On the Verge...

It's that time of year again!  Abram's birthday, Thanksgiving, and... Nana's birthday!!! Here is a special message from your favorite (at least for now) grandson, Nana: We really do hope that you have a greeeeeeaaaaat day.  Gotta go.

We celebrated Abram's third birthday today. It is November 17th here, but technically he won't have been on the outside world for three years until 1 am on November 18th because of birth time and time zones. So I can still say he's on the verge of three. Today was an epic adventure of a day for our three year old and his sister. We started out at Build-a-Bear. His grandma and grandpa (GiGi and Boppa) have just arrived for a visit and they have been talking about doing Build-a-Bear with Abram since he skyped with his cousin who had done one a few months ago. Abram eventually chose a lamb and dressed him in a Superman costume and Selah chose a bear and we put a sparkly pink tutu and sequin bow on her for our girl with a new found love for dancing attire.  They both love their animals (who Abram named Leon and Mya) and I have glitter all over me from Mya's tutu. So overall, a success. Then we had lunch at Ikea and bought a few necessary items for our guest room. A...

It's 1:30am and I can't stop thinking about how God is so good. So I thought I'd write about it and then go to sleep. God is SO good. Even through bed bugs. And having to throw away furniture. And hand foot and mouth. And lack of sleep for the whole family and just overall busyness. I am overwhelmed by the blessings in my life right now. I can't begin to doubt that He even uses the hard things to show us His faithfulness. These are a few of the things I am thankful for right now (think of it as a big chunk of "30 days of thankfulness" a little late): - Mr. Unexpected Simon is getting so strong and feisty in there at 19 weeks. Loving him and getting more and more excited to meet and hold him every single day. - Quinn's parents coming for a visit in 8 days. Love those people and excited to see them after over a year. - Friends from our church in Austin coming to visit and going on an adventure to the Dubai Creek and spice souk. Then for a ride on t...

Abram likes to talk about imaginary people. Not "imaginary friends", but people that don't exist with names he has made up (which are often variations of the same name).  Maybe he just likes names. Wonder where he got that from...   Last night, we asked him who he wanted to pray for after dinner. He said "Hyops".  We humored him. "Hyops? Is Hyops real?" "Yeah, he lives in India, in a small town. He's sick. He needs to feel better." (There was some stuttering in there, but I'm not embellishing any vocabulary). Quinn and I looked at each other. Usually, we tell him that we can only pray for real things; no made up people, no stuffed animals, etc. But it was so weird that he was so specific about where this person lived, that we thought maybe God wanted us to pray for a man named Hyops who was sick in a small town in India. So we agreed. Then I reconfirmed his name. "Hyops?" And he said "No. Pyops." And the gl...

I may already have a post titled something similar to this about Abram, but I'm too lazy to check. Selah's vocabulary is growing everyday. She says a lot of things imperfectly, but we know what she is saying in context and there are a few words she says pretty darn clearly. Some of the clear, full words: cat, hat, ball, car, all done, up, no, yeah, happy, please, juice, toy, you, me, nose, eyes, Jesus, shoes, yay, and ummmm... Some of the sounds that are definitively a certain word: Seh (Selah), bee (baby), Pah (Poppins, as in Mary Poppins), tup (as in "feed the birds, tuppence a bag" - she uses this to get me to sing the song to her. I guess it's her favorite...), Dohd (George (Jennings)), air-pah (airplane), fow (flower), tee (tree), dess (dress), Da (Dad). The one that can get a little confusing, but I usually know because of context, is "ma". This means several different things: Mom, more, milk, and mosque (which she says during the call to p...

If you've been tracking with us for awhile now, you may remember that when we were pregnant with Selah, we had a boy name chosen .  This time, we had a few boy options, but the old standby won out, because we really do like it a lot.  But just like two years ago, we still can't quite agree on a middle name for this kid. That's where you can help. His name is Simon.  After Simon Peter, the apostle.  It's five letters and it's Hebrew (like the other kids) and we like  it. But, here's the thing: We have four options for middle names.  The two that Quinn really like, I have been vehemently opposed to.  I will share them with you in the most unbiased (yeah, right) way possible and you can tell me if I'm wrong.  For real.  I won't be mad. He likes Simon Quinn and Simon Peter. Now, you may be thinking "Wait a minute... isn't Quinn Abram's middle name?" Why yes, yes it is. Much to the credit of his beloved parents, Quinn likes his na...

Today, Selah is 18 months old. She woke up at exactly midnight on her 1.5 year birthday (approximately three hours ago), right as I was falling asleep. Of course. I am reminded of her one year birthday, six months ago, which was the first night we had any problem with her sleeping since she was about 7 months old and started sleeping through the night. That night, she bawled when I laid her down and didn't stop crying for almost an hour. So unlike her. The next night, it was a little shorter, but still some crying. And the next, just a little whimper before falling to sleep like a champ like her old self. That drama ended right then, but it was about that time that she started waking up for long periods of time in the middle of the night. At first we didn't know how long she was staying awake. I would hear sporadic babbling and then quiet and our noise machine that made it possible for us all to share essentially one big room probably drown out any other sounds while I slep...