There is so much in this video that cracks me up:

the cough/nose/sneeze things
"I love you" Ahma and Baba
Talking like she is an adult...she often will say things like "i'm busy with my things. You do your things and don't disturb me!" Sure, honey.
Also Ryan toddling in to see what is happening (= He is such fun these days.
Too tired to write more. Enjoy (=

Christmas week

I've been telling folks that I just haven't had time on the computer recently to be blogging and I'm not quite sure why other than Layla being sick with Mono for 7 weeks and then Tom has been sick for a full 2 weeks. Toss in Thanksgiving and Christmas and it is just a busy season (=

We had a nice Christmas this year - spent Christmas morning together as a family and then driving an hour away to a Jon and Vic's house for the main meal. We stayed 2 nights with them and the kids just played and played together. They are all at a great age and there were a minimum of fights (= We went to see the new Tom Cruise movie (their town has a theater!) so the moms went one night and the dads went the next night. It was a great couple of days.

We came home to our TOTALLY MESSY house as we just left all the Christmas stuff everywhere and only cleaned the kitchen. They kids are wiped out and still sleeping.....hence I am blogging. Scratch that....Layla just woke up (=

Well, Merry Christmas to all! We should have some pictures to post though we didn't take much on Christmas morning....trying to keep Layla from opening everyone else's presents (=

Gifts

http://simplehomeschool.net/best-educational-games/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SimpleHomeschool+%28Simple+Homeschool%29

Just an idea for gifts! These look so great. We actually have the story cubes already....thanks mom!

We are also big fans of:

Highlights for Kids (Thanks Nana!)
National Geographic (Layla loves to sit and "read" these with me...we flip through and talk about the pictures etc.)
Gods World (haven't tried this yet, but it comes highly recommended!)
Read To Me stories for the Nook or on CD. Layla is into this genre these days.

Catching Up

I thought I had posted these before, but I think I forgot to in the midst of everything else going on. My apologies if you've seen this before on the Picasa web albums...

Sweet Days

 

These are sweet days - Ryan and Layla are really playing well together. Other than the usual fussing at times, they do a great job. They love to play "train" which is Ryan hanging on to Lj's waist while she basically drags him around the house (= They love to take baths and I can get a good 30 mins to clean up the house at the end of the day while the splash around....another great reason to have tile everywhere in the bathroom!

She can feed him in the backseat which is super helpful. He is able to hold a small bowl with stuff in it but eventually it ends up on the floor in the car. We can get a nice bag of popcorn for about 30 cents from the grocery store and she loves to give him one kernel at a time.

When she is feeling responsible for him and talking to him about things she likes to speak in Arabic (= very funny. She's doing great with Arabic at school. She only has 45 mins a day but the teacher knows I am quite interested in her learning as much as she can so I know she is encouraging her. Hopefully it will last (=

Mono correction

I just looked back on my post from Nov 1 and realized that Layla had been sick already and we hadn't diagnosed the Mono yet. I didn't think that 6 weeks had gone by already! Man. Anyway. That was the post where I said I was on a blog-hiatus for a week. More like SIX weeks (=

So now we are in that zone before Christmas where there are lots of little extra things to do and plan. I'm trying to think of a party or something I can do for my local friends here. We are around a lot more kids because of Lj's school so there are some fun possibilities!

Mono

 

There was a lot of this at our house the last month or so. Layla was diagnosed with Mono the day we were supposed to leave for a big three-day camping trip on a beach about 5 hours from our house. We are glad we got the diagnosis so quickly but it was a bummer to miss the big camping trip!

Thankfully she did not seem to have a bad case of Mono. She was not in pain though she was pooped, not very hungry and had stomachaches almost everyday. We had a great dr who helped me understand what was going on. Love it when you can find a good doctor out here!

The doc said she was still able to go to school as long as she felt up to it. The only restriction was not to share cups, utinsels etc. She is old enough to be aware of that so we sent her along to school though she was about an hour late each day.

About three days ago she skipped her afternoon nap and her appetite shot through the roof so we think she is all better! What a relief. I had no idea 4-year-olds coiuld get Mono! For the curious....mono presents just like Strep but does not respond to antibiotics and after 2-3 days there is still fever and general feeling icky.

So hopefully I won't be having to step over Layla while she's laying on the kitchen floor anymore (= It was sweet to see Ryan lay down next to her (=

Nana gave Layla this scooter as a present for her 4th birthday. It has been fantastic. We have so much tile in our yard that she can just go and go! Her funky hair is due to nap time (= We all sleep or rest from 2-4 and then we basically hang out outside until bedtime at 730ish. Love this time of year!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Even without Thanksgiving this week we would have been giving thanks for our internet and phone saga finally coming to a close. Hopefully. About 5 weeks ago Tom's computer froze up and we were operating with one computer then the drama of internet and phone problems started and we are only now feeling like it is over!

So I am back in the saddle again (=

 

We had about 15 folks over for dinner. It was GREAT! We had a smoked turkey that was incredibly delicious.....thanks Drew!

 

This cracked me up. Here we are at Thankgiving and Layla is sitting all by herself at a table CHOWING down on a turkey leg and nothing else....don't know how she convinced daddy to give her a turkey leg and nothing else. You can tell we were both busy while she was at the food table!

 

We also had a massive sand pile because of the construction project going on. It was a great source of entertainment and the kids were sooooo dirty by the end of the night!

 

Still on hiatus....meanwhile check out these AWESOME photos (=
I was in language school with this awesome couple and they have moved back to the area....with three little girls this time! So fun.

Hiatus

There is something about living overseas that includes these seasons of everything breaking down and/or everyone getting sick at the same time. We are in one of those at the moment and the list of broken things, things that have been repaired and then broken again is only growing by the day. So far it has been my car, Tom's cell phone, my computer then Tom's computer, the kitchen sink, the plumbing in Tom's office, Layla has strep or tonsillitis or something, and Ryan has had more diarrhea than ever before and the worst diaper rash he's ever had.....and we were supposed to leave tomorrow for our first three-day camping trip. hmmmm. Tom's computer is still in the shop so he is using mine which means I barely check email once a day. We have pushed the camping trip back a day mostly due to sketchy weather, but we are still hopeful and excited. Maybe I should be feaful and realistic since our last camping trip was when both Tom and I were sick. Awful.

Anyway. Just a note to say I am on blogging hiatus for about a week (=

More normal playdates now

So after the post on the crazy play date, I just wanted to assure everyone that yes, we do have normal play dates that don't include biting and restraining the children at the house we are visiting. And yes, Layla continues to ask to visit people. Almost EVERY day she wants to go and "be a guest". She doesn't want to be "the hostess" because then she has to share her toys and there is no fun food to eat (= Ah...we are selfish to the core.

So she really wants to visit "Salaam alaikum people" and mostly because they have the best food. At least most of the time...and also because they are constantly giving things to kids if they show the slightest interest in something. "Here! Take it! keep it...no look! She really wants i!" They are referring to this awful plastic noisy thing that is already half broken. Layla is merely fascinated with it since it is a new thing. But as we leave it is firmly tucked in Layla's little hands. sigh.

The one exception to the "abundance of food" thing is at the house we visit the most which is Betty's house, Layla's school friend. I've taken to bringing food for the kids since of course they are always starving between nap time and bedtime (= And there is NOTHING that is offered until about 7pm when they start to cook (read: Fry) something. This is how it goes every time:

we saunter in say hello to everyone sitting around in the covered outside area. it is 90 degrees these days which feels so cool and that time of day has wonderful breezes. Eventually there is maybe water brought out after Layla walks up and says "I want water!" Ugh. Bad manners here. Then I start to bring out my stack of snacks for Ryan who is crawling all over me and wanting my attention etc. He will grab my cheeks and pull my face to his face these days. Lovely feeling.

We'll get some tea at some point after Layla asks for tea (!) in a cup for herself. Again, bad bad manners.

Then about 7pm, my friend steps into the kitchen door which is propped open right next to where we are sitting on the linoleum "mat" outside. She has a big heavy iron gas burner that is connected with a thick orange pipe to a gas cylinder. She puts the burner on a brick. She lights it up and it has a HUGE flame. This is right next to the kitchen door where the kids go in and out all the time. She squats on the floor and slowly produces three batches of fried food. Most stuff is eaten as soon as it is cooked by some kid passing by the doorway. Ryan and Layla are fascinated by the whole "stove on the floor" thing and are freaking me out by creeping closer and closer to watch.

This scenario happens each time I visit. There is no maid who does anything. These gals cook for this big family with more members than I can keep track of. They are Belushi and not actually from here though they've lived here a long long time. The differences from an Arab house are pretty remarkable. I'm curious about why they don't do the standard fruit, coffee and dates that I've had in EVERY home here for the last 5 years.

Either way, I'm grateful that Layla is so interested in visiting. I know her desire to speak Arabic is directly connected to her watching me relate to friends in Arabic. She is such a sponge at this age. It is SO frightening to see her mimic me. Iyiyiy.

dirty dirty dirty

 

Now that the weather is getting MUCH nicer (a cool and refreshing 90 degrees) the kids are outside all the time. After naps we wake up slooooowly by watching a little video for 20-30 mins and then we take the rabbits outside and play around. If we are going to visit someone (which Layla asks for every day almost!) we chase the rabbits back in their cage after 20 mins or so and take off to go visiting.

Everyone is sitting outside these days since we are soaking up the wonderful breezes but we are all still getting sweaty and the kids are oh.so.dirty.

Every night I have to clean the tub out after they've finished because there is a layer of sand on the bottom of the tub. And that is AFTER the water has all drained out and floated out a sizable layer of sand already. Layla likes to wear shoes, but I can't find good shoes to stay on Ryan's feet (ARGH! WHY must everything be either ridiculously low quality or designer prices from Pairs?!). So anyway. Ryan goes barefoot on everything as I cringe on the inside thinking that his little feet MUST be hurting him...surely...
Guess not or he'd come looking for shoes.

Upcoming posts....

oops. Did I post and empty post?

Things I need to blog about:
GREAT play dates (=
Layla peeing on my shoes
Layla learning how to speak Arabic and how to speak Arabic with an Indian accent like her teacher. Hmmm.
Ryan's show of defiance

must run....

Another victory

 

 

I realize that this is very mundane to some of you, but again, a small hair-victory with Layla! She now wants ponytails. I've NEVER and I am not exaggerating here, NEVER been able to put pony tails in her hair. Oh, the wonders of school. She sees all these beautiful local girls with masses of hair all done up this way or that. It is so lovely to be able to put her hair up (=

She is really enjoying school but is on the verge of tears by the time we get home. I think she is just so wiped out she gets super fragile at the least provocation. Today her teacher told me that early in the morning Layla ran through the litany of the school schedule (first we'll do this and then we'll do this....etc) and then we'll go HOME! The teacher asked if she wanted to go home because she didn't like school. Oh no, says layla. I don't want to leave my beautiful school!! aaahh (=

Ryan is doing great as well these days. I am REALLY enjoying my quiet mornings with him. I had no idea how wonderful it would be to have him alone all morning (= Of course, the two hour nap he takes every morning is pretty handy! He is a very very busy little boy who likes to walk up to everything he can't touch and shake his little finger and say Nooooo datch. He doesn't actually say too muc these days (= He is fairly self-entertaining but loves to be tickled and teased and is very playful. He LOVES to take baths and to chase the rabbits. He has finally stopped screaming in joy the entire time the rabbits run around the yard. We are grateful for that! He takes naps with no arguement as long as he has his pacifier (= He and Layla have both been sleeping through the night for months now which is a huge boost to my energy!

I feel like we are slowly getting into a better life pattern. This is the first time since language school that we've had an externally imposed schedule and we are L.O.V.I.N.G. it. Tom has his external office set up with internet and coffee pot so he is good to go (= What a blessing to be moving into a more normal life pattern. We are seeing the stress of the last several years in our internal "rear-view mirrors", finally (=

Well, I need to go pound some chicken breasts for dinner (= Love to pound hard on those granite counter tops!

Playdates......Arab-style

Buckle your seats for this one folks; I'm about to describe the playdate that we had this afternoon. yeah yeah, maybe you think there isn't much to the average playdate, but I'm still trying to process our afternoon visit to a school friend of Layla's.

I wrote about this family the other day when I mentioned the gal who got married after finishing 6th grade....she's the aunt of a little girl named "Betty" in layla's class. Layla actually asked to visit her school friend "Betty" as we were leaving the school this morning and lo and behold, we ran in to Betty's mom on the way out of the school and arranged things for this afternoon. Layla and Ryan slept a full hour longer than normal so we were later than I wanted to be.....i.e. I knew the kids would be getting hungry and tired after about an hour....just when things would be warming up!

Betty's house has a very traditional arrangement. These ladies are married to three brothers who joined their homes together by knocking down the big privacy walls that normally section the houses off from one another. Living in these homes is the mother of the three brothers (one of whom is Betty's mom) and the child bride who is now 21 and trying to get a divorce. This afternoon there is another neighbor lady and her mother and two boys visiting. They are all sitting in the shade outside on a piece of blue linoleum that you buy off the roll. Not even a carpet or grass mat, but they still took all their shoes off!

It feels like there are about 10 kids under the age of 5 but there are probably only 5 kids in all reality. They were all over the place. We sat and had tea and biscuits and pretty soon Layla felt comfortable enough to walk away from the huddle of ladies and try to ride one of the four bikes sitting around. As soon as she did, one of the neighbor boys squealed angrily and sat down directly in front of her holding the wheel in between his legs. Layla was confused and then irritated. I wasn't sure what to do. She tried to get off and drag the bike away but the kid just kept hanging on and pulling it away from her.

The child bride gal (MUST get her name!) said "Oh, those boys are so bad. Tell her to just leave them alone!" Fat chance of that happening. Layla does not do well at walking away from a slight injustice or wrongdoing. Eventually it escalated and one of the boys bit her on the arm. She was horrified and ran over to where I was sitting. I told her that she needed to ignore the boys and not play with their bikes. After about 2 minutes she was back in the fray. The child-bride gal told me that if she was going to play with the boys she needed to hit them and yell at them and make them afraid. Yeah. Not your typical playdate rules.

I could see things getting worse again and I'm trying to think fast in my head "How much do I let Layla work this out on her own? What am I expected to do as a mom in this situation? As a foreign mom? Layla out-weighs these boys for sure but she is dainty and not used to being tough. Should I jump in there and defend her and hit the kids myself? Is this going to make Layla hate coming here? Hate playing with local kids? Am I letting this go too far? Not far enough?" etc etc etc. All while drinking tea and trying to speak Arabic.

Eventually I can see one of the kids about to chomp on her arm again so I jumped up and grabbed his bike and pulled him close. I got right in his face and slapped his arm and told him no. His mother told the child-bride gal who was interpreting "That's it! She needs to make them afraid. Tell her to hit him! See, he's afraid of her now! Thats the way!" Good grief. I feel like I've already crossed a million spoken AND unspoken lines for playdates and I have no idea what to do and his mom is cheering me on.

So this is how the afternoon proceeded. I kept one eye and ear on the ladies and our tea and their crocheting (another post!) and one eye on Layla and Ryan and the wicked neighbor boys. Part way through the afternoon the child-bride gal says "you know, these boys are so bad, so bad. Their father was in a car accident and he is paralyzed from the neck down. These boys are crazy and they make her life a living hell" If a girl who got married at 13 is telling you that another lady's life is a living hell, you'd not take that lightly.

Three or four times I could see another biting/hitting incident happening so I'd crouch down behind either of the boys and sort of hug them and hold them while sort of kissing them and talking sweet to them. I was thinking to myself "this is my second visit to this house and I am basically restraining the neighbor kids....what DO they think of me?" I'd pray at the same time and try and be light-hearted about the whole thing like I was totally used to this wild behaviour.

I was proud of Layla in the end. She didn't wimp out and just sit next to me though she did cry a few times and come running. I kept telling her that if she was going to play with the boys she needed to be strong and be willing to put up with them. That it was better for her to just ignore them and play with Betty (who is afraid of the boys and leaves them alone). It was not to be. In the end she was hitting back and screaming LA LA LA! at them and taking them down if they got near Ryan. Ryan has a pretty fierce scream but of course he is much smaller so they hit him a bit and ran into him and such but the other moms were very protective of him.

In the end I think there was some mutual respect established.....she was able to play around with one of the boys and have some fun. As we left, their mom came up to me and sincerely apologized which isn't really done in this culture. I tried to reassure her in my best Arabic that I understood and they are "just boys". man on man.

I am still trying to sort out how to talk about this with Layla. It is a well known fact out here that the boys are totally undisciplined. A friend who taught here has actually seen elementary school boys walk on desks and computers with the teacher in the room and who is not responding at all. It is inconceivable to us and I don't know how you help kids grow up in this world and know what sort of kids you can and should hit back and what kids you are supposed to be a "Christian" and "turn the other cheek" with.

I am open to all and any advice!!!

Princess Posing to the Max

For those devotees of Layla....sorry this is shaky and a bit long. But if you want to see her realize she is being photographed and kick into princess gear, this is the video for you! She even includes a dramatic ending which looks painful but somehow still looks posed....

Living in National Geographic

We have a subscription to National Geographic (thank you, Tina!) and due to crazy postal issues we get them in clumps a few times a year. We recently got a stack and I was flipping through one article late last night. It was about child brides mostly in India/Pakistan and in Yemen. I know this happens out here, but it isn't something folks advertise.

The very next day I was SUPER excited to have been invited over to the house of a classmate of Layla's to eat lunch. Normally Layla comes home from school very happy but totally wiped out and doesn't even eat lunch until after her nap. i was hoping she'd have enough emotional stamina to make it through lunch at a new person's house. I have been waiting and praying for a chance to connect with some of the families in Layla's class so that she can develop some friendships with local girls her age.

There are about 5 women in the house who were eating lunch with us and one of them was telling me that she she spoke English with an Ameircan accent because of the school she attended. She stopped in 6th grade because she got MARRIED. I wasn't sure I heard her correctly. Immediately I thought, "what I am supposed to do? look casual? look shocked? sad? interested?" I mean really. What are you supposed to do? If you act horrified, surely it would make her feel worse?

She said she had been promised to this man for a long time. I wasn't sure how old he was....I was full of questions but trying to figure out how I was supposed to react. Anyway, she said at the age of 13 she was married to this guy and packed off to Pakistan to go be a wife. I asked if she was scared and she said that she was and that she had a bad life with him and he did not treat her well. I can only imagine what was represented in those few lines encapsulating the last 8 years of her life.
She is back home now and trying to finalize the divorce. He is may not grant her the divorce...we'll see what happens next week when I have lunch with them. She was actually going to the courthouse today.

I know other gals who got married at around 16 years of age but that isn't that far from parts of the US a generation or two ago. 13 years old....that is another story. A story in National Geographic apparently. Crazy to realize it is happening just about 6 houses down from ours.

2 Major Battles

While this may look like a boring picture of a normal event, it symbolizes 2 MAJOR battles that have been long fought and now won. First and longest battle has been the hair. Because Lj's hair grew sooooo slowly, she didn't even really have enough hair to do anything with until she had a well-formed will. She's NEVER wanted anything in it until the last 4-6 months when I've been able to convince her to wear a hairband.

The wonderful influence of adults who are NOT your mama are clearly in play here as her teacher one day offered to braid her hair. Well well well. Little miss Lj now wants her hair in braids everyday (= I'm loving it!

The second major battle is the uniform pants. She was DESPERATE to wear a skirt but they don't do skirts in the uniform until they are in 1st grade. She was Soooooo distraught and one day I found out why. "but MAMA! Princesses don't wear pants!!! waaaaaaawaaaaawaaaawaa". I said that I was SURE that princess wore pants to school. "But mama! I can't be beautiful! I can't wear jewelry with pants!" "Really Layla? Your teacher is beautiful and wear jewelry and she wears pants. Besides, with the princesses you only see them posing for pictures and not at school." How she has sucked up every stereotype about Disney princesses is amazing given the culture we live in. The images are there for sure, but not NEARLY like in the US.

SO anyway. Once we got to school that same day, her teacher said the exact same thing that I did...and with no prompting. "Oh Layla, I am sure that princeses wear pants to school!" (; bless her. She has been teaching for 10 years, mostly in Jed.dah, Sa.udi Ara.bi.a. She is from India and just as sweet and gentle as can be (=

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday presents....

I am a gift person. I love shopping for gifts, thinking about giving gifts, wrapping them and giving them. And, of course, receiving them (= This year for my birthday I decided to gift myself a fun little electronic device! I am not at all tech savvy, but several friends of IPhones, ITouches, Kindles etc etc. When we are with our local ladies at the weekly parties all the devices come out (theirs included) and we all look at photos, passages in the Koran/Bible, funky websites blah blah blah. And I just ooo and aaahhh (= Well after combining all my birthday moolah, i am SO happy to say that I finally made a purchase and it will, eventually, make it here from the US. I'm sure I should have done more research on what to get, but frankly, I only have so much research in me and when it runs out, I just hit the "confirm purchase" button and figure that it will all work out in the end. (=

So this is what I've purchased

With this "skin" cover to protect for scratches

and this snappy cover in magenta

I am SUPER excited (=

Tom left for a short trip and will be back and 3-4 days. I plan to have read the start up guide by the time he gets back and choose some apps that I will download. I feel very nerdy and very techy.

Tom and I have always enjoyed a few days a part here and there. As an introvert I LOVE putting the kids to bed and then not having to speak the rest of the evening (= Now that the kids are in bed by 815pm as opposed to 10pm during Ramadan....it is REALLY a treat.

It is getting cooler out - the day starts in the mid-80s!! It is still 110 by noon, but evenings are reasonable. We have started eating outside again even though it is 100. It still feels cooler! The problem is that we are all still sweaty when we come in so I am bathing the kids every night (they are SO DIRTY because I just let them roam free in the yard come what may!) and then I put Ryan in the crib with a few books, set layla up with her bedtime books and take a quick rinse-off shower myself before finishing their bedtime routine. It is just too icky sticky to relax!

We have no plans for tomorrow which is nice. We crossed the border today without border cards and I think it took 2 hours. Thankfully we have good ac, comfortable seats and entertaining music! We got a handful of chocolate for the kids at one border office which was a nice pick-me-up! Have I said lately how much this culture loves and values kids?? Love it here.

Ryan's 1st haircut!

Neither of our red-headed kids had much hair their first year. Ryan has a bit more than Layla did at 16 months and since it is curly, it needs more taming! Ryan's hair is essentially straight on the top but totally ringlets in the back. I combed his hair a bit with a comb but otherwise I just snipped off the ringlets to what seemed like the right length (= He was watching TV which helped the process...barely!

 

 

 

So sad....

We have been discussing the idea of giving layla a pet rabbit for almost a year now. She keeps asking for a dog but we've been through that one out here already....not a great story. So a couple of days after her birthday we went to all of the four pet stores in town and purchased 2 rabbits. PETA would have a field day if it saw the conditions of those pet stores. At least they stayed alive.

We are very sad to say that one of the rabbits was killed tonight by a horrid, disease-ridden cat that cruises through our yard on the way to the neighborhood trash can which is just about 20 feet from our house on the other side of our privacy wall. Ugh.

We didn't even get pictures taken! I can't believe it. We'd been letting them out in the yard in the late afternoon while we sit and play with the kids but tonight they just didn't come back and didn't come back and then kids had to be put down for bed and this and that happened and now we only have Salalah the light brown rabbit in the cage. Thankfully this is the one Layla chose....she didn't really give much attention to Bob, the one who died.

Anyway. Salalah was truly frightened and we are hoping she'll make it through the night. Apparently rabbits are very fragile emotionally (!) and can literally die of fright. It is too late to write more.

Birthday party at School

The school encourages birthday parties in class so we had a fun time taking some cupcakes down for Layla's class. There are 11 kids in her class all turning 4 and some point during the year. It was a cute time. Ryan was all over the place, of course. The boy that is the very front of the table looking at the camera is her "boyfriend". Yes, she used this word. I was shocked but acted like it was normal (= I don't know what she thinks it means!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My next job......

 

Doesn't this sound like the perfect job?!?

Happy 4th Birthday Layla!

Starting school.....arab style

There is so much to say about this that I hardly know where to start. The easiest thing seems to be bullet points (=

We wanted to put Lj in a local school for pre-school and kindergarten to help her to learn Arabic. I have always assumed that we'd do this and I went into the process with my eyes wide open, and aware of some of the challenges.

My neighbor, who is a local lady and a supervisor over all the English teachers in town, told me flat out to not put Lj in a local school. She said their teachers are not good, and that she doesn't want to admit that, but it is true. A Western friend I have who teaches at the school where I was planning to put Lj even said to not put her in school there.

So after much discussion and readjustment of expectations, we have placed her in a South African run International school that uses the British curriculum. The student body is almost entirely Arab and there is an Arabic teacher in each room to translate for the students especially at the beginning of the year. So it is a big disappointment in some ways but in other ways it is a great situation and we don't have MANY of the worries of putting her in the other situation.

The main drawback to local schools would be what you could describe as the "emotional climate" that is created by the administration and the teachers. Rote learning, public shaming, various degrees of swatting kids etc.

Here are some other impressions of school after one week:

***Cracks me up to see parents driving so FAST on the dirt path up to the school and into this bottle-neck that none of them can back out of. Driving in reverse is not a skill that is valued out here (= They all want to turn around. You should see this happening at 730am and 1230pm.

***Kids carry the hugest, gaudiest, most decorated backpacks/rolling bags. Wow.

***I got my parent notebook today in layla's bag. It is our way of communicating with the teacher since having parents on the grounds is not encouraged. Too bad I say....they will have to get used to seeing me!

***All the kids are given school hats so they can walk to and from the bathroom outside with a little shade on their heads. Very Bright. Very Hot these days.

***There are three thugs who run the "bus room" or whatever you call that holding station for kids who have been dismissed from class and are waiting to get on the buses. I think they are all actually teachers in the school but in order to control the boys, they need sheer physical intimidation. Yikes. I just keeping saying hello and smiling so they'll be nice to Layla if she ever has to sit in there for long (=

***Lj's room is really fun - not overly decorated which I personally appreciate. The days of the week starts with Saturday.....I tried changing the way we sing our little days of the week song but she was having none of it.

Layla's School!!!

Thought you might enjoy seeing some pics of where she is spending her mornings these days! She picked out her very own gaudy school bag. The dress on the Barbie is actually attached separately! Ooo la la.

 

 

Classic first day of school posing (=

 

Note that Ryan is still in his pajamas....we are out of the house EARLY these days! Yikes.

 

This is the bottle neck where parents race up to pick up their kids. The gap between the two walls is where they try to squeeze as close as possible and then - due to a complete of reverse driving skills - they all try to turn around and drive out. Really Fun. Not. I just park waaaay off to the right and walk through the sand.

 

 

 

 

This is Rita - a South African friend of Layla's from her nursery school last year. She is a year ahead of Layla but they see each other on the playground.

 

 

Castle in Germany - playing catch up on photos!

I am trying to get our photos from the summer uploaded so they do not wallow in the digital world never to be seen again. This was a really fun day where we drove in a BIG circle around our region of Germany and got to see a castle, the Bodensee (famous lake) and some other fun sights. Tom did a great job planning all of this and we were able to borrow a GPS which was indispensable!

Happy Family

 

Just couldn't resist posting this sweet family photo...Layla is channeling her inner princess and Ryan is wondering WHAT ON EARTH is wrong with his sister (= We were on a car ferry in Switzerland which was super fun for us all. We are well-outfitted with Richard Scarry books (thanks Nelsons, Ridderhoffs and Palmers!) and have a keen interest in all things transportation (=

We are still adjusting to the fact that our visas are just around the corner (= We'll let you know when it is all settled!

Ramadan Decorations

One of the fun things about Ramadan is to see how different stores and malls are decorated. These are very typical sights: the "bedu" fabric tents and the elaborate lamps (which I don't know the significance of, but they are everywhere during this month). The couches and tent-sitting areas are SO common where we are I just wanted you to see them in the middle of the glitzy, western mall (=