Happy Halloween!

Grandma K called it

Gary's mom was in town for a concert last night and stayed over. She was checking out Tarik's new tooth and said she thought the next one was right there too. She was right on the money. She left town about 2 hours ago and tooth number 2 is popping through!!! That sweet little baby, not a single cry from him about it. Maybe a little more drool than normal, but that is it.

So, this was my first week back to work. It was no fun. Tarik is not shy with strangers yet, so he happily went to his teacher each morning. By Wednesday he seemed to recognize her or her voice and was smiling away at her each morning as I left. He slept well, ate well and seems to be very happy there. Annalise is a different story. (BTW-we switched daycares while I was on leave, so this is a new place. We did visit a couple times last week to help the transition, but it didn't.) The first day, I kinda 'tricked' her. Stayed for about 30 minutes and she didn't want me to leave her side, so I finally told her I had to take Tarik to his room and I would be back to check on her. I did come back, but just poked my head in and saw she was OK and left. Well, she isn't a dummy...the rest of the week she insisted we drop off Tarik first each day. That way I couldn't sneak off. I stayed about 1/2 hour on Tuesday and Wednesday, but each time had to leave her in the teachers arms crying. They, of course, assure me that she is fine within a couple minutes after I leave and I am sure she is, but it is heartbreaking to just walk out when she is crying. Thursday I only stayed about 15 minutes and Friday about 10. One of those days I heard her wailing as I walked out, "My Daddy come pick me up!" over and over. The teacher said he will be here in alittle bit (or in other words - 7 hours). I think she is treated very well, the teachers seem very competent and all the other kids seem very happy. So, it was a really rough week for us. I expect next week to be bad too, but maybe by the 3rd week she will be doing alittle better.
Gary did confirm that the first couple days she seemed alittle sad when he came in, but by the end of the week she was happy and said bye-bye to everyone and the other little 2 year olds said bye back to her.

Tarik has his first cold. I think I thought he had a cold the second week back after we got home, but it only lasted a day. Now, Tarik, Jackson, Annalise, and I have icky colds. Jack and Tarik have a nasty little, croup-y sounding cough with it. Annalise and I 'just' have the runny nose, sore throat. No fevers or anything real bad though. I will officially blame daycare though. heehee When we were there visiting last week, I saw lots of runny noses. The daycare has the kids wash hands (in this cute little bathroom with 5 mini sinks and toilets) before snacks and meals. And they wash the kids hands after diaper changes, but I totally know they are going to pass it around. Just thought it was funny, because we were all doing really good, then started at daycare and now we are all sick. Oh well, it will only make us stronger or something like that.

Gotta run, lots to do on this beautiful weekend for the last 2 soccer games, me logging into work alittle last night, this morning, and tonight, AND visits from Grandma K, Grandpa M (thanks a billion for helping with the Halloween party last night!), and the Hickman family. Oh yes, and we need to squeeze in a visit to the pumpkin farm!!

Getting ready for a toothy grin

Okay I know I promised some video for my next post and I WILL get to it, but I wanted to spread some news today instead. It appears Tarik has decided to get his first tooth. We have joked since we picked him up that we would never be able to tell when he was teething since he loves to suck and chew on everything. Turns out we were correct. Last night Jen was having her finger munched on by the little guy when she felt something a little different. After checking and then having everyone in the family clustered around and in his face, we can say our little boy is growing up. Shouldn't be too long now until he is walking, saying "No," telling us he hates us, sneaking out at night, dating, graduating, telling us he loves us, going to college, getting married, and giving us grandchildren.

Damn! I'm getting old.

No pictures yet but if we can figure out a way to pry open his mouth...

Reflections

Well we are back from our trip and really had an amazing time. Most of what we did probably could have been done at home, but you know how it is. There are always projects you could do around the house, friends to play with, errands to run, etc. Getting away from all that allowed us to spend time together without those interruptions and that was nice. I got to spend some quality time with Tarik, which I haven't been able to do much of since I went back to work. Boy has he really grown and become part of our family. I also took Jack and Katie to see an IMAX movie called "Mysteries of the Nile." I wasn't sure exactly what this would be about but thought the kids would like to see an IMAX, so off we went. Turns out it was a movie about a rafting expedition from the mouth of the Nile river to the Mediterranean Sea. The mouth of the Nile is in Ethiopia so the movie spent a great deal of time talking about and showing parts of Ethiopia. The river then runs through the Sudan and into Egypt where it flows into the Mediterranean. I found this amazing because it was a movie about all the places Jen and I were in only a short time ago. I also spent most of the movie answering questions from the kids who were thrilled to see the places mom and dad went.

I am bringing this up because it made me really reflect on our trip and also realize that we haven't said much here about our journey. I told you all the funny stories from Cairo and we kept people up-to-date on Tarik's medical issues while we were in Addis, but we have never given our thoughts on the trip as a whole. We haven't posted any pictures or videos except for a couple from Cairo. Well starting today I hope to rectify that problem.

Cairo

This was an adventure as anyone who has read our blog knows. Overall it was an amazing place, very hectic and noisy, and if we had to do it all over again, we would probably do everything differently. (Except maybe lodging. We LOVED our hotel) We tend to be independent travelers, liking to do things on our own terms and this has worked for us in the past. Not so much here. I would strongly suggest anyone traveling to Egypt to go with a group, preferably a escorted travel group. I think that 99.9% of things that drove us nuts there would have been eliminated if we had had that kind of buffer. It seemed to us that the people there (okay maybe only the ones we dealt with) enjoyed trying to take advantage of tourists. The things we saw were simply unbelievable but the manner in which we were treated at times, took away from this incredible place. I think Jen regretted taking the trip because it made our trip that much longer and by the the end of the two weeks she missed the kids terribly. I have to agree that it was a very long trip and would I never have guessed how much I would miss them, however I don't regret going. Seeing the pryamids up close is something I will never forget. I probably won't forget the taxi cab drivers either and that is not a good thing.

One other interesting piece of information. There were two main roads which you travel on extensively to get around Cairo. One was called "26th of July", the other the "6th of October." In case you don't know, Jen and I were married on the 26th of July and our first child, Katie, was born on the 6th of October.

I am going to try and find some good video from Cairo this week and post it and I will also see if Jen wants to add anything about Cairo. Next stop will be Ethiopia, and soon, I promise.

A good idea or sheer lunacy?

In about 6 hours Jen and I are packing our four kids into the car and taking our first family vacation. We decided last summer that since we couldn't take a vacation at that time we would do it now. The kids are out of school for part of this week and Jen is still on leave so we thought now was the best time. Did I mention we are taking all four kids on a trip? Did I mention we are driving to Branson, MO., about a 6 hour drive? Did I also mention we HATE country music and don't have a clue if there is anything to do in Branson that doesn't involve country music? So I give you this question.

Are we great parents who just wanted to give our children a little late summer fun?
OR...
Are we stark raving lunatics who will be lucky if all make it back alive?



Wish us luck!