Amusement

Amusement parks here are a blast for parents. We laugh the whole time and they are relatively cheep. Just imagine a casrnival from the 70's. The boys love it! A bit of Zaky's personality is maturing, he is becoming a bit tougher as a result of the kids he plays with. It is becoming a challenge to teach Zaky to not hit and be nice, but at the same time allow him to stand up for himself and not be a wuss. While he and James were playing in the balls the bigger kids started throwing balls at him. With his BIG buddy at his back he started throwing them back. We have the "don't throw anything but balls" rule, so the fact that he didn't start crying I saw as a bit of a victory. Keep praying for us as he learns boundaries and how to love his neighbors.

Little Indiana

Little Indiana Jones in training. The original Indiana had his whip, this one has his juice, but they both have their hat.

So Cute

I am a little prejudice, but then so is almost everyone reading this.

Not going to do it

Well it is official he is two. He is as cute as cute can be, he is talking up a storm, saying a new word about every day (the other day he pointed to the fish tank at the Dr's office and said "the fish swim in ocean". But he is becoming ever more opinionated. He has learned more Arabic phrases: Ana : Me, A-tea-nee: give it to me (are we seeing a pattern here?). He also has the uncanny ability to spot the golden arches from miles away and yell out "Donalds". This morning he woke up with Bill (my morning to sleep in) He threw a fit yelling Mama and finally opened our door climbing into bed with me. After laying with me a few minutes, he got down and handed me my slippers saying "slippers". No sleeping in today.

Pop Pop and JuJu

Two words that are synonymous in the vocab of a two year old. When we pray for Pop Pop it is immediately followed by JuJu. Who is coming to visit? We had a great time, very laid back for a Bill Bower's tour, but pretty full of sites and travels. Thank you Pop Pop and JuJu for coming and giving us such a wonderful week of loving.

PS: I must mention a BIG THANK YOU to Santa Pop Pop's elf, Aunt 's Lisa for all of the boy's new clothes!!!!!!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!!!!!

Rub a Dub Dub Two Men in the Tub

Bath time has become sooo much easier. Yonas can sit up so well, hold himself up when he falls, and can take a small kick to the belly: all things required to take a bath with Zaky. But he is also the instigator for most splashing.

Family Portrits

These shots are from the beautiful Baaka valley. They are also encouraging me to think about getting a professional photo taken of the family. (no offense to the person who took these shots!)

Christmas comes early

Santa and Mrs. Clause, aka Pop Pop and Ju Ju, made the long journey over to the other side of the world. But for no other reason then to see the Zak in the box and deliver a bag of chocolate chips the size of an 8 month old baby.

Jonas

Our second son has had far fewer blog posts then his brother. So as make up. Little man is almost 8 months old. He is very close to crawling, still no teeth. He is a good napper. And as of this week healthy (finished up antibiotics for the 4th time in 5 months). He loves to laugh and play with his brother. His favorite thing to suck on is my wallet. He gags on almost any mashed food besides baby cereal. But if anyone has any bread product or cookie little man must have some. Zaky has stopped calling him Yo and now only calls him Yonas. He is a very special little man.

our "yard"

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Our grass survived the winter. We were worried it had died after it was completely submerged from rain more then 3 times. But after many hours of weed picking green grass has emerged. The boys now have plans for a new sand pit and many vegetables. The sand we bought last year was awful, full of rocks and mostly dirt then sand. So this year we have started to bring back sand from the beach each time we go south. (these are the yellow bags on the wall).

P.S. Yaa for smaller pixels and a.m. internet!

Walker

"walker" / rider/ climber/ pusher/ sitter.... All in one...

Aweful Internet

Well I have tried to post pictures for the last two weeks. But our pictures were high resolution and our internet was WAY TO SLOW. I will try my hardest this weekend to upload some pics. The boys the boys...
Jonas just got over a cold/allergies/ teething. Poor little guy was snoring louder then my dad (it woke me up!). He is close to crawling and his latest love is the bouncy chair and walker. Zaky loves to push him in this.
Zaky is a little chatter box. Little man refuses to sleep in a bed and has been sleeping on the floor the last 2 weeks. He can finish the last lines of most of his books, sing parts of the ABC's, count to 2, and most impressive is keeping his eye patch on in the morning for over 2 hours.
-- we visited the eye doctor again, he recommended the eye patch for his lazy eye, and or drops. The drops I am pretty sure were giving him head aches. He has a small optic nerve with a large disk, this could be nothing, or this could be contributing to the lazy eye. We will continue to patch and pray for improvement.
Time to go, the power is out and Bill is watching Vermonators (ugh!!!!!!!!!!!)