The Jolliff Family

Jacob is walking very well lately and we finally purchased him a pair of shoes that fit.  He is a size 20, which sounds big, but they look so little!!  He is adjusting well to wearing them and is walking all over the apartment in them.  I'll try to get some video soon!

Hap makes all things cardboard, which the boys love.  We have a big pirate ship, two small boats, a palace, and a mouse house (yea, don't ask!).  He was constructing some type of pirate face guard and tried it on Jacob first.  It was a little big, he needs to grow into his crown!

On Saturday, we went to "downtown" to celebrate the 100th year of the town we live in.  They were having a festival, craft fair, and a parade.  We went with some kids in our neighborhood. There is a scout program in the area and they played the drums.  They were loud and I think the older boys enjoyed banging them extra hard by the kids:) No parade is complete without some police vehicles and the boys took a picture with the "shurti". Basically the parade was one big dance party.  I'm pretty sure this gal was dancing to "These Hips Don't Lie" in English. One of the two floats in the parade. The main attraction was three huge puppets, dressed in traditional attire.  It was pretty impressive to see the puppets dancing around.  Also, you can see many people crowding around, so as the parade moved down main street, people followed and danced along as we headed to the festival in a large courtyard. Hooka w...

I am usually behind the camera and don't get many pictures taken of myself.  It's no problem, I like taking pictures.  I thought I would show you what I have been up to this week. Earlier in the week, I had a friend come over and teach me to make Ma'luba.  She did it all in Arabic... thankfully she does hand motions as well:)  It is a traditional dish served among these people.  It is really simple to make and cheap too!  Basically, you need some oil, an eggplant, some potatoes, onion, head of cauliflower, a piece of chicken for each person, and rice. Oh, and you need a really large pot, which I didn't have so my friend brought her pot for me to use! So you slice all the vegetables into bite size pieces and saute' them.  In the meantime, cook the chicken on the stovetop and soak your rice in water.  When the vegetables are all finished and the chicken is all finished, put some oil in the bottom of your pot and put the chicken in firs...

Jacob is into everything these days.  He is a typical baby turning into toddler and loves to explore, climb, and get into drawers.  He wants to know just what is going on with his brothers and mess their toys up. Sometimes it causes a slight problem when he messes up their pirate ship:) We heard Jacob yelling (which he has a bad habit of doing) and we just ignored him.  He continued to do it and when I went to look for him, he was climbing the boys ladder.  Oh my!  As a good blogging mother does, I snapped some pictures. Jacob likes to put on and take off hats.  He had a fun time one afternoon playing with some hats laying around.  He is good at entertaining himself and I am very thankful for that. Jacob also likes look through books and be read to.  It is one of the only times he will cuddle, so I treasure being able to read with him.  He points to everything in the book and I think he is saying "Es?" which means "What?" in ...

Sam has his first homework over the weekend.  They are working on the "baa" at school.  Learning the letter, working on words that start or have that letter in them, and practicing saying words with that sound.  It is equivalent almost to our letter "b" in English.  He took his homework very seriously and proudly showed me the two stickers he received after he turned then in at school. Sam loves to play with the Photo Booth feature on my computer.  He cracks himself up with it.  I was looking through his pictures and he has taken around 50 pictures of himself, I thought I would share some of his "better" pictures:) 50 lbs heavier... Space aliens...  (This pictures cracks me up.  They look crazy!) Headless... Good grief!! Each day is something new around here!

Today is Hap's 37th birthday.  I came out of the bedroom this morning after I got ready and found Hap doing this... the man of my dreams enjoying his birthday breakfast!!! haha! I can't begin to express how much I love spending my life with Hap and how much I adore watching him with the kids. We enjoyed a taco lunch and an apple cake to celebrate.  I don't know who was more excited about his birthday candle. Hap said each birthday gets better and now that he has kids of his own, he can now understand the importance of the day.  No matter how old, celebrating a birthday is important!   Happy Birthday, Hap! I am so glad you were born:)

I thought I would share some recent pictures of Andrew.  He keeps us laughing and is quite the entertainer.  He stayed home sick today with an ear infection and throat infection, he should be feeling better in no time on some antibiotics.  He also had a slight allergic reaction to (possibly) the pain reliever or the flavoring of the pain reliever, but the hives are gone this afternoon.  Enjoy our funny boy:) Hap made the boys a cardboard firetruck and Andrew particularly enjoys playing in it.  It isn't your glasses, the picture is fuzzy.  The boys have a little cardboard village, two houses, a firetruck, two castles, and three boats. Happy Monday

I have much to blog about but need sometime to gather my thoughts and sit and write a post.  We have had a long week and are thankful to be getting back into a routine.   Until I write that post, enjoy a little video I took of Sam counting in Arabic.   We are so proud of the way he is doing at school and how he is learning.  Counting in Arabic is the one day that I cried during language lessons (so far!)  He is being so brave and is starting to say some more Arabic words.  Sometimes he will say some of the sentence in English with Arabic words in the mix.  He made up the little song he is singing:)  Enjoy!!

We took this video last week and I am just now uploading it.  He still prefers to crawl but is walking more and more everyday.  Enjoy the video!

A TCK is defined as "  A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The TCK frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background."   A TCK basically has three cultures... the culture of their parents, the host culture, and then the merge those two together to make a third culture.   TCKs generally are thinkers, musically inclined, form friendships quickly, speak more than one language, educational achievers, and socialize well with adults.  It truly can be a great thing!   TCK's also have struggles, as any children, but generally they struggle with feeling "rootless", problem with decision making, they have an uncertain cultural identity, and feel different...