Bouts of tantrum

So, my friend Dawn wrote a post over at The Mom Crowd about tantrums resulting from a new sibling (very common, I think that if we hadn't been living with my mother-in-law when my daughter was first born, all hell would have broken loose).

I don't have any good advice, other than treating it like a two-year old's tantrum and not acknowledging it, as well as deliberately making time to spend together, just the two of you. I do, however, have some funny pics of my kid's throwing tantrums. Hehehehe!

Little Man's first all-out toddler tantrum happened, not surprisingly, in the car on a long road trip from OK to TX

He usually loves getting his picture taken, but on that particular morning, he was MAD!

Culacha's tantrum in the car. She's actually thrown quite a few while driving, but as her napping has transitioned from 2xday to 1xday, she's mellowed out in the car. Plus, she has her brother to play with, which is a bonus!

I promise, my kids are not miserable all the time. In fact, it's rare that I get pictures of them NOT smiling!

Missing Rings

We've had two missing ring episodes this week. Mine, fortunately, has a happy ending.

Last Saturday I was making Hot Cross Buns for Easter Sunday. I had taken off my engagement ring to knead the dough, as I really didn't want sticky sweet dough to get stuck in the nooks and crannies of my diamond. After I was done kneading, Little Man and I were making them into balls and putting them into a pan to let them rise a second time. I got up to wash my hands, then Culacha came in wanting something, so I left the kitchen. When I came back (maybe an hour later), I remembered I had set my ring down on the kitchen counter and went to retrieve it. Of course, it wasn't there. I started to freak out, thinking maybe I had taken it off at a different time or put in down in another place in the house. I checked my nightstand. I scoured the bathroom. Looked under my bed. Dining room table! Culacha's room! Still nothing.

I finally went to ask my son if he'd seen it. What surprised me was his answer: "Sure mom, I took it and put it in my backpack to give to Abeer (his teacher)." While I was pretty ticked off that he had taken my ring without permission, it was a little cute that he wanted to give his teacher something so pretty. So, I made it clear that my ring was a special present from daddy, and he was never, never to take it without permission. Problem solved.

Hubby's ending is not so good. He realized last night that he wasn't wearing his wedding ring, and he couldn't remember recently taking it off. We've looked through the dirty clothes, our bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom, but no luck so far. He thinks it just fell off while he was out and about yesterday, although I'm not sure how that happened, since he's been wearing it for almost six years and that's never happened. So please pray that we find it! It was a gift from his uncle before he passed away, and it was his grandfather's ring before that. So, while it's not incredibly expensive, it does carry a lot of sentimental value.

***UPDATE***
Our son found the ring underneath his bed while cleaning up this afternoon. All we can figure is that hubby had put it in his pocket while washing dishes and then it fell out when he went to tell Little Man a bedtime story. Regardless of how it got there, we are so thankful that we found it!

Making Easter cookies

In this part of the world, it's a tradition to make cookies every year for Easter. Not just any cookies -- we make ka'ak bi 'ajwe (date cookies) and ma'moul. They're these little cookies made with semolina flour (or regular flour, but semolina's better) and stuffed with a date mixture, then the dough is formed into wreaths (to represent the crown of thorns placed on Christ's head) or stuffed with a nut mixture and shaped into oblong, sort of oval shapes (to remind us of the tomb where Jesus was placed). Like most things worth eating, they take a bit of prep work, and, true to form in the Arab world, take a long time to make. I think that has to do with the fact that Arabs tend to be incredibly hospitable people, so they make A LOT. Not just a few dozen -- we're talking hundreds of these little morsels to share with family and friends who come over to socialize during the Easter holidays. Making these cookies is also a very communal event, so usually you get together with a couple of other ladies from your church or family and work on them together. Many hands make light work, that sort of thing. On Thursday I went to my neighbor's house and spent a few hours helping.

Yesterday, it was my turn. My neighbor and her mother showed me how to make the dough (I had already prepared the filling at my house), and then we got to work!
My neighbor's mom forming the cookies

This is the part that takes a long time -- the decorating. We use these tiny, serrated tweezers to imprint the designs onto the dough. My neighbor is quite a pro at this, as she's been doing it for years, so I wanted a picture of hers instead of mine!

This is the ka'ak bi 'ajwe. Once these have baked and cooled, they are dusted with powdered sugar.
ka'ak on the left, ma'moul on the right

Sweet dreams

So, I've been thinking about dreaming for the past couple of days. Not the daydream kind or having "visions-from-God" type, but just the regular, nighttime brain ramblings. My dreams have been very vivid lately, which I think is due to stress coupled with bad sleep (which earns me some incomplete REM cycles).

I always have strange dreams, but the stress-induced ones are pretty easy to catch. I am either:
a)running through airports, doing some sort of international flight, and missing my plane, or getting on the wrong airplane and finding myself in a strange country and have no idea how I got there, or
b)working a La Madeleine, a french bistro-style café. It was my job while I worked through college, and while it wasn't mentally demanding in any way, it was could be very physically exhausting. Standing on your feet for 9 hours a day, getting up at 5 am and not going to bed until 11pm (or later), running all over the restaurant and carrying pots of hot soup or buckets of ice -- sometimes I would come home and crash without doing anything, especially when I carried a double shift.

A lot of times, when I have an important decision to make, my dreams take on the form of a quest (think Legend of Zelda). The quest usually has absolutely nothing to do with the actual, real life decision, but those can be kind of fun. Or, if a big change is coming up, I dream about being pregnant. I remember dreaming about being pregnant right before moving to Israel, just four months after having my daughter. It was surreal.

I kind of wish my dreams could be useful, because right now, they're just acting out what I already know. Maybe I need a "Thus-saith-the-Lord" dream, so I could feel like I have some direction to go, instead of feeling like I'm treading water in the middle of the ocean.

Anyone dream as much or as vividly as I do? What's the strangest dream you can recall?