IKEA

Something in the male gene wants to put babies in the strangest places.....

With Baba

Dad is doing a GREAT job with both kids! He has all sort of hidden powers to entertain 3.5 year old girls and 9 month old boys (= Who knew!? Layla has been so happy to have him around to play the prince to her princess and to dance with her etc (= Lj is going through a wierd spat of looking sideways when I take a picture.....bizarre. This dress is from mom from Thailand. Lj said she was going to "wear it for 10 days in a row"......uh...I don't think so kid!

Old Friends...and New Friends!

Vic and I were able to visit one of our friends here in town - we had all been pregnant together at the same time with our first babies (= We've all had our second babies by now so that was a whole new dynamic! Ryan and Metha were SOOOO into each other! It was funny how focused on each other they were. It was a really lovely visit - very comfortable and easy to connect. I LOVE those days!

Cute Phrases

Just a few funny things Layla has said lately:

me: Layla I'm going to feed Ryan and then I'll work on getting dinner on the table
Lj: Are you going to feed him in the kitchen or from your breast?

We were at the park with some friends and I was pushing Lj and one other little boy at the same time. After awhile:
Lj: Mama are you tired?
me: Why?
Lj: Well you are doing so much pushing!

Lj is listening to all our conversations and is always asking "what are you talking about?" She does the same with songs (= We have to be much more careful now! Anyway, I had called Tom on the phone while I was in the car with the kids. He was lamenting about how the guy who was supposed to help him with all our visa paperwork had stood him up AGAIN. (this guy has done nothing for Tom for three months! He is supposed to help us navigate all the bureaucracy.) Anyway, Layla was trying to follow the conversation and really wanted to understand.
me: Well Layla, it is like if Rita called to say she would come and play and then you wait and wait and wait and she doesn't come over. You would probably get a little sad and frustrated.
Lj: hmmmm. Maybe he has a wife and wants to be with her!

All for now. It is almost 9pm and I am headed to bed!

Self Explanatory!!!!!

 
 

A good read

 


She looks pretty comfortable doesn't she! We got some new-to-us books in the mail this week! Layla LOVES anything from Richard Scarry and is happy to stare and stare at the pages for what seems like ages (= Thank you Cary, Christy and the Palmer family! I think the books actually belonged to Austin who is Tom's cousin's son. What does that mean to Layla? Second cousin once removed?? No idea (= We're just happy for some new books!

Language School

For the thousands who follow my blog (!) you may have noticed that I'm a wee bit slow on the posting these days. It is largely due to the fact that I am in language school and having to do HOMEWORK during my free minutes here and there. I haven't tried to seriously read formal Arabic for almost 4 years and it is painful to restart (= I love it though. I am reading very slowly and very inaccurately at about a high school level. So I'm guessing I'm like those poor students in the US who make it to high school and are constantly misbehaving because the material is so far over their heads. I greatly sympathize. If I wasn't 37, motived and a mother, I'd be throwing fits in class too!

She's a natural!

Since Tom is traveling and the kids have been sick, we all desperately needed a day out to have some fun. So we crossed the border to go to a mall (layla's eyes are bugging her so no outside activities during the day unfortunately) and see what we could find to do!

I can't believe what a natural she was a this driving thing! There was a little foot pedal on one side to make it go and then the kids just steer. I was so proud of her being the only kid to dismount, drag the car around and get herself unstuck (= She was quite happily passing the slower kids and ramming in to anyone in the way (=

Sadly, she was running into stuff rather frequently as she was so distracted by all the other kids and parents around her (=

By the way, you might notice that she has a pink hair clip in her hair. This is the only hair clip she will keep in her hair, and only if she puts it in herself. I mean, she'll let me put it in, but she always takes it off later. If she mashes it up there herself, she'll keep it for hours. (= Ahhhhh, the battles we choose.....or don't choose!

Lost and Found

 

I realize that he looks like a girl here with the pink sheets and the pink "dots dolly". I love his big smile which is so typical of him. You can also see his curly hair! The other day we were in the car about sunset time and I glanced in the back seat and both my kids' heads were lit up like copper fire! It was so cool (=

Back to Dots Dolly though.....I had to show a picture of Ryan with my childhood doll. Layla has thoroughly enjoyed her as well. I was completely distraught when I thought we had left her at a hotel several months back. I kept avoiding the issue of really looking for her in our things in the hope that she might turn up. Well, lo and behold, when we got our stuff out for camping, I discovered that she has been sleeping in one of our big coolers this whole time! The other small cooler also had a little toy in it (= Joy joy.

Ryan learns to stand up (=

Cute video of Ryan learning to stand. SO FUNNY that he did it in the same place Layla learned to stand as well! She was 3 months ahead of him, but not nearly as strong as he is (=

We have to move the mattress down ASAP. A couple of days after I took this video, he learned how to stand up in the pack and play which is where he actually sleeps 90% of the time. If I put him in Layla's room, she wakes up when he cries and comes wailing in our bedroom begging me to take him out (= We tried that for about a month and then I gave up! Not sure when we'll get them in the same room, but we're grateful for having 2 beds and for having the space to separate them until they are more tolerant of each other!

While I dearly love my babies, this is probably only really interesting to the grandparents and aunties and uncles (=