catching up

So we've done a bunch of stuff this month that I have put off posting about and now it's time to play catch-up, so in a nutshell here are some of the highlights...
First, a birthday party, this guy was born not too long after we arrived in Malaysia and now he's one year old! Time flies, don't it? His mom is one of my best friends and totally gorgeous to boot.


Emily was fascinated by this boy, Suria, and wanted to grab his face. She has a thing for grabbing faces. (This kid is enormous...we gave him John's old 18-month clothes when he outgrew them and Suria was wearing them before he was even a year old.)


The 2 Musketeers...these boys are inseperable and I cannot mention the name of anyone in the family without John whining at me for days about going to visit them.


Some of the gals at the birthday party (this was also a new house so it became a housewarming/birthday party.) Our friends are just beautiful. By the way, the 2nd woman from the left is MiowLin and she is the most amazing woman ever. I repeat, most amazing. Ever. She is single and we need to find a super-man for her to marry. If you know one, call me and we'll arrange it. She's going to kill me when she sees this.


This is Dolly...she is our current Relief Society president and one of my most favorite people ever.


Me holding Emily & Kareen (daughter of new family we just met that night)...these girls are the same age. And I thought Emily was big!


My beautiful, blue-eyed boy. We had a really rough weekend with him and were at out wits end about the tantrum throwing (are we done with that phase yet? and how can such hell-raising, earth-shattering noises eminate from such a little person?) but after letting me cry on the couch for a while and tell him that I couldn't do this anymore, Michael decided we need to try out some "Love & Logic" strategies (thanks anj!!!) and this week has been miraculously more pleasant. Not that John is more obedient, but we are better able to handle outbursts and stay in control of the situation. We have so much to learn. But after a screaming, weepy, out-of-control couple of days, suddenly it was all washed away when we were sitting on the couch and I was patiently explaining to John how happy it made me when he would talk to me about things and he turned to me with those heart-breaking eyse and said, "Mommy, can I make you happy?" and put his head on my shoulder. Life doesn't get much better than that.


John had an "oh" face when he was 18 months that was adorable and made everyone laugh. Emily has one at 8 months that is to die for. It's actually more of an "AH" face, like when you go to the dentist and have to make your mouth as big as possible. She does this when she gets really excited (which happens a lot...when she is about to eat, when she sees John or Michael or me, when she sees herself in the mirror...) and the "ah" face is combined with her hands rapidly slapping up and down and her feet kicking wildly. Something about her look always says "I WANT TO EAT YOUR FACE! COME HERE SO I CAN SLIME YOU!" Try making this face yourself and I dare you not to laugh.


For Family Home Evening recently we started putting together our 72-hour kits (or "bug-out bags" as Michael taught John to say) and we all got in the action. John even has a Snoopy backpack to carry his own diapers and granola bars.


These 2 kids are best friends and it warms our hearts more than anything on the planet. John always wants to climb into Emily's crib with her and they'll snuggle and he'll laugh and pretend to be mad when she grabs his face. If Emily's cranky because she wants to be picked up, she'll stop immediately when John pops into the room to play with her. If they are both in good moods, they giggle to each other in the back seat of the car while Michael & I grin at each other in the front seat. I hope this lasts...


I have a ton of more pictures to post, things we did during Hari Raya (end of Ramadan) this week: lunch with friends, a trip to a national reserve park, an awesome Diana Krall concert(for michael's birthday!!!), but it's 1:00am and my pillow is calling to me.