Sawtha 3lii (her voice is loud!)

Claire has found her voice, in the cutest way. She loves cooing, shrieking, screaming, and making all sorts of noises. by herself or with an audience. Today, as she drank some water, she realized that if she screamed into the cup that the sound was magnified...and well..it was just what she wanted. So we laughed our way through her new-found pleasure.

Everyday my heart is more deeply captured by her. bright eyes lighting up when they see me. dimples appearing to crescendo the moment. every moment feels just a little more full because she is there.

Today, we came home from a full day at school, and i was feeling pretty dang-mare-you-are-smokin. I had exceeded the academic requirements for the week, created a new mouth-watering mexican recipe for our dining pleasure, met a bedouin taxi driver who lives in a tent and has two little girls and wants our family to come meet him and his family, gone running a couple times, been beat to death by valerie in a new work-out regime, and been drinking in the moments with claire that i know will go by too fast if i don't catch each and every one of them.

after lunch, and a smoothie (yes for like the 15th day in a row) i packed our little selves up and we braved the heat wave that hit amman and visited yessica's neighbor. it was the first visit that all three munchkins were on together, and i have to say that is was fun. all the kiddos did great and the neighbors loved seeing the new-moms banding together for comfort, help, and sanity.

oh, in true mary fashion...we were given something to eat that was not disgusting, but just...interesting. i told them i could not finish it because i am trying to lose all the baby wt. that appeased them. but they would have none of that with yessica and kelly, because they are so tiny. i just took the neighbors side and told the girls they needed to eat up for their milk supply! ha!