Good things

We have had a good weekend, we spent time around the house, around town, and we saw some friends. Even Elmo enjoyed a bike ride today!

Random picture, but I am in love with Ben's hands. They are so little and chunky, and I just want to eat them up. His little hands can now hold his bottle, grab for everything in reach, and squeeze my finger so tight. I just love these little hands!

On Friday, our neighbors invited us to church with them. It was a contemporary service, and the message was very good. After the music, the kids went off for kids church. Nathan went with Caleb and said they sang songs, listened to a Bible story, and did an art project. Many people are gone for the summer, but when fall starts, there will be more people and kids. We really liked the service and are thankful our neighbors told us about this church, because everything we found so far would have been hard to attend with small children.

 In the afternoon, I went grocery shopping with Caleb. I enjoy grocery shopping, especially when I learn the layout of the store....I know, sounds kind of weird. Almost everything is in Arabic since I shop at our local co-ops, so I am still trying to figure out what is what. There are lots of new foods we are not used to, and we hope to learn about and try some of them over time. Our grocery stores here are very nice. We can get whatever we need, but things in general are a bit more pricey than in the States. We are trying to buy local products to keep our bills lower. Some things that are much cheaper than what we are used to are gas (obvious), in season fruits and vegetables, olive oil, hommus, grape leaves, to name a few. Some things are a lot more expensive, like cereal (almost $7/box), broccoli (right now close to $8/head), pretty much anything American. We are doing some online shopping for non-perishable goods, but in general we are trying to adapt to what is local.

Later that evening, our neighbors had a going away party for some of the people that are finishing their tour. We got a baby sitter for a few hours and we enjoyed hanging out with everyone and meeting their families. It was a nice treat for Nathan and I to go out:).

On Saturday morning we went swimming at the Embassy, and our neighbors' daughter also joined us. She is 9 years old, and she loves little kids. The Embassy has an awesome kids pool and lap pool. It is very big, shaded, and there are lots of toys to play with. Caleb loved getting in and out of the pool and playing in the water. Ben had a great time sitting in the water and splashing around too. I think we will be doing a lot of swimming over the next two years, and we are grateful for the nice facilities we have available.

When we got home, we saw one of the landlord's workers, that we have been talking to. He is from Afghanistan and speaks little English, but somehow we seem to communicate ok. He has a nice garden close to our home, and today he invited us back to pick some fresh mint leaves. He taught us a few Arabic words today. I think he was saying he will teach us one word a day, and by a couple of years we will know "too much Arabic", probably he meant we will know a lot :). One of our next goals is to figure out how we can start learning the language either through the Embassy or a tutor.

Since we don't have our shipment yet, we are still missing a lot of things for the boys. We did ship a good amount of toys, but we can tell that Caleb is getting bored, especially because he has to be indoors most of the day. Caleb loves music, and this afternoon Nathan made him a homemade drum. Caleb decorated it and played us some songs. We definitely have a music loving child.

This evening we had some friends over for dinner. They were our sponsors, and they took very good care of us when we arrived. They have two children who are 10 and 12, and they liked playing with Caleb and Ben. I made a lasagna and some appetizers, and they brought over delicious chocolate chip cookies. We had a good time talking, eating, and playing with the boys. We look forward to more get-togethers with their family.

Caleb had such a good time he wanted to run around in his diaper :).

 It was a good weekend, and we are ready for another week. Still getting used to Sunday being 'Monday.'

 

New Friends

We have been meeting a lot of people the past couple of weeks. One person we have been waiting to meet since we got here is Marissa's good friend from college, Abeer, and her family. We finally got to meet her earlier this week and we had a great time! She and her oldest son, Firas, picked us up and took us out to dinner at a Kuwaiti restaurant, and the food was delicious! I don't remember all of the food we ate, but there was hummus, lentils, chicken and fish dishes with rice, dumplings, tea, and coffee.

 

Abeer has lived here most of her life, aside from going to Indiana University for a few years. She also has two young boys, Firas, the cute little boy in the background playing with the teapot is 3, and Faris, who is 6 months old. We had lots of good conversation, and we are looking forward to learning more about life in Kuwait, and getting together more often with their family. It was fun for her and Nathan to also talk about Bloomington and the good old college days. 

Thank you for introducing us, Marissa! I think we will have some fun times ahead.

On the Verge

Ben wants to crawl, and for the last few weeks, he has been getting on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. We keep thinking he is going to make a move, then he scoots backwards! He does a good job getting around that way, and eventually he will get the hang of crawling.

We are starting to realize that we will have two mobile kids very soon, which is something that we have taken for granted. And the crazier thing is within a few months, Ben will probably be walking. It will be fun when the boys can run around together, which will be here before we know it!

Stay tuned for our little crawler...

Kuwait Video

Mark has been busy making videos in his spare time of events, old baby pictures, and just everyday things. After his trip to Kuwait, he made this great video. Hope you enjoy!

 

Hanging around

We had a nothing special kind of week, which was good. We hung around the house, went to our local co-op and to different playgrounds in the evening, and we got out this weekend. We are adjusting well to being here, and some things are an adjustment. I think the biggest one right now is not being able to let the boys play outside throughout the day. It is very hot and dusty, so we need to be careful. And if you know Caleb, you know how active he is.  Being inside most of the day makes him antsy, so we try to get him outside in the evenings.  The rest of our belongings are supposed to arrive in about a month, so we are making do with what we have, and just adjusting :). In other good news, we got a little better internet today! I realized I only took a few pictures since Mark left, so here are a couple from today. I am excited that I can upload a few pictures, and over time I will have pictures from Mark's visit...stay tuned.

On Friday, we went to a co-worker's going away party, who is leaving next week. There were a lot of people with small children, and the party was in a big room where the kids could run around. We had a good time meeting new people and letting the kids run around.

On Saturday, we met a co-worker and his family for breakfast at IHOP at one of the local malls, and then we did some shopping at IKEA. The malls are big attractions here, and they are packed on the weekends. We had a good time at breakfast, and enjoyed getting to know their family. They have an almost 3 year old and 3 month old daughters. I'm sure we will be getting together with them much more during our time here.

Caleb is keeping us on our toes,  and he is testing us a lot. He has had a lot of change lately, so we are trying to stay patient and keep things low-key. Ben wants to crawl. He gets into the crawling position and rocks...then he scoots backwards. He can get around pretty good with his backward scooting. We are glad for the good week and weekend, and even though we have been keeping busy, we don't feel very busy. Hope you have a good low-key week!

The souk, gulf, and desert for now

I will start by saying I have so many pictures that I want to share, and I am utterly frustrated that our internet will not let me upload pictures! I will update the blogs at a later day with the pictures, and hope you go back to check them out.

On Saturday, Mark and Nathan were supposed to take a tour of the Grand Mosque. The pamphlet said the tour was every Saturday at 9:30am. That really meant the tour is given Sunday - Thursday, and be sure to call ahead to make sure the tour guide is working that day. Inshallah. This meant they could explore the souk (market) earlier in the day. They visited meat and vegetable souk, a place to buy nuts, carpet shops, and much more.

Afterwards, they went to lunch, took a drive down the coast, and ended with a trip to the desert. They said the desert was very barren, windy, hot, dusty...so miserable they did not take a single picture! Desert camping is an activity here, but one we will wait to try when the winter arrives.

Sunday was Mark's last day with us, a day we were sad to see come. We greatly enjoyed the last couple of weeks with him, and are so thankful for his help as we moved overseas and got the boys settled. The good news is we found childcare the week he was here, and I stayed home on Sunday to spend time with our new care giver, to get her acquainted with the boys. Caleb and Ben both took to her right away, and we are thankful for finding the help.

Mark and I popped out for a couple of hours to try to get better internet and to go grocery shopping. The people in the phone store spoke no English, and we can't speak Arabic, but there was a man who knew amlittle English and we left with an address of a shop that should be able to establish the service.  Grocery shopping was a great success. There is another co-op close to our house, and it was a very nice grocery store, also known as a jamiya in Arabic. Almost everything is in Arabic in this store too, but thankfully food is a universal product, so we did just fine.

 

We had to say our goodbyes to Mark on Sunday evening. We were all sad to see him go, but very thankful for his visit, and the time we spent together. Will miss him very much already, and can't wait to see him again soon! We love you Grandpa Mark, thank you for being you!

 

Good but frustrating....

The boys have had a great week with Mark, he has helped us out so much these past few weeks and months, and we are really enjoying the extra time we get to spend with him. We are thankful for God's timing with how things have worked out. The last couple of days, we have explored quite a bit, and we are learning our way around the city.

The frustration has been the slow internet! I have tried to blog the last few nights, but our internet is so slow I cannot even upload one picture at times. I have so much to tell you about, so I am going to blog for now without pictures and hope to get some up soon. We should have better internet once we get our country ID cards and can sign up for a better plan. Until then, thanks for your patience :). Here is what we have been up to...

Caleb and Ben are having a great time with grandpa. They go on walks, play outside in the sand garden, color, read, go to the park, play inside, and cuddle. Caleb has become so independent the last couple of months, and he is starting to use his imagination. He is curious about everything and he has a lot of new things to explore here. Ben is very content playing by himself and with Caleb, and he gets himself into the crawl position at times. We have tile floors, and grandpa caught him scooting across the floor the other day. Caleb is becoming more gentle with Ben and he likes checking in on him. They are having a great time, and we are thankful for his help and the time they are getting together.

The main reason Mark came with us was to help watch the boys while we found full-time childcare. We interviewed and hired someone to provide temporary care for the next month, and another woman starting full-time starting in July. That is a big relief to Nathan and I. We have also been looking at pre-schools, and we found a few really great options for Caleb.

After looking at preschools on Thursday, our weekend began. Weekends here are Friday and Saturday. First we went to a local park. It was a very nice large park with a walking trail, open sand and grass areas, and play structures for kids of many ages. It was 110+ degrees, so we were the only ones at the park, and it was hot!  There is a McDonalds at the park, so we enjoyed some cold sodas, milk, and french fries. The local culture is very kid friendly everywhere we go, and  people like to interact with the boys. One of the workers picked Caleb up when we got inside, and brought him behind the counter to look at the french fry machine, and then gave them balloons.

 

Then, we went out to dinner that evening at a traditional Lebanese restaurant, and it was delicious! We all enjoyed hummus, pita, spiced potatoes, and a few different kebabs. We could not understand the menu, but the waiters were understanding though they spoke little English, and they brought us an amazing meal! Afterwards, we played around the beach area for a bit and enjoyed some cooler weather once the sun was going down.

 

 

On Friday, Mark, Caleb and I went exploring. Ben woke up during the night with a fever, so Nathan and him stayed home to rest and get more unpacked. We left early in the morning to find a church that we had been looking at online. Let's just say that maps are different than I am used to. We got a good tour of downtown and now know the Gulf Road pretty good:).  Eventually we did find the church, Mark was a great navigator, and Caleb was very patient.

The church was interesting. It was in a complex with several other churches, and packed with people. The people in the complex and in our churcongregation at our church was mostly third country nationals, and I could probably count on one hand the number of westerners there. Caleb enjoyed the music portion, but once the service started he wanted to get out and explore. Mark stayed for the service, and Caleb and I wandered around the campus, and talked to people.

After church, we were going to find a place to eat lunch, but Caleb passed out, so we ate drive-through KFC and enjoyed a view of the Kuwaiti Towers from afar. After lunch, we drove to the towers and Mark got out to take pictures while Caleb slept. The towers have been closed for renovations for a while, maybe next time he visits we can go up to the top.

We then drove by the souqs (markets) downtown, but it was so hot outside and decided it was best not to take Caleb since mom forgot his sunblock. We drove down the gulf, stopped at a store to pick up some odds and ends, showed Mark the hotel Nathan and I stayed at during our visit in March, and headed home. That evening, Nathan took Mark and Caleb to the Embassy to show them around and play on the playground. They had a fun evening and we all crashed hard last night.

Today, Mark and Nathan are going on a tour of the Grand Mosque downtown, and to explore. Stay tuned for more updates, hopefully sooner than this last one.

Have a great weekend!