On the Verge...

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...

Thanks, Coloradoans, for posting all the pictures of the snow you just got.  And Texans, thank you for the pictures of your weekly weather forecast, which is comprised mostly of lovely 75 degree days.  It really just makes me really happy for you.  No.  For real. Here in Fujairah, we have been blessed by a little temperature drop.  It even rained the other night!  The kids were very, very  excited. Today was a modest 32/33 degrees (Celsius) when we got out of our car to go to the park at 11am.  That's a wonderful 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  We'll take it!  They were watering the grass at this big park when we got there.  I don't know if they do that often, but it was by far  the kids' favorite part of our trip.  We just let 'em go.  If I had to be dripping sweat in a long sleeve shirt in the 90 degree sun, at least my children could be soaking wet. Then we had some swinging time.  Most ...

Ever since I was little, I've really loved names.  I would write stories just so I could name characters.  The stories were mostly just a few handwritten pages, because I would quickly move on to another story where I could name different characters.  I would also name my children.  I don't think this is too weird, right?  And with each guy I dated, I had a different set of names that I would have named possible children.  Mainly just for fun.  It was just a thing.  It really didn't mean that I was sure I was going to marry any of the four guys I ever dated (except that last one...), I just liked names. But one thing was always the same with my imaginary children.  There were always the same number: three.  I thought this was the perfect amount at the time.  They were also always in the same order.  A boy, then a girl, then another boy.  My thought process was that every guy wants a boy first.  This is probably no...