Raising Eli

My baby boy is turning TWO today!  TWO!!!  I feel like it was yesterday that I was giving birth to him in a not so desirable Russian hospital.  With a not so desirable labor and delivery.

It has been an adventure raising two boys.  Anybody with boys can understand what I mean even without me elaborating.  But elaborate a bit I will.  Actually, as I write this Owen is taking a plastic helicopter where the blades move with a push of a button to my hair.  Because we all know I want my hair stuck in a helicopter just like Owen and Eli had a train stuck in theirs.  And what does Owen say, "Mom I'm making your hair beautiful."  I digress, where was I?  Oh that's right elaborating on the adventure.  The boys don't stop.  They climb, they jump, they get into messes (cooking, water, toys, really anything.)  They love to play outside and will get to demanding it.  They don't want to sleep and then chat the night away when it is time to sleep.  They have many bumps and bruises and I know many more will come.

Since it is Eli's birthday I am going to go into more detail on him.  This boy!  This boy!  Oh how I love this boy!  He loves to cuddle.  He will stand up out of his chair, pull you over, and pat his chair and say "Sit!  Sit!"  As soon as you sit he will crawl up into your lap.  Of course this is not only his PBK chair it is really any chair.



When I am eating, or if he was awake right now he would be helping me type this.  He loves hugs.  Will give you tons of kisses.  But if you ask for it he will say "NO!"  Then give you one.  He loves to eat.  And will try new things.  He prefers the food on your plate compared to his own.  (He might have gotten that from me.)  Then you give him something he loves to eat and he will tell you no with a vibrant jerk of his head and sealed mouth.

He loves the water!  If there is water he is in it.  Regardless of the weather, what he is wearing, or where it is.

He loves to have his feet rubbed before bed.  And loves books.  He will tell you which one he wants and won't let you read one he doesn't.  And sometimes will end a book early for you with "All Done!"  as he snaps it close.  He loves mommy, but nobody compares to daddy.

He doesn't like strangers and will give them a grumpy look if you try to touch him or talk to him.  Which is a problem for him in this country.  All these people want to take a picture of him and he is crying and yelling in everyone of them.  He approaches stuff as a three year old.  I guess that is because he has an older brother.  He climbs way too well for a two year old.  People that don't know him worry about him on the playground and then quickly see that he has it covered.

He has a great love for his brother.  He always wants to make sure Owen has the same thing he does.  But he will also bite and hit his brother when "Owen mean."  He loves to play trains and cars and trucks with Owen.  He loves to chase Owen around the house yelling "ROAR" like a dinosaur.

He will copy anything Owen does.  This is not always good.  Actually it usually is not good.

He loves loves loves the lollipop!

Every morning when I am getting dressed he hands me my shoes and then puts a pair on.

One of my favorite things is how Eli loves to sing.  He loves it.  He will sing any song even if he doesn't know the words.  But some of his favorites are "Row Row Your Boat," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," and "This is the day."  He will do the finger motions for "Where is Thumbkin."  He will dance and smile and laugh.  And he has these deep belly laughs.  And he loves to talk.  Both my children love to talk.  Now where did they get that from???

He is embracing turning two with many temper tantrums.


This baby is a joy to be around.  He is completely different from Owen (rightfully so) but then similar in so many ways.  Oh how I love him.

Keeping it real: sleeping

Sometimes I wonder if I should write my blog due to unsolicited advice and input.  It gets me down.  I was about ready to write a new post and was halted by this, and then this morning during my run the podcast I was listening to reminded me that laughter is the best medicine.  And if you can't laugh at life then it will be a long journey.  So lets continue to keep it real and this time with sleeping and children.

Bedtime is the pits!!!!  I love bedtime for it is the end of the day and I can finally have a bit of me time, but then also you have to get them to sleep.

Every mom at some point has had trouble with their children sleeping.  Either you are a new mom and are unsure or you are more experienced and just when you think you have it all under control you are humbly put back into place.  Now if you are a mom that has never had problems, I don't want to hear it.  ;)

I strongly believe in the cry it out method.  It worked wonders with both kids.  At some point they slept through the night and even went to bed on their own.  Of course these things change.  When we had Eli, Owen started climbing out of his crib.  That was my end.  So for the past two years he has been in our bed about half way through the night.  Recently I started a ticket system and he is starting to sleep in his own bed.  Now he has days where he will tell me that he doesn't want to earn a ticket and will just sleep with mommy and daddy.  Sure!  Whatever!  I am too tired to argue.

Let's back track a bit.  The boys don't want to go to bed.  Of course that would mean all the fun for the day has ended.  And of course they have to sleep alone.  If David is home we divide and conquer and it is a bit easier but not always.  So we will talk as if David is not home yet.

Eli is old enough now to understand that he wants to sleep with Owen.  He runs into Owen's room and jumps into his bed.  If you walk in he will quickly put his head down on the pillow and pretend to snore.  You then say this is not his bed.  He scrambles out and runs to my bed.  Again, Eli this is not your bed.  You then proceed to carry him crying to his bed.  He can have a book and a song, but eventually you must leave him to cry and go to Owen.  Why does Owen get more attention?  One reason:  he can get out of bed.  He will walk around, open Eli's door, get toys, but not stay in his bed. So you let Eli cry and lay with Owen.  Now this is the time of day that Owen has everything to say.  He doesn't stop talking.  I will say about a thousand times "Shhh"  "Lay your head down"  "Let's go to sleep."  Eventually he will drift off and then I am on to my bed.  Of course for this time at night I have all these plans of things to get done while the kids are sleeping, but I am so stinking tired that I fall asleep in no time.  Really I am not kidding.  David wants to watch tv and I can't seem to keep my eyes open.  That's why these posts are so far apart.  In fact writing about this makes me want to go crawl into bed instead of writing.

Let's talk during the night:  Owen whines in his sleep.  He talks in his sleep and sometimes cries.  He likes milk all night long and these are things I can do and have done pretty much sleeping.  Eli on occasion will cry to where you have to go comfort him.  This is probably the worst.  You can't just crawl into the crib and go to sleep with him, so you are stuck laying on the floor or standing over the crib.  And of course you react quickly going to him so you never think to pee before going in.  So now you realize you have to pee terribly and are stuck and extremely tired.  Eli will sleep just light enough to know if you are trying to escape and yell "no, no, no!"  And from the beginning I have learned to always take my phone with me to either room when they wake.  Because you could be stuck for ages and realize you just needed a little something to do while you wait impatiently for them to go back to sleep.

I do not believe their is a great solution for sleeping.  One day they will both be in their bed, probably together and sleeping fine and I might get some sleep.  For now I am TIRED!  Because they must always get up at 6, 7 if I am lucky.   For all you more experienced parents.  Yes I know I will look back on  these moments and enjoy them and will miss the time that I got to sleep with them.  But honestly all I see is now through my tired red eyes and completely fine with wishing they could sleep in their own bed and go to sleep easily.

Keeping it Real

Today I am going to do something a bit different.  The more moms I talk with I realize that we are all living in a delusional  land.  We are comparing ourselves to mommy bloggers and moms on Facebook  that make everything seem rosy all the time.  Well guess what, it isn't.  So I am going to write today about my most common struggles with Owen.  I have plenty with Eli but since Owen is older there are more things I expect from him.  I will try to inject as much humor as I can, because I was raised if you can't laugh at then it is going to be a really long road.  And don't worry I will go back to writing about my experiences in Kuwait as well.

Owen CANNOT seem to keep his underwear dry.  It seems nearly impossible for him.  We call them dundies, so that is how they will be referred to from hear on out.  He must be potty trained for school.   Now thank goodness the school realizes their will be accidents and ask for an extra pair of clothes in his school bag.  And are there ever accidents.  Not everyday but most days.  Actually everyday at home but at least not everyday at school.  My real goal is to keep them dry at school to have the illusion that he is mastered at this.  I do not why it is so hard for him.  But it is.  It is mainly because he will not stop whatever he is doing to go to the toilet.  He is perfectly fine with being wet.  As he says "It will dry mom."

Today when I picked him up from school he was dry.  Praise the Lord!  We walk out to the car and as he is getting into the car he looks at me and says, "I think I peed my pants."  Really!  No Joke!  You're kidding!  So I make him get out of the car and go back into school to use the toilet.  Oh and did I forget to mention as he just admitted to peeing his pants he tells me that he doesn't need to go.  So we shouldn't go back into the school.  Owen never pees the whole way in his pants.  It is always the start (quite a bit of a start) and then he finishes in the toilet when I push him that way.  So he needs to go to the toilet.

In the car on the way home he says "Mom I always pee my pants!"  I am nodding my head.  I mean what do you say to this.  I then ask "Why can't we change that statement Owen?  Let's say I always use the toilet or I always keep my dundies dry."  Owen:  "Because mom I always pee my pants."

I give up!

Oh and at these times he likes to request to watch the Daniel Tiger Neighborhood episode on pottying to remind him that he should stop what he is doing to go to the toilet.  He usually pees his pants during the show.

It is little distractions.  "Oh I need to go potty."  On the way he will see a drink and say "but first I must drink juice."  Pretty sure that is not how it works Owen.  But okay buddy.  This is why I am in no rush to potty train Eli.  He may be in diapers forever.  :)

I know Owen will eventually get it.  Probably next year.  I hope!  He does have dry days and does better when not at home.  But yes I pack more clothes for him when out than Eli.   I have tried rewards, punishments, taking things away, bribery, you name it.  I am not really looking for advice here.   I just hope people found humor in this and realize that no mom is perfect.  And maybe someone else will even step forward with their mommy struggle of day, week, year.

Camel Races

Last Saturday some friends asked us to go to the camel races with them.  We thought sure, why not?  One thing I have learned living in a foreign country is that everything is an adventure.  Especially with children.  And this is not just Kuwait, this was the same in Russia also.

We must drive out to Kabd to go the camel races.  We are caravanning so we don't get lost.  Well as everything here the directions are in Arabic and of course they don't correspond to google maps or a garmin.  So of course we get lost.  We drive quite a bit out of the way, enough that Owen points out several times that we are in the desert.  Why yes Owen we are.  We live in the desert.  The further out you get the more trash you see and interesting sites.  We saw at least 2 burned up cars.  I guess if they wreck in the desert they BURN!!!

And their were many people stuck in the sand.  They didn't want to wait for the next U turn spot so they thought they could just drive through the sandy medium.  Well it is deeper than they thought.  And then of course lots of trash and some of who knows what is going on?  We followed the directions to a road that was newly paved for about 500 feet and then ended to desert.  Nice road to nowhere.

And then you find a bit of God's beauty in the midst of it all.  

So we head back in the other direction and take a different route.  We have a feeling we are headed in the right direction now because we started seeing camels, places you can ride camels, and random stuff for sale on the side of the road.

We finally arrive at the camel races.  Nothing like being greeted in the lobby by a stuffed baby camel.

We proceed upstairs to sit.  The first two sections are for the Arabic men.  There are no women there unless you are a foreigner.  We sat over far to the left.  The camels race around and have a robot on their back that will whip them.  A man came over and claimed this is a family sport since they only whip at the beginning and the end.  The owners drive around in their trucks with a remote to control the robot.  

You can also go outside and watch them cross the finish line.  David snapped this great shot of Eli and me.  Obviously someone has discovered their nose.

It was apparently a VIP day at the race tracks.  A member of the royal family showed up, so they did special things that day.  We lucked out.  They gave free drinks and rolled out red carpet.  And did some ceremonies that I don't understand.

This little boy was really getting down with the music.  It was only performers outside and then him over to the side dancing like I don't have a care in the world and I will do what I please.

 And here we are at the end.  Eli wanted to go outside and see the 'amels.'  He loves camels.

After all was done with the award ceremony everybody fled super fast.  I still had to take Owen to the bathroom and everybody was gone and picked up.  It is something that I will do again and I am glad I did it at least once.  Owen wants to go the camel races everyday.  I am not sure he actually watched the races.  He spent most of the time running around like a chicken with his head cut off.  Of course so did Eli and our friends kids.  It was great and I am surprised that I am able to write about seeing camel races.  I am pretty sure this Arkansan never thought she would be writing about most of the stuff she does.  

Sick babies in Kuwait. Happy New Year!!!

Where oh where do I begin???  The boys have been sick.  They have been off and on sick for over a month now.  Eli has had the worst.  But all of that was manageable until Monday.  I noticed both boys had the dreaded virus of doom. Hand, Mouth, Foot.  It is truly awful.  As it sounds it give them blisters on their hands, in and around their mouth and on their feet.  And if you have a baby it is also in the diaper area.  Oh who am I kidding, if you have a baby it is everywhere because they can't keep their little chubby adorable hands out of their mouth.

So Owen refuses to talk or eat.  And he doesn't like to swallow.  So yes their is drool everywhere. Their is no sense in reasoning, because they just don't get it at four.  He thinks I am totally full of it and making everything up.  Drinking won't help me!  Oh and since his tongue hurts he cries all night. Whimpers.  It is bad.  Bad.
Owen:  "Mom I always cry when my tongue hurts."
Mom:  "Well if you want to sleep in my bed then you have to stop crying."
Miraculously the tears stopped.  Hmmmm.

Eli is the other extreme.  He is hungry so he eats then cries.  After every single bite.  My house is fun!  FUN!!!

Okay so I am really writing to talk about the doctor experience.  We have been seeing the same pediatrician.  He is nice and conservative with antibiotics.  So that is great.  But he is also too busy.  Way to stinking busy.  The boys (yes two patients) are in for about 5 minutes and out yet we wait for over THREE hours.  Yes you read that right.  It is usually an hour each time but this last time was a real doozy.

4:36 pm We head to the doctor.  (down the street, very close, but must drive since their are no sidewalks)

4:39 pm Get out of car and carseats.  Walk across parking garage and in and up to 3rd floor.  Practically racing the people in the elevator to get on the list first.  Realize I left my wallet at home.

4:39 pm Head back to car, get in and head home.  Takes longer to get home because of the divider on our street.  Convince guy at parking garage I have no money and cannot pay him.

4:51 pm Arrive back at the apartment.  Run up to get wallet.  Run back down to car.  Head to doctor again.

5:09 pm Arrive back at doctor and check in.  Find out that we have 12 patients in front of us.  This will be a long wait.  Hoping I heard them wrong.

From here, the boys have fever so I ask the nurse to give them some medicine.  We then wait until ten till eight to finally get to see the doctor.  They boys were actually pretty good for such a long wait.  At the end they were finally done.  Of course they are hungry and tired and want to go home.  Owen is asking to go home to bed maybe 10 minutes before we are called in to see the doctor.  At this point there is no turning back.  Then we finally finish. We wait for an elevator for what seems like forever.  Three came out of the four and were all full.  None were coming.  It was like watching a pot of water boil.  So we leave and go to different elevators.  Head to the pharmacy.  Only to wait again.  Because you have to take a number.  The boys are now a bit more all over the place but still being very good.  Of course other people are all of sudden worried about them.  I am wondering where all this concern was while we were waiting to see the doctor for three hours.  Proceed to buy our stuff when the guy checking me out tells me that one of the items doesn't ring up in their system.  By now I have had it.  I ask him how that is my problem and clearly state that I still need the item.  I have learned by living overseas that if something doesn't ring up it means it is not for sale.  That you must leave it or lose your spot in line and go and get one that scans.  Normally at the grocery store I will submit but not at the pharmacy when I clearly need the item.  So he passes me on for more waiting to someone that is able to make something work in the system.

8:38 pm Finally on our way home.  Get home and it proceeds to be the longest night ever.  Owen cried all night.  All night.  And his crying would wake up Eli.  So it was a blast for David and I.  Last night was a bit better.  Don't you love how a few hours can make your day seem like it lasted 48 hours.

I pray we are on the mend.  I am not seeing the progress yet.  Just more drool, pantomiming, and crying.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  And a vaccination should really be created for this virus. At least you can only get chicken pox once.  This is Owen's second bout of hand, mouth, foot.  I never thought I would prefer Russia over well really anything but here I prefer their private medical clinics and how you know you will be in and out in 30 minutes.  And that they have sidewalks so that I can walk the 5 minutes to the doctor.

I am tired!!!

The not so great temporary apartment

We are entering our 4th week in Kuwait.  How am I adjusting?  When you move to a new place and before you meet anybody and truly get settled you have a few lows.  Owen has started school and he loves it.  Praise God!  But Eli and I are bored.  BORED!  Okay, mom is bored.  It has been two days.  We moved out of the hotel over a week ago.  I am sad I left the hotel.  I am more sad that I no longer swim everyday and enjoy the heat while swimming.  I also miss the chocolate hour.  There are more things I miss but we will come upon them shortly.  Last week was a holiday here, so David worked from home.  We stayed busy as a family, looking at houses and going to malls.  Lots of malls here.  It is too hot to be outside, so why not window shop.  But David has gone back to the office and Owen is in school.  So Eli and I are bored.  And it has given me time to realize how much I miss the hotel and how much the temporary apartment is not great, good, okay really bad.

I forgot why I didn't like temporary apartments.  I have been in one before when we moved to Lafayette and now I remember.  At first I thought it has to be better than the hotel because it is bigger.  We can sleep in separate rooms and not have to hide Eli's bed behind the couch so he doesn't see us.  Well I wrong.  Where to start....

The master bedroom has a beautiful view.  Beautiful!

But that is where it ends.  This apartment is set one street off of the main street.  It only has single pane windows.  It is noisy!  NOISY!!!  The first night (a Friday) was so bad.  Apparently people like to race their rich cars on the weekend.  All you can hear is the engines of Lamborghinis and Ferraris all night long.  Other muscle cars too.  It is sooooooo loud!  And then of course you hear sirens, horns, and any other noise.    Okay besides that the bed is broken.  And the mattress is so bad that it is a V where it has been flipped and I am pretty sure I might have rolled off of it.  Owen came into our room about 3:30 (normal) but refused to sleep in there and asked me to come sleep in the comfy bed with him.  I jumped on that opportunity.  Since then Eli sleeps in the master bedroom by himself (with music) and we opt to sleep with Owen.  You know it is bad when you choose to sleep with a toddler.

The small shower doesn't drain.  After flooding the bathroom, we use the extremely small shower.  I didn't think it could get smaller but it does.  I can't even shave my legs in it.  I have to shave at the sink then take a shower.  Now in case you have missed it there are no bathtubs so the boys are having to shower.  Well with the shower being so teeny tiny I have to kneel down outside of it and wash them, while getting drenched.  It is fun!  FUN!  Take this picture and imagine me at the corner on my knees.  And yes Eli tries to get back in after being done.

Then you move to Owen's room.  The curtain doesn't block out the light, so about 6:30 each morning Owen bounds out of bed and says "The sun is up!  It's wake up time!"  Yay!  Of course that doesn't really matter because there is a rooster that starts to crow about 5 am.  Yes I said a I rooster.  You read that right.  And yes I live in the city.  Busy area around me.  No farms.

Okay then we have ants.  And the oven doesn't work.  And since it is temporary we have only one sauce pan and skillet.  It takes a while to cook since I have to cook in stages and move stuff to other dishes.  You can hear the peoples doorbells from upstairs and next door to you.

Oh and I hate to clean!  I really really hate to clean.  And that is probably what I miss the most about the hotel.  I realize I can not avoid it any more and must vacuum tomorrow and mop.  No, I have not gone a week and half without cleaning.  I have done it and just would really prefer to not do it.

I realize a lot of this makes me seem high maintenance.  And I am.  And I am okay with that.  Well I hope this gives you a good laugh.  More to come!

New Adventure: Kuwait

We have started a new adventure that I wasn't sure would come.  We found out in late May/early June (dates are running together now) that we would be moving to Kuwait.  It took so long to get the visa that I didn't know if we would get here.  We got the visa on Friday, September 19th and flew to Kuwait on Monday, September 22nd.  We arrived late and weary.  The flight was not necessarily long but with two kids, luggage, layovers, and delays it seems like forever.  When David first told me Kuwait was our new destination I was overwhelmed.  I was in the middle of making blue play dough for Owen and had to hang up the phone, fumble through the rest of the play dough, and found myself on my knees at my bed.  I was trying my best to pray and seek God's guidance in the midst of Eli squawking and Owen peeping under my bowed head to ask what I was doing.  Needless to say it lasted for about 30 seconds.  But in that 30 seconds I felt comfort.  The boys and I were on our way in the afternoon to meet our dear friend at embassy so the boys could play with hers.  I told her the news and she immediately said "I have a neighbor that just moved to Moscow from Kuwait.  Would you like me to invite her over to talk?"  At that moment I knew God had every intention of sending us to the Middle East for our new home.  He always has perfectly laid out plans, if only I always opened my eyes to see them.

Okay so onto my shock and initial reaction.  I really didn't think that anything could shock me after being Russia.  And I still hold strong that all shocks are minimum compared to there.  My friend warned me that coming off the plane it will tons of men, why?  We don't know but there will be.  Well she was right.  Tons of them.  Just sitting around.  Do they stay at the airport all day?  Is this the Kuwaiti version of a coffee shop?  We shuffle through with two semi sleeping babies to wait in line for a tourist visa for myself and the boys.  David got a work visa but has to establish residency before he can invite his wife and children to join him.  I am definitely entering a male dominated country.  So we grab our number 622 and they are on 578.  Yay!!!  At right before 600, Eli started to cry.  As if on cue, and the man at the visa counter jumped us forward and sent us on our way.  We go to collect the bags.  And again men everywhere waiting to help you with your bags (for a fee of course).  So off we go with our bags and help to the car to head to the hotel.  We all fall asleep around midnight.

Next morning bright and early wake up call for David (it is about 7:30 am).  Is this David Lacy's room? Yes! Is he awake? No!  Okay we will call later.  David then gets up, gets ready and leaves to start his new job.  The boys and I wake, head to breakfast, and then the pool.  Our days have been the same.  Eat, tv, pool, eat, tv, nap, pool, eat, bed.  Works for me.  Oh let me not forget the Chocolate Bar between 5-6pm everyday.  LOVE IT!!!  We are staying at the Movenpick Hotel.  For all those that don't know anything about Movenpick.  It is Swiss and has the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had.  And I am an ice cream connoisseur.  Every time we go to the lobby they give the boys more chocolate.  My kids are so hyped up on sugar at the moment I might have to send them into detox.  And I do expect withdrawals.  Especially Eli.  That kid will shove chocolate into his mouth before you blink.

The boys and I went to the supermarket once.  It was a bit overwhelming and odd.  It was bulk on bottom then an escalator up and then the normal market.  More men.  Everywhere.   Bought some cheetos.  They taste funny.  But at least everything is in English.  Went to the mall.  It was HUGE!!!  ENORMOUS!!!  I think I am still lost in it.  It does have a Pottery Barn, PB Teen, and a PB Kids.  Yay!  And at about the same price as the US.  Bonus.  I don't like to go out without David too much yet.  The men just stare.  STARE!  It is a bit unsettling.  I guess my pasty white skin, freckles, and red hair stand out here???  I totally thought I would blend right in.  :)

Kuwaiti's love hamburgers!!!  All are pretty much overweight.  I was surprised by that.  I assumed only American's were super fat.  Nope!  I do see berkas, and the white garbs the men wear.  I do see people covered and people dressed exactly like I would dress.  It is a bit more interesting at the pool.  The boys are in shorts.  Normal.  The girls...some are in bikinis, one pieces, full clothing such as tank top and shorts/leggings.  Some have full berka swimsuits.  The kids love Eli's and Owen's toys.  They make their rounds at the pool.  Today I was surprised to see a girl about 13 or so that did not know how to swim and was asking me to teach her.  That caught me off guard.  I tried to help her the best I could.

Went to church on Friday.  It is a large Evangelical compound with many churches in different languages.  It was nice to go and great to see so many different nationalities and languages worshiping Christ.  The work week here is Sunday - Thursday.  So the weekend is Friday and Saturday.

We have been out to eat several times (obviously since we are in a hotel).  That is an experience.  The wait staff will come and entertain the kids for you.  And once it wasn't busy so they took them and played hide-n-seek around the restaurant.  It was a sight.  Maybe I should mention that Kuwaitis don't hold service jobs.  It is all foreigners.  Filipino, Egyptian, Pakistani, Indian, etc...

I guess that is about it for now.  My culture shock is small at the moment since I don't leave the hotel. But I do think I will be okay with this life.  :)  Beach, pool, warmth, A/C.  What more could I ask for. Oh and it is hot here!  HOT!!!  About 106 everyday.  Everybody keeps telling us we just missed the heat and now the weather is nice.  Hahahaha!!!