Kids Unscripted: Chapter 20

Talia: "Mommy, I can reach the milk without even a chair! I'm getting taller! Yay!"

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Talia: "Three hours?! That's even longer than two hours!!!"

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Talia: "I don't ever want any sort of confection!"

Me: "I think you're meaning 'infection'."

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Talia: (playing fire truck) "Here comes the person else seeing if there's a fire..."

(She meant 'another person'.)

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Talia: (drawing a sea monster) "So if you ever find yourself in pretend water with these pretend creatures, be careful!"

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Talia: (Running away from Elias who has a play syringe from a play Dr.'s kit)

"He's trying to 'shot' me!"

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Talia: (presenting a plate of pretend truffles) "Be careful! That's a Caramel Wiggle truffle and it'll run away if you're not watching!"

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Talia: "I'm building a church for birds (with blocks.) I'm leaving these holes so the bugs can get in because you need lunch at church!"

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Me: "Your shirt says 'Park Ranger.'"

Elias: "Woof!"

Me: "Park, not 'bark.'"

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Talia: "Mommy, all of my icktertaliens (ick-ter-tay-lee-uns) are sitting on the floor outside."

Me: "What's an icktertalien?"

Talia: [holds up a creation made from clothespins] "They fight bad! So if you ever want to fight an animal you should fight a monkey or something, not an icktertalien."

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Hot Water or Hotter Water

In Abu Dhabi cold water is stored in tanks, usually on the roof. In the summer months this can make for some almost boiling "cold" water. So, there are a few ways people combat this problem. If they have their "hot" water stored in a tank underground or in the building, they then just switch off the hot water tank and it becomes the cold water and the sun-heated "cold" water is plenty warm!

In some places, like in the hotel in Ghayathi, they have a water cooling machine to re-cool the water before it enters the building. (Except it was broken, so between sunrise and sunset any shower you took might leave you boiled. Ben found this out the hard way.)

The benefit of this is that if you normally use gas to heat your water, you can now just use "cold" water for anything that requires hot and not use the gas for water during those months and save some money.

Or, you could just leave them both on and have a choice between hot or hotter water. (Particularly gross for brushing your teeth.)

Kids Unscripted: Chapter 19

Talia: "All of our tigers are sweet ones that hug."

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Talia: (after falling off of her bike) "one thing that doesn't need a friend is a scratch, those are better off lonely."

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PawPaw: "Maybe we can save the shoes that are too small for Elias for a baby brother or sister."

Talia: "If there's another brother or sister, it's going to be mine. Elias will have to wait for another one."

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Aunt Chel: "Turkeys don't say 'quack!'"

Talia: " They do in my pretendment."

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PawPaw: "Who's this?" (Pointing to Talia)

Elias: "Talia!"

PawPaw: "Who's this?" (Pointing to me)

Elias: "Mama!"

PawPaw: "Who's this?" (Pointing to himself)

Elias: "PawPaw!"

PawPaw: "Who's this?" (Pointing to TeMaw)

Elias: (blank stare and then pointing to a Pepsi can.) "Pepiiii!"

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Talia: "Mama, what do snails eat?"
Me: "Plants and things like bird poop."
Talia: "We should use them to clean cars!"
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Talia: (to Elias) "You are funny! You are Elias and you are a boy and you are funny!"
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Elias: (pointing at Talia's chocolate shake from PawPaw) "BIIIIIIIIIITE!"
Talia: "Elias, you can't always get what you want. Leave me alone, I am trying to ENJOY my shake."
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Talia: "What do lions say when they yawn? 'Rawr or RAAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!'"

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Me: "Look, Elias, there's a baby cow drinking its mama's milk."

Elias: "MMMMMMMMMM!"

Fig Preserves

I

My parent's neighbors received a fig tree start from my dad a few years ago. This summer it's a nice sized tree with more figs than they could handle, so I got an invitation to pick figs. I easily got over a gallon, but didn't know what to do with them. Google and YouTube gave me a fig preserves recipe and canning instructions. I only added lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and pectin. They turned out well, reminding me of an apple pie flavor.

And they made pretty good tarts too.