22 Months

Our little dude will be 2 in just 2 months!
He is quite the character, and such a boy. He likes to throw, this often gets him in trouble, he likes to kick too, but so far only does this in appropriate situations. He likes to spit, this pretty much always gets him in trouble, and he knows how to push his sister's buttons. He thinks it is really fun when he gets the reaction he is looking for. Marin has not yet learned to just ignore him, so you can imagine his delight as she chases after him trying to get whatever it is back that he took from her. He is a fast little dude too, and gets his little arms just a goin' as he runs around the house. Oh and he has figured out the whole nose picking thing, lovely!
Lucky for him though, he is as cute and sweet, as he can be naughty. He is our snuggle bug, and is full hugs and kisses. Jeriah gets kisses and hugs from him every time he comes within his reach.

He loves to do what ever Marin does, he calls her "Ma-yin".

He has taken a keen interest in numbers this past month, he points and counts things "one, two, three (or "free" as he says it)." The other night we had pizza for supper he pointed to the the (2) boxes of pizza and said "two peeza". Clever boy!
His vocabulary is great and it is so fun to hear him add to it daily. He went out with Ian the other day as they were driving he out of the blue started talking about "whaes" (whales). They had a nice little conversation and when they got home Ian took him to the computer to show him pictures and to listen to recordings of the sounds they make. Ian then bought him one for Christmas, which you will get to see in another post.

He is also quite the dancer, even if he is sitting he will still try and dance by bopping his head and upper body. Over Christmas his favorite book to read was "The 12 Dogs of Christmas". He would head bop/head bang as we would sing/chant the words, the faster we read it the faster he bops, and the bigger his smile gets. Pretty cute, that is for sure.
He has also been loving the pool in the backyard.
As is shown by the almost constant grin on his face. :)

He is such a fun kid and we love him to bits!

2 Months

Jeriah is 2 months old, I can't believe 2 months have flown by already!
He is such a sweet little guy and so far a wonderfully easy baby. I took him for his check up and shots, he was not pleased about the shots, he sure can make a very sad little pouty lip. :( Poor boy. He was also weighed and measured, he is 11 lbs and 3 oz, and 22.75 inches long. He is growing well and his double chin is evidence of that. :)
Here is a look at sweet boy.

Again with the "what are you doing Mom" look.

He has started "talking", his little coos and happy squawks are so cute to hear.

And best of all he is smiling!

Such a sweet little grin. :)

Love you tiny man.

Seasons Greetings

Anniversary Greetings

Happy 38th Anniversary to Mom & Dad/Barry & Donna/Granny & Grandpa!

Birthday Wishes

Happy 63rd Birthday to Mom/Donna/Granny!

The tiny man on his playmat.

He is pretty cute check him out. :)

Jeriah 7 weeks old from Kristin Foulds on Vimeo.

Budding Artist.

We tracked down some new paints and Marin tested them out the other day.
She was pretty pleased. :)

She painted "roads".
(she is into drawing and painting maps right now)

Then she added trees, the green on the top left of her painting.

Once she had made 3 paintings we got out the new finger paints. She had a great time smearing them all about and then she drew a person.

and gave him some hair.

Later that afternoon, she told me that she had had a good day because she got to paint. :)

The Boys

They sure are cute ones!

Check out the eyebrow control, and the "what are you doing mom" look the tiny one has already mastered.

Our Girl.

Time for a bit about Marin I think.

She has had a lot of changes in the past 6 months, but she is adjusting well. Three of the obvious major changes have been moving to KSA, starting preschool and having her newest little brother arrive.

Talking things through I think helps her and so that is what we do. She talks about home, Coquitlam, and who the people are that we know who still live there. She talks about how Granny & Grandpa, Oma & Opa, and her Uncles live in Salmon Arm, and how we will visit them there next summer. She also talks about Canada being the country we are from and how she speaks English. She is very aware of all the different countries in the world and about all the different languages that people speak. She talks about how the kids in her class are from different countries and how they speak different languages. She talks about how now we live in Saudi Arabia and asks the name of the town we live in (KAUST/Thuwal) and about Jeddah the city we are near. She also talks about how to get here from Canada you need to fly on an airplane. She has been doing her Canada puzzle (this link is from just over a year ago, so fun to go back and see how she has changed!) once in a while, and is really good at recognizing the different provinces. Today she got out her ABC's of Canada book and said to me "Hey Mommy this is our land! We don't live in it though."

She is a girl who likes to chat. We often tell her that eating healthy food like fruits and veggies is good for your body, so today she was talking with me about food.
She asked "What is a banana?" I said "Fruit". Then she asked "What is a pepper?" "Vegetable" I told her. "What is a lamb chop?" she asked. "Meat" I replied. Then she asked "What is a pig chop?" I laughed, I told her it was meat, but it is called a pork chop.

Having Jeriah join us has been an easy transition for her. She is very gentle with him and says often "we have to be very careful with Jeriah, he is delicate". She gives him lots of little hugs and kisses, and says to him many times a day "I love you tiny".

Starting preschool has been a big exciting change for her, she really likes school! Today was her first day back after a week of holidays, the whole week off every night before she went to sleep she would ask when she would get to go to school again. She enjoys all the different activities at school, Arabic language lessons, playtime outdoors, music class, and library. We can always tell the days she has had Arabic lessons because she says something in Arabic (or her version of it) and then tells us what it means. We don't know if she is right or not but she thinks it is pretty neat. Often when her class has playtime outdoors the other 1st year preschool class joins them and she gets a chance to play with her friends in that class too. Music class is a big hit and she loves to play the different instruments, and sing the songs. She will often sing them for us at dinner time. Library might be her favorite though, she loves books, and she likes the independence of picking out a book on her own and bringing it home. The latest book she brought home is called Food Play and she loves it, it is perfect for her big imagination.
She likes her teacher too, and her teacher has done a great job of getting to know Marin and all the other kids in her class. One of the things her teacher does is encourage the kids to bring recycling items from home, she provides them with loads of tape, glue, felts and whatever else and they have a great time creating all sorts of things. The latest creation Marin brought home was a "bowling pin", made out of a water bottle, packing paper (because we ALL have LOADS of the stuff), tape and colored with felts. Here she is to show it to you.

See.

Then I got the "okay mom enough pictures" look.

Hmm, what else to tell you about our girl... she calls hula-hoops "hooly-hoops", which I think is cute.
She recently got a bike (with training wheels) and really likes riding it, she is good at it too.
We borrowed "Horton Hears a Who" from the Harbor Library (public library), and she thought it was hilarious.
She has seriously good computer/mouse handling skills.
She is really excited to turn 4 years old, she has been talking about it since we got to KSA, and we still have another month and half to go. Oh my she is going to be 4 in less than 2 months!

I will wrap up now...
Marin is our wonderful, cute, smart, funny big girl and we love her!
But you all knew that. :)