09.14 through 09.18.11



It has been a busy week and I haven't had much time to blog, so I thought I'd post a few of the highlights from the week.  Madeline and Abigail have a great time together.  Lately, Abigail has really enjoyed when Madeline crawls toward her or runs toward her and then runs away.  She does this short, chortling giggle and then tries to crawl away from her.  The girls are also starting to fight over toys.  It usually starts with Madeline taking something from Abigail - which didn't used to matter to Abs - but now Abigail gets really upset and screams at Mads. By the way, we have been blessed with TWO sweet girls whose screams will cause anyone within a 100 ft. range to go deaf for several minutes.

The balloons from Madeline's birthday were purchased with "high float" in them and they have been floating for a week now.  We have been having a great time putting them all over the house in various places, tieing them to Madeline's trampoline, and doing balloon races on our slanted ceiling in the dining room. 

Aibigail is eating well.  I don't really blend any of her foods together anymore.  I do cook her veggies so they are soft, and I mash her other food.  She is doing great!  Since we have 4 teeth now we have also started brushing her teeth. Abigail loves when we brush our teeth together as a family at night. 

Madeline is enjoying her scooter and gets better at it every day.  I took her on a walk the other day to feed our friend's kitties and she got tired pretty quickly.  We ended up carrying her scooter home while she ran up and down the sidewalk. 

We've been out to eat a couple times this week because it has been easier to do that.  Paul has been working some late hours and going into work on the weekends so he can make up some time he has used during the week to take care of Yukon XL business. 

Here we are before going out to dinner one night.  I am sporting a very flattering and comfy abaya - as usual when we leave the compound. 

I have recently started exercising again.  Abigail played in her walker while Madeline and I exercised.  Madeline wanted to do everything I was doing so I let her borrow my 3 pound weights.  She got really upset that they were too heavy for her, so I got her a couple of bananas instead.  She worked out with them for a few minutes...

After a few minutes I turned around to see this...

Lately Madeline has been really sensitive about everything.  The other day we were watching Ice Age II and she started crying because she felt sorry for the baby mammoth in the girl mammoth's flashback when she is lost and alone and fins the possum family under that tree? Good movie, you should see it if you haven't. Anyway, she started bawling her head off about it. And it's not just things like that... Madeline is just super senstiive about everything.  So we are trying to help her and teach her as best we can without getting severely annoyed and impatient with her. 

we've been spending a ton of time with our good friend F and her boy, B.  We had lunch at their house once this week and B came to our house this morning for a bit while his Mom went to an appointment.  The kids had fun dancing and singing and playing and then we eventually settled on painting with water colors as a project.  They had a good time.
 

As I mentioned earlier, Paul has been taking care of business for our upcoming purchas of a Yukon XL (similar to the one pictured below, possibly a little more tan). 

In the States you would NEVER see Paul looking at one of these. He wouldn't even think about buying one.  But living here in Saudi Arabia, things are different.  Gas prices, for one, are REALLY cheap.  Second, having a nice big vehicle like this is safer in the psychotic driving conditions outside the compound.  Also, with two kids now, and plans for more kids, we needed a bigger vehicle.  It will be nicer now when people come visit us too, cause we won't have to squeeze everyone into our tiny Honda. 

So Paul did some investigating and found a 2009 Yukon XL for sale in the classifieds through Aramco.  A man was selling his friends Yukon. Apparently his friend moved back to the States.  Paul met with the man selling it last Wednesday and made an offer and it was accepted a day or so later!  Paul has been taking care of insurance and money this week and plans to go pick it up this Wednesday!  We are SOOOOO excited.