Moses at 7 Months
This month Moses is army crawling like a pro. He army crawls into every room in the house and likes to be where we are! He can also army crawl with a toy in each hand. He has not yet discovered how to crawl on all fours but gets close when he climbs over our legs when we sit with him on the play mat. He enjoys playing with the empty water jugs and Papa’s white charger. We recently bought him wooden ring stack and he enjoys taking it apart and throwing, rolling, and banging the pieces. He already knows how to give high fives and kisses and gives us kisses at random if we are laying at this level on the play mat!
The Congo River 2.0
This past weekend we went and visited a tourist site further down the Congo river with our friends Dadys and Felicité. It is the same place we visited with them in 2018 when we visited Kinshasa before our marriage. It was just as lovely as the last time and it felt so good to get some air and spend some time in nature. Moses enjoyed it too! Now we have some nice family photos! This week also marks one year of us being in Kinshasa!
Moses at 6 Months
Moses is 0 1/2 years old! Where did the time go? This month he has learned how to sit like a pro, and right at the end of the month he started scooting longer distances and making his way around the living room. Watch out world! He likes to grab at everything (including our faces, glasses, hair) and pass toys from one hand to another or swing them around. He is also developing some quirky habits and we are beginning to see his personality come out!
Moses at 5 Months
This month has seen many big changes! Moses is sleeping in his own room in a bigger crib and sleeping mostly through the night. He spends most of his time on his stomach (of his own accord!), and is rotating and army crawling trying to follow his toy ball or my foam roller. He was also showing so much interest in food that we decided to start feeding him solids. He makes funny faces at first but really enjoys it!
Cardboard Crib
One challenge about having a baby in Congo is that there isn’t a market for used stuff. I think that if we were in Canada we would have many used baby things thrown our way as friends and relatives declutter their homes post-having children. Or else we could look for used stuff on Craigslist, Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace. When looking at new cribs we found that the options are either cheaply made or super expensive (we need a middle ground option here like IKEA!). We chose a third option of designing a wood crib to get made, but because of the pandemic we had to post-pone our plans. But we have a growing baby that we can’t hit the pause button on and so I had the idea to design a temporary cardboard crib. I thought that even after he is done with it, we can use it as a play item.
The design uses a strategy of cuts and folds so that one single piece of cardboard can form one side of the crib with very little waste. Then I added internal reinforcing with layered cardboard on the inside of all of the junction points. I used the cardboard we had leftover from our freezer purchase, but only had enough for three sides. To still make it work we have the crib pushed up against the headboard of the bed. It will serve until Moses is able to pull himself to standing. I am very happy with the results! One change I would make is to add additional layers of cardboard on the inside of the top and bottom rung for additional lateral support. It took me a few weeks to make because I had to cut and score everything by hand (and I am a busy mom with many other things to do!), but if drafted in CAD the design could be laser cut in a matter of minutes.
Final result!
Sketch of flat sheet with cuts and scores (solid vs dotted lines)
Card mock-up
Moses at 3 Months
This month Moses has started to grab at anything that is around him. He is also having conversations with us and making all matter of sounds! It doesn’t take much to get him smiling!
