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.