08.12.11

 Today was what a Friday (Sunday in the States) should be like... very laid back and relaxed.  We woke up at a good and early time. When everyone was downstairs I made some pancakes.  Abigail got peas... her first peas and she HATED them.  She literally gagged them up.  I will try to give them to her again because they say persistence is the only way to succeed at this feeding thing, but she will not be happy about it.  She enjoyed playing with the peas though. 

 I sorted all our vitamins into our weekly pill holders and Madeline had a good time playing with that.  I forgot to mention yesterday that we are now attempting major SERIOUS potty training with Madeline.  Before she sort of had control. She would have her great days when she would go pee pee every time in the potty, and those days when she wouldn't go at all.  But now I am putting her ONLY in panties during the day.  At first it irritated her and she would cry that her "diaper has a hole in it!!" but then I explained to her that she is officially in BIG GIRL PANTIES now and they don't absorb the pee pee.  She's doing really well. She's had a couple accidents, and she is really embarassed and ashamed when she does. I try to let her know it's okay, and that she is learning.  I'm also trying really hard to make sure my house doesn't smell like urine.  Today we put the potty right in the front room so she would have direct access to it at all times. 

Madeline loves to pick out her own outfits now and likes to tell me how to do her hair.  This was today's choice, but minutes later she had her first and only accident of the day and she had to take it off.

We watched several movies today also, but inbetween it all the girls and I made some new playdough.  The old stuff was all dried up. Madeline loves to help in the kitchen so she added the food coloring to the pan while I stirred and before long we had a lovely gob of gray playdough.  We usually start with lots of colors and end with brown or gray... why wait right? We made cars, dinosaurs, cats, we did patterns with all of our strange kitchen untensils... it was a good time. 

 This evening I made my own concoction of spaghetti sauce with meat in it.  Usually Paul is the spaghetti maker in this house because of his mom's yummy recipe, but I decided to do a smaller portion in a frying pan.  I cooked the ground beef with some garlic... added some regularly used Italian spices, some sugar, tomato sauce, paste, pepper, salt... it was DELICIOUS!  I need to write that one down.  Paul liked it too. I really think he genuinly liked it!  So that made me giddy.

Today there was a lot of sitting and laying around.  I had high hopes for change... we are thinking of moving Abigail's crib into Madeline's room and having the girls share a room.  I am starting to wonder if it might be a good way to encourange Madeline to sleep in her own bed (along with giving us an extra room for whatever). Maybe she will like it more if Abs is in there with her?

 We are also planning on moving our TV that is currently on our wall in our bedroom, downstairs into the playroom.  Once Paul gets his computer built, we will probably have it in there too and the TV will be a monitor.
Eventually we will get it all done.  It was nice for Paul to be able to rest a bit today. 

We also watched Food Inc. Today.  I had heard about it from several friends before and never watched it.  It really does make you want to move out in the middle of nowhere and raise your own cows, chickens etc. and grow your own food. It is so scary what is happening in the U.S.

Then we realized something... we live in Saudi Arabia.  A lot of the food we currently eat - fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. are grown here, locally.  Another blessing in disguise? Maybe?

Notes to remember: Abigail loves to pull blankets, clothes, whatever she can grab over her face and she just sits there and giggles and waits for us to pull them off and act surprised to see her.  All four limbs just shoot out stiff with excitement.  She also tried to scare me today.  I was nibbling and kissing on her and making her laugh and all the sudden she just jumped at me and made the cutest little noise. She did it twice.  I tell you, I feel, over and over again with her, that she is an old soul trapped in a tiny, chubby baby body.  You look at her and she just looks like she knows something you don't know.  It's awesome and creepy all at the same time. She says, "dadadada" and now, just these past two days, "Mum Mum Mum". She reaches for ME when she says it too.  I love it. 

Special moment today... held both my girls in my arms for over 30 minutes while we watched a movie. I LOVE those moments.