Family fun night

Our lives in the land of limbo have involved a lot of waiting. If you haven't already gathered by the fact that I have time and all this relational capacity to blog daily! :) Most days we are in our one bedroom apartment above the office and it's starting to feel like we are doing the same things over and over and over again. So in attempts to break the monotony we have instigated "Family Fun Night." This last week we had it both on Thursday and Friday night (our equivalent to the Saturday and Sunday night of our week.)

We have figured out a great Elli proof system too. So we can watch either "Barn" (The Andy Griffith Show) or "The Cosby Show" without her little fingers touching the laptop buttons, we've put the laptop on top of a stool on the coffee table.

Our family are all popcorn lovers. We've already bought and packed the bags we'll take with us to our new home. With only 2 teeth, Elli only gets small popcorn pieces pre-approved by mommy in her bowl.

I never would have guessed!

I knew that Ethan would grow and change while we were gone. But I never would have guessed he would change as much as he has. And we are only a little over half of the way through our time. We had visa pictures taken in the US around February 2007. We needed some pictures for our visas recently and could not find our stash. So we had to take some new ones. Lately I've been sorting our suitcases and we happened upon the picture stash. To compare Ethan within just 2 years, man. Where has my little boy gone?

Now, I can't guarantee that they didn't enhance the picture, as the little kiosks are known for their editing. I love the baby picture of him. He had just woken up from a nap and was lined up with the rest of his preschool class to go take a picture without mommy and daddy. If I could guess what he's thinking it would be "where are my parents taking me?" His big boy shot reminds me a whole lot of Uncle Nate a few years back.

"Cut my lip scrapping"

Ethan likes to get ready all by himself. On Friday morning I was getting Elli dressed for church while Austin cleaned up after a very humid game of basketball. Ethan came around the corner with Daddy's razor, blood on his lip and all he could say was "ouch."

As I cleaned up his lip, I assured him that Daddy would teach him how to shave when he got bigger. He proudly reported to all our friends at church that "I cut my lip scrapping."

Our most recent adventure

We had to make a quick visa run to the border and back this last week. Everyone we talked to beforehand told us it would be a pretty simple outing. In Al Ain, the city bordering Oman, there is a hot springs and a fun zoo. So we decided to make a day of it and take in some sights. We left at 10 a.m. and returned by 9 p.m. with a lot of frustration in between. Every set of directions we were given was missing some crucial element. The actual Oman border post is over 45 km from the border. We were told to "drive to the mountain and take a right." It turned out we actually drove past the mountains and took a left.

We never found the hot springs, but graciously stumbled upon an archeological family park with great playground equipment. By the time we made it to the zoo, the sun was going down and we were all very tired. So it was a "breaze through" kind of visit.

Here are some pictures of our time. Though it didn't go according to plan, it was a memory none the less.

Peek-a-Boo

It's her newest game and she will play with anyone who will play along.
We've decided her eyes have settled on dark brown.
And they sure do sparkle!

Grandma Jokes

The newest element of Ethan's personality that is taking shape is his desire to make people laugh. He loves to be silly and make people laugh. We are just working to learn what is appropriate when. As you can imagine, he's a little boy that loves body humor. But he also gets a kick out of telling "Grandma jokes." We aren't quite sure if he has his actual grandmas in mind, though a few of the specifics seem that they could match. So here are the jokes I can recall. I wish I would have been writing them down, as I know I'm missing some and they are so funny!

My grandma cooks a giraffe in a big pot
My grandma was in jail
My grandma has a hippo
My grandma climbs trees
My grandma chased a man out of the ocean and he didn't have any shorts on
My grandma fights bad guys
My grandma has stinky feet

Who knows, we may have the next generation of the "Last Comic Standing."

Girls and their chocolate!

A bag of Valentine's Day Hersey's kisses was included in a package we got from my mom. Ethan doesn't like chocolate, Austin is exercising discipline, so I have been enjoying most of them when it would do me better to share. Savoring a piece on the couch, Elli used her sign to ask to "eat please." So here are mommy and Elli sharing a kiss.

Who knew the "Chocolate Savoring" face was instinctual.



Evidenced by her drool, Elli likes chocolate!