We Bought a Scooter

We Bought a Scooter!!!

Isn't it beautiful!

Neal really likes the scooter, however, he wrestled with buying a scooter or a motorcycle. Of course a motorcycle is more manly, faster, and exciting. Also, according to Neal, a scooter is the mini van of India, and what guy honestly wants to buy a mini van. But, he did choose to purchase the scooter over the bike for many reasons - 1) Women can drive scooters and not bikes. 2) Under the seat is storage and there's none on a bike. 3) The seat and leg space is bigger so you can fit more kids on a scooter. Therefore, he thought it was wiser to buy the scooter over the bike. 

 The color was something Neal and I didn't agree on, so he narrowed it down to three choices for me to choose from. I chose the red/wine color (as shown in the picture) over black or gray because I thought it was prettier and more fun. That was Neal's least favorite...not sure why it was one of the choices then, but I'm thankful:) So, Neal decided to plead his case for one of the other colors by taking a pole of the Indian men who hang out in our garage. (He forgot that Indians dress their boys in pink and drive purple scooters, etc.) He told them the three colors and asked which they'd choose, knowing they'd pick the gray or black, but he was wrong. It was unanimous - the red/wine scooter. So, that's the beautiful color we bought!

Elijah loved it, especially holding onto the mirrors as if he's driving!

Enjoying Life and our Terrace

I've enjoyed sitting out on our terrace each morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, as Elijah plays. For me it's always seemed to draw me closer to the Lord when I'm outside seeing nature and feeling the breeze whip through my hair. It's very peaceful in the mornings with few motorcycles going by blowing their horns, so it's a great time to read my Bible and talk to the Lord. 

Lately I've had such peace in my soul and a joyous feeling thinking that this is my home. I delight in living here and I feel very safe, familiar, comfortable, and happy to be in this city. With the cooler weather it's been wonderful leaving our doors open with only the screen closed and all of our windows open to let in the outside air. This is the first place I've ever lived where I've slept with all windows and doors open. This is also the only place I've ever lived where I have a big iron gate with a screen on it in front of all of my doors. 

The sky was so beautiful right before the weather got cold at night and the poor started making fires all throughout the city. Now it's foggy looking because there's a smoke cloud covering the sky. So glad I took this picture and the two at the bottom when I did.

Elijah loves to run around and look over the side at the vehicles passing or the children playing across the street. He waves and yells at the people below.

Elijah knows he's not to touch Mama's flowers or play in the pots, so he gets as close as he can - standing between them, laying between them, holding onto the pot and looking at the dirt that he's not to touch. I'm sure he stuck his hand in it right after the picture.

Cleaning with the little broom and dust pan is something Elijah's come to enjoy. Sometimes he even follows my cleaner around our house with the broom cleaning like she does. It's so cute!

Visiting our Friends

About once a week we go over to visit the family we lived with when we first moved here. 

The baby in the picture is the moms sister's baby who is two or three months now. Elijah was so interested in the baby because she's someone smaller than him. It's weird seeing the two of them together because I realize just how big Elijah is and honestly not a baby anymore...sad but wonderful.

I always enjoy visiting, especially when the whole family is home and therefore Neal can visit with the dad. The dad brings such a different dynamic to the family because he's such a funny guy. He (the dad) adores Elijah and wants to hold him or play with him whenever we're there. And, of course, Elijah is playing with the cell phone, which is his favorite, especially when it's playing music.

Here's two videos of the kids playing with Elijah.

Elijah's Dance Moves

Elijah's got all kinds of good dance moves...not sure who he learned them from:)

Videos of Elijah Learning to Walk

When Elijah first started walking it was very hard to catch it on video because each time was so brief. However, I did get a few on video that are so cute. It's precious watching him waddle around. He's so courageous because he gets back up to try again every time he falls - I'm so proud!

Elijah Playing with Friends

All the kids in our building periodically come up to play with Elijah. The girls usually try to spend time with Elijah, holding him, playing chase and toys with him. The boys, however, mostly enjoy playing with Elijah's toys because he has a pretty big variety that's different from what they have.

Visiting Friends

Some of our friends came to visit from America, so we went to another city to spend a few days together. It was so wonderful to visit another city that's very beautiful, and especially spend some much missed time visiting with people from back home. I love the way I'm known by my friends and there's no need to explain anything about myself because they know who I am. 

In our city we don't have many places with nice beautiful grass for Elijah to run in. We have a few parks, but the grass isn't quite as nice, and we're always super crowded by people taking photos and wanting to talk to us and hold Elijah. Here, for some reason, it was very different in that not many Indians took a lot of pictures or smothered us like we're used to...it was nice:)

This day we went right beside the lake you can see in all the previous pictures. There were all kinds of boats going on the lake and a group of ducks you could feed. It was a lot of fun...especially watching Elijah watch the ducks because he's never seen them before.

This big train engine was randomly beside the lake, so everyone had to get their picture made in front of it. 

This is random, but this is the station you go to in case of a fire. Neal and I thought the buckets of sand were just too funny...only in India.

And of course when the hotel found out our last name they had to put us in this room number:)vc q