The Boys

Here are some pictures we have taken over the last month or so. Noah is 2. Nathanael just went for his 2 month check up. He is 14lb 3oz and 24 1/2 in. ENJOY!

Hey Babe!

"Hey Babe!"
I heard B say from the kitchen.

BABE! BABE! BABE!
And that was Noah's name for me the rest of the morning.....

Where are they?

WHERE ARE THEY???
Most of you probably won't even check the post till later next week, since there has been absolutely nothing on here in forever. You've probably taken us off your daily/weekly rotation. I'm sorry that we've been lame. What have we been doing? With having a new baby in the family, pink eye, packing up a house, kidney stones, moving countries, visiting family, getting acclimated to American culture again, and getting off of jet lag; we've been having problems doing anything besides sleeping in our free time. (see pic below)

However I was able to get some photos up on facebook of our trip to Brownwood for the boys to meet their cousins and visit Nana and Papa.

Click here to see pictures

This is a Drill... The Embassy is Under Attack

Yesterday we were at the US Embassy applying for Nathanael's citizenship and passport when the alarms go off and the guards start rolling down the steal doors. After several minutes of this a voice comes on and repeats over and over, "This is a drill. Duck and Cover! The Embassy is under attack! Get away from the windows!"

So we sat down and waited for the hypothetic people to stop hypothetically attacking the embassy, the guards to stop guarding all the steal doors, and all the workers to get out of their safe room.

I think that was a first for me. I've never been locked in my own embassy. Interesting.

Once all the fun subsided we got all of Nathanael's paperwork in. They assured us that it would be between 1 and 2 weeks to have everything thing done. That's nice. 2 weeks is the day before we leave. It would be nice if it came in by then so Nathanael could go with us you know.

This Week.....

This week....wow...

I think that how the sisters talked about their brother Lazarus would be appropriate: "But Lord, he stinketh"

This week stunketh. That's right. Big stunketh.

Lets kick off the past weeks with a play by play.

Nathanael.
He got circumcised. Yeah. A funny story to go with that though: I walk up to the reception desk and tell the nurse I need to schedule a circumcision for my son (as I am pointing to B holding the small baby). The nurse gets up, gets a paper, shuffles some stuff around, and then hands the file another nurse who comes back to the counter where I am standing reading over the file. "You are here for the circumcision," she says looking up at me. "No, I'm good," I reply, "its for my son." I don't know if red would be the right color, but that was the color of her face as she quickly turned around and walked off very embarrassed.

Noah.
Got pink eye. He has been chased around all week with wet wipes and disinfectant hand wash and is still trying to figure out why we wash our hands everytime we touch him. But he is better now and all is right in the world.

We celebrated Noah's health and Nathanael's 2 weeks with getting Nathanael pictures for his passport (see above) and some Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream. Noah recommends the Green Gummy Bear Apple Sherbet with extra Gummy Bears by the way and Nathanael's only advice for the day is don't get your picture taken where they expect you to wake up from a nap and immediately keep your eyes open. But, with the exception of Nathanael's passport picture, everything ended up pretty good.

What is Noah Doing??

Yeah, what is Noah doing?.....

This is how videos like this always start off. Its quiet and one of us asks that to the other one.

How Good is Our Arabic?

We've been asked alot, "so since you've been in the Middle East, you're probably fluent in Arabic by now, huh?"
This is a brochure we picked up from the Popeye's Restaurant here. Just to give you some perspective, if my Arabic was equivalent to this English I would be happy....very happy. I would love to have Arabic as good as this English.

The text below is copied letter by letter. If it sounds funny or misspelled, its not a typo on my part.

Dear Parents,
Now you can celebrate your little one's birthday party in one of the biggest party hall and play area n town. and that in Popeye's Restaurant which going to make your kid birthday party unforgettable party filled with fun, exciting games, music, dancing and give aways. besides of our delicious foods, ALL IN ONE PARTY PACKAGE consist of all what you can imagine to be in your little one's birthday party it is an offer full of surprises and fun. Your little one's deserved a very special party for him and his friends. We will take care of everything from party planning and preparation to excellence service and cleaning up. All you have to do is come to your own special party.

Like I said, if my Arabic was that good, I would be happy!

Things Have Changed

What can you say? I mean really, what can you say? People said, "oh, having your second will be like such-and-such" or "y'all will be doing such-and-such."

Well, Nathanael is 3 days old and all of us are still here. In some ways nothing has changed. In some ways, everything is different! Nathanael, when he isn't eating, just sits in his chair by the window and looks at.... dirt, yeah, basically just the dirt blowing around (sandstorms the past week, the whole house is caked in dirt). Noah is his normal self just with one more baby to play with.

Noah loves Nathanael. So our role towards Nathanael is really more of a guardian as to a parent. We spend a lot of time protecting him from his loving big brother! However today for breakfast Noah and I went out to catch food for the women and children and Noah discovered powdered donuts!

How things are definitely different:
* Getting 2 boys to sleep at the same time is harder than just 1.
* We have 3 times the diapers as before
* I am taking out the trash more
* Sleep is like that pot at the end of the rainbow: you chase it, but never find it.
* We fill up a car. No more giving people lifts. We are full. Full of kids, toys, car seats, strollers, and diaper bags.
* We spend alot of time changing clothes and doing laundry.

With all that said we are very happy and doing very well.

Nathanael Levi

Nathanael finally made it!

8 lbs 12 oz and 19.6 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing very great. Here is a video and a couple of pics.

Why Children Shouldn't Sit Next to You

We moved Noah's "little boy" highchair from the end of the table between B and I and turned it into Noah's "big boy" booster seat that now sits next to Daddy. That was a good idea.

Then today Noah decided to paint my dress shirt's right sleeve with Domino's pizza sauce as he was digging into his own slice.....

Big Boy Schmig Boy. Need to get that kid a straight jacket while eating!

The "Why in the Heck isn't Nathanael Here" Ultrasound!

If you are familiar with ultrasounds, then you know that reading them can be tricky. The first several months you don't know if what you are looking at is, in fact, your child or just a dope-head's black & white stab at modern art.

Then you move to the middle months where you've had some practice at it, you actually can see a developing baby, and you can actually nod your head in agreement when the doctor says, "oh, look the feet" without lying through your teeth.

Oh if only that was the case with Nathanael today! Nathanael is so big that we've reached the stage where all we see is part of a leg, or part of his head. It was like looking from the other side of a one way mirror when some fat kid smashes his face up against it on the other side. Extreme close-ups! Our kid has officially moved into needing a wide screen ultrasound just to see him!

The good news is that B and Nathanael are both very healthy. Doc says that if Nathanael doesn't surrender and come out with his hands up by next Sunday the 8th, then we're sending in the search and rescue team.

The King and Rocky

What does the King and I starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner and Rocky Balboa with Sylvester Stallone have in common? Very, very little, save the fact that Noah sat through and watched both of them.

Now the guys reading this will of course ask, "you let your son, whom you love, watch The King and I? Do you want him to grow up and be a dancing fairy?" And of course, the girls will say, "Rocky Balboa? Then he will learn how to hit and be violent!"

So my answer to both of these groups is, "heck yah! He is going to be an athletic dancing fairy with a mean left hook!" Don't mess with Noah "Bone Crusher" Bullion.....starring in the Broadway Musical..... :)

Noah learned two extremely important things from both of these movies. If you remember in The King and I every body had to bow before the king. It was the part of the movie when all the royal children come and are being presented before Ms. Anna. We looked over and noticed Noah was bowing every time one of the kids came in and bowed before the king. They would come in and bow, Noah would bow down. They would get up, Noah would get up. Next kid...same thing. On this went through the entire movie. The king comes in, Noah bows.

From Rocky Balboa he DID learn how to throw a jab much to my cheek's dismay, but during the credits they show all these fans running up the steps in Philly and raising their arms cheering. So Noah can now raise his hands like Rocky and cheer.

Bowing in humility, hands raised in triumph. Sounds like he is ready to worship.

Two Roald Dahl Poems

I just read these to Noah and they made me smile.

HICKETY, PICKETY
Hickety, pickety, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Not for ladies? That's absurd!
What a chauvinistic bird.

THE CROCODILE
No animal is half so vile
As Crocky-Wock the crocodile.
On Saturdays he likes to crunch
Six juicy children for his lunch,
And he especially enjoys
Just three of each, three girls, three boys.
He smears the boys (to make them hot)
With mustard from the mustard pot.
But mustard doesn't go with girls,
It tastes all wrong with plaits and curls.
With them, what goes extremely well
Is butterscotch and caramel.
It's such a super marvelous treat
When boys are hot and girls are sweet.
At least that's Crocky's point of view.
He ought to know. He's had a few.
That's all for now. It's time for bed
Lie down and rest your sleepy head..
Ssh! Listen! What is that I hear
Gallumphing softly up the stair?
Go lock the door and fetch my gun!
Go on, child, hurry! Quickly, run!
No, stop! Stand back! He's coming in!
Oh, look, that greasy greenish skin!
The shining teeth, the greedy smile!
It's CROCKY-WOCK, THE CROCODILE!

What A Day This Is Going To Be!!

Noah was only up two hours today before he had already flushed his toothbrush down the toilet and dumped Noah's Baby headfirst into the dirty diaper bin.

What a day!

Noah's Baby

THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT BABY NATHANAEL'S BIRTH, because well, HE ISN'T HERE YET!!!

Just like the lady from American Airlines informed me today as I was trying to buy tickets to come home in July, "Well, sir, we can't really issue a ticket for the infant because we need a name and a birth date and as of right now your son has neither."

Thank you so much.


Noah's Baby is different than Baby Nathanael. Baby Nathanael will be cute and warm and have fluids shooting out of him (.....er... TMI???). Noah's Baby is small and plastic and is cleaner and sleeps through the night.

Noah, as we all have, has gone a bit baby crazy these past weeks. This has manifested itself in different ways: Noah making us read the "I am a big brother book" over and over and over again, Noah chasing after strollers in public places screaming "BABY! BABY!! BABY!!, or our personal favorite, Noah kissing mommy's tummy. We realized the pinnacle of this baby madness last night when we were at some friends house who have 2 girls. These girls have dolls. Noah LOVED the baby dolls. That is right. My son is in to baby dolls......you wanna take this outside? Back off.

Anyway, we thought since Nathanael is dragging his feet that we ought to get Noah his own baby in this "pre-Nathanael tension" we've been living in so we could practice being nice to the baby and loving the baby and, when Nathanael finally gets here, Noah will have his own baby.

So we went to the store and picked up a very nice, masculine baby doll. NOAH WAS TOTALLY STOKED!!! The cashier took it out of the package to give it to him, because Noah's attachment. The whole way home all Noah did was kiss his baby and pat his baby and love his baby. His baby doll's name is Noah's Baby.

Then we got home. We rode up the elevator and got to our door. Noah then turns and chunks Noah's Baby down the flight of stairs!!

Then later today we found Noah's Baby face down in the dryer with the door shut!

Nathanael is doomed!

However tonight at the mall Noah and Noah's Baby were in the mall and Noah kept showing Noah's Baby to all the women that passed.

So Noah is a very proud, but very abusive parent.

Eli and Nathanael

Going Crazy Waiting

This is what we do since Nathanael hasn't got here yet. Noah is slowly going crazy and inventing new games like "Bang My Head On The Floor Squeaker Ball" Just needed to share a video with you.

Kitchen Disco-Rave/ Ambush White Man Party

So the Pwoods have been here this week. Very cool. That needs to happen more often. Pwoods, family, whoever. Come on over.

But I was in the office and I hear B yell that I need to come and discipline our son, so I walk out into the living room where I can see the entrance into the kitchen.

The lights are flashing on and off.....and Noah is giggling. I am not sure if you know this, but 2 year olds aren't usually able to reach up and turn lights on and off. Noah, naturally, isn't an exception to this rule.

This can only mean that Noah has climbed up the dryer and was probably sitting in the washer (which does happen quite a bit actually) and found out he was able to hit the light switch from there.

So I put on my "you are so dead" face and walk into the kitchen to practice the art of "spare not the rod." As I entered the kitchen however, I did not find Noah in the washer as expected (meaning I would be taller and looking down on him) but instead he had closed the washers lid and was standing on top of it, meaning that I came in and was eye level with his belly button and then had to lift my gaze even higher to peer up into my two year old son's face who is standing triumphantly higher than me. Slightly intimidating....might I add.

What comes next is most disturbing...
he gives a Comanche War Cry and jumps off the washer onto me. I mean, it was more he jumped and I caught him, but to his credit he jumped and then I freaked out and reacted and caught him just in time.

So Noah basically ambushed me from higher ground as I walked into his boobie trap!!!

Dude, it is going to be an interesting next couple of decades......

Room for Rent

Nathanael has officially been served an eviction notice. He hasn't paid rent in 9 months and has outgrown his living quarters. I look at B and I just hurt. Being 9 months pregnant has got to stink. We were talking today about stress and how B carries stress in her shoulders. She has been stressed out, but her shoulders haven't really bothered her this past month. It's not because they don't really hurt, it's just because everything else hurts so much worse!! :)

Yay for the day when the baby comes!

On a less "pregnant" note. Noah's new favorite game is to see how many things he can stick in the hole in my guitar while I'm playing..... picks, capos, poor Eddie's (his best friend/doll) face had indentions from the strings before I could convince Noah he was too big to fit in there.

You can imagine what beautiful music Noah and I make together when we play/bang on the guitar.

Water & Gas

So we just realized yesterday as we were driving around that we pay more for drinking water than we do for gas here.

0.80 USD for a gallon of gas
2.10 USD for a gallon of drinking water

That's messed up huh? Supply and Demand at its finest!

However, a bottled coke is only 0.25 USD. I'm so used to popping in and grabbing a coke on the run I don't know what I am going to do with the coke prices in the States when we get there. I am going to have to give up drinking!

Dance Baby Dance

Sometimes the kid just dances.

The Mall Tonight

Tonight at the mall two things were observed.

1) A group of local guys were looking at what movies were playing at the cinema. They were wanting to see Iron Man, but it didn't get over until 1am. This is the conversation that followed. Note that all of this was in Arab-accented English, except for the profanities. They, believe it or not, were in perfect American English.

Local Arab Teenage Guy #1: Oh man, Oh man, Oh $#@&! Oh $#@&!
Local Arab Teenage Guy #2: What?!?
LATG #1: If we see that I won't get home til after 1!
LATG #2: Man, why do you have to be "curfew man"
LATG #1: I AM NOT A CAREFUL MAN!!!
LATG #2: No, "curfew" dude, "CUR-FEW"
LATG #1 (looking & feeling slightly stupid): oh.

2) Apparently style has gone to the toilet. Apparently, all the guys go into the barber shop and ask for the same haircut.
"yes, hello, I want to look like a dweeb. Can you do that?"
And the girls, all I got to say is, "Oh look, a quilt with tights under it!"
(that is not a reference to the black abayas they wear, it was an actual reference to the "whatever" that is that they are trying to wear and pass off as fashionable)

Just FYI from a man who only owns two pairs of pants and around 6 shirts that are all pretty much the same color.

Your Turn

"Okay, I'm done. Why don't you take the baby for a few days."
-B-

Singing

Noah's Singing
Noah sings all the time!! "non!" "non!" That's what he says for "song." We sing, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Patty Cake, If Your Happy and some others, but lately Noah has gotten into this "impromptu" singing. You know, in the store, the car, or any public, quiet place will do really. So Noah sings at the top of his lungs whatever grunts, mumbles, or jibberish comes to mind. Quiet embarrassing at times, really annoying at times, but all around really, really funny.

My Singing
I've started playing guitar at a local Arab fellowship here. The other night we were doing a song that required me to use some strange chords. After practicing all week, I was ready. Half way through the song and due to my practicing all day, my hand gives out and cramps up, so I had to quit playing until the next song......how embarrassing. :( Whitey just can't hang with the Arabs. Sad day.

Zoei's Singing
This is Zoei, I don't have a clue who she is. Just thought you would enjoy it.

Noah-isms from the week

Sorry about the lack of posting. No excuses really, just laziness, I guess.

Here is, off the top of my head, things Noah has done this week that has made us laugh or cry depending on how long that day was.

Pantry Dryer
We walked into the kitchen the other day. All of the canned goods were stacked neatly in the dryer.

Pop Tarts
It was 9pm and all was quiet. I was in the office working, B was washing dishes, Noah was...wait a minute, where is Noah? We found Noah in the living room with blueberry filling smeared all over his very, very happy, smiley face. He had ganked a box of unopened Pop Tarts from the cabinet and had managed to rip the box open and then rip open the package and had polished off one of the pop tarts and was half way through the other one before we caught him.

Mommom! Mommom!
That is B's name. not Momma, but Mommom. We here it from the kitchen this time and go running in. Noah has climbed up the dryer and all we see is two little kicking legs sticking out of the washing machine.

Baby Bible
After lunch we read a Bible story together and pray. Noah loves his Read-to-Me Bible for Kids. He really loves the picture of baby Jesus, so we spend half the time reading and the other half flipping back to the picture of baby Jesus, so Noah will be quiet and let us finish. This is a sample,
Me: Peter and John were..
Noah: BABY?
Me: yes, in a minute..."going to the temp...
BABY!?!
yes, hold on.
BABY! BABY! BABY!!
Okay.....you win.
*Peter and John never got into the temple that day. They had to wait till we saw baby Jesus first.

Jesus Loves Me
Every night we pray together as a family and sing "Jesus loves me." One night this week, it went like this.
B: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells...."
Noah: BIBLE??
B: "Yes, the Bible tells us that Jesus loves us...., Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible te..."
BIBLE??
B: Yes, the Bible tells...
BIBLE!!
(the rest of the song was finished with Noah screaming Bible! Bible!)

Baby Nathanael
"Noah, where is baby Nathanael?" Noah will then run and pat or kiss B's tummy. Yeah, "awwww, how sweet," right? But today right after doing that, he found Baby Nathanael's stash of stuff animals hidden in a drawer. They are no longer Baby Nathanael's stuffed animals. They are Noah's stuffed animals.

And there's our week in recap. Hope it made you smile.

Belly Pics

Our Last Month In Pictures: Buckle Up!

Howdy folks!

Mommy and Noah

Daddy and Noah

He really wanted to wear Clayton's socks...

...he had fun at least

Clayton's b-day:

Trip to Kuwait:

camel coming...

Noah and Uncle Corey

Noah in his beach gear
Noah in the Gulf
The family at IKEA
Noah enjoyed his Macaroni Grill

camel going...

Guitar lessons

Dust storm

Noah lounging in the car

I can wash my own toes!

Waaatew?

Singing at the top of his lungs
Cheese!
Noah's Alfalfa hair

But We Don't Buy Dryer Sheets

For the past several weeks every time I fold our clothes after they come out of the dryer I keep finding all these dryer sheets. Not just one, but like 5 or 6. I think, "Why does B use so many dryer sheets? Wait a minute! I don't think we buy dryer sheets. Where is she getting them from?" Then as soon as I finish I forget to ask her.

Tonight the truth came out! B and I are folding clothes and she says, "I don't know how all of these [dryer sheets] keep getting in the clothes." And of course I say, "Babe, I thought we didn't use dryer sheets?" She then just shakes her head sympathetically and informs me, "We don't use dryer sheets, these are wet wipes."

Yea. Wet Wipes......I'm retarded.

Apparently Noah has a little habit of pulling out wet wipes and putting them in his dirty clothes hamper.

and YES they do look like dryer sheets after being dried in the dryer!! Quit making fun of me!

I Guess Life is Better Without Pants

The doorbell rang and I went to the door to get it. It was the delivery man. I opened the door and he looked at me and then looked down at my feet where Noah came to stand. He then handed me the food and while I was fishing out the money from my pocket I hear a little voice say, "oh" and both the random delivery guy and I looked down to see Noah. Noah was standing there with his pants down around his ankles. smiling back up at us.

Dinner and a show. I'm sure the delivery guy will not forget our house any time soon.

Noah the Climber

Noah
Noah is a little boy. While I don't remember me being a little boy and what that was like. I now understand why my parents took to drinking so heavily. (that was a joke. my parents don't drink...alcohol. However my mom has been known to knock back a keg of sweet tea now and again).
Noah is into everything. Not only into everything, but onto everything as well....
He has learned how to climb up into to his changing table. It will be quiet in his room and then we will hear him yelling. We go in and lo and behold Noah is on the changing table and wants us to get him down. 5 minutes later....same thing again and again and again.

He's learned how to climb up on the toilet so he can flush it, not because he can actually use the toilet, but just so he can feel and hear the sound of rushing water under his feet.

He's learned how to climb up the back of the loveseat, hop up on the back of it, and ride it like bull....until it throws him off onto his head.

And he is learning how to get his hands on the counter top in the kitchen and walk up the cabinet doors, which means soon he will have figured out some way, some how to get himself up on the counter top.

On a different note, Noah has stopped using most of his vocab. Everything is now MAMA!!!! at the top of his lungs. Me. B. the plate of food he is wanting. the guy half way down the street. It doesn't matter. I guess he thinks that if he just yells MAMA long and loud enough we will eventually figure out what he is saying. I think we should all follow Noah's lead and just choose our favorite word and only use it and yell it when we want or need something....

Cross Countries Tour, UAE

After we cleared Saudi we headed into the United Arab Emirates to head up to Abu Dhabi and then hang a right until we crossed into Oman. We were glad to get to see more of the Emirates than just Dubai. Dubai for all the hype is okay....but seriously, if I wanted to live in a "modern city" and be surrounded by Westerners, why did I leave America??? However we did manage to drive up there and go through IKEA one day....which is awesome.

Sidenote: When you cross over the UAE border by car, they make you get your eyes scanned which can take forever when there are tons of people there.....trust us. AND your entry visa is free, BUT they charge you an exit fee........bummer.

On our way back through we cleared Emirati passport control and we at the last checkpoint before going into Saudi and the officer went through my passport and apparently the general that I waited and hour to see and get "stamped" out stamped out my family and my car but forgot to put a stamp in mine, so we had to drive back up to passport control and I had to get stamped out.....we were not happy, no sir. not happy at all.

But in the end, its not really the place as much as the people you get to hang out with while you are there, so it was good to get to hang out with our friends there and it was worth the long drive and the stupid eye scan

Welcome Y'all....or the Emirati Equivalent

Noah sitting on the bridge overlooking the river walk at Festival City in Dubai

Noah playing in a fountain at a really nice park close to Oman. Seriously, when you've got money, you can make it green if you want to.

Aww... the fam.

Cross Countries Tour, KSA

The past two weeks we as a family took a trip to Muscat, Oman......by car. 1,700 miles over 3 countries. It was incredible! Noah did a great job. Our first country to enter was Saudi Arabia.

We were a little nervous to go into the this place that we've heard so much about and is so closed off. We stopped at a mall in Al Khobar to grab some lunch and it was the first time that we actually had to "engage" life in KSA. Every resturaunt there has two seperate sections, one for families and one for men only. They have two separate entrances and are divided by walls. It was a new experience for us.

We were able to spend the night in Al Hofuf on our way through and on our way back. B and I both went into some culture shock there. Nothing in English, crazy traffic, mixed in with everything being closed down for the call to prayer and B having to cover her head caused some stress! Oh, and we got lost in Hofuf going to the hotel, going to eat, on the way back to the hotel, and on the way out of town! We now know 800 different ways to not get where you need to be!

The driving there on the highway is AWESOME!!! No speed limits and nothing to slow you down!!! However, no matter how fast you drive (100 mph) Saudis still drive faster and they don't have any problems with double or even triple passing people...or passing you on the shoulder. It is like a game of "anything goes" at 100+ mph!! It was truly fun for me and stressful for everyone else in the car!!
Here are the pictures as we went through Saudi Arabia. I will try to post each country separately.

The first thing we saw in Saudi!! This place must not be that bad, right?

This is my hot wife!!!



Al Hofuf at sunrise

Camels roam along the highways in herds. It was just like driving through Texas and seeing the herds of cattle....well sort of.

The last thing we saw as we passed into the United Arab Emirates (it says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
I will try to get pics of the UAE up soon.