Things My Kids WILL Play With

1. Paper products of any kind. Paper towels, paper plates, toilet paper, napkins, Kleenex, receipts, EMT homework assignments, and so on.

2. Refrigerator magnets, which can make a surprisingly huge mess and give me paranoid thoughts about the kids swallowing magnets and having intestinal tears.

3. Me, but only if I'm busy.



4. My yoga mat and weights. At least somebody is using them.

5. Toy vehicles of any kind. We have so many helicopters, cars, trucks, jeeps, trains and planes that I can't even count them. I also can't count the number of times that I have stepped on some die-cast military vehicle model that settles right into the arch of my foot. These things are dangerous. Our living room is like a constant mine field.



6. Kitchen appliances, electronics, wires, cord, strings, sharp things, broken things, plumbing fixtures, dangerous substances and pretty much anything else they're NOT supposed to play with. They're especially fond of things that involve climbing.

7. ANYTHING that makes noise. The louder, the better. Thank you greatly to all the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who have made our vast collection of brain-rattlingly loud toys possible.

Toys--Why Do We Even Bother?

I'm too lazy to look up the official statistics, but we all know that the toy industry is a multi-billion (probably trillion) dollar industry. Looking around our place, I'm confused as to why that is.

Things my children won't play with:

1. That cool ball house, unless it's to throw ALL the balls out. It's going to the thrift store on Friday.

2. That awesome, high-tech, expensive walker, unless it's being pushed around to hit each other with. Although, the kids did get some excitement out of disassembling the interesting parts.

3. Any human or animal figurine that is intact. It must be missing at least one limb for it to be worth playing with.

4. Each other, unless it involves hitting. See #2.

5. This entire box of toys. I'm not sure what is in there, but it must be all nice stuff, otherwise the kids would love it.

A Husband Meme

Here is a fun Meme on husbands that I got courtesy of my sister and her husband, Jamas.

1. Who is your man? Shawn Cherri.
2. How long have you been together? Met 2 years, 2 months ago. Married 632 days ago (1 year, 9 months or so).
3. How long did you date? Hm...tough one. We didn't really date---we call it our "courtship." And it lasted about 5 months.
4. How old is your man? 29, almost 4 years older than me.
5. Who eats more? Him, except when I'm pregnant.
6. Who said "I love you" first? Him.
7. Who is taller? Him.
8. Who sings better? We're both decent, but not great.
9. Who is smarter? I'm book smart and he's street smart.
10. Whose temper is worse? Me, hands down. I'm not sure he actually has a temper, as I have only seen him mad once and it was over a basketball game.
11. Who does the laundry? Me.
12. Who takes out the garbage? Him.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Depends on your perspective. Looking at the bed while standing up, I do. Lying down, he does.
14. Who pays the bills? Him.
15. Who is better with the computer? Him.
16. Who mows the lawn? No lawn to speak of.
17. Who cooks dinner? Me, most of the time. He helps sometimes, though.
18. Who drives when you are together? Almost always him.
19. Who pays when you go out? Him.
20. Who is most stubborn? Me.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Hmm, me, I think.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Tie. We see each of them RARELY.
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me.
24. Who asked who out?He asked me out.....six weeks after we were engaged. Our first official date was a disaster.
25. Who proposed?He did, after making me walk about 15 miles.
26. Who is more sensitive? Him. I tease him about crying so much during movies.
27. Who has more friends? Him.
28. Who has more siblings? Me.
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Definitely him.

My Own Action Adventure Movie

I'm straining my ears to listen. Do I hear someone coming? I am not sure, but I go back to my work. I know I only have precious few minutes to complete my important work.

As I concentrate on the task at hand, many things race through my mind. What if someone finds me? What if they catch me in the act? What will they do? No, it would definitely be the end for me. I have to focus. I have to complete my mission.

Then, there it is. Somewhere in the distance, I hear them--the unmistakable sounds of someone coming. Yes, this time it is not my imagination. I speed up my efforts, hoping that I might get the job done before they find me. Closer and closer they come, and my heart begins to pound. My stomach drops as I hear them round the curve. Then....before I can finish, I make eye contact with the person who is chasing me. She stares at me with a bewildering look.

I stay still, hoping that perhaps she doesn't know what I am really doing. But I can see the look of recognition. She KNOWS.

She sees the tool in my hand. She knows I am........eating breakfast.....without her, hiding in the kitchen.

She crawls toward me and raises up at my feet, starting to vocalize what she cannot say. She wants me to feed her my breakfast. I tried to eat my breakfast in peace. I thought that by hiding in the kitchen, Quinn wouldn't find me. But she's sharp. She knows when I'm missing that she must check everywhere. Now she has found me out.

Any hopes of a peaceful, quiet breakfast (even only for a few minutes) are gone. I resign myself to my fate and begin feeding her some of my breakfast. As soon as she has one bite, she is begging for another.

Tomorrow is another day. Maybe tomorrow.....

Kai

Kai the Patriot!

Kai talking on the phone to his cousin, Elle. They talked for a long time.....

....except Kai kept "accidentally" hanging up on her.

I told Kai to lie down so I could change his diaper. Our entire living room floor was clear and free of clutter except this one spot. Of course, he decides to lie down on top of the toys!

One More of Quinn

A cute picture of Quinn.

Quinn

Helping to fold laundry.

You can see all of her teeth that are coming in in this picture.

Standing at the coffee table (and looking like a ragamuffin).

Trying to stand up in front of the TV.

It SEEMED Like a Good Idea at the Time

1. That fifth cookie I had for dessert.
2. The iced tea fight we had in the kitchen--I don't recommend trying it!
3. Putting the kids in one bedroom. Now we have our baby back in our room with us.
4. Showing Shawn this entry on my brother's blog.

A Few of the New Place

The kids' room, complete with "retro" wall hanging.

Our trashed living room.

Another of our trashed living room.

The kids playing at the new place.

More of the Kids

Playing cars together.

Playing cars together.

Quinn getting packed up for the big move.

Quinn in a box.

They LOOK So Sweet!

How is it possible that they can look so sweet when they're sleeping?

Kai taking a long nap.

Quinn nursing--it's hard to get her still long enough to get a good picture of her.

In a milk coma.

The New Place

Overview of the new place:

Pro: Major reduction in rent expenses.
Con: Smaller place, no view, tiny balcony.

Pro: Nice, gourmet food smell that wafts in during some evenings through our kitchen window vent.
Con: Strange, Indian food smell that wafts in during other evenings through our kitchen window vent.

Pro: Maintenance people seem more on top of things.
Con: Things are already breaking.

Pro: Apartment living room decorated with this really cool, modern, semi-edgy look. There are these big, red, striped v-shapes on the walls.
Con: Most of the furniture (lamps, decorative items, coffee/end tables) were VERY breakable, thus we asked them to remove them. So now our really cool, modern, semi-edgy looking living room now looks like some sort of strange mid-eighties roller rink.

Con: The kids have to share a room.
Pro: It's actually going quite well (thank you, God!).

It was a good choice, I think.

Congratulations!

I just wanted to send out a big congratulations to Shawn's brother and sister-in-law, who welcomed their first baby, an adorable little girl, on September 3rd, 2007. She is a darling!

Confessions of an Addict

It was rough. I couldn't check my blogs. I couldn't check news sites obsessively to find out the latest breaking headline. I couldn't even *gulp* check my e-mail! The hardest part was missing our internet phone. Thank goodness, it's finally back online. Yeah for internet access!

It was hard. I stared blankly at the powerless computer. I occasionally had to quell the urge to Wikipedia something I didn't understand. But I made it nearly a week without ANY internet. And I believe the experience has made me stronger.....

Musical Apartments

We're moving...again.

Hopefully by September 1st, we will be all settled in to our new place.....half a block away--literally.

After many struggles with the management of our current building over them poorly maintaining our building/apartment, we decided that it's time to move on. Additionally, we're doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University and think it would be a good idea to downsize a little bit so we can save more money.

We scoured Juffair (and another nearby area) for apartments that met our criteria. The result:

We will move 1/2 a block away, which means we'll still be very close to Shawn's work. He can still ride his bicycle there and spend lunch hour with us.

We found a cute, but more modest 2 bedroom apartment (our current one is 4 bedrooms and we never use most of the space in our house).

We'll still have all the amenities we have here, including a pool, gym, cable, all utilities paid, furnishings, etc.

We will be saving 200 dinars in rent--534 dollars a month!

We're very excited about the move and it has been taking up our time lately through the apartment search and now packing. We have boxes everywhere!

Exciting News!

So, I have to put this on the blog! My sister and niece Elle are coming to visit us here in Bahrain in just six short weeks! I'm so excited I can hardly wait!

The downside is that she's coming during Ramadan, so we'll be spending a lot of time indoors during the day. Most shops and restaurants are closed during the day because Muslims fast during the daytime for an entire month. It's a civil offense for people to eat, drink, smoke or chew gum in public.

Kitchen Fun

Kai and Quinn in the kitchen.

She's really crawling now.

Mostly following me around, especially when I have the camera!

Kai playing with his magnets. He knows numbers 1-10 and letters A-G thanks to these things.

Kai's Injury of the Week

Bad idea: Taking a head first dive off the couch into the coffee table. It makes a giant, purple bump on your head.

The plus side: you get a cool band-aid, or as Kai likes to say, "PAN-TAID!!!"

Poolside

The lens of the camera was fogged up because it was so hot and we'd just come from inside to outside. The same thing happens with sunglasses.

Kai at the pool.

"Fwimmin'!".....as Kai likes to say.

How It Happened

Last Saturday Shawn was playing basketball and rolled his ankle. He got checked out and it was just a really bad sprain, but it was very swollen and purple for several days. He was limping around with a cane for three days!

Shawn's Injury of the Week