nuts

"Hey, Sami. Are you hungry?"
"No, thank you." (He's my politest child.)
Earlier today we were driving around in the car. "Is that a squirrel?" He asks. (Surely he knows it's a squirrel. He used to call them monkeys, but not for a long time, though he now calls the monkey on the mola in the bathroom a squirrel. Hmmm.)
In any case, we watched the monkey squirrel for a while as it ran around the yard, clearly looking for something. Sami thought it was a tree. I said maybe the squirrel was hungry and looking for food. Sami thought he might like a sandwich. A peanut butter one. A little bit later, after we've driven on, he asks me, "Why the squirrel is hungry?" And then he brought up the sandwich again. I think he felt sorry for the squirrel! I told him the squirrel wanted nuts. Or an apple.

Raccoons

I made the mistake of reminding Sami about the Raccoons on his footie pajamas yesterday. He had been wearing the pjs for a couple of days, having put them on willingly after his Monday night bath. Shortly after, he began pulling at his pajamas. "I don't wear re...." he said. I couldn't understand what he was talking about. I told him his pajamas weren't red. He continued to fuss about it. Then he stopped, but right before dinner, he came back to it. This time I understood what he said, "I don't wear raccoons!" It might have been a ploy just to get naked, because he didn't like it when I put another shirt on him, but I made him wear his clothes because it's just too cold to be running around as God intended. That will have to wait till summer.

In his head

"I'm Coco," Sami declares. "You're Sami," his brother tells him. "I'm not Sami. I'm Coco," he replies, a little belligerently.
Sami is turning out to have such an imagination. He drives his cars around the house, talking as he goes, apparently creating scenes. Last night in the bath he held the rubber duck up, and said in not quite his voice- "Where's the fish? Oh, there it is." I think the rubber ducky was talking.
Another night, when he hadn't had a bath, I was trying to get his clothes off to put cleans ones on. The pants were easy to get off, but then he said, "No Pants!" and refused to put another pair on.I told him he didn't have to wear pants, and he yelled and carried on about "NO PANTS!!!" It took an age to get his shirt off, and then, again, he wouldn't let me put another one on. "You're naked!" I told him, so he preceded to unhitch his diaper and then he was starkers, except for his little socks. That was lots of fun, apparently, and he ran around enjoying it. I told him he couldn't nurse without a diaper, and finally got one on him. I wrestled him into the shirt, and he was so upset at me. This was after about half an hour of fooling around. I didn't put the pants on him, though, until after he'd gone to sleep.
I told someone that he's hilarious- but for about 5 minutes. Then it gets annoying!
Meanwhile, Leila is rehearsing for the school talent show. She auditioned today and is hoping to get in. Her piano teacher is helping her with the piece, a song from a tv show she likes, which she is singing and playing on the piano. The teacher had her practicing her walk to the piano and her bow ("reverence") as well as the musical part.

Snow Evening

We all went off to school and work this morning, then slowly trickled home as the roads got bad. It was snowing small, dry flakes when I dropped the kids off, and then I drove south of Dallas for a conference. By the time I got to the destination campus and signed in, large, wetter flakes were falling.
I thought the roads would be okay, and Habib decided to work from home rather than sit in traffic for 1.5 hours, so I knew he could pick up Sami at 2- but I didn't want to risk getting caught so far from home, so shortly after 1:00 I headed north. Well, not really north. I decided to go the loop rather than drive straight through the city, where things were snarling up. It wasn't too bad, though a couple of bridges/overpasses were icy. Once I couldn't brake, but hit un-iced road before I hit the car in front of me, and the brakes took. A couple of times I felt myself slide a little.
Habib got home with Sami, and I went off to pick up the bigger kids. They were hoping for enough snow for sledding, but it is unevenly piled in our neighborhood. Apparently we got about an inch.
Evening activities are cancelled, hot chocolate has been drunk, and I'm about to make potato and leek soup and then light the fire.
Funny Sami story- the other night I was opening the doors of one of his cars. He wanted the trunk to open, but it wouldn't. Then he decided it needed a key. I asked him where the key was, and he said "in the kitchen," and headed down to get it. I could just see him losing my car key for him, so I told him the key was inside the car. He looked for it and couldn't see it, of course. Then he sat there, put his head down, and pretended to think, "mmmm." He popped up brightly- "a key!"

Rainbows

It was pouring rain again this morning, after only one day of sun this week*, so I thought it a good time to tell Ali about Noah's Ark. After I explained the rainbow after the rain is God's promise to us, Ali said, "But is sometimes God too tired to do a rainbow? Because there isn't always a rainbow after the rain."
He knows the science behind rainbows, so we talked about how God set up science rules, and if it isn't sunny, there won't be a rainbow, but the promise is still there.
*The kids enjoyed the great weather yesterday by finally getting to play in the creek area behind the house. The neighbor kids joined them and they had a fabulous time. Their dad came to call them home, so we met him- he seems very nice. We're so thankful for kids our kids age- a girl Leila's age, a boy Ali's, and an older boy who plays well with them. They also have a little one- older than Sami, but there are lots of baby boys on this street when it comes time for playing.

What we've been up to

I'm sure you've missed me- right? right? Is this mic on?
We've been busy, but very, very productive. I have finished my Phd qualifying exams- with a pass!- and can now start on my proposal and dissertation. After the hell of exam prep, those seem like they'll be easy!
My oral exam was this afternoon, but I spent three 24 hour periods writing essays in response to questions emailed to me. I had organized my work schedule to only teach two days a week for the first eight weeks of the semester, so before that schedule ended I squeezed the three exams in, beginning 10 am on a Thursday, then doing the second one on Monday and the final one the next Thursday. I put off the orals till this week- two weeks later because we had to move.
Yes, move. Last week we were supposed to close on our new house on Thursday. However, the mortgage company wasn't on the ball, and a mistake the appraiser had made wasn't caught in time. Luckily, and barely, we managed to close and fund on Friday, which meant our planned in move date of that Sunday was possible. Well, theoretically. Friday was Eid, so not a lot of packing got done. Saturday we did pack, and then Sunday started the movie. It was H's turn to pull the all nighters packing, moving, and cleaning, but by Tuesday morning the old place was inhabitable. The new place is twice the size but seems smaller as all of our junk has expanded. I'll get everything put away eventually!
Sami turned one on Tuesday. we celebrated by returning the moving truck and going out for bbq- how Texan! He managed to gag/throw up at the restaurant, but then scarfed down most of a bowl of ice cream.
Wednesday was talen up with Halloween. I used trick-or-treating as a chance to meet our new neighbors and they seem quite nice, and a mix of ages. We also stopped by our old hood for old times' sake.
Meanwhile I'm back to teaching every day and one online, so the house may take awhile.

"Generosity and perfection are your everlasting goals."

Okay- after you've finished rolling around the floor laughing.... (me too!), I do have a couple of words to say.
Of course this relates to selling the house- perfection is now my goal everytime I leave the house, just in case there's a showing. I had my first taste of this this afternoon, as the house went on the market today. We were racing to get to Leila's indoor soccer game but I had to pick up a couple of things before we could leave, which means we were late.
Fortunately, the other team didn't show up because they got an email saying the game was canceled. We didn't. Instead, coach gave them a practice. We're all pretty over the league that we're playing in this summer. They've really messed things up for our team, and, while I don't expect perfection, I expect something a lot closer than what we're getting.
Generosity- H teaches me to be more generous. He loves to give. Lately, he's been giving everyone shoes from the warehouse where he's been helping out. The carpenter abandoned the project, and since H trained in carpentry, he said he'd take over.
You can check out our listing on ebby.com* if you know our address. I'm not publishing it here! I took the pictures. Hopefully the realtor will have loaded higher res ones by tomorrow, as the ones that went up today are pretty small.
The sign went up in the yard last night, and it feels strange to drive up and see it.
*Ali said our house is for sale on ebay!