News from the Jacobs family in Saudi Arabia
Here are are few random pictures that were taken during Grandma and Grandpa’s recent visit (although they are just of Kai and Nora).
It was a wonderful visit but now Grandma and Grandpa are heading home. I think that it was a good chance for them to reconnect to parts of Dhahran that haven’t changed and enjoy exploring those that 
have.  We all did manage to share a pretty nasty cold that has been making the rounds over here and that wasn’t as much fun.  We loved having them visit and hope that they come back again.  In the first picture where it is just Grandma, Grandpa, Kai, and Nora, can you tell that the TV was still on?
I haven’t pulled the camera out too much since Grandma and Grandpa got here but I have snapped a few. I’ve thrown them together into a quick gallery so enjoy!Â
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Grandma and Grandpa arrived late on Monday night and are here for a short visit. Kai was beside himself the next morning eager to see them but, after the trip and with jet lag, they were still asleep. Kai would screw up his courage to go upstairs to wa
ke them up but by the time he would get to the door he could only whisper “Halloo Grandma and Grandpa” and then run downsta
irs. By evening we were all awake and together and Kai got some help from Grandma to get his valentines ready for preschool and Nora was excited to have personal book reader. You can tell from the second picture how much she is taken with Grandpa.
Her language has really exploded the last couple of weeks as well. She is trying a lot more words and clearly understanding a lot more as well. She eagerly attempted Grandma (Gam-Gam) and Grandpa (Guh-Ka).
It is my first video post!  When I came home a couple of days ago Vangie was playing a game with Nora and Kai where they would pack a little bag and then go on a “trip” around the pillar in the playroom quickly arriving back home. I managed to catch a bit of the tail end of the game the camera though it was tough with Kai climbing on me so that he see the screen on the camera.
[flv:/Video/Nora_and_Kai_Trip.flv 320 240]
Our favorite bakery down in Khobar is Latif Patries which is just a few feet from where the north entrance of the old Al-Shula mall used to be before it burned down. The main part is for men only (of course) but a few years back they added a side room where 
women and families could go up 
and place their order through a small window. Ali is the head baker there and he always shows us cell phone pictures of his young daughter and loves holding Kai and Nora. ((who generally end up being passed through the window)) He always gives them a little bottle of juice as well and, for Kai, that is the high point of his visits to Khobar. ((We’ve told Kai that he shouldn’t ask for the juice.  This last time after we ordered he sat squirming in the little seat by the window mumbling “juice” under his breath until he couldn’t take it any more and lept onto the chair and shouted “JUICE!”)) This last time Kai got a tour of the back rooms of the bakery and all I had was my cell phone camera so please excuse the poor quality of the images. Nora took a little bit to warm up to Ali but eventually walked over and gave him a kiss on her own.
Recently Nora has been enjoying popcorn and often when I’m in the kitchen she’ll rummage through the bowl cupboard to find her little popcorn bowl. She’ll walk up to me and with big blue eyes say “cone” which is her attempt at “popcorn.” If I don’t respond right away she’ll point in the empty bowl and say “Cone Deh” which is her attempt at “please Dad, when you have a chance can you fill this bowl with some popcorn?”  If I still don’t respond she’ll go to the pantry where we keep the popper, point to it and give me a look like “Dad, I know this is hard for you but try to keep up with me, OK.”
I’ve been in my new office for a year and a half now and half of the walls are still bare.  I’d been meaning t
o get a “center piece” for a while but only recently got around to it. Crystal and Ellen Alquist were carpet shopping and found a silk Qum ((The Qum carpets come from a city in Iran (called Qum incidentally) and this one is made by the Nouri tribe which I’m assured by the carpet dealer is one of the more renowned sources of carpets. The colors are rich and vibrant and the carpet is soft as…well, it is soft as silk.)) that they thought would be perfect so the next week I headed down to Eastern Carpets to check it out. I ended up with a different one that the one they showed Crystal and Ellen but I love it and it is a stunning work of art.
The second shot is a wide angle one that shows the carpet in the context of the office.
At night after a bath, Mom helps Kai and Nora put on a bit of lotion. Recently she’s been giving it to them to put on their face all by themselves. Nora gets some on her hand and pretty much just mushes in onto the end of her nose but she does put her heart into it. Kai ((You can see that Kai continues to love his Superman pajamas. In fact, Superman pajamas are not just for bedtime; he’ll spend all day in them if we let him and we generally do (at least until they get Superstinky) )), on the other hand, does it with style, as the pictures attest.
In other news, the night time temps are still getting cold. When I got up this morning the outside temp was 39.8F. However, we’re getting into the season of wild temperature swings since the daytime high yesterday hit 80F.
It has turned cold again with the themometer in the backyard reading 40F this morning (With a fair bit of wind to boot). In other news, the grass in our little postage stamp of a backyard isn’t doing too well. We’ve been in three Aramco houses now and our backyards always seem to be blighted. We do see others with lush foilage spilling over their walls so it must be something we are (not) doing. 
Anyway, the upside is that we have a pretty big sandbox! Nora just likes moving dirt but Kai is definitely cooking stuff. He is good at including her as to where to put her sand to further the recipe. The picture of the two of them together is where Superman is directing Nora how to mix sand and water in just the right proportion to make a birthday cake.