Our Little Routines

Last year we moved into a great new neighborhood with streets we can navigate a stroller on and a relatively quiet atmosphere that we really appreciate. When we first came to Jordan, we lived in a part of town that was culturally much more exciting, but it was also loud, crowded, and we had no outside space and few hints of nature nearby.

I love being outside and these days I take Guy on a walk almost daily, sometimes twice a day. Today, in fact, I went on three walks. One with a friend this morning, one with Guy in the afternoon, and one as a family in the evening. When Guy is grumpy, getting him outside and going on a walk is the quickest way to make him happy again. I am almost always happy to oblige.

My favorite walks are definitely those we take in the evening as a family, and we've been going on lots of them recently. In addition to having precious time together, I love the desert in the evening. There's nothing quite like it.

Jonathan and Guy with our awesome new backpack carrier

Outside our apartment in Amman

Our family-walk route

Super cute baby in a stroller

The park two blocks from our house.

This and That

So much for a blogging streak. After three posts, three days in a row in September, apparently I used up my quota for a month. I'm having a really hard time believing there are only ten days left in October. After too many days of temperatures reaching into the mid-90's, it seems "fall" has finally arrived. Hopefully we won't get above 85 for a while.

This past week my little family has been suffering under the mighty hand of the stomach flu. Jonathan declared it's the worst one he's ever had in his life. It's definitely one of my top three. I am super thankful for two things. One, Guy didn't have it nearly as bad as his parents. And, two, we are all three looking and feeling pretty healthy today.

I've been reading the book "1776" about that particular year in the Revolutionary War. Honestly, it's made me feel like a big sissy. For all our aches and pains, it's not been nearly as bad as what so many people have faced throughout history and continue facing today. Yesterday I was challenged to dwell on God's goodness instead of complaining and feeling sorry for myself. So this morning Guy and I gave thanks for the oatmeal we can afford to buy and the blessing that we'll also be able to keep it down today.

We've taken quite a few pictures over the past month, but I'll spread them out over a couple of posts in order to pique your interest.

Guy really started climbing this past month. I mean really. The kid figured out how to get onto the couch, over it and onto the radiator. These pictures were taken when he did it for the first (and, hopefully, last) time. For the record, we don't let him do this anymore.

We did have one glorious day of weather this past month. Here we are with our friends Annamarie and Blaze. We try to get together once a week to take a walk and for our boys to play. While we were out on our walk this particular day, it started pouring down rain and tricked us into thinking the seasons were changing. We were wrong. It took another few weeks.

We also tried weaning Guy off of his bottle this past month. Our doctor told us to start trading his daytime bottles for sippy cups. It didn't work. Guy refuses to drink milk out of anything but a bottle. He'll drink water from a sippy cup just fine, but don't even think about putting his milk in one! Determined mom that I am, I went five days without him drinking milk from a cup before I called the doctor and asked how long I was supposed to fight this battle. Guy was relieved when she told us to try again in another month.

More to come...stop by again soon! I promise it won't be another month before we post again.