we're still here

so this update is a little overdue. sorry about that. we'll try to post more often now that we have something to post about.

hiba is growing every day. she is now a little over two months. she is a very happy baby - always smiling, hardly ever crying, loves being around people, and in the last few days has become very vocal. it's like she's just discovered she can make loud noises, not just "coos". so cute. we are having tons of fun with her. her latest accomplishments include sleeping through the night (that's actually not so new, thanks to the miracle blanket), holding her head steady when we hold her up up on our shoulders, lifting her head while on her stomach (although she hates tummy time...but if she's laying on jason, she'll hold her head up), saying "gaa" when she's not actually just swallowing spit-up while trying to talk, and yesterday jason heard her say "ba". basically, she's a genius.

other than hiba, our lives are more of the same as ever. i (sarah) go back to work on monday. i'm only working part time and i'll take hiba with me, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. paidia has been pretty busy this summer, between planning for summer camps (which start next month), finishing up the spring programs, trying to keep settlers away, and planning for next fall. we're both taking arabic lessons, which are going well. i realized i need to get serious about learning arabic, because otherwise hiba and jason will be able to talk and plot together without me understanding.

well, that's a brief update on our lives. here are the links to some photo albums of hiba. i hope you enjoy them!

Some more of Hiba

More Hiba

Hiba Michelle

4 days old

today hiba is 4 days old. i think that she is the best baby in the entire world. i guess most new moms probably think that, but i'm pretty sure that i'm right about her.

the last few days have been wonderful. i stayed overnight in the hospital for two nights, which was a good slow start, but i am so glad to be home now. i've been getting plenty of sleep between kathy's help (jason's mom) and hiba's wonderfulness. hiba is so adorable and just sleeps and eats and makes really cute faces. she is not a fan of getting changed, but even then she is easily calmed down and goes back to being pretty chilled out.

hiba's name is an arabic name that means "gift from God". there is a girl who lives at the house of hope who she is named after. i have told big hiba that our baby would have the same name as her and she's very excited. we are going tomorrow to see the kids and people at the house of hope, so i am sure big hiba will be very excited to meet little hiba. michelle is my best friend's middle name. we decided a while ago that we would give our first daughters each other's middle names. she had a girl in november who has my middle name. so that's where her name comes from.

we (me, kathy, and hiba) ventured out of the house yesterday afternoon to visit jason while he was working at the climbing tower. hiba was not so impressed with her first outing - she slept through the entire thing. we got a few dirty looks and "haram"s (which literally means "forbidden", but is used in everyday speech to refer to anything that is bad or people disagree with) because she is so little and out of the house. i'm pretty sure that people here don't take their babies out of the house before they are about a month old, but they definitely wait more than three days. so we were definitely going against cultural norms. luckily, we all survived.

so, life is going and we are loving it. it's still very surreal that we have a child, but it's wonderful.

And so it goes

I am sitting on my sofa as I type this blog. My parents in the next room resting from last night (none of us slept much) and my beautiful daughter in my arms. She is sleeping, which is apparently in her top five favorite activities along with eating, burping, spitting up, and waste elimination. I assume that none of you are all that interested in my words, and you would rather see pictures, so here are a few.

I forgot Hiba's 6th favorite pastime, sticking her tongue out at everything she sees.

Momma, right after we got home with Hiba for the first time.

All three of us together. Hiba's not really down with the whole picture thing yet.

This was in the hospital. She is trying to nurse my finger.

So, we are now parents. I am trying to start Hiba off on the right foot by watching some Spurs highlights and listening to good music (Bob Dylan is playing right now). So far she is not impressed, but I guess we'll have plenty of time to get her pointed in the right direction.

things that don't surprise me

-hearing rustling outside my window and looking out to see a heard of sheep and a couple of shepherds just hanging out.
-cars driving the wrong way down one-way streets
-cars driving backwards the wrong way down one-way streets (but facing the correct direction)
-hearing arabic all around me
-traffic jams that are caused by someone getting out to talk to a friend while leaving his or her car in the middle of the road
-driving down the main road in bethlehem and passing a guy riding a donkey
-having (at least) three different grocery stores that i go to to get my weekly grocery shopping done
-not having ice cream in the winter
-things that should take five minutes taking an afternoon

i wish that i had pictures to go with these. but blogger is being a pain in the butt with uploading pictures, plus our camera batteries aren't working so great. but i'll post pictures when i can. because these are the things that are now my everyday life. and it's not strange anymore, it's just life. and i've learned that if i really think of us living here, nothing i see or hear really surprises me anymore.

days like these...

sometimes i wish that we lived back in the states. or actually in town. or in a smaller apartment so it would stay warm. but then, there are days like yesterday and today when i love our house so much and never want to live anywhere else.

last night, we cooked out for dinner and then hung out on our balcony with munther, salim, and rachel playing settlers of catan while having a bonfire. and it's february. and i wasn't even cold. (granted, i was by the fire the whole time, but no one else was complaining either. except muther, but he always complains).

today it is sunny and about 70 degrees. and our view is amazing. we ate dinner outside because it was way warmer on our balcony than in our house.

in other news, i am 34 weeks pregnant and ready for 40 weeks to be here. i think every day i wake up and my belly is huger than the day before. she is kicking and stretching and moving a ton, which is fun and everything, but i'm ready to see her kick and stretch outside of my body.