On the Verge...

It's Christmas eve here.  Our first Christmas completely separate from any of our families and our first Christmas in a country where the large majority doesn't celebrate the holiday the way we do. That did not mean, however, that there weren't massive  amounts of people at Carrefour (the Wal-Mart equivalent) tonight or the worst traffic that we have yet to be stuck in (including our after rain street lake driving).  It took us 30 minutes - and I am not exaggerating - to get through the checkout line at Carrefour.  People cutting in line and other people's credit cards getting declined and having to ring up their large purchase twice were the main culprits.  We were trying to get the our church's Christmas eve service that started at 7pm, knowing we would have to leave at 8 to get the kids to bed within at least an hour of their bedtime.  But the traffic was so bad that they started the service at 7:30 to allow people time to get there.  But then we still had to

This blog is 147 views away from 25,000!  Wow, blog!  We've come a long way since that first post back in  2009.  Not much readership back then.  I guess birthing a couple of adorable children really makes the numbers jump.   Speaking of birthing adorable children... I am behind on Selah's birthday post. I birthed her eight months ago yesterday.  Eight months doesn't sound like a long time, and I guess in the grand scheme of things it's not, but it sure feels like it's been a long time from where I'm standing.  I'm trying not to hurry her along too much, because I don't want to regret not savoring what is most probably going to be our last baby.  Gotta love those chunky cheeks now before they disappear into a skinny Smith face.   So here's Selah's 8 month update: Date: December 23, 2012 Weight : No idea. We don't have a scale and haven't taken her to the doctor.  I'm going to get their vaccinations in the new year, so

No one had to tell me after we had Selah that the most important rule to follow in our new multiple child household was not to compare my children.  That's totally common sense, and a good one to follow for many reasons.  Topping this list would probably be for their self esteem.  There is nothing worse than being compared to your sibling and coming out as the one in want.  But that becomes more important later.  As babies, this rule is important mainly for one's own sanity.  All kids do things at different times and it just tends to cause anxiety and doubt when you realize that one kid is behind where the other one was at that age. However, despite being well aware of the benefits of following this unspoken rule, I find myself struggling not to break it.  My children are very very very different from each other in many ways, of course they would be different developmentally, right?! Abram was a more emotional, vocal, hands on baby and he was crawling, standing, pulling up

These were things that I was not expecting to have more of when we said good bye to America and moved to the Middle East.  But we have had almost more of all of them than we ever had in the States.  I guess, maybe, I knew that we would be on mall overload from now on (which bothers Quinn more than me), but I guess I didn't realize how much American fast food has permeated this part of the world as well.  It's just easier to go to McDonald's or KFC here because they are on almost every street and you can be pretty sure about what you are going to get.  The same can't be said about any old schwerma place or Syrian restaurant. However, I do have to say that I have shied away from KFC's heavily marketed "Shrimpo" sandwich, although I can't really pinpoint why... So Abram has had his fair share of chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and french fries this last month.  But, of course, he's not complaining.  The other day we drove out to the other coast to ren

You may remember this post from when we had just found out that our second baby would be a girl. At that time, and even shortly after she was born, I was convinced that she would look just like Abram - only a girl. However, as the months have passed and our girl baby has gotten older and chubbier and more contemplative, we now see that she is very uniquely Selah. She and Abram look less and less like each other each day and sometimes I look at her and wonder where she came from, as I don't see any of us in her sweet little pudgy face. I'm not sure she will be sporting these pigtails much in the near future, but I see them coming. And when they do, she will not be Abram in pigtails, but the one and only Selah in pigtails.

Only without the history... and the beauty... and the boats.  The streets of Dubai are not designed to be able to drain massive amounts of water because the very rarely need to.  However Friday was one of those rare days and we enjoyed a very long, wet, and trafficy drive home from church that day.  We are so glad we decided to buy a large SUV for many reasons, and the ability to wade through foot deep water on the highway turned out to be one of them.  So that was a fun day.  We came home to discover that our roof and windows were also not designed to be able to handle large amounts of rain and had a very wet rug, some wet pillows and a wet kitchen floor.  So, while I normally like rain, I am kind of hoping it doesn't do that again for quite a while. I wanted to share a few adorable pictures of Abram being enamored with Selah.  I have recently become aware of how I talk to Selah, because I've realized that Abram copies me.  Whenever he talks to her, he squints

I remember when we first started to tell people that we were going to be moving to the Middle East. The response we got was almost always a question involving a tent or camels or both. No, we are not living in a tent. Yes, there are wild camels along the road. No, we haven't ridden one... yet. We are not living in a third world country. There's a Baskin Robbins and a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner and we've already had our fair share of McDonald's. We live in a large house with our close friends and there are many things about our living situation that are actually better than when we were in Austin, but I'll get to those in a minute. There are, to be sure, some aspects of life over here (some are the standard and some are unique to us) that have made me realize that there are certain things I took for granted in the States. Things that we don't really think about not having, but I am here to tell you that I should have been more grateful wh