The last month

Here are a few pictures from the last while. The last thirty days or so have included: Micah's 2nd birthday, the end of Ramadan, the beginning of the Eid (holiday), Cam's sister and brother-in-law visiting for a couple of weeks (many of my pics are courtesy of her - thanks, Saralee), and then trying to get back into regular life after a month and a half of inconsistency. We're still having a nice time.

A few interesting things about the boys:

• In a two week period, Micah lost his last soother, stopped nursing, and stopped napping. They happened in that order and are directly correlated with each other. He always fell asleep nursing in the afternoon, after which I would switch out for his soother, and put him in bed for his nap. We lost the soother and the whole thing fell apart. If I nursed him, he'd fall asleep and I was stuck with him (very literally) for the next hour or so. Unless I chose to not be stuck to him, in which case I had a very upset and tired little boy for the next thirty minutes (tried it).
• John has started up in a little kindergarten group again with his buddies. It's a bit more structured now than before the summer: 3 days a week and we're following a curriculum. I'm mostly interested in having John interact with other kids, but he's enjoying the lessons, too.
• We took a dubab (local bus system that is really just minivans fitted with enough seats to transport 12 people) today after visiting a friend and the boys sang Puff the Magic Dragon all the way home. John new all the way to "that rascal Puff", but preferred singing up to "Honalee" and then starting all over again. Micah was down with that, as I think that's all he knows. They had a great time. Not sure about the other passengers...
• John and Micah are back in dance mode. We had a couple of weeks were they didn't do it as much, but Cam put a bunch of new songs on John's MP3 player (free with purchase at Old Navy two years ago- we didn't invest a lot in it) and they've been having a great time. John has got the moves, and Micah does this funny squiggle thing with his elbows out and feet spread apart... I love to just watch them.
• John and Micah are growing like crazy. In the last six months John has grown a couple of inches and most of his pants and long-sleeved shirts are obviously too small for him. Micah's up by 1 1/2 inches, but his weight is pretty much the same. He's still got a pretty good belly on him, though, which makes me wonder how tubby he was before he started "slimming out".
• We ate a big supper today for about $2 total. I can't cook here for that cheap, and it's pretty healthy stuff, so I don't even have to feel guilty.
• I learned the other day at the meat counter how to say the goat equivalent of prairie oysters. It was a bit embarrassing for me. The guy that was holding the goats legs and pointing seemed to be enjoying my situation.

Have a great October. Have a happy Thanksgiving and eat lots of turkey for us.