Look what I found!

Three days ago Elli woke up sticking her tongue out. And she really hasn't stopped! On top of just finding her tongue, I think her bottom teeth are getting ready to pop through, so she is rubbing her teeth against her puffy, sore gums. I thought it was cute enough to share!

I think this is the longest tongue I've ever seen on a little girl! And she shares it so freely!

The Legendary "Duffy"

Anyone who has spoken with Ethan knows that we are at "Duffy's House." I thought it was time you saw who Duffy was. This is the little dog that has won my son's heart and has him expectant for weeks before we actually arrive in the UAE. Unfortunately, for as much as Ethan loves Duffy, Elli is not as convinced. She is getting more and more comfortable with him, if he keeps his distance. If he approaches to offer a kiss her breathing rapidly increases and she is quick to get away.

Duffy loves Elli as she leaves all kinds of "droppings" for him to enjoy!

This is Ethan, right after his nap, enjoying his friend Duffy and his new McDonald's Happy Meal toy. It's Wonder Woman, which considering her super hero costume is quite strange for this culture. The great thing is that Ethan has named her "Eeka." Aunt Eeka, you should feel loved!

Moochers Meet their Match

Our room is the only room at the staff house with it's own personal bathroom. Much like the community leftovers we freely peruse in the kitchen, we are always quick to use up the miscellaneous shampoos and conditioners found in the bathroom. However, we have found our match. A small bottle of "Proctonet" was left in our bathroom by a previous traveler. What is proctonet used for you ask . . . the bottle reads more graphically than I would choose to post. It's a "personal cleanser," we'll just leave it at that. Needless to say we won't be using this one up. We're still shocked that it was left behind.

A Team T-Shirt

I don't know what my fascination is with t-shirts, but I have one! I'm usually the first to say "We could make t-shirts!" So we are on our team retreat in the UAE. In the staff house we are staying in there is a "Community Leftovers" pantry with miscellaneous amounts of pasta, seasoning packets and your odd assortment of vinegars. They are "free" game. Community stuff also includes the various salad dressings and jellies found in the refrigerator. Austin and I love using up free stuff. It must be the combination of our frugal side and a value of letting nothing go to waste.

One of our teammates has an equally strong value of things being fresh; within their expiration dates. So the year and a half old Ranch dressing that Austin and I were enthusiastically using on our salad was cause for concern. She has since sorted through the Community Leftovers stash and has purged things beyond a 3 months expiration cut off. You could say she values things that are "fresh."

Thus the T-shirt idea . . . . "Free and Fresh! Winter Retreat 2008." Beyond the food items, we are having a great time enjoying freedoms we do not have at home. And through Him, we are being refreshed! I thought it would make a great t-shirt!

Vacation Begins Today

We have arrived in the UAE and vacation starts now! I think all four of us are ready for it too! This is the best time to travel to the UAE as it is cool enough to actually enjoy being outside. The staff house we are staying at has newly added playground equipment and my kids are loving it.

Ethan in the sand, climbing in the fort, and flying like Spiderman!

Elli's first exposure to sand. It was fun watching her discover!

Discovery ended with a bath before nap time!

I don't know how it started, but she's doing a "crinkle nose smile." She figured that and the model stance out all on her own. She sure is a silly one.
Here's to a family vacation packed full of fun and memories!

Preparing to Depart

We are headed out of country for 2 1/2 weeks of vacation and retreating. Before leaving I wanted to defrost our fridge. This meant using up the 4 bags of pureed pumpkin I had frozen. Ethan and I made pumpkin bread and muffins for our family. We also shared the bounty with 4 other families, as you hate for anything to go to waste.

Like his mother, Ethan loves the batter and couldn't keep his fingers out of it.

And once the muffins were made, Elli helped with the defrosting. She climbed in there all by herself!

Operation Teamwork Cheesecake

One plus of life in our country is that I can make a cheesecake for less than $5.00. It is a fun special treat dessert that we like to share with friends. I was motivated to bake a cheesecake when I found some frozen strawberries in syrup (a first ever find) at our little foreign store.

This is how many matches it took to light my oven. The oven is fine, it's the matches that are pathetic!

These were my helpers, because in our family we never do anything alone. Elli was in the sling and Ethan was "reading" me the recipe, which almost always says "half a cup of milk."

My oven does not have a temperature gauge, so I use this inserted one and the sharpie markings on my dial to get the approximate temperatures. It's a little trickier with cheesecake.

The cheesecake turned out great. I meant to get a picture of it before we shared it with our friends, but things just got too rushed. I shared it with a local friend who really loved it. It's fun for me to find new foreign recipes I can serve to local visitors!

Overalls

I just love little ones in overalls. It was fun to realize that at 8 months, both of my kiddos were standing up in their overalls. They look a lot alike, but the hair does make a difference.

First Day in Tights

With the weather turning colder, it was time to pull them out. What fun to have a little girl to be dressing in tights!

Cute Hats

It has gotten noticeably colder in our city. We're sleeping in fleece, under flannel sheets and our duvet comforters. Elli has yet to adapt to blankets. She's not the biggest fan! I ordered these pilot hats off of the Internet, www.hannaandersson.com, specifically for my bald little girl. But I know my son and he would not want to be left out. So these little hats keep their heads warm at night.

I personally think Elli could model the hats for the website/catalogue.

Cleaning up the Pot

After we finished our lunch of "macaroni" (the national version of spaghetti) Elli was freed to roam the floor. She went straight for the pot and the straggling potatoes and noodles in the bottom.

Much to Elli's delight, "Shannon" (our house-worker) fed her some of the leftovers. Elli has been officially introduced to the "big 3" of all national dishes; tomato paste, garlic and oil. She took it well and we have no allergic reactions to report as of now. We are not planning on making a habit of allowing Elli to clean up the leftovers, though if we did, it would pack the pounds on her fast!

Teething Bean

Our little princess has been super whinny as of late. And we really don't know why. But, as we have yet to cut a tooth, we can always blame the whining on a pesky tooth. Last night at dinner, after she had finished her pureed green beans, she enjoyed gnawing on one of mine.

She loves standing at our dinner table and was proud of her ability to hold her bean without hands.
We later found her crawling around with the bean firmly clenched in her jaws.

At times she would get more passionate in her gnawing. Hoping to find some relief.

We think she makes even green beans look cute!

The River Runs Through It

Our yard has a "juey" (public drainage/sewage ditch) that runs straight through it. We've taken great care to cover as much of the ditch as possible with concrete blocks. However there are sections that have been busted open or need to remain open due to the faucet that empties into the juey. Often the juey is dry, so it hasn't been that big of an issue. But, of course during the days that we had guests staying with us, it has been full to almost overflowing. And the smell, right outside my front door, isn't always the most appetizing.

We came home from being out most of the day to a flowing river. Ethan of course was intrigued.

"Where is the water going?"

In keeping with a local parable "Drop by drop a river is made,"
Ethan felt the urge to contribute to the flowing river.

Green Grass!

We've been in our home for over a year and half, but unfortunately have never been home for the prime planting times. But this fall we've been able to plant some grass in our small square patch of dirt! And it amazingly changes the feel of the whole yard.


We hope to plant some flowers in the flower beds on the left, but can't start that project until we find something else for Ethan to dig in. He is an expert mud pancake chef! It has been fun to watch the grass grow with Ethan. He's been so excited to see how God makes things grow and to take active part in shooing the birds away and keeping it watered!

Squatty Potty

Life is always exciting with a three year old in the house. Ethan has mastered potty training and is often eager to practice his newly acquired skill. But the average, in house bathroom is just too ordinary. We have a squatty potty behind our house. Ethan can also squat with amazing accuracy, so his new thing has been to use the squatty out back. So when I heard his "Mommy, I'm done" coming from the backyard, I was pretty confident as to what I would find.

The clothes laying on the ground outside the door were my first clue.

The mischievous glance around the corner only confirmed it.

Going Shopping

Our city has one store that sells foreign produce; most of which has expired but we still willingly use. It is about the size of a Quick Trip and at times it is packed full and other times there is not much to be found. Ethan likes going to "Jacob's" because that usually means there is a special treat. His special treats as of late have been 1 envelope of flavored Quaker Instant Oatmeal.

On this day I forgot my sling and was at the store without Austin. Without lovely carts to keep Elli in, this is what I resorted to. It worked well, though the shop keeper found it quite amusing.

Snuggles

Ethan beat me to get Elli from her nap and before I knew it I heard giggles coming from their room. I'm so grateful that these two love each other as much and play as well together as they do.

Now, the snuggle time did end in tears when Elli was finished but Ethan had a few more squeezes to give. This is the story of their relationship.

Caught on the "khan"

This is one of the challenges to life on the floor. When we eat on the floor (at least daily) mobile little Elli is so curious as to all the plates, cups, pots, etc she now has access to. This day, in particular, she went straight for the nan. She loves nan! I know you are supposed to hold off on wheat products until closer to a year, but most national children eat nan even earlier and there doesn't seem to be an epidemic of wheat allergies. She still doesn't have teeth, so she gums the life out of her nan. I don't know if it's visible in the picture, but she helped herself to a little snack!

Diaper Duty

Currently we are traveling and away from home. So Elli is in disposable diapers. I never thought I would miss my cloth diapers as much as I do! Not only is she crawling out of all of her pairs of pants because her hips and bum aren't as big as they usually are. But she's soaking through her pj's at night.

This is just one of my four lines that I fill up each load.

So, I thought I would share a shot of my bi-weekly activity. With a loaded care package from Sandie, I've been able to stretch the frequency of my loads of diapers to just twice/week. Though I'm sure the frequency will change as the weather gets cooler and it takes longer for them to completely dry. We're in the stuffing training stages with my new house helper. But it has been so much more worth it than I ever thought it would be.

"Dr. Style"

One morning while little sister was sleeping, Ethan was playing Dr; fixing his dinosaurs. I just love this little guy. He is changing so much; talking, telling stories, and really has quite the imagination. Of course his little personality can't help but come through! The tools used for fixing the dinosaurs included all the "normal" Dr. kit equipment as well as several hammers, drills and some of my miscellaneous pieces of fabric for bandaging.

Ballerina Pajamas

There is nothing cuter than the "I just woke up" sleepy eyes in pretty, pink ballerina pj's. And she's usually so cuddly first thing in the morning. I just had to share!

More Prep Work

The "spread" is really what Eid here is about. The men go from house to house, sitting in some homes just for several minutes, to eat their fill of nuts, raisins, fruit and cookies.

It's been over a year of work on the basement to get it ready to host visitors. But it has already been such a blessing. To have a place where Austin can entertain male visitors out of eye shot of me, frees me to go about life with 2 small children. The guests just come in and go straight downstairs. I leave the tea at the top of the stairs and never see them. You can see from the "before and after" pictures. We've done carpets, curtains, and floor pillows to prepare our guest room! We even have a double bed (not pictured). All are welcome!

Eid Preparations

This is my first ever blog posting. How exciting! We’ll see if we can keep it up. I thought I’d share one of the unique ways of preparing for the Eid celebration. For women here, eyebrows and feet are a big deal. Plucked and maintained eyebrows communicate to the world that you are an engaged/married women. Which makes sense when so little other than the eyes shows. The meaning of nicely pedicured feet . . . I have yet to fully understand. But you take off your shoes when you enter any home, so as you visit your feet are visible.

My pedicure kit! The amazing thing is every feature has been given to me. Polish and remover from stateside friends brought out by a team last summer; the Ped Egg in a package from a future teammate and the cotton balls from a gal who is leaving the city and leaving all extras behind. He provides even the little things for us!

This thing is awesome. I refrained from showing you how crusty and scaly my feet were/are. But these are the shavings off of my feet. The egg really works.

This is my pedicure assistant! She sat right beside me and played with the cotton balls the whole time. Crazy to think one day I’ll be doing her toes!