It's snowing!!

Or at least it was. It snowed enough for it to coat the ground for about half an hour, and then it melted. It was fun to watch though. We're hoping it will snow enough at least once while we're here so we can build a snowman.

We had a lot of fun in Aqaba. It was colder than we hoped, but not as cold as in Amman. We were still able to snorkel a bit the first day we were there, the second day it was really windy. It was nice just not having a schedule, although our every day life is pretty laidback anyway. And the food was great! Our last night there we went to a seafood restaurant. Jason had some decent fish and I ordered a calamari stew, and it was soooo good. It's probably the first thing I've eaten since becoming pregnant that I really enjoyed. The hotel also had a decent breakfast each morning, which was really nice. The only downside to our trip was coming home. Our bus ride back to Amman was not comfortable at all!

We want to see pictures of everyone's Christmas celebration! We had a very short one of our own; I'll try to put up pictures soon.

My belly popped!

Well, it didn't explode, but it's finally popped out enough that you can tell that I'm pregnant and not just thick around the middle. I didn't even realize this because since it's winter I've been wearing sweaters and such. Today I wore a tighter shirt and I could totally tell!



We've been having these very nasty looking bugs in our place. They seriously look dangerous, so I looked them up online. They are called house centipedes and look like this (about 2 inches long)->

Apparently they rarely bite and if they do it's like a bee sting. The sites I went on say they are very beneficial and not to kill them, but there is no way I'm letting those things stay in our house!! I don't care how beneficial they are, they are disgusting!! Whatsthatbug.com says they are the most common asked about bug, but I have never seen one before. Do they exist in Arizona? Has anyone else ever seen one?

In other news, Ellie is becoming my clone. She is such a little mother to all her toys. Today I saw her lick her finger and wipe off her baby's face! I didn't realize I did that so much! She is always giving her babies a "dider(diaper) change" and today she picked up something fragile and said "Don't touch that, gentle." Every time she goes into the kitchen she warns herself "hot, doooon't touch" while pointing to the stove. And whenever she thinks about climbing up on the table she says "Ellie be a good girl, noooo table" Whenever we get into a taxi now she starts saying "Yameen, shamel" Which means "right, left." I guess she's picked up on us giving directions to the driver. Maybe she can take over someday soon! :)

Packages!!

I picked up three packages at the post office today. Thanks grandparents!! Ellie is LOVING everything we received. She has all her clothes in a pile; it took a lot of talking to convince her that she didn't want to wear everything at once. So, she is only wearing: a shirt, tights, undies, pants, one of my new bras, a huge shirt of mine, and her new hot-pink tennies. I would say she is wearing at least 8 different shades of pink. She immediately introduced her new baby doll to her old one, and they are very good friends now (poor doggie has been abandoned). I am currently listening to a Christmas cd and eating goldfish crackers (yea!!).

I had quite an ordeal at the post office; including a lot of tears. I don't know if it was because I got three packages at once, but I was told that because the combined "worth" of the packages was $400, I had to pay 160JD to customs. That's over $220! I told him that was too much, so he said, ok, I'll reduce it to 75JD. I told the man that I couldn't pay that, so he sent me to the manager. I went to the manager, said I didn't have that money, but he just sent me to the cashier (maybe he thought I could pay with credit card?). So, I took the outside stairs, and stood there bawling for about 10 minutes. I was just so frustrated and discouraged after being so excited to get the packages. I'm sure the pregnancy hormones played a part as well! Finally, I was able to pull myself together (I thought) enough to go back to the manager and explain that I couldn't pay that much. As I started talking, I burst into tears again. I don't know if he took pity on me, or if he just wanted to get rid of me, but he asked "How much do you have?" I told him I had 50JD, and he said, ok, 41JD. So he led me somewhere else, and all the men in this room know me from picking up previous packages. They were all like, "Don't cry, what's wrong?" By this time I was kind of hyperventilating (mom knows how I cry!), but I was trying to stop. These guys were all so nice to me, and one of them found out that I live in the same neighborhood as him, so he said "Ok, 27JD." By this time, I was so embarrased to be dragged all over the post office crying. I ended up paying about $45 instead of the original $220. It was definitely worth getting all the fun stuff! I don't know what the rules are when sending packages, but if people could put a VERY LOW estimate on the worth, that would probably help. I know the estimates on these packages were right-on, because we receive a lot of nice things. I guess if this happens again, I'll just turn on the tears again :)

Christmas pictures

All is well

So, not much going on here. I'm still sick, Jason's still going to classes, and Ellie's still very cute. Jason's been playing basketball and soccer with some classmates after school on Thursdays, which is very fun for him. I've been doing pretty well at keeping my food down, but I don't eat very much. I can't wait until this part is done so I can eat like a pregnant woman!!

Ellie is very particular about how she does things now. She knows each routine and everything has to go exactly that way. For example, every morning she must have cereal with milk in a certain bowl with a certain spoon. She must push up her sleeves, wear her bib, and have baby and doggie "watch me eat." After the cereal is gone, I have to help her get all the milk. At night, when she goes to bed, she has to put on her "night-night jacket" (footie pajamas), get a drink, get a hug and kiss from me, have her doggie and binkies, and then Jason reads her a couple stories. She also makes her opinion well-known. Very often I'll be singing a little song under my breath and Ellie will say "Mommy, no sing." I didn't think I was that bad! But, she is still very sweet. Today I told her I couldn't do something because my tummy hurt and she looked at me for a second and then started kissing my tummy (that's what we do to all her owies). It was so cute!

One negative, one positive

So, today I've decided that if I say something negative, I should always follow it with something positive. A better way to look at things, if you will. For example:

- Ellie, you got paint all over the table, the plate, yourself, and my pants! Oh look, some ended up on the ornament, good job baby!

- Jason, our checking account is dying a slow death. Luckily, all our payments are directly taken out, so we don't have to watch!

- This "morning sickness" is leaving me with nothing to eat besides saltines, popcorn, and sometimes refried beans. But, I have finally lost those pesky 15 lbs. leftover from being pregnant with Ellie!

- We aren't able to be with family during the holidays, but people are sending us fun packages!!

It's December! :)

So, I don't know if people have heard or noticed the new ticker at the top of the page, but...we're expecting another baby! I'm due June 25th, and we'll be back in plenty of time to have the baby in Havasu. I found a doctor I really like here, and she has an ultrasound machine in her office, so I saw the tiny little heart flickering. I have been super-sick for about a month, but I've felt a little better the last couple days. I can't wait until I can eat more than orange juice and saltines! But, all this yuckiness will be worth it. Yea for more Tatums!!

Ellie and I have been working hard at decorating the house with Christmas crafts. When we're finished, I'll post a picture. We're painting, gluing, glittering, and even cutting. Ellie has some new plastic scissors, and she opens and closes them pretty well. She just can't quite get the paper in there by herself. But, we'll practice!

We've decided to travel down to the Red Sea for Christmas, Jason has a day off and we're making a long weekend out of it. It should be a lot of fun and relaxing, snorkeling and swimming at the beach. It's a four hour bus ride to the bottom of Jordan, so it's not too bad of a trip. So, even if we can't be with family, we should have some fun!

New best friends

Ellie has learned how to "smile" for the camara. That goofy grin isn't mine, right? It must be Jason's :) Ellie now does everything with her baby or her doggie. She sleeps with her doggie and sometimes brings him out to play. Her baby (which we took the voice box out of!) gets fed and gets drinks from Ellie. It's a little sad that she doesn't have human playmates yet, so she has to create her own. Hey, at least she has imagination!!

Our new favorite treat is popcorn that we make on the stove. Ellie loves the "noisy popcorn" and laughs as it pops. I don't butter it, so it is a healthy and fun snack.

On Thursday (tomorrow) the Fulbright office is having a Thanksgiving potluck. I can't wait to eat turkey!! It won't be the same as being with all of you, but at least we are able to celebrate (that means stuff ourselves)! We're going to start making Christmas decorations soon; Ellie and I went out yesterday to collect pinecones.

Stomach flu :(

Things are okay with us; Jason just got over the stomach flu. He was totally out of it for a couple days, but we're hoping that Ellie and I didn't catch it. If we don't have any symptoms yet, and he's been over it for a day, we shouldn't get it, right??? I really hope not; Ellie barfing is the worst. I hope Jason doesn't catch anything else from his classmates! It's kind of funny; Jason stayed home from school yesterday to recuperate, but it turned out that it was a holiday and there were no classes anyway. I'm trying to explain to him that now he can stay home today too since he was willing to miss a day, but he's not convinced. Oh well.

We had a major plumbing problem last week, a flood! Not just any flood, but a flood of sewer water. Some pipes or something were blocked and whenever we used a lot of water it would seep up out of the drain in the floor of our "laundry room." I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we hadn't met our landlords yet because they've been out of the country. Well, they returned last week, and I guess their water is connected to ours, so when they used their water, our office completely flooded. Luckily they are really nice and took care of it right away, but I was left to clean up the disaster area. (Well, I left a little for Jason.) It was disgusting, but at least it shouldn't happen again.

I wasn't able to sign up for the next session of Arabic classes, so I guess I'll have to wait until January. Oh well, it saves us some money, and it's nice to be home at night.

Ellie loves to watch this (and I admit, I do too. I'm a little embarrassed)

Backstreet Boys singing with Elmo

Ellie coloring

"I wuv you"

Tonight after Ellie took her bath, she ran excitedly over to me (completely naked of course), hugged me really tight around the neck, and said very clearly "I wuv you!" Oh my gosh!! Jason and I just stared at each other, shocked. Of course, I got all teary eyed and was like "Did she just say I love you?" I am so surprised, this is definitely the first time she has said this, and usually I say to her "Mommy loves Ellie," not "I love you." We couldn't get her to say it again, but hopefully she will pleasantly surprise us again soon!

Squitos, squitos

Ramadan is over! We just finished out the holiday celebrated after Ramadan, it is kind of like their Christmas (giving gifts, seeing family, etc.) Jason had a break from school, but we decided not to go to Petra. Ellie's been kind of sick, and we just wanted to rest at home. We've been pretty creative in inventing games for us to play in the house. Ellie loves to hide from us (running away and hiding in a corner when we ask her to come) so we introduced her to the game of hide and seek. After having her hide with Jason the first time, we realized that she is too little to hide, so she was a seeker with one of us each time. It was really funny for us to hide in very obvious places and watch her find us.

It has been getting cold here!! The temperature drops pretty low at night and it's rained a couple of times recently. We are excited to see snow here, but also nervous about getting around town with the snow. Since the city is built over many extreme hills, I'm worried about cars slipping all over the road. We are hoping that the cold will kill the mosquitos that keep sneaking into our house. I routinely check Ellie's room and our bedroom before going to sleep each night; I must say I am a little obsessed with killing each little bloodsucker. Is it bad when your toddler walks around the house banging on things and slapping the walls saying "squitos, squitos?" I wonder where she picked that up :)

Small video of Ellie, cute, but trial run so not good quality

Video of nephew Bryson... so cute!

Posted By:Tara

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Everyone see Ellie's little age chart on the top of the page?

The iftar (dinner with Fulbright people) was fun. None of the VIP's showed up, but it was good food and a night out without Ellie. There was a huge buffet including appetizers, main course, and dessert. It was nice to get dressed up and head out for the night. The best part is that Ellie loved being with Alex and Kendra. She didn't mind at all that we were gone! Ellie has started to call me "mom" a lot. I have no idea where it came from, except maybe from one of her books. Isn't she too young to be calling me "mom?" Every time she does, I repeat whatever she said with "mommy" instead of "mom." I don't want her to give up on "mommy" so soon! Pretty soon she'll be calling me "Kirsten."

My first session of Arabic classes are now over. We had to take an oral test last night to prove to the teacher if we are ready for the next level. I was surprised to realize that I knew every single word she tested me on. I guess all my practice with taxi drivers and Ellie's preschool teachers is paying off. The next session doesn't begin for a couple weeks, so I have a break for now. Jason also has a break soon, for 5 days or so, so we are thinking about going to visit Petra. This is an ancient city from 6th century B.C. created by Nabataean Arabs, a nomadic tribe. They carved many of their buildings into the surrounding sandstone, so they are supposed to be very beautiful. It is the number one tourist destination in Jordan, so we figured we better go while we are here! It will be nice to see something besides Amman.

The little chatterbox

Well, Ellie went back to school. And she seems to enjoy it more each day. She has gone three days so far, and the last day she was not upset at all when I came to pick her up. This was definitely a good decision, even though she already has a runny nose. Hopefully she will not catch anything too serious from the other kids. She has a new favorite word; it is "beautiful." Ellie walks around saying "Ellie bee-uful" all day, every once in a while throwing in "mommy bee-uful" or "picture bee-uful." The last time she was painting I said her picture was beautiful, and she grasped that word quickly. She has two other "word games" that she likes to play. One is pointing out who owns what around the house/taxi/street. It goes like this: "Mommy's chair" (point), "Daddy's chair" (point), "his seatbelt" (point to the taxi driver). She makes sure she has everything covered before she will stop. The other game is naming who she knows and saying whether they are a boy or a girl. "Mommy girl, Daddy boy, Ellie girl," etc. Then there is the occasional "Daddy girl...noooo, Daddy boy." As you can probably tell, she really likes to talk.

There are 9 days left of Ramadan. Tomorrow Jason and I are going to an "Iftar," which is the big party-type meal when they break their fast. This one is hosted by the Fulbright office and held at a really nice restaurant in town. Some very important people will be there, including His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal
and the American ambassador to Jordan. I am excited to be able to go and will let you all know what it is like.

School Days

The entire family goes to school now. Ellie started today at a nearby nursery. I dropped her off while I went grocery shopping, so it was a short trial visit. She went quite willingly, didn't care when I kissed her goodbye. However, once I returned she saw me and her little lower lip started to quiver and she burst into tears. They said she did cry while I was gone, but I'm sure that will get better with time. We'll see if she goes willingly tomorrow :) The school is within walking distance (about 20-25 minutes) but when I return home after picking her up, I will take a taxi because it is all uphill. Jason is good with the hills, but I have some trouble pushing Ellie's stroller up the steep ones. It is only 50 JD (about $75) a month for Ellie's school, which is extremely cheap. Even though she won't even be attending half of the time, it is still worth it for that price.

I have about one week left of my arabic classes, but the plan is to take the next level after that (and the next one after that). Jason was paid $50 today to take an arabic test from the US Department of Defense. All of the students in his classes who spoke English fluently were given this opportunity. There is the possibility of more tests in the future. They told him that the tests were trial Arabic placement exams, but I think they are looking for future employees! Wouldn't that be funny. I hope the government doesn't hunt me down for posting this :)

Update on packages

We have received a couple of letters so far (thanks Autumn!), and we have one package waiting for us at the parcel post office. I need to clarify the address for anyone planning on sending us a package.

No one in Amman gets regular mail sent to their house. Everyone has a post office box that they pick mail up at, and if they have a package they get a slip saying to go pick it up at the parcel office. Only places like UPS, FEDEX, etc. bring mail directly to houses. So, any mail through the regular post office needs to go to this address:

Jason and Kirsten Tatum
c/o Fulbright
PO Box 850215
Amman 11185, Jordan

Please put both of our names so either of us can pick it up. Thanks!

(be sure to read the posting under this one, it is new as well)

Friends!

Ellie and I have been looking at nurseries in our neighborhood, so that Ellie can make some friends. I've just gone in a couple and let Ellie play for a little bit; both times she did not want to leave! In the first one I put her down, she walked right over to some kids and started playing, and she didn't look back at me once. I could have left her and she wouldn't have cared! Thankfully they are extremely cheap here, no more than $100 a month, so hopefully we'll find a good one that Ellie can go to a couple of hours a day. She will love it!

The Thompsons came over today and played cards with Jason and I. It was so good to hang out with them! Ellie always talks about them ("nra" and "Alec") so she was excited to see them too. We played spades (which Jason and I won in a close race to the finish) and golf, which Kendra dominated.

I attempted my first baking trial, and it turned out well. Our gas oven only has two settings, heat on top or heat on bottom. You can't designate what temperature you want, so I was pretty skeptical about baking with it. But, I made some (healthy) oatmeal/date/banana cookies that tasted really good. They were so good that I doubled the recipe today to snack on while we played cards, and they are already gone! We have been eating a lot of dates here, since they are plentiful and not too expensive. They are one of Ellie's favorite snacks.

I will try to post more often; I have received hints to do so, or else people think something happened to us :) It's just hard to think of what to write when we don't really do too much!