Cote Kids: grass, Ismael's playdate, parents 1st dinner outing (07.17-07.23)

Sat, 7/17- Semira's official start date. She's really been so helpful and is such a great fit for us. She even cooks for us, atleast 2-3 times a week. Since she's started we've been eating out less and cooking more, well except for Steak night on Tuesday at the Hobby Farm (horse stables). You can get a big hefty piece of Ribeye steak, baked potato and a salad for 80 SR/$22 US. Not a bad deal and it's delish!!! She's motivated me to cook more even just coming up w/new recipes for the kids and they have ACTUALLY loved it! I'm surprised everytime I cook and it turns out pretty decent. I even made some chicken/veggies fried springrolls, it was a test run for the kids upcoming bday party and they couldn't get enough of it! I guess motherhood somehow turned me into a cook. Who knew???

Semira really gives us our privacy for being a live-in. She works 7-7 Sat thru Wed and 7-1 on Thurs. She even helps out on bath nights and it's made the whole process a lot faster. After 7pm she usually takes a shower, get her dinner and pretty much stay in her room or go walking and hanging out with her sister or friends. On the weekends she goes to Khobar, she and 5 other friends, her sister included, rents an apartment and they hang out there.

I think by this week, we had our internet connected. It took them about 2 weeks...so slow considering we supposedly have fiber optic lines in he neighborhood, but the service can be slow sometime. One thing for sure here is everything is really at a snails pace. When Dan and I were in Jamaica (BK= before kids), they have a slogan there "island time". Saudis are on a "very remote island time"! :-) Something to get used to, nothing is ever rushed here.

We had grass installed this day. I guess when a house is empty, there is no one to maintain the yard so the plants/grass die. Or gardeners will pull up all the plants and sell it to other people. Either way, I think our house was empty for a long time b/c we even had a dead tree in the backyard.

They installed grass in the front and back yard, doing this ALL by hand, one piece at a time. The grass here is not sod, it's a clump of grass. It looks like they weave the grass roots into the soil. It's amazing to watch them and they were pretty fast too!

We had a dead tree in the backyard and they manually cut it down. They will replace it, prolly in October and will give us (30) plants for the front and back. The landscape contractor said it was best to wait til October when the weather cools down a bit and the plants will have a better chance of surviving!

This is how the got the tree down. These guys kept shaking and pushing it until it fell. Again all manual labor!

Sun, 7/18- Linda's visit, wife of one of Dan's colleague. She's been here for a while and has grandkids back in the States. She just adore kids and was so happy to finally meet these guys. We was also able to borrow Aboud's car, another one of Dan's co-worker. It took us moving to Saudi for me to get to drive a Lexus! I don't know what we would have done w/o all of these friendly and helpful people Dan knows. They really have made this transition much better!

Tues, 7/20- First playdate w/Ismael. Kamal, Tina's hubby works w/Dan. They brought us lunch, but Dan had to stay outside b/c if the kids see him, it would be over, then wouldn't let him go back to work. We've been doing weekly playdates since then and the kids play really well together, for the most part, sometimes there's sharing issues, but hey they're all two year old! It gives me a chance to have some adult conversation which is always nice!

Wed, 7/21- Leanne visited w/her 2 month old baby boy, Isak. Dan had recruited her husband Nic and they were on the same flight with us. She's been "stuck" at the house too so I invited her over, atleast we can be stuck together and have some women talk.

Fri, 7/23- First night out for dinner in Khobar w/one of Dan's work friend from Colombia, Carlos. He took us to a really good Thai-Indian restaurant. I just put on an abaya, shorts and tank top underneath. At this time, I hadn't bought mine yet, I borrowed one from Sarah, one of Dan's co-worker. I got to see how Saudi women eat in public: one used a scarf to shield her side profile that was exposed, another one asked the restaurant for a screen to shield their whole table and she took off her scarves. Very interesting! One of Dan's co-worker, Jade visited us and babies sat for us so we could go have dinner. Our first night out besides the basic shopping trips and guess what happens? Carlos drove in his rental car and we had a flat tire, thank goodness it happened after dinner (atleast we had full stomaches). We pulled off to replace it w/the spare and that was also flat. We drove anyway and luckily there was a tire station not too far.
What a night!!!

Pictures for the week: they love to jump on the bed, here Tobin and Skyler.

Tobin, Hudson and Skyler w/Semira.

Hudson pulling the other two on one of the toy we borrowed from Ismael.

boys being boys! The boys really are saying so much words, especially Tobin. He pretty much repeat every word we say. We really have to be careful about what we say around them. Dan and I have a bet as to who they are going to hear a cuss word from first. Words they say and know what it means: gardener, phone, airplane, helicopter, eyebrow, up, down, fruits, snack, truck, car, fire truck, more, hole, milk, wawa (water), choo-choo (from Thomas the Train), boat, duck,poop, pee, tea, sit, cook, mine, all mine. There are prolly more words, but this what I can think of. Skyler doesn't say much. Hudson knows how to say "Tobin"!

Tobin, trying to stick a toy into one of the outlet. Busted!

One of their "walks" around the house, they like to do laps around the kitchen, dining room, and hallway. I'm holding Tobin while Hudson and Skyler are holding hands.

More holding hands picture. they like to give each other hugs too, pretty cute!!!

Daddy w/his babes: Skyler, Hudson and Tobin. Hudson and Skyler have been taking off their bottoms through out the day. I hope they don't learn to take off their diapers anytime soon. BTW, the Pampers diapers here are different from US, it's not as absorbent and breaks a lot, so I'm only using it during the day. I'm saving the ones we brought over from US for night time use. I haven't found any wipes I like either so I'm rationing the Costco wipes for diaper changes and using a towel to clean them for meals.

Skyler and Tobin on the bed.

These were taken at Tina/Ismael's playdate. I was changing Hudson's diaper and Tobin and Ismael checking us out. At home they do this when someone is in the downstairs bathroom. Sometimes you see little hands or feet sticking through the door- pretty funny! Sometimes they're all in there w/you!

Hanging out pictures at home: Skyler. She's been taking her brother's toys or food (on purpose) and will make them cry. She'll take off running w/a smile of course! She loves to do flips and is really acrobatic! She's also been particular about which color plate/bowl/silverware she gets during meals. One day she was crying b/c Tobin had the blue fork and she HAD to have it, so we got her another blue fork! Her hair is getting long too, but she won't let me put them up, if she does, it doesn't stay on very long. She's also learned how to take off her earrings---NOT GOOD!!!

It's hard to say who does what first, usually someone does something and the other one sees it and copies it---Monkey See Monkey Do! (Skyler, Tobin, Hudson)

Ismael's playdate: I don't know how it got out of order.