Any time I put my computer within baby girl’s reach, she is drawn to it like a magnet. And she totally knows she’s not supposed to touch it.
So she reaches out, turns and grins,
and then proceeds to bang on it like she’s playing Rock Band.
Our family tradition is to have a special breakfast to celebrate birthdays. Usually we end up having breakfast for dinner since another tradition in our family is that mom isn’t a morning person.
I wanted to get a picture of all of us together so I was trying to figure out the self timer on my camera. I got a bunch of photos with heads cut off, but I especially liked this one that caught Calvin running to make it into the frame before the flash went off. Nice lion’s mane, buddy.
Our menu for this breakfast/dinner was French toast made with baguettes, fresh peaches and whipped cream, bacon, and homemade watermelon mint sorbet. Our birthday breakfast/dinners *always* have bacon and *always* have whipped cream. We bought the bacon on sale so it only cost $12 for a 1lb package. Not for organic free range house raised hand-fed painlessly killed thick-cut guilt free applewood smoked bacon. Just normal Oscar Meyer bacon that we bought from the “No Muslims” pork room at the grocery store. Yes, there is an actual room that contains all pork or pork related products (like Pop Tarts and Jello!) and it really does say “No Muslims” at the entrance.
By the time I figured out the timer it was time to eat so I just snapped this one of Josh and the boys before they dove in. Who knew 7 could taste this good?
My new 7 year old with my new 1 year old. She’s shrugging him off because she wants to EAT. Mmmm, bacon.
Camille is starting to take a few steps and she was having a ball with the balloons from Caleb’s birthday so I pulled out the camera last night. Of course she stops whatever she’s doing as soon as she sees the camera, but I got a little bit of it.
A little talking and a little walking
With one of those punch balloons attached to a rubber band.
Looking like she got into the wine at dinner . . .
well, it’s his birthday too! Caleb has a birthday twin. To celebrate, we all went bowling with a bunch of kids from the embassy. (it was a pre-planned event for the kids that happened to fall on the 18th, and the mom of the other birthday boy bought a cake and put Caleb’s name on it. Ready made birthday party! How lucky for me!)
The boys had a great morning of bowling with friends and eating cake.
Baby girl also ate her share of cake and crawled around the bowling alley. I only had to keep her out of the lanes a few times.
Reading the scoreboard to find that it says . . .
Happy Birthday Caleb! (and his friends who also celebrated birthdays that month.)
Carter didn’t have high hopes for that last frame.
But hoped for a strike anyway . . .
Super-prepared mom even brought party masks.
Back to our Abu Dhabi trip:
Heading out to dinner one night, we got everyone dressed, collected, down to the lobby and then we were headed to the parking garage when I heard a shout: “Hey!” and turned around to see eight men gathered around Calvin, picking him up off the floor. He was crying and had blood on his lip and I couldn’t figure out what happened to him until I saw the face-sized smudge on the glass doors. Since he had hydrocortisone cream on his face for his mango rash, he left quite a face-print behind.
The hotel had automatic glass sliding doors (the kind that are invisible) and as he was running to catch up with us he ran faster than the doors responded. I think he thought they were still open from when we walked through. Anyway, he hit with his face/lip/nose/knee and bounced off the glass and onto the floor.
Josh went and got an ice pack and after making sure he knew how many fingers we were holding up, we were on our way. And for the rest of our time there, every time we walked in or out and and saw his face print on the door we couldn’t help but laugh (Calvin too).
See the huge lump on his forehead between his eyes? He had quite a headache.
We went to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner and ate all sorts of great food. We also had pigeon which was just like a very small, bony, dark meat turkey. It was OK. I preferred the spicy grilled chicken kebabs and the sides like hummus and rocket (a green similar to arugula).
Calvin perked up considerably after some food and some Motrin. I don’t know why there is a statue of a Parisian chef outside a Lebanese restaurant . . . we were just playing around while waiting for Carter.
The next day we drove around town (in the evening once it cooled down some) and went to the Iranian sook (market). On our way there we drove by some jet skiers.
The Iranian sook was like a permanent flea market. This pictures shows all the couches that are covered with plastic to keep them from getting dirty. Those silver things in the background are cooking pots large enough to cook a human in. A cannibal’s dream. No kidding, I could take a bath in one and hardly feel cramped.
These guys were loading tons of watermelons from an old wooden boat into the back of a truck.
Here’s the boat with all the watermelons, ready to be offloaded.
If you took this picture, copied it, and put it side by side about 10 times, that is what the sook looked like. Not too exciting. Anyone need 50 million laundry baskets?