My Return to the Land Of The Living

Hello again from Saudi Arabia!  I am finally back online after a month of ignoring everything but the bare essentials.  Even though we are still overwhelmed and sleep deprived, I have finally decided that it's time to claw my way back to the Land Of The Living and get back in touch with all of our devoted friends and family - if nothing else so that you can see pictures of how much Baby Catherine has grown!

So much, yet so little, has gone on in the past month.  Baby Catherine has gained about 2 pounds over her birth weight (I say "about" because at her one month checkup - which was the first time she had been back to the doctor - they don't do all the 5 day, 7 day, 14 day etc. well baby visits here (!!) - they did not take off her clothes or diaper for the big weigh-in.  She had gained 0.995 kg, which subtracting out a guesstimate about her clothes and her full diaper, comes out to about 2 pounds.) At her low point, she was about 6 pounds at 10 days (we weighed her with a luggage scale), so she gained about 3 pounds in 3 weeks.  Go, me!  She has lost all her wrinkles and has gained some fat rolls, and she has lost that curled up newborn look.  She is just starting to smile, and she coos at us, too.  She is a very good baby - happy and sweet - but she likes to eat every hour or two.  (Hence the weight gain.) (Straight from my hips to your lips, babe.)  Can't wait until she can stretch a little longer between feedings, though. 

Everett and Lawrence presented Baby Catherine with toy after toy while she was lying on the blanket.  Before she knew it, she was surrounded with their favorites!  A Boeing stuffed 747, an alphabet spider, the twinkle twinkle musical star, a pirate bear, Thumper from Bambi, and a raccoon.  Sweet brothers! 

Yeah!  I have so many things to play with!

Gramama and I like to dress her up.  Mike says she is a doll who happens to be alive.  He's right!

This was my dress when I was a baby.

In other news, Lawrence had his second birthday in the middle of the month.  My baby boy is two!  I had a party with 30 people here for the event.  Yes, a huge birthday party 2 weeks after having a baby.  It was fun, but admittedly hard to prepare for.  I will post a blog entry and some pictures tomorrow about his party.

We've had 5 weeks of visitors so far; Gramama and Granpapa were here, and Gramama just left.  We had a wonderful time and were very sorry to see them go.  While they were here, we toured downtown Khobar and did some shopping, showed them the town where Mike grew up and his old house in Ras Tanura, went to the beach two times, and tromped them all over the compound here.  It was busy, but not.  Lots of chores to do around the house, lots of entertaining the children, but most of our time was spent in the house quietly, and only a couple of hours per week outside camp doing errands or trips.  That's pretty normal for us, so they got to see what life is really like here.  Our adventures in the last 5 weeks will be another blog post soon. 

Next up, Grandma and Grandpa are coming on Friday, and we are ready!  We can't wait for them to come!

So now that I've resurfaced in the real world, I will do my best to get back to posting on a regular basis.  I miss everyone that I have not been in touch with for the past month (which means EVERYONE, as I have not talked to anyone at all!) so hugs to you all and bear with me as I try to get back to a normal schedule.

PS Got 3 consecutive hours of sleep last night - hooray!!  Luckily, the sleep deprivation we've been experiencing from having Catherine here is hardly more than an annoyance this time around.   I remember thinking I was going to DIE if I had to wake up again one night after Everett was born.  This time, I think we were already so sleep deprived from moving and having two little ones already that it hasn't thrown us for as much of a loop as I was expecting.  Still, I am looking forward to the day when I actually get 8 hours in a row.  Hopefully not long now!