The Past Two Weeks: A Recap

**Forgive me in advance, this post is going to be long.. It's going to be random, sporadic, and have lots of little tid bits of information.  It's the only way for me to catch up so I can ATTEMPT to keep up with what we're doing during our visit.***

Almost a week ago, Gavin, Miles, and I (along with our best friends, the Sperling's) boarded a plane and made our way to the USA. 

Before we left, I spent a few days cooking meals to freeze for Brooks to have some kind of home cooked meals while I'm gone.  Brooks had to work a straight week the week before so he took a day off before we left and we LOVED getting to spend the day with him.  We cooked our normal Sunday breakfast, just a few days late, went to the paint store and got paint to have our house painted while the boys and I are gone.  Brooks went and got a haircut, we went and ate lunch at our favorite Indian Restaurant, we all took long naps, then went for a family walk around the compound.  It was a nice and relaxing day. 

July 4th, I had a doctors appointment to check on Baby Perry 3.0 (that's this baby's nickname thanks to my sweet, spontaneous, and pretty hilarious friend Sarah Southard). Oh yea, have I even mentioned on the blog that I'm pregnant with #3?!?!? 
This was a total shock and not planned but we're pretty excited!  This baby is due February 5th, 2012.  The baby looked great.  My doctor had been watching two cysts that he found at my initial appointment a few weeks before this one, and we were surprised to learn that one of them had almost quadrupled in size.  I had a 7.3cm cyst (a little over 3 inches).  He gave us lots of information and ultimately told me to get it checked out as soon as I came to the states to check the size and then go from there.  After my appointment, we went and tried out a "Mexican Restaurant" that one of our drivers told us about.  We figured we could be the guinea pigs on it and be able to tell all our friends whether it was good or not.  I took a bunch of pictures, but they are on my Saudi phone and I can't access the pics right now for some reason.  Anyways, it was interesting to taste their version of queso and tortilla chips, not to mention that the outside of the restaurant had a sign that said Real Texan Food!  Haha.  Brooks ordered fajitas and I must say they were pretty good.  I enjoyed my burrito and enchilada and we finished our meal off with some sopapillas!  Yummy!!

Okay, so back to our trip to the USA.  The boys and I left late Wednesday night and got on a plane around 5am Thursday morning.  Brooks came with us to the airport and it was extremely sad having to tell him bye as well as watching him tell our little boys bye.  We did our best for days and weeks leading up to this trip to prepare Gavin that daddy was NOT getting on the plane with us and that he was staying home to work, but all that went out the window as soon as we walked away from Brooks to go through customs and Gavin realized we went one direction and Daddy stayed back.  Oh, talk about break your heart.  I lost it in the airport watching and listening to Gavin wave and tell Brooks by through a window.  As we were getting our passports and visas stamped exiting the country, Gavin kept telling me, "I want Daddy. I want to go home.  I don't want to ride airplane" (which Gavin had been looking forward to for weeks).  It was heart breaking and I just couldn't hold myself together.  Not to mention, I wasn't really ready to leave Brooks either for almost 6 weeks.  Ugh-- tough one.  I'm learning this is  the life of being an expat. 

Our first flight was pretty short (like 45 minutes) so I considered it to be a piece of cake.  Stephanie sat next to me on both the flights and was a HUGE help!!  There's no way I could travel with my kids alone.  In between the flights, at the Doha International Airport in Qatar, we stopped at the Gold Business Lounge and ate a snack and just relaxed.  I took Gavin to play on the indoor playground to help him burn off some energy.  At this point, he had been awake from 1am to 9am.  We boarded our big flight and said a prayer that things would go smoothly. 

I think Gavin took an hour nap when we first took off, but after that, he stayed awake until the 11th hour--- shoot me!  He was VERY ancey, and kinda all over the place.  Miles did good for the most part, except when it came to falling asleep.  Usually, at home, when I realize he's tired, I give him his pacifier and lovey, lay him down and he's out... with out a peep.  On the plane, he cried and cried until he cried himself to sleep.  It was very uncharacteristic of him and I really felt bad for him.  It was almost like he just wanted to be left alone, but I couldn't put him in the bassinet until he was asleep because he didn't have much room to move around in it.  Steph helped with Miles quite a bit.  If one of us was changing him, the other was fixing the bottle.  If one of us fed him, the other burped him.  At one point, we laid him on the floor by our feet so he could have some tummy time.  He enjoyed that.  At about the 6th hour on the flight I started getting sick.  I've been extremely sick this pregnancy so being on a plane didn't make any difference.  It took me about 2 hours to get through it, but thankfully, I didn't need the little bags they put in front of your seats!  By the 11th hour and Gavin's attempt to watch 2 different movies, but never finishing them, playing with every toy we had, eaten probably 2 bags of cheetos and 4 packs of fruit snacks, and asked every stewardess for a cookie (which he didn't get after the 1st time) I couldn't take it anymore.  I forced him to lay on the ground, we made a pallet for him, and for an hour he fought me from taking a nap.  I persisted and helped encourage him as much as I could. He cried and cried for Brooks, which caused me to cry and cry (hey, I was emotional on top of pregnancy hormones).  Thankfully, Gavin finally fell asleep, Miles finally fell asleep (Steph had been working on him for a while, too, at this point), and I just sat in my chair and balled my eyes out.  I allowed myself a small meltdown, pulled myself together and then finished a movie I had started 4 hours earlier before falling asleep and taking a 2 hour nap myself.  It was much needed.  The last 2-3 hours of the flight were a breeze.  Every one woke up rested, happy, and ready to go!

My parents picked us up at the airport and it was just refreshing to get to hug them! Gavin was pretty excited to see them.  My parents couldn't believe how much Miles had grown in such a short time.  We went to Carabba's and ate before heading back to Lake Charles.  My brothers, sister in laws, and nieces and nephews came over for lunch the next day, which I got to enjoy a Darrell's sandwich... yummy!.  It was so good to see them.  I miss all of them so much. 

Jet lag has kicked our butts the past few days.  The first two nights we were home, I slept a total of 3 hours... it was pretty rough.  Gavin has been sleeping with me because Miles was waking up so much it was keeping Gavin up in addition to when Gavin was awake. They finally started sleeping through the night from 9pm to 6am, which I'm so thankful for.  We've been taking naps during the day, but to get our bodies on this schedule, we can't sleep for too long.

So far, I've gone shopping at Target, Walmart, and our local mall.  I've eaten at Chick Fil A and gotten a cherry limeade from Sonic.  I had pork ribs for dinner the other night, bacon for breakfast, and driven a car three days in a row!!  It's amazing the things we take for granted.  It rained the other day and Gavin asked me what that was on the windows.  He also got very concerned when he heard thunder and lightning.  He kept looking for the thunder and was very confused. 

We're very excited to be home in the states and are looking forward to visiting with family and friends.  We have a few small trips planned here and there so I'll do my best to keep everyone posted.  We miss Brooks a lot, and wish he was here.  Although, he has been busy with work to help keep his mind off us being gone. 

Until next time... take care.  Sorry for this being FOREVER long!!

6 Months

On June 30th, Miles turned 6 months.  He's already half a year old!!  OH.MY.GOODNESS!  Time is truly flying by.  I took him to get his 6 months vaccinations the other day and he weighed in at 7.1 kg, which is 15 lbs 6 oz.  He's very alert and aware of his surroundings.  He loves watching his big brother play around him and sometimes wants to play back with him.  I must admit, there's already a little bit of rough housing going on between them.  But, they both love it!

I've been working with Miles on sitting up on his own, but he's not quite there yet.  He can hold onto lots of toys and has a strong grip.  He's learning to pull things close to him and he's very consistent with putting any object he's holding into his mouth.  I'm about to start on baby food.  I just learned how to make baby food since I'm not impressed at all with what I've found in stores around here.  Not too mention, I've never heard of the brands, am not sure where the baby food is produced, and some of the flavors were WEIRD.  Thankfully, we're going to the USA next week so I'll have the option of buying Gerber baby food while we're home.

Miles is a very, very happy baby.  He smiles any time you walk in the room or the moment you make eye contact with him.  He loves bath time, but appreciates being naked even more.  He can laugh in a hysterical way, like make your belly hurt laugh.

Miles is our little thumb sucker and I am doing my best to keep him from doing it too much.  He likes the pacifier, but usually only takes it when he's tired or sleeping.  He loves sucking on his toes, too.   He's rolling over all over the place and has a way of moving himself around the floor just by scooting on his tummy.

I've learned when he gets fussy that taking him outside snaps him out of it quick.  He loves being outside  and makes the cutest faces when the wind hits him in the face.  He's been a lot of fun and I just can't get over how much he's grown already.  

A lot's been going on

Miles turned 6 months old.  I'll make a separate post about that soon.  This kid has got some personality!

We celebrated the 4th of July.  I found some American flags at a local "craft" store and let Gavin put them in our yard outside our front door.  I also found a USA outfit I bought him last summer that just so happened to still fit him this year.  Brooks had to work so I took the boys swimming and spent most of our morning outside playing!

We went out to dinner with some friends for someone's birthday and Miles and Stephanie were playing.  If you look close, Miles is blowing raspberries at Steph.

Gavin got a new haircut.  You might not be able to tell, but it's pretty short.  He looks JUST.LIKE.BROOKS.

I also made my last cake for a few months.  It was for a middle school girls' birthday party.  She designed the entire thing so I just copied off her picture.  I also made 2 dozen cupcakes so they could have some chocolate flavored cake, too.  She designed the cupcakes as well.  This girl knew exactly what she wanted.

Our good friends, The Railey's, had their baby girl, Savannah last week.  We were so excited that she is finally here.  SHE IS PRECIOUS!!  When I got to hold her for the first time, I introduced myself to her as her future mother-in-law.  I figured there's a 50/50 chance maybe she'd marry one of my boys?!?!  Ha Ha.  All jokes aside, I was beside myself to finally meet her.

Gavin loved meeting Savannah and kept wanting to pet her.  He was really gentle with her and for days asked about the new baby.  We've been over to their house several times to see her and have loved getting to encourage Brent and Laura as they're learning how to "parent" a newborn.

Laura was suppose to be induced on Saturday morning, and her parents were suppose to arrive in Saudi Thursday night.  But, after some plane delays and new routes, they didn't arrive in The Kingdom until Friday night.  However, Laura had gone into labor Thursday afternoon, after her water broke, and ended  up delivering before her scheduled induction.  Stephanie and I got to pick her parents up at the airport, a couple we had never met and had to go on Facebook to see what they looked like, so we could recognize them walking through the terminal.  We made a sign that said "Savannah's Grandparents" and showed it off to any American couple that we saw.  When we did finally see them, both Steph and I were in tears. I think just the idea that they were so close to being here for their grand daughter's birth, but missed it, yet were about to meet her.... it was just all a little much. We brought them to the hospital and got to share in a sweet, sweet moment  

Fondue Night

We have an AWESOME group of friends over here who we have been blessed to know and be apart of one anothers lives.  I honestly don't think we'd be having the same experience living here, if it weren't for these amazing people.  

It's great that we all have similar interests, get along really well, and like to have fun!  Needless to say, we've gotten creative with our get together's since there is very little for us to do out in the city.  Remember our Mardi Gras Mystery Party? So... when we realized one of our friends, The Railey's would be having their baby girl this weekend, and a few of us are heading back to the states for the summer, we wanted to have another get together incase it'd be our last.  Our idea?!?!  Let's do fondue!  

A few of us had fondue pots that we had NEVER used and really wanted to take them out of there boxes and put them to use and Stephanie had a Melting Pot Cookbook so we had everything we needed to make it the perfect fondue night.  

We decided to have 1 cheese pot and 2 chocolate pots.... it was DELICIOUS!  We bought anything and everything you could possibly imagine to eat with the cheese and chocolate and we were all stuffed when the meal was over.  We had bread, apples, celery, and carrots to dip with our cheese.  We even made a special "Goddess" sauce to mix in with the cheese-- perfecto!  

We couldn't decide between two chocolate flavors, so we fixed both!  Flaming Chocolate Turtle -- that one required us to set the chocolate on fire.  I videotaped the escapade, just in case it had a "fun" outcome.  It didn't, which was a good thing!  The other flavor was Chocolate Cream Pie-- I think I liked that one the best.  We fixed PLATTERS of goodies to dip with the chocolate-- strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows, pretzels, bananas, and rice krispie treats!  Again, DELICIOUS!  

More importantly, we loved spending time with our friends and laughing all night.  Us girls had a field day in the kitchen while preparing these recipes.  It's nuts when you don't know what you're doing and worried everything has to be just right in order for the cheese and chocolate to melt appropriately.  We shared LOTS of laughs in the kitchen questioning what we were actually doing.  Not to mention, there wasn't an empty spot on any counter for us to do any work!  In the end, we figured it all out and made some delicious fondue!  Can't wait for another fondue night!   

PS: Mom, aren't you proud?  I used my cloth place mats and even pulled out my camel napkin rings to make the table "nice"!