August 15 - 25
We finally made it to the very much talked about and anticipated beach. Even though it is only about a half a mile from our house, it has been too hot to even think about going. The beach was so clean, the sand so soft, the water so green, and at night you couldn't tell where the water ended and the sky began. It was magnificent. I was surprised at how salty the water was, but I think it gets less salty the farther out you go. The farthest Christian was willing to go was the sandbar. Even though he has been to the beach a couple of times already, he didn't quite know what to make of this. In the end he just wanted to get an orange julius and sit on the covered benches drinking it. He gets more like his grandpa every day.
We also took the kids to an indoor carnival this last week. Christian had a great time riding on the teacups, the merry-go-round, and playing in the sand area, and Henry had a good time playing in the ball pit. Rich and I had a good time snacking on, not cotton candy or caramel apples as you may expect, but little styrefoam cups of hot buttered corn. No kidding, there were little vendors everywhere ready to salt and pepper up a cup o' corn for you. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
Christian's language skills are improving so rapidly. He may have been a little late starting to talk, but now we can't get him to shut up. He runs around the house telling everyone what to do and putting his stuffed animals into time out, and he is even developing his own sense of humor, irony, and metaphor. For example, yesterday he was sitting at the kitchen table being noisy and then he said, "I'm being noisy like . . . a lion: rawr!" And then we were in the grocery store yesterday and I was driving him around in the grocery cart asking him the names of different vegetables and fruits and he began to call them by different names and laugh. At first it was just random, but then I asked him what the grapes were, and he said berries, and then I asked him what the berries were and he said grapes. I know that all kids go through this kind of language development, but it is just fascinating to me to watch a child's language acquisition develop on a daily basis. His new favorite literary friend is Curious George. He LOVES to read stories about George and can tell us what happened in stories we read literally days ago. We think it's because he wants to do the things that he sees George do, but knows he's not supposed to. In an effort to keep him from imitating George, we keep emphasizing how naughty George is and what WE would do to George if he were our kid. While I won't go into specifics, vats of acid and flaming hot pincers would be involved. . .
Henry will now dance for us on demand. He kneels up and bobs his body back and forth--too cute! He's dangerously mobile now, and he loves to play in the swimming pool. If you hold his belly with your hand, he will kick and splash his way all around the pool. He just seems to know what to do with his body all the time, and really enjoys learning how it works. So while Christian spends his time at the pool figuring out how the filter and jacuzzi jets function, Henry is trying to figure out how to swim. It is so amazing to see how everybody has such unique personalities even from birth.
That's it from Dubai for this week. We love you all. Please let us know how your lives are going as well.
Movie Quote of the Week:
"Yes! I killer her. I hated her so much that it .. they ... flames from the sides of my face . . . breathing ... heaving . . flames . . ."
Mrs. White from CLUE