Mothers Day

March 21st is middle eastern Mother's Day.  Here is a much bigger event then in America.  Gold and money are the biggest gifts.  The day before, bill picked the boys up from school and was a bit later then expected coming home.  Zaky comes in the kitchen saying "nothing going on here yada yada yada"" (funny that word is not corrected in spell check).  The next morning at 5am I hear Zaky walking across the living room holding something crinkly in sound.  I start to get up with him when Zaky tells me "no mama you stay sleeping, it's daddy's turn to get up." No arguing with that, especially being up a lot during the night with Anna Lena who had fever and my own stuffed up nose.  Jonas comes in about 30 minutes later jumping on me to give me a sweetie "wasn't that nice of me" he says.  So sweet they made my coffee and breakfast, a nice card and flowers!  And not to feel left out from the rest of the Arab female population, they left me the dishes and clean up also.  I am blessed.

Birthday party

This is a nice shot of the foreigner crowd in the south. One boy and his baby Brother are missing. Zaky, crazy thought, is the oldest one in the group. If you haven't crawled around a stale smelling play place with low ceilings in a while, well then your missing out.  It was fun despite the low ceilings.

Snow

People always talk about how in Lebanon you can ski and swim in the sea on the same day.  Yet, I have never met anyone who had done it.  This week though we swam and then went to the snow in the same week. Here are some pics. 

Little deputy

Potty update

Yes we have something to update potty wise. Last week Anna Lena had diarrhea so I took that as an opportunity to teach her the word poo poo. Well now three days, yes 3 days in a row, she has pulled her pants either up or down and said poo poo. Then after being seated on the potty poos and pees. We follow with our poo poo dance and chocolate (the boys are very supportive at this point).  Now I'm not ready for potty training yet but I like seeing her sit on the toilet.  But how do I teach her to stop lifting her shirt to pee?

Beach in March

We went down to Tyre again yesterday before a prayer time and the boys jumped in the ocean. 

Southerner

My girl likes herself some mashed potatoes and gravy!

Getting ready

I'm really building up to our trip back to America this summer.  America means to me: chick fil A, play grounds, grandparents, church with day care. For the kids we are talking about camping, splash parks, chick fil A with JuJu, and the mall with Gramma Wanda.  Anna-Lena is going to learn what a capuchino is and she going to love it.

Snow fort