What do I do???

It is 10 days after Ryan's birth.

Just now the house suddenly the house emptied and I started frantically thinking...what should I do?? How can I make the most of this? What do I want to do that I can never do because I'm never alone these days? (I'm an introvert) Make a do list? Start a quick little organizing project??

So I guess I am writing about being alone since I don't know what to do(=

Mom in her ever-gracious spirit has started to take Layla for her evening walk. About sunset almost every day Tom has been taking Layla for a walk to a small shop to get a little treat and then walk home again. It takes about 45 minutes and it has been my sanity. They come back all hot and sweaty but I'm a happy mama. And you know what they say about Mama being happy...

So mom and Layla are out of the house.
And Tom just left to get his haircut. It is wonderfully relaxing process if the right guy does it. Steam towels, painstakingly long hair cut, shave with a straight razor, more hot towels, head rub, neck rub....some combination of all this is the TYPICAL hair cut for guys on our side of town for a mere $5. I can't remember if Tom says the price increased while we were gone. But still. How can you argue with that? The Man Spa is a more appropriate name, but for the atmosphere.....

On a newsy note:

Tom really has his hands full now that Ryan is here. Not that he's dealing only with Ryan, though he is up with me at night doing the feeding. I am not strong enough yet to actually feed him on my own. I just lay on the bed and Tom does the rest of the burping, diapering etc etc. It is just that now that the birth is over (PTL for that) our lives are switching gears and Tom has his hands full:
-trying to figure out how we can get a residence visa for us
-trying to sort out our ant infestation
-digging, cutting and general bush whacking through the thorn bushes that popped up around the back of our house during the last 18 months
-figuring out how to repair the car across town after the lady hit him the day we were crossing the border back into our side of town(!)
-the exact sequence of getting the paperwork for getting Ryan's offical birth certificate and then his passport...all of this requires crossing the border. We have no idea how they will respond to Ryan crossing the border without an official birth certificate let alone without a passport. They used to have a 30 day grace period, but nothing ever stays the same for long!
-getting the cash out to pay the hospital bills (requires a bunch of ATM trips timed to the US 24 turn over periods)
-doing all the grocery shopping for us as well
-paying bills and that is never a straight-forward process
-write an official newsletter since we haven't done that since we left the US
-write a CV for a potential job (not in the near future so don't get all excited, but CV needed now)
-paying attention to Layla who is a total daddy's girl and just wants to be with him all the time. She woke up from her nap today and wandered around a little. She finally found Tom and in a very excited voice says "Do you want to go snuggle in my bed!!?" How can a guy say no to that?

So anyway. Do pray for him - he has a LOT on his plate and there isn't much I can do to help him out.

More waiting photos and GOING HOME photos!

From her perspective

 

I often wonder how I compare to other moms regarding what they have rules for and what they tolerate etc. Not in a bad way of comparision, more like I'd like a frame of reference.

One of these things I'm curious about is when Layla colors - I am rather fanatical about her staying just on the paper. We've worked on this and she really does fine - just a couple of times I have some drawings on the wall or fridge (=

So when she walked up to me the other day with this on her leg, I was really surprised and started to lay into her. This is the extent of our conversation:


LAYLA! What is that on your leg!?!?
I’m drawing on my leg because I’m getting married.
What?
I’m very married.
I need to draw on my leg all over with markers. I’m getting married.

It suddenly occured to me that she was talking about Henna! She has a book (A is for Arabia, thanks Jon and Vic!) that does the Alphabet with cultural things illustrated and the H is for Henna. The have a cute little ditty which I would post here if I had the energy to dig around and find the book. Not so much at the moment.

But we haven't read this book for WEEKS and I couldn't believe she remembered it, let alone put the pieces together to "do" henna on herself (=
So funny.

Photos of the birth!

If you want to see this in a larger format, you should be able to click on it somewhere and it will take you to Picasa. Once there, look on the left and you can see the button for Slideshow. That will make it full screen. Enjoy! I'll tell more of the story later. All I have energy for now (=

Frederick Ryan Carlson

Frederick Ryan Carlson was born today at 2:30 PM. He weighs 3.9 kg. Mom, baby, Daddy & proud big sister all doing well. (posted by Vic for Steph, I'm sure there will be pictures coming!)

Photos of our waiting time

Well, we've been advised by the doctor and Vic that we probably have several days still until the birth. We're trying to be patient and just enjoy the time, but life is rather temporary and you know how that goes....maybe!

Here are some fun photos of the kids. Josiah and Lj really have had a fun time playing together! It makes it easier for them to have each other to goof around with. Their sleep schedules are pretty different, so I'm trying to decide whether to get Layla back to her "early to bed early to rise" routine. So far she's asleep by 10pm/11pm and up at 10am (= When we were thinking it was just a few days that was okay, but now that we are looking at a week or more over here, we may need to adjust. Tom and I are just grateful that she's able to sleep in and still get a good 11-12 hours a night.

It is pretty warm during the days - at least 105 ish in the afternoons so we have been heading to one of the many malls on this side of town to do some walking and to let the kids run around in the air conditioning. The side of town we live on has NOTHING like the malls here, so it is a nice change. I do have lots of contractions when I walk, but then they all stop when I sit down (=

Who knows (=

Enjoy the photos!

Where we are now!

No baby yet - I know that is what most people are watching for (=

This was my last post because several hours after I posted we decided to move across town near to where the hospital is! It was quite a rushed packing job, but we made it (= Tom made some calls and we found a home that is empty. It is a great situation since there is also room for Vic, our midwife friend, to join us with her two kids.

So here we are on the other side of the border with a houseful of kids and one grandma (= Mom is doing a wonderful job of taking care of all the little ones, as is to be expected (=

We had a dr appt today and he said we are still a few days away at the earliest, so you all can pray things move along faster (= It is nice to catch our breath and get settled here (this is our fifth night here) but as you all know, we are just waiting for the next big thing to happen (=

Anyway. Just wanted to let everyone know that there is no baby and we have shifted houses for the time being. Oh, the dr also said he would start looking at inducing options next Monday the 24th so it won't go on too much longer in either case. We'd REALLY like to not be induced since we sort of had that last time and it was pretty unpleasant.

We'll post something as soon as there is something to talk about!

Cultured?

Conversation in the car tonight:

Lj - What type of music is this? (the radio is playing)
Me - Jazz
Lj - Different Jazz than at home? (everything is 'different' than at home these days, meaning Colorado)
Me - yes, a little bit different
Lj - What musical instrument is that?
Me - Well, a piano, a drum and what else daddy????
Tom - a saxaphone
Lj - like you use to call someone?
Me - well, it IS the same word, but it is a different thing - it is a musical instrument.

Can't believe this is a conversation with my two and a half year old (=

A smile to match the chair!

 

This photo was taken at the mall that is at the base of Khalifa Tower - the tallest tower in the world (for the moment).

Get a load of that smile!!

We're not sure what the significance of the chair is, but thought it was too cool to pass up a photo....

Quick little video - our lovely tree

I'm trying this video to see if things are working again - we'll see. The tree outside the window is SUCH a pleasure to look at and provides a surprising amount of shade which is worth gold around here! In fact, for mother's day we went down to a plant store to look at some more trees to plant behind the house where the sun is the hottest - particularly around the kitchen. Keeping things growing is a big deal with having to water sometimes TWICE a day in the summer! But it is worth it to see green things (=