The Month of November (in a nutshell)

Lets see another month has passed and I am finally getting around to updating the blog. Yep I started the Sharm post that I just posted on 10/27 and I am finally finishing it on 11/30 at 6 am after I have been up since 3:30. That is another story in itself and I cannot even blame LL for it. So where to begin. Well if I think back far enough the last real thing I told you about was Emily’s baby shower so we shall pick up some of the events since then.

Little Lady had her first Halloween. She was a kangaroo. Daddy was the Vet, and I was the vet Tech. She one first prize in the embassy costume contest for the under 4 crowd!

It was after Halloween but we managed to find a pumpkin and get it carved. S did a great job working on it and we gave it three teeth to match LL’s three that she has. By the end of October she was crawling quickly everywhere and was even trying to walk places, only to be very sad when she ran out of furniture to hold on to. Now here I am the very end of the month of November with her first birthday breathing down my neck and she is soooo close to those first steps and if she is holding our hands she is practically running everywhere. This girl cannot wait to grow up!

We finally got our house painted. We chose to go with blue and orange in the living/dining room. I know they are bright and a bit crazy but I absolutely love it! It was just what we needed and I cannot believe how much the white walls were bothering me until we got the new paint on. We also painted LL’s room purple and the master bedroom green. Now if you know us you know we have had a green bedroom in every place we have lived. S even had green before we were married. We actually were going to change it to something different (light blue, lol) then well the comfort zone of green snuck back in on us and we went green. I wouldn’t change it though. We are so used to it, it really does help it feel like home and is very comforting. So I suppose it was a blessing in disguise that we just went with our safety color.  After the paint was done S turned 30. We had Erapie watch LL and her BFF so we could go on a date night with Erin and Chris. We went to Yoshi again. It was amazing. The Sushi was great (so I hear, I did not have any) and I think S really liked his birthday. He also got a new lens for his camera. I feel bad buying him camera things since I do most of the picture taking but he says that I can keep with the portraits. He prefers to do the outdoor and nature stuff. So I think it will work out for both of us. We had multiple friends come to town to visit. Kari joined us on the 17^th, her sisters on the 18^th (we all went to Petra), and Matt on the 20^th (we toured Amman). Then it was Thankgiving and Kari and her sisters did an amazing job making all the food. Well everyone that came brought something but these 3 did the turkey and many of the sides, apps, and a dessert. They also cleaned the kitchen too!!! We had 15 adults at our house for Thanksgiving and 3 and ½ (yep Emily is still waiting) babies. It was crowded and fun. It definitely made it feel like the holidays around here and a little more like home. After Thanksgiving we woke up early and S, LL, me, Kari, Erin, Lori, and Matt headed to the dead sea for the weekend. On Saturday Nov 24^th at 5:30 pm Matt was the first to leave, then around 10:30 PM Kari’s sisters headed out, and finally on Sunday morning at 8 ish Kari grabbed a cab. The house returned to quiet and it was a little bit too quiet. Lol

I almost forgot I started taking Arabic class this month. I am starting to pick up on many words and phrases but there is so much to learn and our teacher keeps just handing us packets of words. I feel like I am in the weeds most of the time and really I do not have a lot of time to spend studying it outside of class. I found the site study blue and am trying to make flashcards that I can use. Though I have to find the time to make the flashcards. Maybe once we pass LL’s birthday I will get back to it and start buckling down. There is just so much to learn and it is so different from any other language I know.(not that I know more than a few words in Spanish or German) lol

Now before I forget about them Here are some of LL’s accomplishments this month.

• being a serious cruiser. She takes her walker everywhere and kinda looks like a little old man using it. Lol
• * used a spoon for the first time. She actually took the spoon dipped it in the bowl of carrots and then fed them to herself. I was very proud (we have been working on it) but after about 5 or 6 tries and not getting much in her mouth she put down the spoon and picked up the bowl. Drank from the bowl and eventually put it on her head. where just about everything goes these days.
• LL has become the family comedian. She just wants to make us laugh and she has decided that putting everything on her head is funny. Usually it is clothes. She has crawled around with her tights on her head with the legs being ears, my shirt up there so she had a turban, her bowl of carrots, and well most things food end up in the hair at some point (I think this is how she guarantees she gets a bath), books, toys, and blankets.
• Peek a boo has made a strong resurgence. She plays this daily with anyone interested and sometimes with herself.
• She loves reading and is constantly bringing me a book to read or reading by herself. We have book scattered all over the house and that means usually all over the floors as well as she searches for her favorites.
• She loves elmo
• She had shish tawook for the first time and loved it
• She does at least one meal a day self feeding
• Claps her hands over everything. She really is proud of all she has accomplished each day.
• Finally the best part she is now a slap happy tired baby instead of an incredibly fussy one. It is much much more pleasing to deal with a laughing hysterically baby at bed time than a screaming one.

Ok so this post has to be the longest most random thing I have written in a long time. I plan to get better at this and I am planning that after her birthday parties next week I will sit down here and get caught up on the adventures in Petra, The Dead Sea, LL’s Birthday, and everything else that has been going on and I just kinda breeze over. This whole thing was supposed to be so I could remember what we did but I just can’t seem to remember to write it down. Lol So hang with me and if you feel so inclined send me a few reminders when it has been a while.

Hope you had such an adventurous November

Bring on December!

In the updating to come the pictures will too!