So as of Saturday, I am halfway through pregnancy- 20 weeks! Yesterday, I had my anatomy scan which was fascinating. The ultrasound tech was really great and explained everything he was measuring and why they measure each one. I can't believe technology and how much they can tell!

The scan went really well and everything was perfectly normal, which is such great news! It was fun to get to watch the baby on-screen for so long while the tech did his measurements. We got to see little fingers and feet and baby butt! So cute! I almost caved on finding out the sex. At one point, I thought I saw a penis and I said "Maybe we do want to find out the sex." The tech was like, "I don't know, you seemed pretty convinced that you didn't want to know before we started this. What made you change your mind?" I pointed to what I thought was the penis and said, "Is that what I think it is?". He replied, "That's the umbilical cord". Oh duh So my shame kept me Team Green!

Rokia came with us and got to see the baby for the first time. She was fascinated and asked a billion questions. You've got to wonder how a 4 year old's brain processes things like ultrasounds. She was ultimately disappointed because she wants the baby out ASAP, but we came home and ate cake and all was forgotten.

So adventures in cake making in Mali: I wanted to bake the other day but I wanted something simple. I decided to make Yogurt Cake, which is a very, very simple French cake with easy-to-get ingredients. You start with adding 1 yogurt container to a bowl and then you use the yogurt container to measure the other ingredients. 1/2 a container of oil, 2 of sugar, 4 of flour, and 3 eggs. Mix it together and throw it in the oven. It didn't look like any American cake batter that I'd ever seen but it turned out great! And we were lucky because the power didn't cut until the last 5 minutes of cooking (our oven is electric).

Anyway, it looked perfect, but why couldn't I have just left it at that? No, I decided to try and make buttercream frosting. With no electric mixer. 1 broken wooden spoon and 1 tired arm later, I had pretty decent frosting. Rokia and my SO loved it but I think it made the cake too sweet. Oh well, still delicious! But next time I'll just serve the cake French-style: with nothing on it.

Well, I am off to the neighborhood shop to get eggs and bread for breakfast. No one else is awake but it's 7 am, so at least Rokia will be up soon. Pregnancy has made me an even earlier riser, I've been up since 5 My friend who is visiting arrives tonight and I am so excited! I never ever have visitors here since it's so far out of the way, but she was in Senegal for work so is coming to Mali for 5 days. Woohoo!!