Potty Training: Day 1

Last night we bought "big girl panties" for Sophie. She's the youngest I've ever decided to start potty training, but when a kid can say "potty", its time. Plus, I figure that if I am going to the potty all.the.time. thank-you little precious baby-head grinding on my bladder, it will be easier to take Sophie all.the.time. Am I right? Maybe...

Hour 1: We got dressed, wearing big girl panties. After I got her pants on her, she got an extra pair of panties and put them on over her pants. "More padding between her and the floor," and roll with it.

We ate breakfast and immediately after, I took her to the bathroom. Too late already! We talked about it. Then we watched Emily and Savannah and Mommy go potty. Then it was Sophie's turn. She sat on the potty. Played with the toilet paper. Then she peed! We were so excited! We cheered, we gave high-fives....

I became optimistic. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Hour 2: Let me just sum by saying... it was that bad. Every time I put a clean pair of panties on her, she peed in them. Then she pooped. And by this time, I was out of clean pants to put on her. So, in the interest of my sanity and the older girls education, we put on a diaper.

Perhaps age 2.5 is a better age... perhaps when I'm not in the middle of school... or eight months pregnant... or am I throwing in the towel too quickly?

I have never been interested in using those diapers that are cloth with snaps and come in bright colors... like this:

However, would this be a good training panty? As long as they weren't too absorbent, but didn't get messes all over clothes. I can't go through 6 outfits in a hour every hour! 

7 Quick Takes (vol. 8)

1: The Vehicle
Last Saturday, we bought a 2008 Dodge Caravan. We absolutely love it. 

It is in very good condition and has a built-in DVD player and the doors open at a little click of a button. It gets great gas mileage and has stow n' go seating, so we have so much room to move stuff. Every time we drive it, we love it a little bit more. 


2: Christmas Tree Decorating Party

We did a Christmas Tree Decorating Party to decorate Brian's families Christmas tree. The girls had such a fun time eating the fun Christmas treats and putting the ornaments on the tree. 


3: The Public Library

You should have seen Emily's face when we drove up to the public library. She was so excited. Both she and Savannah had so much fun looking and reading all the books in English. Savannah found a great big brown bear that she sat in and read her books. It was so cute.


4: The Aunt

The girls have had so much fun spending time with Aunt Sarah. Since we have been living in Egypt, Sarah has grown into a beautiful, thoughtful, sweet young lady who is turning 17 tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Sarah! We love you!


5: Thirty-Four Weeks

Last week we had a scare with the baby for a couple of days which made us very grateful to be in America with all its technology and my doctor who delivered Sophie. For a couple of days we spent a lot of time in different Doctor's offices and are very happy and relieved to say that all is well and our sweet little baby person is growing and happily practicing karate on my bladder. 


6: Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Brian's family. Maw Maw did a Christmas Tea Party with the girls. 

 The girls have loved having so much attention from their grandparents.

7: Christmas!

 How cute and sweet are these little girls?

 Sophie was much more interested in the chocolate than anything else in her stocking. There was a small doll she kept working around to find more chocolate. I kept trying to pull it out, she kept pushing it back in. Every year my parents put a new toothbrush into our stockings and I have decided to follow it... Sophie walked around with her toothbrush, chewing on it. It was a surprising choice of favorite items, but so be it.

Emily and Savannah received a playmobil set from their grandparents and we spent a good portion of time after lunch setting it up. Afterward, the girls spent hours playing with their house. 

7 Quick Takes (vol. 7)

1: The Over-Due Update
Big changes have taken place since we last spoke. 
        Several weeks ago, as we watched the news, talked with our friends, and followed twitter feeds, we were became increasingly concerned about the civil unrest taking place in Egypt. We were not afraid for our safety, but for events and the timing of the birth of our baby. If we were to have a normal birth, this would not even have been on our radar, but having a c-section in a foreign country during a time of unrest caused some personal worries. 
        Because of the due date and restricted airplane travel, we thought it best to move quickly. 


2: The Move
      And quick it was. Much quicker than we would have chosen to do it, had circumstances been different. On Monday we made the big decision, on Tuesday we bought airplane tickets for a 1:00 am Friday morning departure. I spent three long, but short, days saying goodbye to friends, sorting through household items, packing and cleaning the house. Resorting and packing into suitcases. At the end of it, we had 10 large suitcases, 5 carry-ons, and 1 guitar case. 


3: The Flight
     We left Egypt at 1:00 am and touched down in Amsterdam at 5:00 am-ish. Sophie and the girls slept for a little on the plane and Brian and I dozed. Sleeping on a plane is not at all comfortable or restful. Even after a long day of cleaning and packing. We had a 5 hour lay-over in the airport at Amsterdam. Happily, the airport is lovely and reminded me of being in Ikea. There was a small play area for children with slides where the kids played for a couple of hours while Brian and I alternately dozed and watched kids. Around 8:00 am we ate breakfast at a cute little restaurant in the airport that featured tables built inside blue and white teapots and teacups. Finally at 9:45 am, we boarded our plane to take us to America. 10 hours is a long time to sit in a very small places. My little girls did admirably, even sleeping for several hours.  


4: The Arrival
      All week we have kept our home-coming as a surprise for Brian's family, with the exception of his father and brother who picked us up at the airport. All baggage, stuffed animals, and children were present and accounted for. We drove about an hour to get to their home, the girls jumped out of the car and ran for the door. Sarah spotted them first and MawMaw heard their voices and came to the door. There was happiness all around. 


5: The Aftermath
      Reintegrating into American society has been full of the familiar. Coming home, for me, seems normal. Just as going back to Egypt after my visit to my mother's, felt normal. Normal for America. Normal for Egypt. Each have their own normal. For example, traffic here in America feels normal, because it is normal for here. But traffic in Egypt, while very different than here, feels very normal for Egypt. 
     Speaking of traffic, 70 miles an hour on the highway feels very slow. Even after a year and a half of rarely even hitting 60. I think this is because the highways feel so empty. There are so few cars on the road, no sheep or goats, no donkey pulled carts, no people crossing the highway, no u-turns in the middle of the highway. Empty. 


6: Car Shopping
      One of our big projects this week has been shopping for a car... internet shopping and car lot shopping. It sounds much more fun than it has been. Until today. 
      Yesterday I found several mini-vans within our price range on the internet and so this morning we went to look at them. We walked around the lot and peered into several different vehicles. Our girls are convinced that if it drives down the road and can seat the appropriate amount of people, we should buy it. They have none of all the pre-requisites in mind that we grown-ups do.
      While at the lot, the loud speaker went off, and I was totally expecting to hear the call to prayer begin and was slightly disappointed when it was just a regular anointment.
      We test drove a very nice mini-van that was way out of our price range, but it was fun to drive. The girls loved it and were convinced that this was the car for us. We told them that this was probably not the car were were going to buy and they set to work to convince us. Emily had the best lines:
       "Daddy, how do you like the way it drives?"
       "I like it, honey."
       "Then why don't we buy it?"
       "Because it is too expensive."
       "But Daddy, all cars are expensive!"

7: The Food
      The bacon is delicious. The Blue Bell Ice-cream is amazing (and, I have it on good authority that it contains calcium good for pregnancies ;). 
      The food prices here are unbelievable. Target has Campbell's soups for $0.59 per can, as opposed to almost $3.00 we would pay in Egypt. And HEB has chicken for $1.20 per pound! The girls are happily eating cereal and instant, flavored oatmeal, and very excited about Pop Tarts that a friend bought for them today. 


America seems much the same as when we left. People have grown and changed. We have grown and changed. But much stays the same. 

7 Quick Takes: Thanksgiving Week

I know, it isn't Friday. Roll with me, please!

1: The Cousins! 

(left to right: Savannah, Sophie, Lauren, Julian, Claire, and Emily)

The week before Thanksgiving, Brian's sister, Brandy and her family came to visit. It was so good to have some family come hang out and get to show them all our favorite places here in Egypt and even visit a couple of new ones. 

2: New Pyramids

 We visited some new pyramids. Actually, we stumbled upon these, while looking for the Bent Pyramid in Darshur. About halfway through our tour, our guide informed us that these pyramids are not open to the public. And this made our visit all the more fun. There wasn't anyone trying to sell us anything. No strangers were in our pictures. Just us, tramping through the desert, looking at pyramids. It was pretty awesome.

 This is Julian. Standing inside a sarcophagus. He was the only little boy in our group of little girlies and he held his own pretty well. I'm hoping his mad potty skills will rub off on Sophie. She can at least say "potty."


3: The Feast

With family came a suitcase of goodies. Chocolate for the girls Christmas stockings (shhhh, don't tell them!) And lots of yummy food for our Thanksgiving Feast. I think this has been my favorite Thanksgiving meal to cook. It was so easy cooking for just 10 people instead of 20... Everything came out of the oven and off the  stove at the right time, so everything was hot and very, very yummy!

We had carrot casserole, scalloped potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, rotisserie chicken, a veggie tray, and cranberry sauce. The chicken almost didn't make it. We were planning on buying a rotisserie chicken from a local guy, but at 11:00 when Brian and Tyler went out to buy it, the man was just opening his shop and sweeping the street. He had not even lit the fires yet. Dinner was planned for 12:30, so there wasn't time to cook one. Fortunately, the men hunted down another store and bought some very yummy chicken and walked back in the door around 12:15. Just in time :)

4: The Babies

(me: 30 weeks, Brandy: 24 weeks)

It is, apparently, an unwritten law that if one of us is pregnant, the other must be as well. Emily and Lauren are 5 months apart. Savannah and Claire are about two weeks apart. Sophie and Julian are one month apart. These next babies will be around 4 - 6 weeks apart, depending how early she is and my c-section date. 

It sure does make for some fun and busy family fun and I like it that everyone has a buddy. It was very sweet to see the girls walking through the streets of the Khan al Khalili holding hands. And I loved to listen in to the their little conversations. Sophie and Julian aren't to the "buddy" stage quite yet... but eventually, they will be. 

5: The Sad Departure

Tyler received an email notifying him of changes to their flights and requesting an immediate phone call. Turns out, their flight out of Egypt early Friday morning had been canceled and the next one was to be on Tuesday of the next week. Or Thursday of the Thanksgiving. Because of work and school, they had to leave after the Feast on Thanksgiving. 

6: The Christmas Bazaar

Today we attended a Christmas Bazaar... can you guess the tables to which my family was drawn to the most? 

Mmm hmmm, the book tables. Used books were selling for about $1 each and my husband and children were very excited to see new reading material in English. Brian walked away with four new books, trust me, he showed restraint. I'm so proud. The girls chose about four or five each and Emily has already begun devouring them. She has been needing some new reading material. The last new books she received were back at the beginning of June when we got our new school supplies and she has read through them each a couple of times already. 

I bought two wooden camel Christmas ornaments that I thought were really cute and two pairs of cute dangly Christmas earrings. 

7: Christmas Bazaar Funnies

The Bazaar was held in two locations across the street from each other. As we were walking down the street to the other side of the Bazaar, a man dressed up as Santa Claus walked down the street towards us. I motioned to the girls to be sure that they saw him and began chatting with him. He, of course, tried to get the attention of the girls, but they were afraid of him and hid behind Brian. My poor girls. Afraid of Santa Claus. Now, if he had been dressed up as the Grinch, they probably would have been more interested in talking to him. Perhaps we should consider adding a couple different Christmas movies this year. 

When we were waiting on Brian at the front entrance, the girls noticed a cardboard chimney that a man, wearing a Santa hat, was sitting behind. I explained to them that people could buy tickets and then go throw water-soaked sponges at him and try to hit him. 

Emily, in a very worried voice asked, "But Mommy, why would they want to do that?"

"Well," I said, "Because they think it would be funny to see him get hit with a sponge of water and get wet. Don't you think that would be funny?"

"No." 

"If it was Daddy in the chimney would it be funny?"

"I still don't think so, Mommy." 

Such a sweet girl, but I'm pretty sure that if Daddy were dodging water-filled sponges, she would think it was hilarious. 

Mummies

As part of school today, Emily and I were reading this book: Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki.

We were having a good time, chatting about it and taking turns reading and Savannah had joined us.

When we read the part about how the embalmer pulled the brains out through the nose with a wire hook and how they would cut a slit in the body to extract the organs, Emily took a break to inform me about her feelings on the matter.

"Mommy. Just a minute. I don't know why they did this, but it is weird. Mommy. I do not want to be mummified when I die. Because I think it would feel weird. And I don't want to feel weird after I am dead."

And she was so serious. I quickly reassured her that we would not "mummify" her when she dies.

"Please, Mommy, just bury me. The normal way."

I promised. 

Wadi Degla

Our plan for the day was to shop at Carrefour, a really big store that sells everything from clothespins to broccoli, to fish that look at you while you pick them out. However, when we drove up, there were so many people already there, they were using the overflow parking, so we immediately turned around and created a Plan B.

Plan B turned out to be a visit to Wadi Degla.

 (The view driving in)

 We climbed all the way up to the top of the ridge you see on the right hand side of the picture. Emily in the lead... Savannah tagging along behind. Which was unusual, particularly considering that Savannah had been the most enthusiastic about the idea at first.

 And see this little munchkin? She was the happiest of them all. At one point, Brian and Emily were up ahead and she was tugging on my hand, dragging me with all of her knee-height-might to keep up with them.

 (27 weeks)

 (Abu Benette - aka. father of many girls) 

But the greatest topic of conversation among my children was not concerning, as one might think, how this huge river bed was cut into the middle of the desert. Nope. 

They were most interested in the trash cans. 

We don't have many trash cans in our city. And Emily and Savannah were arguing whether or not it was okay to throw the trash on the ground. Emily was adamant that because there were trash cans, the trash must go into the cans. But Savannah insisted that because she saw trash lying on the ground, it was okay to just throw it on the ground.

But when we were finished climbing around on the hills and sand and took a break to have a snack, both girls were equally interested in putting every little scrap of trash they had into the trash cans. And on our drive back out, when Sophie finished her snack, Emily requested that we stop at the next "bin" that we saw so that she could put the trash into the "trash bin."

We did.

Quick Takes (Vol. 5)

Wow. It has been a long time since I've done this... sad. But there is no time like the present. Yes? Yes!

1: The Someday House
I was over at a friends house the other day, admiring her new bookshelf. When I have a house, someday, when I'm all grown up. I would love to have something like this.... In the school room... or play room... or kids room... But somewhere I need this!

2: Fagnoon

A couple of weeks ago, when our friends were visiting, we went to Fagnoon, an art place for kids. In this picture, Emily is making "sawdust art". She drew a picture on the board with a pencil, traced it with glue and then sprinkled colored sawdust over the glue. It turned out really cute. Savannah is making "bead art", she also drew a picture (actually, I drew it), traced the drawing with glue and then used beads to create the picture.

Fagnoon also has really fun rope swings that all of my children could spend hours swinging in.

3: Friends

We had some friends come visit about a week ago. My girls were so excited and happy to have them come stay with us. Emily liked having someone her age who spoke English and could understand everything she said.

4: 25 Weeks!

Savannah took this picture of me when we were in the Fort at Quad Bay a couple of weeks ago. (Today I am  27 weeks along, but no one wants a picture of me today. Another day, when I am out of "house clothes" I'll try to snap a picture.) 
I know I keep saying this, but this pregnancy is running away with me. I cannot believe how fast the time is flying by. It feels like just yesterday I was taking that pregnancy test and then another one... and another one... just to be sure. 


5: Glucose Test
This week was my scheduled glucose test... you in the States who think you have it bad... no way. You get to take your nasty stuff home with you and drink it ahead of time and you only get poked with a needle one time. Be grateful.
The nurse took my blood before they gave me the nasty-sweet syrup. Then an hour later, they took blood again. And then an hour after that, they took it a third time. My poor veins were not very happy. 


6: Sophie and the Baby

I've been worried about Sophie's reaction to our upcoming addition. However, when our friend's were here with their 5 month old little girl, Sophie was so sweet with her! She loved to hold her and patted her gently and rubbed her fuzzy little head. She called her "baby" and even when I held her, she did not show any jealous reaction to her. Sometimes she would come over and ask to hold her or pat her. Occasionally, she would make room for herself on my lap. But she never seemed to be jealous or mad at her. Because of this, some of my concerns about her jealousy of the new baby are laid to rest. Which makes me happy indeed.

7: Blue Hands