The magic and the mess...

 my little darlings effortlessly bring such magical moments. my heart sort of stops. I take a deep breath. I breathe in and I smile deep into their eyes.

lately it has come hearing her sing to herself or her dolls. she was belting out " God loves you! Jesus loves you! no one else!" 

or when i glance over and she is instructing her dolls quoting me word for word. 

 

and the other day i turned on a CD that a friend made me for Sophia...it has a lot of sweet and emotional love/mom/lullaby songs. and with her extra cuddles and warm breath on my neck i just sort of melted in the moment. i kissed her neck over and over and danced with her and cried. i cried. cause i love her so much. 

it is so fun when everything seems to just sparkle. When we go for a family day by the sea..and it is golden. 

 we talk to the mermaids and fish...

 we greet every person with a dog. we talk to any kid who is playing.

 and then we settle into a family table...the Layla- friendly playground to our right, the sea to our left. We  order a very Lebanese lunch and sit for almost 2 hours. and i let my soul just sigh deeply in a most content way. because God has gifted me with a 11 month old who will just talk, sing, clap and cuddle for that long...

 and this outing just practically sang it was so perfect. and i love making little stamps in our family passport of memories. that we can browse through pictures and remember the small moments we shared on that day.

 but then comes the unexpected. the dangers of life here that cause us to stay inside for 4 days...wanting to be wise. and then of course the unwanted lice occupation 2012. definitely had a few moments that i felt at the crossroad of cry-and-crumble or just sigh-and-smile and earn this mom metal. the lice of 2012.

 this is a very very happy "princess bwaid" girl.

 Lice realities from a Beirut-y gal.
- We have limited electricity. so timing loads of laundry gets to be strategic. also heating up hot water to rinse hair (All the time!!)
- Going through layla's hair takes 1 1/2 hours. x2 day. with a crawly-cutie. its a bit insane. then mine. we are talking about a 3 hour ordeal twice a day. and then the washing and sterilizing...
-I wish i had a family member here to help with laundry and babysitting. ha!
-Day 4 we ran out of water. yep folks. no water in the house. that was a testing moment. No water for laundry, for rinsing, for sterilizing, much less toilets and washing dishes. we got some about 1/2 through the day..and we are still on restrictions...but we are figuring things out...

 and in between the cycles of rinsing...checking...treating...laundry...i am trying to allow our second confinement for the week allow for girly, sister, memories.

 and dream of outings to come...