Jabran on TV

Jabran made his TV debut tonight after working in the TV industry for 15 years. KCTS 9 has a show called Connects with Enrique Cerna. One of their guest was not able to make it in due to the weather. So at the last minute they came up with the idea of interviewing Jabran about the digital TV switch. Enrique asked him several questions regarding the digital TV transition coming up in Feb and about the coupon that can be ordered to help with the cost of a set top box. He did really well. Everyone at KCTS was pleased with Jabran's performance. I think he did quite well too.

Running out of ideas!

The girls and I have been stuck at home almost all week. We went out a little on Tuesday but other than that we've been here since Sunday after church. Jabran stayed home on Thursday because the buses weren't running. He worked from home but took lots of breaks to play with us. In my last blog I mentioned it being really cold. Well it still is. I don't think we've gotten over 32 degrees yet. As you can see here, by our pond fountain. We've had to get creative and entertaining ourselves. We had a few wrapping paper tubes laying around (I wonder why). So I found a horse head for Khalila to color and we attached it to the tube. Isabel has gotten into doing some household chores. Here she is putting the laundry away. She's been doing alot of walking practice as well. She mainly walks with the hippo. I put a stuffed animal in it to make it a stroller but Isabel didn't like that much. Khalila got into the cleaning mood and folded all her doll's clothes. She even put them away in their drawer.

We have of course gone outside to play in the frigid weather. Jabran got the sleds out and pulled the girls around. Isabel didn't seem to not like it but she didn't really seem to like it either. We got a big smile out of her by putting her in the swing. Khalila built a snow seat at the end of her slide. She was using it as a throne to decreed her orders. Not sure what was going on there. Jabran was playing with her on that adventure. Later that day we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood to check out the roads nearby. Isabel's face was getting really red and she wasn't interested in using my scarf so she and I came in early.

As the title of this blog suggests, I've been trying to come up with things for us to do in the house. I had Jabran go up in the attic and get down some toys that Isabel hasn't seen yet and Khalila for awhile. He brought down good ol' Clifford. From the archives here's a picture of Khalila on Clifford for the first time. Khalila and Isabel had fun going up and down the hall and around the house. Isabel can even use Clifford to stand up. And, I don't know if its just me, but I thought this was funny.

Breaking records temperature

"AP--The low temperature at Sea-Tac Airport dropped to 19 degrees at 4 a.m. Monday, breaking the old record of 20 for the date set in 1964."

Yes we are in quite the cold snap right now. Being from the midwest, this isn't anything over-the-top cold, but this area doesn't get below freezing often, so being in the teens is a pretty big deal around here. There are definietly signs in our backyard of the freezing temperatures. The upper pond is frozen pretty solid. I tapped on it with the chuck-it and it didn't budge. The lower pond is even freezing in some areas, which is odd since the fountain is always running. But as you can see in the featured photo on this page, the fountain itself is starting to freeze. Our swingset equipment are showing the season well. And even Kelbi is affected by the temperatures. Her water bowls are solid and one of her tennis balls was frozen solid as well.

There's not much of an end in sight either. We are supposed to stay below freezing for quite a while and get more snow on Wednesday. Winter is sure coming in like a lion around here.

Keeping up with Isabel

Let's see, I posted that on November 22nd Isabel was crawling. Then on December 10th that she pulled herself up to standing in her crib. Today, December 14th she pulled herself up to standing by the coffee table. We were all in the living room and somehow missed the event. I had realized that she was standing when before she was not and nobody had helped her up. She eventually did it again with witnesses. Later this evening Isabel was pushing Khalila's stool around walking on her knees. I got out the hippo again so she could walk behind it. She did it! She did it really well and didn't want to stop. I think she went up and down the hallway several time. She made this cute little face when she was in full walking mode. I think she was happy with this new found skill.

Christmas Tree

With all the snow, we got in the Christmas mood and bought a Christmas tree to decorate. Khalila helped Jabran with the lights. I'm so glad she can help with that now. I get dizzy going around the tree holding them for Jabran. Then we got out the ornaments. Each year I get a new ornament that best represents that year. We now have 10 as our first one was the 1998 "First Christmas Together". Here's the rundown of the rest of them that we have collected so far:

1999: New Home
2000: Ring in the new millennium with a bell
2001: Patriotic Bear
2002: Personalized "Jabran, Tina & Elmer"
2003: Parents-to-be and Baby's First Christmas (half the day we were parents to be the second half was, I guess, Khalila's first Christmas)
2004: Photo ornament of our big One year old
2005: Khalila turns 2
2006: New dog Kelbi
2007: Stork for expecting
2008: Baby's first Christmas for Isabel

Isabel seemed to enjoy looking at the ornaments. Khalila got started on hanging the ornaments while Isabel helped hang her First Christmas one. Then the garland went up. And while they were going around and around (again, glad it's Khalila helping now)Isabel and I sat on the rocking chair and watched. Then it was time for the big lighting of the tree. Jabran gave Khalila the honor of doing it. It's a pretty cool picture considering it was totally dark when this was taken. The final product can be seen above.

Khalila and I have been making some ornaments. We have an Advent calendar with daily Bible verses, prayers and activities. Some of the activities are making ornaments. Here are the ones we have so far. Khalila liked hanging them on the tree. She has a star, a sheep (I found a way to make this using her handprint to make the legs), and angels.

Snow!!

We got our first bout of snow this winter season, even though technically it's still fall. We have a couple of inches of snow out there. The big news is the temperatures. We are not supposed to be above freezing for quite a while. I heard we may break some 20 year records for the number of days below freezing. Yikes, I'm glad Jabran has gotten us well-stocked with firewood. Khalila had fun playing in the snow. She was out there for probably two hours. She was making ice castles. Of course if someone is out in the backyard Kelbi has to be out there too. Isabel and I stayed inside today. It was just too cold for me to be out there. Once Khalila finally came in she needed warmed up. She ate some of Jabran's famous Butternut Squash soup and then rolled up in her blanket by the fire.

St. Nicholas Day

Our church has the tradition of hosting a St. Nicholas Feast Day celebration. This year Khalila and I invited Natasha and Denise to come along. The festivities started out as usual, with Jeremy reading the story of St. Nicholas to everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean a packed room. It appeared Natasha was enjoying her time with Khalila at church. And Isabel munched on Cheerios during her first St. Nicholas experience. When the guest of honor arrived, everyone was very excited. The gifts were soon distributed. Isabel received her first, very own doll. She seems to really like it. She gave it a big hug and fed her Cheerios right away. Khalila received a coloring book. She loves to color! And Hazel and Claire enjoyed gifts from "St. Nicholas" as well.

I was right!

I don't get to say that very often. Over the weekend I asked Jabran to lower Isabel's crib mattress some more as I thought she was getting close to standing on her own and didn't want the railings to be too low. He said he didn't think it needed to be done since she couldn't pull herself up yet. I said there must be some "Murphy's Law" that the first time a kid does that it's in the crib. So he lowered it. And lo and behold, just a few days later, this is how I found her after her morning nap.

Kelbi is thirsty!

There's one problem with the baby gate. Kelbi's water bowl is downstairs. I think I'll put a water bowl up on the deck. At least if she wants to drink out there she can from a bowl. We're such bad dog owners.

We have a problem

Isabel likes her pacifier. I think her New Year's Resolution next year will be to break the habit. Now that she can crawl she is often found heading towards her carseat where I normally clip her pacifier.

Tree Memories

My parents went to McCormicks Creek State Park in Indiana this past October. They were sadden to see that the much loved tree that Shari and I would always climb on when we were young has fallen victim to the recent flooding in the midwest. He took some pictures of it in it's current state. And yes, that's Shari and me sitting up there in the tree. Click on the picture to see full size.

Itchy Itchy Itchibod

I haven't given an update regarding Kelbi yet. Last I wrote, Kelbi was getting baths for dry itchy skin. Well, it got worse. She was scratching so much that she was scratching her fur right off. So Jabran took her to the vet Saturday morning and now the vet is thinking she is allergic to something. It could be an insect bite, some environmental thing or a food allergy. The easiest to try and figure out is the food allergy so we are now feeding her a special diet. It requires buying a $75 bag of veterinary only dog food. And giving her fish oil to help rebuild her skin and coat. The regime also involves giving her Benadryl to help stop the itching. Kelbi doesn't like the Benadryl. One of the hardest parts of this testing period is that Kelbi can't eat anything else outside of those three things. Meaning no cucumber slice that rolls off the cutting board, no peanut that fall out of Khalila's snack bowl and hardest of all, no food from the high chair.

Jabran and I started thinking about what food Kelbi could be allergic to. Besides the aforementioned accidental food dropping we are pretty good about not feeding her table food. Then it hit me. About the time Kelbi started scratching was when Isabel started eating finger foods. I'm thinking Cheerios are the culprit. Although oats are not a common allergy for dogs (I googled to find that out) it's still possible. Of course this has not been scientifically determined... yet!

The Nutcracker

On Saturday the 29th Khalila and I went to see the Nutcracker with Denise and Natasha. Before we went I got a book about the Nutcracker so she would have an idea of what was going on. Here we are getting ready for the big night out at the ballet. I didn't want to lug around the big Nikon D70 so I only had my cellphone camera. But here are the two girls at the theatre. Khalila said her favorite part was the dancing. But I noticed her laughing a lot during the Chinese Tiger part. I think the girls had a blast, I know Denise and I were having fun on our day out with our daughters.