comfort food...not so comforting

Who couldn't go for a nice piece of warm toast with melted butter on top...when you just want to feel a little better?

I bought this nice whole-grain looking loaf of bread from the store this week and anxiously anticipated the use of the new toaster we acquired last week. Salivating as it heated up...getting excited as the butter was spread on top...taking a tantalizing bite....

and, denied!

Imagine my horror when I realized the best part of warm buttered toast...is the salt in the butter! There is no salted butter here....which leaves me two choices...
1. Be healthy and eat it anyway...pretending it tastes like all the sweet memories from home.
2. Shake some salt on top?

Dream deferred - from a Mom's perspective

While this may be a misinterpretation of the original poem, I think I can claim a portion of the phrase.

Four months ago, Micah started having a nanny watch him for half the day. As young, naive parents we just assumed the nanny would "figure it out" (like we do) along the way. Well....after a few weeks of coming home to "He doesn't like to eat this food or that food....only if I mix it with yogurt." and "he doesn't want to nap anymore"....I decided I would take two weeks off and "figure out" my growing child. I planned to get him on a perfect routine with perfect food pyramid balanced meals so that I could then teach my nanny "how to do it".

The mere number of quotation marks in the above paragraph should let you know, I was a tad idealistic. Still, I had a dream...and I still have two more days before nanny comes back to work!

As far as sleep goes, he's almost back on a regular nice nap schedule. (Though who naps 5 hours a day?)

As far as food goes...our precious boy loves his dairy products. Alas, maybe it is best to mix everything under the sun into his yogurt.

Today we took a trip into town to meet my former classmates for lunch. Micah had a cheese stick, 3 spoonfuls of rice, 1 bite of turkey, and 5 "cherries" from the birthday cake...then in the twenty minutes between "lunch" and the bus trip home, he received (for free)...

-one double chocolate ice cream cone from the restaurant we ate at
-one chocolate kit kat bar from Rick's cantine manager at school
-three bites of simit (like a hot pretzel) from a stranger who saw us walking by
-two bites of something squishy from saudi arabia from a stranger sitting across from us on the bus.

And then he turned into a beautiful butterfly. (Actually, he just took a nap.)

Micah turns 19 months today!

Trying to get a family photo

We have entered toddler-hood full force. This is us trying to get a nice family photo by the sea after Micah took only 1/3 of a nap. Please note how happy his parents are. If you were to see the photo of us an hour later, you would see how tired his parents were. If Micah doesn't get his full nap, it's not too long until we all need a nap.

We had an awesome vacation last week on the Black Sea. It was great to completely forget about language lessons and homework for a week...just talk with people as we saw them and relax. Micah's buddy Hugo came with his folks and we marveled at how the boys were able to sync their naps completely opposite of each other such that we could never all go out together. We had fun anyway.

Great Chemistry is Everywhere

Avagadro the Mole says so. Thanks to Sonia & Steve for blessing us with this prize winning outfit. If Micah becomes a scientist like Dad, I'm sure he'll keep this photo on his desk to "remember when".

Visting Hugo's pool

It has been beastly hot here the last month. Supposedly the hottest summer in the last 10 years at least. Hugo and his family were super nice to let us come visit them at their pool this afternoon. It was a lovely refreshing time....both cooling off from the heat and from the stress of coursework. Micah tried out his first floaty toy and loved it. He kicked and splashed for nearly an hour.

Medical Miracles

We found out last week that our sister-in-law, Sara, was having some serious medical issues that the doctors were unsure of how to treat. After a week and a half of tests, rest, and a new medical team at Mayo clinic, she received the surgery she needed and is on her way to full recovery as if nothing major ever happened! PTL that they were able to get her to the right hospital with a team that had diagnosed and treated something similar to her case in the past. We were very distressed not to be with her and my brother, Tim, this past week, but thankful that we could participate through prayer and blog check-ups. ;-) Thank you too if you were praying!