent calendars. When my friend Rebecca left Saba, she dropped off two advent calendar kits that she didn’t get around to making. Lucky for me! Since there are no fabric/craft stores on this island, it was a special treat to have the kits.

Now, I don’t now how to use a sewing machine, so I did as much of the needle work by hand (I don’t really recommend this unless you have TONS of time and don’t mind doing tedious projects). When it came time to quilt it and sew the front and back together, I called on my friend Sally (who has been known to solve several of my problems). She really made these calendars come together!

On this calendar, you put little treats or presents in the boxes. I can’t wait to fill it up!

On this calendar, you put up an ornament each day, counting down the days till Christmas.

Look how cute it is all dressed up!

I have really been in “project mode” this week, and I came across a website that has darling Christmas ideas. Click here to see a cute elf shoe pattern. I made an elf shoe today, but since I am limited on felt here (okay, honestly, I was SO GLAD to have found any felt, I really am not complaning) my shoe was done in brown not white. Maybe I’ll post pictures later, but check out this site. Also, the same site has a great advent calendar idea. I will be making that calendar next year!

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I can’t decide if the new time change is good or bad. You see, here on Planet Saba, we are part of The Netherlands (a.k.a. Holland). Apparently, Holland doesn’t believe in the whole “time change thing”, because we don’t turn our clocks an hour forward or backward every six months. For half of the year, we are on Atlantic Standard Time (an hour ahead of Eastern Time) and half the year we are on Eastern Daylight Time, which works out great because the island TV is pirated from New York digital satellite. Yes, it is pirated. We don’t get anything local or regional by way of TV I have no idea what the weather will be down here, I just know that it will probably be 100% opposite of the weather in New York, which is the only local weather we get.

Here is the good: Denise Austin comes on at 8:00 AM now instead of 7:00 AM. The earlier time was just too early. Heck, I get up early enough at 6:00 AM, (Hannah is the never fail alarm clock) but I am never “together” enough by 7:00 AM to work my butt off. And, of course I don’t have Tivo. This island can’t even give me the same Networks week to week! The new 8:00 AM workout time lines up perfectly with Hannah’s morning nap time (yes, she still takes a morning and afternoon nap). I have just enough time to work out with Denise, and then work out with Mari Winsor doing Pilates from a DVD that I love. If I’m lucky, I can squeeze in a shower and get ready for the day before Hannah wakes up. And now you know why I look so disheveled everyday.

Now, here’s the bad part. I am addicted to TOO many shows. Seriously, I am ADDICTED. It is a problem. I can’t stay up late enough to watch when my shows come on! Everything comes on an hour later than it should, which is far too late for anyone. I knock off around 9:00 or 10:00 PM each night, and so would you if you religiously got up at 6:00 AM! I am obsessed in love with the following shows: Ugly Betty, Smallville, Dancing with the Stars, Scrubs, Moonlight, Heroes, Lost, and American Idol.

I need an intervention. I really think the “writers guild” or whoever they are that are on strike, had ME in mind when they decided to STOP writing for sitcoms and whatever else. Sure, I know they want more money, but I really think this is all about me and my needs. When sitcoms run out of episodes to run, they will show re-runs. That means that I will be going to bed guilt free because I’m not missing out! Don’t be mad at the writers on strike, be mad at the Networks for not shelling out the big bucks.

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“Do you remember the Whaling twins that modeled for our store?”

“Um . . .ya.”

“I still can’t tell them apart. It’s a good thing they didn’t mind being mixed up.”

“Ya, good thing.”

“Oh! Oh! Remember Natalie and Cydne?”

“Ya, they worked for us and they modeled for us.”

“YES! But they were the cutest twins! Even though they were identical, I could totally tell them apart.”

“They looked exactly the same to me. They were IDENTICAL twins . . .”

“Whatever, they look totally different.”

“How?”

“Well, Natalie was prettier, with a rounder face and she had chicklet teeth. She had perfect almond shaped eyes too. Cydne was 10 pounds thinner and one of her front teeth had a calcium deposit on it. Her eyes were almond shaped too, but they turned up.”

“That is seriously freaky how you know people by their teeth.”

“Wow, have you ever thought what it would be like to be a twin? How weird!”

“Um . . . ya, I guess I have thought about it.”

“Oh my gosh David! (smacking David’s arm) I AM A TWIN! I am such an idiot! We just had this whole conversation about twins and I was envisioning being a twin! I am obviously not as close to Brian as I should be!”

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This island is beautiful. I feel really lame that I haven’t hiked every trail or throughly explored this entire island in the two years I have lived here. Since both David and I feel heavy laden with guilt for being such couch potatoes, we have decided to hike ALL the trails before we leave in April. This is probably an ambitious goal (since some of the trails require a guide), but we got right to it and hiked a trail taking us to Maskehorn Hill. The view was breathtaking! The view overlooks the village of Windwardside and several islands. It was such a beautiful clear day, it was very rewarding.

This is a view of Windwardside from Maskehorn Hill.

View of Booby Hill and The Level from Maskehorn Hill. The islands of Statia and St. Kitts are in the background.

It was such a clear day, you can actually see houses on Statia (foreground) and St. Kitts (background).

This is a close up of the island of Statia (one of the islands visible from my patio).

This is the village of Windwardside. If you look closely, you can see the teeny road that leads up the The Level.

It was such a clear day, (lucky for us!) you can even see the island of Nevis. It is the third island back with the clouds on top. It is only visible to us on Saba on a VERY clear day.

This is the beginning of the trail. We had just finished our hike and were quite sweaty and gross. Check out Hannah’s expression, she looks so enthusiastic about the hike she just finished!

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The first cruise ship of the season! Yesterday afternoon, Hannah and I were heading into town to run a few errands. As I stepped out the door, this is what I saw! My camera was ready as always, so I snapped a few pictures.

The cruise ship as viewed from my patio.

In the states, I used to watch cars go by my house. Now I watch ocean traffic. Over the past two years, David and I have taken a lot of photos of boats. I am a little obsessed to say the least. I plan to have a hardback coffee table book made featuring “ocean traffic” (cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats, yachts, etc) with pictures we have taken.

Hurricane season was officially over November 1, so now the cruise ships will come out in droves. It is so fun to look out everyday and see them. I can usually see them docked on Sint Maarten or Saint Barths. There is one cruise liner that sails very close to Saba. It comes by every Friday during the months of January through April. Check out the pictures:

David took this photo from our patio.

This cruise liner comes so close, you can actually see people on it and flashes from their cameras.

The houses in the foreground are my neighbors.

I’ll keep you posted with interesting ocean traffic as I photograph it during the “peak season” for the Caribbean.

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For the past couple of days, the whole island has smelled like a big FART. That most certainly included the inside of my house. When David and I first smelled the oh-so-lovely smell, we immediately checked Hannah’s diaper. Which is a strange thing for us to do because her poop doesn’t stink; not like that anyway. We then looked to our dogs. Both of them have been known to CLEAR a room in a second with the stench of their gas. However, this stinky smell didn’t come from them either. Now, knowing that it is physically IMPOSSIBLE for either one of us to have something so wretched, and stinky come out of our bodies, we immediately went outside. Because that is obviously what you do when your house stinks! Only to find that the smell was ten times stronger outside than it was inside!

We know where the smell came from now. Every few months a volcano spews gas on the island of Montserrat. This island is four islands down from Saba; and judging by the smell, I can’t imagine living on that island. Yes, people live there. I would think that one volcanic gas spew and the whole island would clear out! The STENCH! YUCK! Today, Saba smells like it should; like flowers.

Yesterday, I morphed into Betty Crocker and made homemade bread and homemade Oreo cookies. They both turned out delicious. As I was kneading the bread on my luxurious counter space, all three feet of it, I couldn’t help but look out the window at my beautiful ocean and island view. Through my kitchen window you can see the island of Saint Barths. It is a French island and it is known as the “Beverly Hills of the Caribbean”. Victoria’s Secret shoots their catalog there every year, and famous people (Catherine Zeta Jones and Uma Therman to name a few) vacation there. I have seen photos of them in People magazine (my favorite trash mag), frolicking on the beach. I have never been there, I only dream of going there. As I was cursing myself for thinking that making homemade bread would be great and “totally worth the effort”, I imagined myself living on Saint Barths; where I could walk into any bakery and buy a baguette. Because they have bakeries there, like a normal island. On “Planet Saba”, we have to make our own.

This is the island of Saint Barths, as viewed from my patio on Saba.

This morning I woke up to the sound of Hannah (15 months) singing on the monitor. She makes up her own tune and sings just one word. It is usually the word “hi”, but this morning it was “side”. Which of course means “outside”! When I went in to get her, she said “shoes!” because obviously you need shoes to go outside! Lucky for me, I have a daughter that likes to get up before the sun does. I get to see breathtaking sunrises every morning while she pushes her toy stroller around the patio in her pajamas.

The sunrise this morning. The ocean is very calm, it looks like cake frosting.

This is the view off my patio. Beautiful eh?

The sun has risen. The island in this photo is Saint Eustatius. This is the view I get to see everyday.

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While I was visiting the great state of TEXAS, it was very obvious how “everything is Bigger and Better in TEXAS”. My world on Saba is so small: 1,500 people, five miles big, nine miles of road, one gas station, four grocery stores, and a few restaurants. So, everything in TEXAS seemed THAT much bigger. I had to take a picture of Central High School, which is located near my old house in TEXAS. There are over 3,000 kids (or more) enrolled in this high school. Ahem . . . that is like THREE times the population of Saba. The school probably sits on five square miles too . . . Nice to know that my entire world could fit into this ONE school.

Central High School, Keller, TEXAS

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