Say, "Fromaj!"

Chapters Two and Three

2012-01-31T10:42:00.000-08:00

Here's more! I am surprising you with two more chapters today.

Thanks for keeping track. Hope you like these. I will put up at least one more chapter tomorrow. Be careful, because it's about to get really scary.

Table of Contents and Chapter One

2012-01-30T06:45:00.001-08:00

Click on pictures to start reading the story.

Chapter two will be up tomorrow.

John and Jack's Horrible Vacation coming soon!

2012-01-26T10:39:00.001-08:00

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I am trying to make a book series about two cousins. I already made one book in the series called, "John and Jack's Horrible Vacation, Book 1: The Beach."

There are 8 chapters in this book. Every school day (which is Monday-Friday) I am going to post a new chapter on my blog. I already wrote the book, I am just working on illustrating it.

This is just the cover.

Hope you can see my book.

More tomorrow!

Love,
Nia

I love math

2011-10-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

This is how my first day of school went.

2011-09-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today I went to school. It was my first day of school. At first, I was kind of nervous but when I got there, I met a friend right away. I can’t remember her name. She speaks English. She speaks more English than Kreyol. She’s black but I don’t know if she’s Haitian or not. Here's a picture of me talking to her. Can't find me? Here's a hint-- I am the only white girl.

The teacher, Madam Nicole, said I was the best in the class. I wonder if I really am or if she was just saying that to make me feel good. It did make me feel good.

When I got to school today I thought I was supposed to be in second grade, but, when they took me to my class it turned out I was supposed to be in third grade. So, I had to look at someone else’s book during class and then buy the third grade books after class.

One thing that’s a little difficult is that the class is in French. I speak English and I speak Kreyol, but I only speak a little bit of French. So, thank goodness, I didn’t tell my teacher I speak French, so she is giving me two weeks to learn French and she will translate for me into Kreyol until then. So I guess I will speak French in two weeks. I was going to tell her that I didn’t need most of her translations, but then I remembered if she gave me some time to learn MORE French that would be better… so I kept it a secret.

I will keep you posted!

Love ,
Nia

Freckles

2011-09-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

My mom and I were talking this morning and she was telling me I was getting freckles. I like freckles. I have them on my cheeks and on my nose. I told her I hope I get a lot of freckles. Wouldn't it be funny if I had so many freckles that I turned brown?

Manita points to my mom's freckles and asks what they are. My mom says, "That's where I am just a little bit Haitian." So now Manita asks everybody who has freckles if they are a little bit Haitian too!

Isn't that funny???

See, I have some freckles.

Love,
Nia

Boys!

2011-06-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Two thinks I like that are food.

2011-06-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

One of my favorite foods is this:

And one other thing that is my favorite food is: ??? Here are some hints. It is small, it is orange, and it is cheesy. Can you guess? Leave me a comment with your guess.

Love,
Nia

Two things I like that aren't food.

2011-06-04T04:19:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

I just want to say, I like to read.

And also, I love baby Sarah.

Love,
Nia

My ABC's

2010-12-15T16:30:00.001-08:00

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,
J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,
S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z.

Just wanted to be a little baby-ish.
Ha ha ha!

Love,
Nia.

My families birthdays

2010-12-15T16:12:00.001-08:00

Gwenn April 2 1977
Nick December 27 1979
Fritzie September 5 1994
Jean louis December 1 1997
Yves Feubruary 24 1998
Sannni July 11 2001
Jerry December 5 2001
Prisca June 6 2002
Nia July 1 2003
Wildarne September 11 2003
Nico November 18 2004
Manita July 20 2006
Josiah June 1 2007

Really Funny Thing

2010-11-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was playing the game 20 Questions.

The game 20 Questions is when someone thinks of a person and then another person asks the person who is thinking of a person questions about him or her. And then, after 20 Questions that they asked, they try to guess the person. So one day, I was playing 20 Questions with my mom and--you know our security who name is Daniel or Black?--my mom was thinking of a person and I was asking her questions about it. And I said: "Is he black?"--BUT I was saying the color black, is his skin black. So my mom thought it was the person Black. Then I told her what I really meant. We laughed and laughed!

love nia

Black

New things in my life.

2010-11-09T13:48:00.001-08:00

I have a lot of new things in my life.

Like new security guards. And new toys. And a new light. Let me explain them all.

First is the new security guards. We have 3. Their names are Daniel (who is also called Black), Rodler, and Nene. Nene comes in the night. Daniel comes in the day and night sometimes. Rodler comes in the day, never at night.

Rodler

Daniel/Black

Nene

I drew this picture for Daniel/Black because he's nice. In the picture we are walking on a bridge. The car is not about to hit us because it is going slowly. And also since Black is there, he is there to protect me so he won't let a car hit me.

The second new thing is my doll. For a long time (since I was 2) I had a doll named Jessica. BUT, her arm fell off. Not actually FELL off, Nico and Josiah pulled it off. Brothers! Well Nico and Josiah like dolls, why did they do that to my doll? Nico asked if he could have the one that he pulled the arm off. I said yes because I don't want it. It's dumb to have a doll with no arm.

My new doll's name is a secret. But I bet if ONE person in the whole wide world could guess, it would be Granddad. Does that give you a hint?

The third thing is my new light. Nosega put it on the wall for me. Can you believe I lived in a room with no light for 11 months? And now it is better for guests because they use my room and now my room has more light. They don't need to have the bathroom light on now to make light in the room.

Ta Da!

That's all for now.

Next on my blog, I will have more stuff to say.

Love,

Nia

The time without blogging.

2010-11-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Surprise!

The time without blogging was fun. I hope you all had fun too.

Hey, I just lost two teeth. And I have three loose.
A hurricane came through Haiti. I haven't had school for a while because of the hurricane. Pinchinat got broke down a little bit during the hurricane and so I helped Daddy move the people to houses. I didn't get out of the truck though because it was raining a lot AND I was a good helper because Eddie and Daddy had a lot of phone calls. So I would yell to them and hand them their phones when they rang. Eddie got more phone calls than Daddy.

I am in Haitian school now. I really like the math in Haitian school, just like in American school.

Today I had church. I read a 10 chapter book during church. It was called, "Prilla and the Butterfly Lie." Church is kind of long so I had lots of time. Anyway, I know how to read fast now. I can read a little bit in Kreyol, but a lot in English. I am in 1st grade in Haitian school and second grade in American school. And I am learning French too.

Josiah has pink eye. When he woke up today I saw tears in his eyes and his eyes look pink now, that's why it's called pink eye. And they always have boogers in them. It's gross.

That's all for today!

Love,

Nia

Soccer Camp

2010-06-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last week there was soccer camp. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Soccer camp is camp where you play soccer all day, every day. I didn't go to play soccer though. Neither did the team. We went to help with soccer camp for other children, not us.Before the soccer started, they also did a clinic.

Everyday after the kids played soccer they heard Pastor tell a story and then they ate dinner. They ate rice and hotdogs or chicken and beans. They drank juice.

I help pass out stuff.

I passed out water. One time I was so in a hurry to give out a water I slipped. I passed out juice. I passed out food. And one time I sang a song.

Love,
Nia

Here I am passing out juice.

Helping pass out water and drinking some water.

Sitting in the trailer with the team.

Singing a song.

My Alliteration book

2010-05-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

My friends,

My alliteration book was fun to do. I finished it today. An alliteration is a sentence where each word begins with the same letter or sound.

I wrote and illustrated it. We did every letter of the alphabet in order.

Here's a few pictures from it.

Here are the alliterations I chose for each letter.

Annie ate an awesome apple.
Bobby's brown bed became blue.
Connie's cat can claw curtains.
Donnie's dog does dishes.
Ellie Elephant eats everything.
Fritzie Freff feels fuzzy feathers.
Gail gives good girls great gum.
Henry has honey ham.
In India, Ida ices icky iguanas.
Joyful Jennifer jumps jelly.
King Ken kissed kind kittens.
Lila Loose loves ladybug's laughs.
Mikey's mom makes more music.
Nico's niece, Nia, naps noisily.
Old octopi own orange olives.
Peter Pan paints pennies pink.
Queen Quack quilts quickly.
Ryan ropes rare rabbits.
Sammie sips strawberry soda.
Tink Toodles talks tough.
Uncle Ulysses unties underwear.
When will William Wong want wonderful wontons?
Xavier xrays xylophones.
Yolanda yawns yellow yarn.
Zachary zips zero zippers.

This book took me a long time to do. We started over a year ago and finally finished today.

I am sad and happy that I finished the book. I am sad because I can't do it anymore. I am happy because I finished it.

Love,
Nia

Teams

2010-05-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

My friends,

I just found out, well, not I JUST found out, but a couple of days ago I found out I have a loose tooth. Actually, 2 loose teeth.

This is what I really wanted to talk about. It's so amazing how much teams have come. There's four that's come in the past weeks and days. Some of their names were Mia, Molly, Jack, Mr. Dave, Mrs. Vicky. Doris and Janice today. Brenda and Brittany and Amanda and Jarius. Maybe some other people from North Carolina too, but I can't remember their names.

We're having good times with them being here. One group made screens for the windows in the orphanage. Another group checked our teeth and taught a class on how we can brush our teeth properly.

It's kind of good having a lot of teams here because I don't get to speak English a lot and I am forgetting my English. That's bad. Sometimes I forget some English words and I can only remember what they are in Kreyol and then I have to ask mommy to remind me what they are in English. So I really like teams because I can practice my English.

I can't think of anything else to say about teams.

Love, Nia

List of favorites

2010-05-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

favorite food- Macaroni and cheese

favorite color- pink or purple

favorite movie- Dr. Doolittle

favorite song- Happy Day

favorite place to be- restaurant

favorite music group- crosspointe

favorite brother- can't say, but the cutest brother is Josiah

favorite sister- can't say, but the cutest sister is Wildarne

favorite mom- my mom

favorite dad- my dad

favorite car- our car

favorite toy- baby doll

favorite game to play- Pet shop (I have had Pet Shop for 2 years)

favorite Bible verse- Phillipians 2:4 (I only know it in Creole though)

favorite thing to do on the weekend- crafts

favorite sport- t-ball

favorite teacher- can't say because my teacher right now is my mom

favorite thing I hope to get for my birthday on July 1- craft stuff, because I am kind of like an artist

Love,
Nia

Surprise!

2010-05-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Didn't I surprise you doing this? I was planning to do this because I wanted to trick you. No, I really wasn't planning to not do it in a long time, I just forgot.

My life has changed a lot. I don't know how much has changed, but I feel different. I feel different because I have too many people to talk to. I have to play whatever they tell me to play. These people are my sisters and brothers.

These are my brothers and sisters names:
Jean Louis- he's very funny
Jerry- he's very naughty
Fritzie- the oldest kid in the family
Yves- has had three boils on his body since we've had him
Wildarne- likes to play babies a lot
Prisca- I know how to spell her name
Nico- The same as Jean Louis
Josiah- fè dezod (makes trouble)
Then there's me. Nia Mangine. I like to do the right things.

I know how to speak Kreyol now. Like this, "blah blah blah blah." (just kidding.)

Okay. I will try to blog tomorrow. Maybe I will take some pictures. Of Haiti. Where I live.

Love,
Nia

All about babies like Dave

2009-11-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I met a baby called Dave and his mother was named Michoue. I held the baby and I have a picture of that. He’s a nice cute little baby and I liked holding him. He was little and a tiny chubby, He was really cute, which I already said that, didn’t I? I really liked him and when Anise’s baby was born, which is one of Danny’s nannies, Nico said to my mom, “We have a new baby now!” And mom said, “No, it’s Anise’s baby.” And Nico said, “But Anise is going to come live with us now right?” And mommy said, “No.” And Nico understood that he wasn’t our baby.

Babies are cute but I don’t like when they spit up on me. I bet you don’t like that too. That’s enough about babies. And that’s enough on my blog post today. I didn’t want to talk about a lot. Just babies. Cause they are really cute.

Love,

Nia

How things are back in Haiti

2009-11-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hey my friends,

I have had fun back in Haiti. You know I met Jean Louis because I mentioned it last time.

For the first time in a long time yesterday I went to the beach. It was good. The water was rough so we couldn't go in deep and there was a lot of seaweed. The Haitian people call the seaweed "fatra" which is the same word for trash.

Whiskey, who is one of Nixon's boys, he went out too deep and pulled out cause the ocean got really strong. He almost drowned. And then Mr. Danny and my dad were brave enough to go out and get him. And they helped him swim back. And everyone was okay. I really like that Whiskey came back and didn't drown. It was a little scary. My mom has told me that could happen and so that's why we're not allowed to go in deep unless she or daddy is holding me.

When I heard the name Whiskey that my mom said, I didn't really remember which boy of Nixon's he really was. But I know him now.

I have had a fun time at school today. I ate peanut butter toast for breakfast, but I didn't eat all of it because the peanut butter made my tummy hurt. I actually didn't even eat the toast, I just took some finger licks of the peanut butter. Prisca reminded me about the peanut butter and so I took another lick and she was right-- it WAS the peanut butter that made my tummy hurt. It's better now. Do you know how it tasted different? It actually didn't taste different, it just FELT different in my mouth. It was really light not thick.

I am sorry, the connection is really slow and we can't do pictures, but I will try to take some this afternoon and maybe I can share some on tomorrow or Wednesday.

I hope that you are doing good.

Bye.

Love,
Nia

Meeting Jean Louis + getting a cheerleader outfit

2009-11-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hey my friends-

I had a fun day yesterday and today. I got a cheerleader outfit in America from a friend named Anna. That day I had a fun day too. Do you know that I was at a party when I got it, because we went to Anna's house for the party? And she had two sets of pom poms and so she gave one set to me. I really liked my time with Anna.

And also, I met Jean Louis yesterday. He's nice. He's shorter than I thought he was. I colored with him yesterday. You'll see a picture of that. When Jean Louis colors, he likes to use a lot of colors in his picture. He's going to come over today too. Me and Jean Louis walked to the beach yesterday with my mom. It was nice, but the water was rough and garbage-y.

My heat rash came back. I think it might actually be an allergy to Haiti. Ha ha. Funny joke, huh? It's actually just heat rash.

My mom has scheduled my lessons for next week and as part of my school I am going to do blog posts 3 days next week.

I will post pictures next time.

Love,
Nia

My time in America: The garbage truck + Monkey Joe's + my lunch with my friends + Halloween + snow

2009-11-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

Dear my friends,

Tomorrow is my second to last day in America. On Wednesday we're leaving to go back to Haiti. It's very short to Wednesday. I don't really know what that means.

I have had a good time in America. I have had a doughnut and ice cream without my brothers going with me. I got to play in the snow in New York. On Halloween night of course I went trick or treating. I dressed up as a bride. My grandma made the costume. She didn't pin it, she sewed it. In Manteo we did, "Happy First Christmas" in the shed. I got to be Mary because last time I was the angel.

Here we go in pictures.

"X House" Why did the house have an X on it? You can tell us in your comments.

"Playing in the snow!"

Abbie, a shepherd. Me, Mary. Cana, the little baby Jesus.

Going out to lunch with Molly and Presley and their parents.

At Monkey Joe's. It was a fun party.

Josiah chewing on pizza.

Daddy about to take a bite of pizza.

Tucker's birthday cake.

Me and Grandad in his garbage truck!

I am sorry. I have to go now. And also, I am sorry because there are not a lot of pictures.

See you later. I will try to do it soon...

Love,
Nia

My adventure with mom and two midwives

2009-10-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Today I went on an adventure with two midwives. Anise went too. Anise is one of the nannies in Danny and Leann's orphanage. (Danny and Leann have a different orphanage.) Anise went with us because we were going to one of the midwives' house to check on Anise's baby. (She's pregnant now.)

After we brought Anise back to Danny and Leann's house, and then we went to visit two little babies that were born yesterday. They were SO cute. And they were next door neighbors. Sarah (the midwife) helped the ladies have the babies. My mom went with her in the middle of the night last night to drive Sarah there.

Here's some pictures.

I hope you like the little baby pictures.

Me and Sarah measuring Anise. You do this to see how big the baby is.

Me and Sarah hearing the baby's heartbeats. I got to hear mine too. They baby heartbeat was faster and softer than my heartbeat because it had to go through Anise's skin, her uterus, the baby's skin and then to the heart. On mine it just had to go through my skin.

Me and Sarah feeling Anise's baby inside her tummy. It felt like the baby was laying sideways. The head was at the bottom and the back was on the left side and the arms and legs were on the right side. The butt was up top. Right here I am touching the baby's butt!

Sarah is showing me the chart for the weeks. Every week she measures Anise's tummy and feels around. Today she measured 37 cm. There is three more weeks left before the baby is born.

This is the little baby girl we went to visit. She does not have a name yet.

This is the baby girl and her mommy.

Sarah (one of the midwives) holding the little boy. The little boy was wearing PINK!

The mother and the little boy.

These are the little kids at that home. And me. They liked me a lot.

At this adventure, I had fun. It was a long trip. When we went home, my mom bought me a soda because I was really thirsty.

I will see you guys later.

Have a nice day.
Love,
Nia

My “Pulling Through Things” Magnet Experiment

2009-09-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

We did an experiment today to try to figure out what magnets could pull through. We took a strong magnet and we put a piece of paper in between a pile of books. So this way, we could have it pull through the paper. We used a paper clip, a metal washer, a thumb tack, and a straight pin. By moving the magnet underneath the paper, we could make the stuff move all around, all around, all around. It even made the thumbtack dance, dance, dance.

Then we knew that magnets could pull through paper. So after that we tried cardboard. It could pull through it. The next thing was plastic. It could pull through that. And then we tried plastic and cardboard and paper together. And it could STILL pull through that. So THEN we tried a whole BOOK. And it could work through the book! But then we tried two books together. But that didn’t work. The magnet wasn’t strong enough to pull through two books.

The second part of our experiment was with magnets and water. We got a bowl of water and two corks. We put a thumbtack in each cork and then set them in the water. The corks floated. Then we took the magnet and put it under water and we could move the corks across the water with the magnet. And then we put the magnet under the water and we could pull the corks under the water and make them stay with the magnet—even though they usually float.

Wow. Magnets are strong.

See you later.
There’s no pictures for today. I’m sorry.

Love,
Nia

PS- We took Bigsby to the beach and we put him in the deep water where he could not stand. And he did NOT drown. He stayed up! He could swim! Bigsby knows how to swim and he’s only eight weeks old. That was cool. I love Bigsby. He’s a cute cutie!

Some answers to all your questions.

2009-09-23T05:48:00.001-07:00

Some people have asked questions in the comments, so I want to answer them:

1. Titi-
I am not mean to my sister Fritzie. But I do sometimes a little bit spill. It's not the same stinky mattress-- we bought a new mattress and bed.

2. Nana-
We can go the beach a lot when you're here. We can walk to the beach too but we can't swim at that beach. There's a thing in the water that pulls people far out into the ocean. (Mom's note: a strong current... plus it's the filthiest thing you've ever seen.)

3. Grandma-
I am you're learning about Haiti from my blog.

4. Tammy-
I remember you Tammy!

My joke

2009-09-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

I made up a joke the other day. Why don't I tell you it right now.
Question: "What do people up in the mountains call the bathroom?"

Answer: A bush!

That's funny because a lot of people there don't have bathrooms and pee in the bushes.

This is a different story now.
Today at school I was doing school and Nixon came down with a tray. And he gave me and Nico a strawberry Mexican drink that Sandra made, because she used to live near Mexico. It was a little hot like coffee. It was in a little coffee cup and had a plate that went under that matched. And Nixon gave us spoons too. It's really good. It made me feel really good.

Tonight we are sleeping at where my school is-- Nixon and Sandra's house. Mom and Dad are going to go out on a date and this way they can stay up late.

It's just over a month until I go to the States to visit!

I love you.
Have a nice day.
Goodbye.

Love,
Nia

Girls day

2009-09-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

Dear My friends,

A couple of days ago I had a girls day. It's like a day that only girls are at one house. The boys were having a boys day going to Port Au Prince. The people were at home were: Fritizie, Mommy, Me, Nahomie, and Esther.

We went to the beach. Mama Leann brought some of her girls to the beach too: Riann, Tina, Slendia, Vania, Elinda, Blanca, Magdaline, Diane. I played in the water mostly. They had buckets there (like toys and stuff) so I filled one of the buckets with sand and then I found a long stick and I'd take the bucket and stick into the water. And then I'd try to write on the sand but I couldn't because the water was emptying all the sand out of the bucket. I wrote a little bit on it. I pretended to write words in cursive, even though I don't know hot to write in cursive yet. That's why I was pretending.

At the end of the girls day daddy came home and brought back our new chen (that's dog in Kreyol). His name is Bigbsy.

Here's some picture of our girls day.

Me snuggled and sleeping in mommy and daddy's big bed.

Mommy, Fritzie and Esther at breakfast.

We ate French Toast and we all drank from pink cups and white plates. Do you think those were good girl colors?

More eating.

Fritzie holding the fish that Nahomie is going to cook for lunch.

Fritzie and me in our material-made covers. You take a long piece of material and put it behind your back. Then you bring it in the front and take the two corners and cross it behind your neck and tie it. It's a cool cover. Ms. Pam taught me that cause she used to live in Africa.

Me and Fritzie at the beach. We were looking for crabs here. We found some. Fritzie found some so she was showing us. Fritzie is smiling but I am making my face silly.

Fritzie sticking out her tongue.

Me and our new little fuzzy dog, Bigsby.

I also got a french manicure on my nails that day but it kind of got chipped off in the ocean.

Have a nice day.
Goodbye.
Love,
Nia

Experiment: Magnets

2009-09-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Today I did an experiment. It was about magnets.

The first thing we did was get a magnet out and a couple different things from in the box and around Sandra's house.

Then we made a chart. We tried to guess what things a magnet would stick to and which things it wouldn't think it would stick to.

The things I thought it would stick to is:
-a washer
-a nail
-a paper clip
-a marble
-a spoon

The things we thought it WOULDN'T stick to were:
-a cork
-a book
a clothespin

The things is ACTUALLY stuck to were:
-a washer
-a nail
-a paperclip
-a clothespin (but only the metal part)
-a spoon

The things it didn't stick to were:
-a cork
-a marble
-a book
-a clothespin (it wouldn't stick to the wooden part)

So our guesses were almost right. The marble did not stick. I thought it would but it didn't.

I loved this science experiment.

I have to go now.

See you later.

Bye.

Love,
Nia

The team and going to Port Au Prince with dad

2009-09-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Today is Monday. I went to Port Au Prince with daddy on Saturday. I had fun. When I got there we went to the store. We bought a tarp, we bought water bottles, we bought Bon Bon (Haitian cookies), batteries, cheese, and bread. After that we drove to Dominoes Pizza to pick up pizza for the team. I ate some of it. The only kind I ate was pepperoni. This was the first time I have had pizza since Josiah's birthday (June 1.) It was delicious.

After we picked up the pizza, I waited in the car for the team to get on the bus at the airport. Bob brought me on the bus and introduced me. This is big team. There are 18 people. I got to ride in the bus with them back to Jacmel. I walked around a little bit on the bus ride to sit with different people. We talked. I like meeting teams because I get to meet new people and I get to speak English with them.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a busy day. We had to go to church. We went to the beach. It started raining when we were at the beach so we had to go home. It rained REALLY hard on the way home. Lots of hard stuff. And then we had campout. It was hard because we had to get three mattresses out. Mommy fell asleep before the movies even started. She didn't get to watch the movies but that's okay because she was too tired. This morning she asked me if we watched movies because she didn't even know we watched movies. She was sleeping too much. After Daddy got up in the morning, I cuddled up with Mommy. And then I noticed it was light and I realized I hadn't slept the WHOLE night. And then I fell asleep sometime this morning. So I am pretty tired.

On this blog I don't have any pictures but I will try to get some pictures this week.

I love you.

Have a good day.

Bye.

Love,
Nia

I started school!

2009-09-11T08:13:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

Four days ago I started school. I am still doing it almost everyday. Today is the day before I am doing my big break from school (Mom's editorial note: she means the weekend. :)

I really love school. It's fun here. We get to see Sandra for a little bit. My favorite thing to learn about is manners. I learned about manners today. It was about body language. I learned that sometimes your body can say something different than your words are saying.

I also learned how to tie. I will do a separate blog post teaching you all how to do that soon. When my arms get long enough and my neck gets long enough so I can see behind my back, I will be able to tie my dresses in the back. I can't tie in the back yet, but I can tie my shoes. Or I could help mommy tie her dress in the back if she needed it.

Here's some pictures. Now that we're back in school I can do blogs more often.

I hope you like my pictures.

One of the pictures in my alliteration book. I am not actually on "C" I am on "H." Today's alliteration I wrote was this, "Henry has honey ham." An alliteration is when you have a sentence and all the words start with the same letter. I am making a book of the whole alphabet with alliterations and pictures.

Mommy drinking coffee. We also have two other pictures of it. One of her holding it by her face because she loves it and one other of mommy kissing it. She really loves coffee.

My lesson plans for today and the books we used today.

I have to go now, my friends. I'll see you later.

Bye, my friends.

Love,
Nia

Fritzie's first day

2009-08-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

My friends,

Today was Fritzie's FIRST day with us. I had fun. It was kind of busy too though. The best part about it was getting a sister. I have wanted one for a long time, so that's the REALLY best part.

Here's some pictures of our busy day.

Nahomie helping Fritzie unpack.

Fritzie trying on her new white skirt and pink shirt. She looks cute.

Here she's saying goodbye to Candice and Amos. She lived with them for two months. But she lives with us now!

Mom painting Fritzie's fingernails. I got mine painted the same color. In the morning we're going to put the same kind of sparkles on them too.

Fritzie tickling me! (And holding me.)

Fritzie and me and daddy and mommy played "Pet Shop." Aunt Bonnie gave me this game a long time ago. Fritzie loved it. We also played Zingo and Candyland. Her favorite game was Zingo. (Presley gave me that game.) She did not love it when she was playing Candyland and had to go all the way back to Plumy. She was almost finished.

I miss you guys already. It's been a long time and I can't wait to visit. You can come visit me if you want. And if you do, you can meet Fritzie.

Love,
Nia

Me and my lunch with Fritzie

2009-08-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

Today I had lunch with Fritzie. I liked playing with her. Did you know that Fritzie is going to become our first HCH kid? She's cute. She's moving in tomorrow. I can't wait.

This is Fritzie. She's 13 years old. As you can see, her eye is a little sick.
We are going to try to get an operation to fix it.

Josiah, Nico, Me, and Fritzie.

We asked her what her favorite color was. She said it was pink. So we decided to get her rainbow striped sheets because they have pink in them. We also got her 2 towels that are peach-ish pink.

I will tell you more about it when Fritzie moves in. I can't wait. Even though I already said that.

Love,
Nia

Me and my sleepover yesterday and my company tonight

2009-08-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Yesterday night I had a sleepover with two of the Pye kids. They came over and I slept in the living room on an airbed. All three of us slept in one bed. And my mom and dad also brought their mattress in the living room. And Nico slept on two chairs that we have in our living room that we squished together so you can sleep on them. We watched a movie called, "Ella Enchanted" and then in the morning we watched, "Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement." I had a good time.

And then tonight I had company. Tonight before the company came over in the evening, I didn't know this but I slammed my toe into something (that I don't remember doing). It made my toenail lose, and it broke off. Except for a little bit hanging on the toe. It hung on a little bit and made it look like a door. Georgette pulled it off for me. It hurt a little bit. The other nail is already growing in though.

Nico awake (but very tired) on his special pillow.

Magdaline, Elinda and me. Sleeping. On the airmattress. (Editorial note: Magdaline obviously got cold and put the fitted sheet over her head...)

Magdaline and Josiah. Magdaline's skin has a sickness where she's called an albino. If she didn't have this, her skin would be brown like most Haitian people. But she is an albino so her skin is white. Well, peach. She needs to be very careful in the sun or she will get sunburned like white people do. She wears sunscreen like me. Phewf! I don't want her to get burned and I am glad she wears sunscreen. Like most Haitians do... just kidding, most Haitians don't really wear sunscreen.

Mommy sticking out her tongue. It looks funny because she's looking at her tongue. I can't look at my tongue.

Blayne and my webkin cat. The cat's name is Hannah.

I have to go now. Well, I will see you later.
Bye (I am waving to you.)

Love,
Nia

Me and my crown.

2009-08-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

My friends,

Today I made a crown. I made it out of a vine and I pulled the vine down. It was by the itchy plant. So I pulled it down (it wasn't the itchy plant don't worry.) And I curled it up and tied it. And then I took a flower from the ground and stuck it in the tie-in.

I didn't have any help, I did it all myself.

This is the first picture. "Me in my crown." I like my crown because it has a pink flower. It smells good. It smells like a lot of strawberries crumbled together.

The plant in the left corner you see has little points on it. And it doesn't just hurt you, it makes you itchy. So don't touch your screen in the left corner or else you'll get itchy.

I have to go now. Will you thank me for writing before 85 days?

Love,
Nia

Why did the chicken cross the road?

2009-08-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

The answer is:
Cuz there was a crowd of men trying to shoot, kill it that way they could eat it.

Me and the team on the team's week here

2009-08-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

I hope you're having a good time. There are 85 days until we go visit America. It's Friday, August 7 today.

Tonight we had church. I cried when I found out the team was leaving. We had a team here for one week. They were from America. The United States of America. This week we did 4 days of Bible school. It was in the mountains. The town was called Chabin.

VBS was FUN. The last day of VBS we got balloons. But one of the boys were crying because he lot his balloon. So I gave my balloon to him. I served food every day. I did games. My favorite games were the water games. It cooled me down. Ahhh! Almost everyday I was in the green class. Just once I was in the yellow class. Do you know what my favorite thing about the yellow class was? No? I will tell you. My favorite thing about the yellow class is that the CRAFTS are first. And I like the crafts.

I liked this team a lot. Chelsea Loomis was on it. And Chelsea Cyr. And Ms. Teresa. And Spencer and Eli. And Jenna. And Merry. And Cecily. And Mr. Eddie and Mrs. Tracy. We had lots of fun. I already told you this but I was really, really, really sad when the team left.

Here are a few pictures from our week.

This is Ms. Teresa at VBS. I like Ms. Teresa. I like her because I like to hang out with her. She has a cute little skirt. It has flowers all over it.

This is me in my "Joy in Hope" shirt. I like that shirt because it's pink. And you KNOW I like pink.

Me serving food. It's FUN serving food. Nico got mad because he couldn't serve food because he was too little. Every VBS day we ate beans and rice. They are good. The first two days we had hotdogs with it. And then we started having fish for two days. I liked both of them the same.

Me on the slip and slide with Chelsea Cyr and Tina.

I have to go now but I will see you guys later. I will see you in 85 days but I will probably blog before 85 days. Maybe I won't.

Love,
Nia

Our big hike at the beach (and the river)

2009-07-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

How are you guys? Good? Okay.

I have good news. I found my camera. Actually, daddy found it for me. So I have some "foto yo" for you. You know what "foto yo" is in English? Pictures. Well, now you know.

Today I went on a GIANT hike. We were gone for three hours. We started from our house and then we walked to the beach and then we walked to the river. It was really long. We also had a picnic there. There were two rivers we had to walk through. One was very deep so daddy carried us through. Mommy walked through the river too. They got wet up to their bottoms. Well, mommy did. Daddy got wet up to his waist and mommy got wet up to her bottom.

These are some of the pictures from my walk. We took over 100 of them. (Some of them mommy took.) We just picked a couple to show you.

This is going to be a joke. Question:"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
You can try to tell me what you think the answer is in your comment. And on my next blog, I will see who is right and I will tell you about it in my next post.

Daddy under a palm tree.

Jean Richard, one of the boys we met, did this backbend.

Daddy and the boys and Josiah (and Nico) standing by a tree. There was another piece in the ocean too. The boys said it came down in a hurricane.

This is a shipwreck in the sea.

A pig in the river looking at me.

Garbage on the ground. There is a lot of garbage on the ground in Haiti.

Me next to pink flowers. Mommy took this one.

I had beet juice with dinner tonight. It was purple.

I have to go now. I will see you later.

Love,
Nia

I went to Danny's birthday and the beach

2009-07-26T16:41:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

Today I went to the beach. It was fun. Everybody except for Nego and Ellen went. Yesterday we did a party for Danny's birthday. And what I am doing right here in this first picture is painting a pinata.

Here, at the next picture, you will see me pinata-ing the pinata.

Here I am teaching Lovelie Creole. These are the colors in English and Creole. Like blue, red, yellow, white, pink, orange, purple, black, green and brown. You say them: ble for blue, wouj for red, jòn for yellow, blan for white, woz for pink, jòn abriko for orange, mov for purple, nwa for black, vet for green and mawon for brown.

This is me hugging Riann. You can't really see it, but we both have little tubes on. Riann has pink and I have green. Riann's had all sorts of swim stuff on it. And mine has frogs on it.

This is mommy and daddy. Mommy is looking at daddy. And daddy is smiling at us.

I have to get going but I wanted to tell you one more thing. Our roof is leaking. Even though it's tin. (Well, it's only tin in the kitchen.) There's a lot of water on the floor, but now we put a bucket that way we can catch it. That was pretty smart, huh?

I have to get going now. Bye.

Love,
Nia

I love our calendar, do you?

2009-07-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Do you know about our calender, which this story is about?

What it is about is telling us how many days until we go to America. This is how you work it. Every day you take off one page and throw it away. And then read what's on the new page. And when we pick off the last page, that means we will be going to America. We are going to America to visit not to live, because we live in Haiti now.

When I am in America, I will play with my friends like Presley. And when I visit Manteo, I will play with my cousins. The oldest cousin's name is Katie. The middlest is Micah. The youngest is Abbie. But there is going to be a new youngest though!

I also hope I get to see Evie and my newest cousin, Cana.

I also hope I get to see my OTHER cousin, Cayna, and my other cousin named Cory.

This is my calendar. Do you like it? It has a lot of days. As you can see, we have 105 more days.

Love,
Nia

The trouble with Tink: A book review

2009-07-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Today my mom read me a long book with 10 chapters and 109 pages. My grandma gave it to me. It was called, "The Trouble With Tink" and it was about Tinkerbell and how she lost her hammer when she was playing fairytag. You know what is funny with the name Tinkerbell? It's like two words, "Tinker" and then "Bell." And "bell" (bel) is the word is the word beautiful in Kreyol. Isn't that funny?

Tinkerbell looked everywhere and she couldn't find her hammer. It was important that she found her hammer or people would think she lost her talent, which was fixing pots and pans and cups-- anything made of tin. And people DID think she lost her talent. That made her feel sad. But the queen was good to her. And also her friend Terrence. She decided that she should go talk to Peter Pan because she had left her extra hammer there. But she didn't want to go to Peter Pan because she thought Peter Pan wouldn't remember her. So Tinkerbell told Terrence the truth that she lost her hammer and that she needed to go see Peter Pan. And Terrence decided to go with her.

So they went. And Peter Pan found her hammer and had saved it for her. And it still worked. Then after they came home, they thought about something. How could they show everyone that Tinkerbell had her talent back? They figured out an idea. So she went to the queen's house and knocked on her door. And somebody opened the door. And the person that opened the door was about to tell Tinkerbell to leave, when the queen said, "Come in Tinkerbell." And Tinkerbell said, "I've come to fix your bathtub." (because the queen had a broken metal bathtub.)

This book is my new favorite book. It took us several hours to read it.

If you're a kid and you like Tinkerbell, then you should check out this book.

Love,
Nia

The story of Josiah and the diesel

2009-07-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

Thanks for reading my blog. It's fun knowing you. I liked getting the comments from my funny little cat story.

This morning my mom and my dad went to the doctor. They are not sick, they just needed a checkup. They do that almost everyday. (Mom's editorial note: we are in the process of trying to get a Haitian "certificate of health" for our residency and it is proving a bit challenging-- not because we are unhealthy, but because the system is pretty silly, so yes, we do go almost every day.)

Well, when my mom and dad were gone, Josiah started playing with the diesel container. We use that to get gas for the generator. And Josiah started playing with it and he figured out how to take off the top. And he started spilling it all over the ground. (Don't worry, it was outside.) I quickly told Nahomi. Don't worry, he didn't spill it all. Nahomi took the diesel away from him and set it somewhere where he couldn't reach it. And then my mom and dad came home and I told them what happened. And they started cleaning up the ground. And that was actually a funny thing, because we don't clean up the ground, unless there is garbage all over it.

So that was the story of Josiah and the diesel.

Everyone has started calling him, "Josiah dezòd la." That means "Josiah, the un-good boy." (Editorial note: it actually, literally means, "Josiah, the disorderly." )

And we are unhappy with him because of this story.

Love,

Nia

I ate a cat.

2009-07-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Today my dad gave me some food. I didn't know what it was so I asked daddy. And he said, "a cat." And I ate it.

It was yummy.

Want to know what the joke is? Yes? Okay.

This is the joke-- I have vitamins and they are shaped like animals. And there are ones shaped like cats. And today I ate a cat vitamin. (I didn't really eat a cat... just a cat vitamin.)

Did I fool you?

Nahomi has actually eaten cats. Real cats. Really. It's not a joke, I promise.

Love,
Nia

How to make French Bread Pizza

2009-07-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

French bread pizza is french pizza, but the crust is bread. I had it on my birthday, which is July 1. I am six years old now. French bread pizza is good. I made it. Here is how you make it. (Mommy took all these pictures since we can't find my camera again.)

First, I am crushing the cheese. (Editorial note from mom: we freeze cheese when we buy it in Haiti, so even shredded cheese sort of needs to be "re-shredded.")

I am holding the cheese I already shredded up. When mommy took this picture, I said "di fromaj" which means, "say cheese," just like my blog is called.

You need to have an adult cut up the bread for you. Then you can put sauce on it.

Next you sprinkle cheese all over it.

Then, you put it in the oven. This is me looking at the pizza in the oven.

Then it's done. This is me eating my pizza. Yum yum! I got to use the birthday plate because it was my birthday!

The Market

2009-06-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

Dear my friends,

I had fun at the market, which means it was fun. That the same thing. The market is the place where we go to buy food. Today was the second time I went. It was big. I took pictures on the top of the mountain. We went to it. It was fun.

They sell cornflakes, the sell watermelon, they sell lots of sweets. They sell fruits and vegetables and Haitian grits. At one of the places we went to they even sell cornmeal that tastes just like grits. They even sell turtles. Some people eat turtles in Haiti. We saw live chickens and the first time I went I saw a cat chained up with a rope. They eat cats here too. I petted the cat to say goodbye. But we didn't buy it because my dad's allergic. I think you know that already. I wonder if he would be allergic to eating cats. When I petted the cat, it almost bit me. It was a little teeny kitten. I liked it. I wonder why it almost bit me. Maybe because it doesn't like petting. Or it doesn't want to be tied up or maybe it doesn't want to be eaten. I didn't know cat language to tell it I was just being nice to him.

There was a place there where there was all dead meat. Almost all dead meat. I did not like it there. It made me feel little bit scared and the smell made me cough. Naomi bought a bunch of goat because we're having company for dinner on Thursday. I didn't smell it after she bought it. And when she showed mommy and daddy it, I did not smell it. But I like to eat goat, it tastes good. But I don't think it smells good before it's cooked.

I hope you like my pictures. These pictures are great. They are of the market. This is all about the market.

Love, Nia

The market tops.

Turtles at the market.

A lot of food for sale at the market.The funny clouds. They look beautiful too.

A lady at the market and her peas.

Potatoes at the market.

More lots and lots of food at the market.

Fruits at the market

Live upside down chickens

People holding chickens

Grandma-- this is for you.

2009-05-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Grandma.

I have two pairs of glasses so I took some pictures with them both on like you wear. I hope you like them.

Love,
Nia

Hello Everybody-

2009-05-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

Dear My Friends,

I hope you're having a good time and lots of fun. I think that's the same thing (a good time and lots of fun.)

Today and last night I played in the pool. It's a little pool. It's fun. I live in an apartment in Port Au Prince for mommy and daddy's language school. It's fun living in a new house and having a new mosquito net for my bed.

I realized my blog is named the wrong thing. I think it was supposed to be "di fromaj" that means, "say cheese" in Creole. I am learning more Creole. I am learning it by my mom and dad. And Naomi. Naomi is our "helper." Naomi helps clean our house and watches the kids while my mom and dad are in language school. She's Haitian. I like her. Especially her new hair. It's long and braided. I love it. Nico and Josiah love it too. Nico keeps saying, "Mom, Naomi is CUTE!"

There's bugs here tonight. It's a swarm. Swarm means a lot of bugs in each house. They are not biting bugs but I still hate them. They fly. They are all over. It's not fun having a swarm. Or funny.

Church in Haiti is fun. I went to church. Today I learned about helping and last time I learned about sharing. I get to go to children's church. That's where I leared about helping and sharing. There's other kids there. I have fun. You guys don't know this but, I know that they speak English at this church in Port Au Prince. It's my church. Well sort of my church. It's everyone's who goes there.

Maybe tomorrow I can post some pictures.

Love,
Nia

La bouyi

2009-05-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Dear all my friends,

Tonight for dinner I ate la bouyi. It's like a milky porridge that sort of tastes like oatmeal. The kids here eat it for dinner a lot. I like it middlesized. I don't love it but I don't not like it. Josiah loves la bouyi. Today for lunch we had a Haitian soup. It had carrots. It had plantains. It had potatoes. It had dumplings, which I like to call wipers. I don't know why I call them that. But I do. I love wipers. It also had spinach or something in it. I had two bowls of it. It also had a little meat in it. It was really yummy but I didn't care for the plantains in it. Neither did my mom. But my dad liked that part so he ate all our plantains.

We went to our new house today to unpack a little bit. I was a good helper.

I had fun today. I made a crown. My dad helped me. He cut it out. It has hearts on it and it is red and pink. In creole red is called wouj and pink is called woz. I am wearing the crown right now.

This is my day.

Love,

Nia

I went to the store today.

2009-05-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Dear all my friends that read my blog,

I hope you're having a great day. And I want to tell you that I went to the store with my dad today. The store is very fun. The store that I went to is smallish big... middle. It's a little different than the US. It's different because people speak different languages. We got some cake mix, we got some bread, we got some laughing cow cheese, (and some milk cheese-- which is pretty much the same thing as laughing cow cheese but less expensive, but almost the same taste and is the same color) and we got some chocolate for mommy. But she won't share it with us. I am sad about that.

I had a Haitian lunch today. It was good. It was rice with beans and sauce. It had coconut in it too. It also had hot dog in it. And then later I had some macaroni and cheese for a snack. But for the other kids, it was their lunch because mommy and daddy and I ate all the rice and beans while they were napping.

We got our internet phone hooked up today and I got to talk to Nana and to Grandma. Let me know if you'd like me to call you because now I can because it's free.

I am having fun today.

L0ve,
Nia

Some of Nia's pics...

2009-05-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

We didn't have internet before and now that we do she is sleeping... so I thought I would put them up so you (her blog-reading friends) can see... check back later... perhaps she will wish to edit with comments...

EDITED TO ADD: Nia is up and wanted to name her pics... so here you go.

A kid at the beach doing a handstand

Josiah standing on the sand at the beach

The beach: Water, land, a view

Water and sky and part of a broken boat.

Grandma, I want to show you this picture. Because I know that you made this shirt for the boys. We gave this shirt to the neighbor boy, Farfar, when we were here last November, and he passed it down to his sister, Micheline. She was wearing it today. Cool, huh?

No pictures today.

2009-05-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Dear all my friends that read my blog,

I want to say that I don't have any pictures today. But I am blogging today. I will take some tomorrow. It's been a very good day today. I played in the rain with my bathing suit on. It was so fun.

Elinda is one of my friends here. And Tina. And Vania. And Riann. And Slendia. And also all of the Haitian Children's Home.

Sorry I haven't been able to make phone calls. Hopefully I can call some of you soon!

Love,

Nia

This is Haiti.

2009-05-01T16:16:00.001-07:00

My mom unpacked my camera. Some of the pictures on it were old. Some of the pictures were from MTI in Colorado. Some were from my trip to Haiti with my mom and Nana and Auntie Gretchen and Auntie Kristi. It's VERY fun moving here. I took some new pictures.

I am learning how to speak Creole. You know what? Elinda is learning how to speak English. We're teaching each other.

I am going to church tonight but my brothers aren't going. Because Nico got a bite and it's swollen so he had to take Benadryl. Josiah isn't going because he's a baby and he is a little sleepy.

The thing that's interesting is that everyone that is in the Haitian Children's Home (not so much everybody but some of the kids in the Haitian Children's Home) let me take pictures of them whenever I want. I will share some of those soon.

For now here are some other pictures.

Love,
Nia

This is the gate at the Haitian Children's Home.

This is mommy smiling with makeup on when we're going to church. She is beautiful.

This is my diary when I was talking about moving to Haiti. It is really cool.

This is me starting my diary.

This is Daddy and Josiah sitting on the plane.

This is me in headphones and sitting in my seat on the plane when we were flying. My mom took this one.

This is Fatina's shop at the beach. It sells a lot of really pretty stuff.

This is Nixon and me in Jacmel.

This is all the jewelry at Fatina's shop. Not all of it, but I just couldn't make the picture big enough.

This is Josiah picking his nose

2009-04-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Josiah picking his nose.

Josiah showing me his booger.

He is gross.

Five pictures to share

2009-04-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Dear friends that read my blog,

I hope you enjoy these pictures. These are my mom's pictures because my camera isn't unpacked yet. So my mom took these pictures.

I hope you enjoy.

Love,
Nia

Life group picture. (This is in the US.) These are my life group friends.

Me and grandma and Nico and Josiah and Daddy. We are talking on the computer. This is before I left.

Me writing in my diary. I was talking about my feelings yesterday.

My new house in Haiti.

This is my new room in my new house. It is pinkish peach.

I moved to Haiti

2009-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

I just moved to Haiti. I can't wait to visit.

Today I went to the beach. I ate there too. I ate salad, french fries, ketchup, and had some tomatoes in my salad. I didn't eat my salad though because I didn't care for it. Or my tomatoes. So I just ate french fries and ketchup. And there was a sandwich. It was ham and cheese. I didn't eat the bread because it had tomato juice on it. And remember, I don't care for tomatoes.

This afternoon I am going to take a little rest, write in my diary (I got a new diary yesterday-- it locks and everything!).

Our family got a new truck. It is gold colored. I got to ride in the back of the truck yesterday with my mom. It was fun.

We also have a new house and I have my own room. It is pinkish peach. I like the color. I love my room.

Now that we moved here to Haiti, we are going to try to update you every day. I am sorry I haven't written in so long. My mom got really busy and wouldn't help me. I will take pictures too to show you our new life.

Bye bye for now.

Love,

Nia

Pics of Me and My Dad

2009-02-21T14:53:00.001-08:00

Guest blogger: Gwenn. (My mom)

2009-02-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hello blog readers, (as Nia is so fond of greeting you)

This is Gwenn, Nia's mom. I wanted to have a "guest blog" post on Nia's blog to explain a few things about why we're working on this project.

Nia is very artistic. She loves to draw and paint and well, anything like that. I thought this might be a fun new medium for her to explore.
Being that Nia is homeschooled, I thought this might be a cool, different way to teach her a bunch of different concepts... computer skills like typing and photo editing, yes, but also more basic things too... Things like math, "Go find 5 things and line them up and take a picture." Things like science, "Go take pictures of 6 things that are alive." Things like creative writing, "Tell me the name of this picture." etc. etc. etc.
It's fun to see the world through the eyes of a 5 year old. It's interesting to me the pictures she chooses to take. It's funny sometimes and nauseating at others-- IMAGINE HAVING A REAR-END LEVEL KID TAKING PICS OF YOU AROUND THE CLOCK. I feel like I have paparazzi. I think it's going to be neat to see the regular "household" things she snaps pics of in Haiti. I think that transition to her "new life" will be super-cool through the eyes of a kindergartener.
Nia is funny. She doesn't try to be funny most of the time, she just is. She cracks Nick and I up every single day. I love the way kids her age talk-- the expressions they use and the ways they try out their new language skills. It's funny and super-cute.
I wanted to give her a project that was something special we could do together very often that wasn't something strictly academic. I feel like we do a lot of the "boring" kind of school work together with me as her primary teacher, I also wanted something both of us looked forward to doing. Since I am a pretty... ehm... "prolific" blogger, it seemed like a good fit.

So, how much is Nia and how much is me?

The words. It is honestly mostly Nia. I do most of the typing at this point and she dictates. Sometimes I will ask her a question to get a thought going, but all of the words I type are her words. I try not to interject my opinion when she wants to name her posts, "Oh, hey!" "Oh, hi!" "Oh yes, hi!" or when she wants to name every single picture starting with the word, "my." Which means that sometimes it will probably be not-so-clever or repetitive, but I wanted to try to let her find her own voice.
The pictures. Unless I say so (like the pics of her in her "ball gowns") they are ALL taken by her. 100%. She is particularly fond of self-portraits. Together we download them, select several to use and then work on editing them together. I will ask her what she wants to do with the pictures and we will work together until she thinks they look good.
The layout. That's just blogger. :) But she picked the templates and colors.

So, blog readers, thanks for all your encouragement. She LOVES seeing her "map" from where everyone lives, she LOVES hearing how many "hits" she has, and she LOVES getting new comments.

So long for now... And keep coming back. And all my Haiti people out there-- keep coming back. I think experiencing Haiti through Nia's eyes is going to give you the warm fuzzies...

With a grateful heart,
Gwenn. (Nia's Mom)

Hi.

2009-02-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hello blog readers,

Thanks for voting on my blog.
Tomorrow night is the Daddy Daughter Ball. Since the white dress is the winner, I am going to wear the white dress. I will paint my fingernails the color of wine. I will have my mom take pictures and put them up here.

I have a lot of pictures today. Better look at all of them. Because there's a lot of them.

"My brother, Grumpy Josiah, and my dad's hairy arm"

"My brother, Grumpy Josiah"

"Pirate Nico"

"My silly mommy"

"Another picture of my silly mommy"

"The silly mommy of me"

"Me. Silly."

"Me. Another silly."

"Green Mom and Me"

"Purpleish Blue Mom and Me"

"Pinklish Purple Mom and Me"

My blog has a lot of pictures.

Love,
Nia

I am going to the Daddy/Daughter Ball!

2009-02-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hello blog readers,

I am going to the Daddy/Daughter Ball on Saturday.

I have three party dresses and I can't pick out which one. I think my favorite one is the white one, but I have two other dresses that are good too. (My mom took these pictures, I didn't take them because I am in them.)

This is the pink one. Grandma bought this dress for me before Easter last year but I picked it out. I am wearing my puffy slip underneath it.

This is the white one. This is the dress from Mint Jenny's wedding. She is married to Josh now.

This is my red one for me to wear for Christmas next year when I live in Haiti.

Can you please vote? There is a vote posted on my blog.

Thank you.

Love,
Nia

My walk to the store

2009-02-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

My dad found my camera, but my mom says she did.

2009-02-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am going to stay up until TEN O'CLOCK with some of my friends.

Here are some of the pictures that I took.

"My bathrobe hanging by the door"

"The picture with reflections"

"The gym"

"The sun"

"My brother that's Nico"
"My brother in the sunlight covering his eyes"

"My feet in the car in my new socks"

I will write some more later. Bye.

Oh yes, hey!

2009-02-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

I love Haitian Spaghetti.
It's so good.
You gotta try it. Try it. Try it.

Here is the recipe. My dad will tell you how to make it because he makes it really good.

So what is Haitian Spaghetti? It's spaghetti that Haitians eat.
Somethings that are in it:

really, really good
there's ketchup in it
there's hotdogs in it (if you want)
and there is onions in it, but you don't really taste the onions that good
spaghetti

We're going to try to look for it but my camera is still missing. Too bad for me. I am not really that good of a parent to my camera.

Love,
Nia

Sorry, no pictures today

2009-02-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Blog Readers,

Sorry there are no pictures today. I can't find my camera. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday. A LOT of them. But now I can't find it. I will post the pictures when I find it.

Sorry. I will try to be more responsible. I gotta learn how to do that.

Love,
Nia

Dear all of my friends,

2009-02-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hi. I posted some pictures on my blog. Come see them. I am having a great time having a blog. It's very fun. If you don't have one, get one.

I went to church and it was fun. My grandma brought me to church. I had a great time at her house. I went to one service at church and I stayed for two nights and two days at my grandma's house. I forgot to bring my camera with me but I took these pictures today.

"My cake that I built out of dishes from my lunch"

"My lunch with grapes and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich"

"My dad with the food I ate for lunch"

Oh yes, hi!

2009-02-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

We are glad that you saw the pictures on my blog. What we did is cleaned the lens on my camera, so the pictures after today should be clearer. I didn't know you weren't supposed to touch that part and there might have been fingerprints on it.

Here are the pictures I took last night night and today. I am liking taking these pictures and having a blog. I hope you are liking it too.

"My doll with her hair sticking out"

"My glass stuff that is on the window"

"My dad's bouncy balls that we put in lamps"

"My mom's glass that we hanged by the window."

"My dad's castle that he built"

"My brother playing the drum"

"My dad and my brother sitting by the castle that my dad made"

I am an artist too.

2009-02-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I made in school the week we were learning about octopi.
I "painted" with paper like my Aunt Diana used to do.
I made the painted papers with my grandmother, and then my mom helped me make the shapes for the picture. I cut them all out and glued them on to make this lovely picture.

PS-- The octopus legs are really my fingers. My mom traced them.

Oh hi!

2009-02-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

This is Nia. I love having a blog. It's very fun. Thank you guys for coming to my blog.

I had a fun day, but it was hard because I lost my camera. But then Nico found it. It was on the counter and we didn't even see it. My camera has my name on it. I would show you a picture of my camera but I can't take a picture of my own camera.

Here's my pictures for today. I am going to start naming my pictures for you.

"Nico's pretend tantrum"

"Josiah eating the ice cream"

"Josiah eating ice cream and sticking out his tongue"

"My fireplace door"

"me in my mom's glasses" (self-portrait)

See you next time.

Today's pictures

2009-02-03T07:29:00.001-08:00

This is my new blog.

2009-02-02T10:46:00.001-08:00

Hello, my name is Nia. I am five and my mom is helping me make a blog so I can share my pictures with you. I got a camera and I like to take pictures and my mom is teaching me how to change them on the computer so they can look different.

My blog is called, Say, "Fromaj!"It was going to be called Say "Cheese!" I thought of that myself. But that was already taken. Fromaj is the word for cheese in Kreyol. That is what they speak in Haiti where I am moving.

I am doing this as a part of school.

Thanks for looking. Here's my first few pictures.