The Big Red Pepper...

...aka CHILI'S.

Since our last attempt to eat at Chili's had failed, I owed Paul a second try. Paul was so excited to eat there. It didn't take Micah long to enjoy the place either as he was introduced to his Daddy's favorite (well, an Akin favorite actually) "chips and ranch". Micah just kept liking the ranch off the chip (sick, I know) and then saying "more, more." It was a fun night out together as a family and a nice break from cooking for me :)

So, I finally gave in...

...and I cut my little man's hair. And oh let me tell ya, it was so hard for me to do! If it was up to me, I would have waited a little longer, but Paul has been wanting me to trim it for months. I kept making up excuses not to do it..."once my family gets here", "once we move to Jordan", "once we move into our new apartment", etc. I think Paul was more tired of the gender confusion poor Micah was getting than anything else. Well, my excuses were officially up, so I got out the scissors and did the dreadful thing that makes my baby look like a big boy. Thankfully, I did remember to cut some golden locks off and save them for his baby book. For those of you who were ready for me to cut Micah's hair, you can THANK Paul. And for those of you that weren't ready for me to cut it, you can BLAME Paul. Hehe. I sure do miss my baby's curls :( Oh well, at least they will grow back...

After bath time-right before the haircut.

We actually cut his hair on the last night he was sick-he was much stiller than he normally would have been.

Look at all those curls in the tub...

Here is the remains from the tub. 

And the final product = a new man

Jerash

This past week marked the end of Ramadan (YAY!), called Eid. We had a few days off of language school, so we decided to do a touristy thing around here and head to Jerash for a day trip. Jerash is a bunch of ancient Roman ruins and was really neat to see. Since we don't have a car, we opted for public transportation and took the bus over a taxi in order to save some major money. It ended up being an incredibly pleasant experience and was also much quicker than we expected. We ended up meeting a couple from Belgium on the bus that was here touring around Jordan for 3 weeks. On our way home, a random Jordanian gave us a free ride back to the city. I would NEVER do that in America, but have been told that it is okay to do here. He was really nice and chatted with Paul the whole way back while Micah and I slept in the back :)

Bus ride on the way 

Stadium seating to watch the races and fighting

Hippodrome 

Taking a chariot ride (Micah was screaming-he was scared to death)

One of the amphitheaters 

Another amphitheater-this one provided some entertainment with music and dancing

Finally asleep but...

...then I slipped as we were walking down a hill and fell on some rocks (no surprise, I know) and Micah woke right up. My elbows still hurt really bad and are bruised :(

Before heading back we ended our day with a picnic lunch.

Once we got back home, Micah took a nap for over 3 hours and woke up screaming. I picked him up out of his crib and he was on fire as well as had a red face. It was an extremely HOT day in Jerash, and even though I put loads of sunscreen on him, I was a little worried that he was sunburned (thankfully, he wasn't). Nothing Paul or I did could calm him down. After attempting to feed him and give him something to drink (which he refused), he threw up everywhere several times. He kept crying and saying ""momma, momma, momma". He was so pitiful and I felt so bad for him. We took his temperature and it was 102*F. This lasted for two days and I had to miss a day of language school (darn. ha). We don't know if he was just overheated or what, but sure are so thankful to have our crazy boy back!

Say Cheese

Lately Micah has learned how to smile for the camera...but he has to say "cheeeessseeee" as he does it. It takes him a lot of effort as he cheeses real BIG-not that that is difficult when he already has that big Akin grin! :)  Sometimes we even get the eyes closed too...or at least squinted.  I have come to realize that he has now entered the official awkward smiling stage-the one where you totally overdue it. Yes, totally overdue it. That's my boy for ya. He thinks he is so cute and funny though, and I have to admit, we do too. 

Breaking the Fast

Every night at around 7pm, the call to prayer goes off which indicates to the Muslims that they can eat. We always have our windows open, so if we are quiet, we can hear our all our neighbors silverware going "clink clink clink". It is quite funny to listen to.  A few days ago, I was in our neighbor's home when the call went off, and she immediately ran to get a drink of water, while her husband immediately lit up a cigarette. Shows their priorities :) 

Recently, we decided to go out in town and experience the "breaking of the fast" at sundown. All day long Paul had set his mind on going to Chili's, but that didn't quite happen. Chili's recently opened, so it is extremely crowded. People get there to save seats and place their order way before it is time to eat. We arrived around 7pm, but they told us we had an hour wait-which wasn't going to happen with our little one. We decided to walk up the hill to another restaurant area, and found Tony Roma's. We hadn't eaten there in a long time, so we figured we would give it a try. We were seated right away and since the call had gone off, they immediately were bringing drinks and appetizers to us. When we asked for a menu, our waiter pointed down at our table to this:

It was a preset menu with only four options and was rather pricy since it was a full course meal. Paul was disappointed that not only did he NOT get his Chili's, but now he couldn't even choose what he wanted from a menu. I have never seen him look so sad-seriously. It was like a little kid pouting. Hehe. He wanted to get up and leave and go to the pizza place next door (surprise, surprise!), but I wouldn't let him since we had already been eating appetizers and drinking our drinks. We ended up staying and really enjoying our meals-I ordered salmon, and Paul ordered the steak, and they both ended up being delicious. However, once Ramadan is over, I do owe Paul a meal at Chili's. :)

Sports City

We live pretty close to a place called "Sports City". It is a massive compound with tons of beautiful facilities for almost any sport you can think of. The pictures below don't do it justice! The other day we decided to venture over there to see the running trail. It ended up being a little bit too long of a walk if we actually wanted to work out, so from now on, we may opt for a taxi to save some precious time. The trail actually reminded us of the woods in North Carolina as it was hilly and full of pine trees. It definitely had a different feel than the typical Jordan. We are hoping to be back soon and to get our workout routines back up and running.