Too much of a good thing

Lately Carl has been complaining to us after he eats that his stomach hurts. He groans and mopes arround the house then dramatically lays on the couch holding his stomach. We ask him all sorts of questions as to why ect and he always says he doesn't know. Today I gave each of the kids a hot dog for lunch with celery sticks, which is a treat for them, and went upstairs to finish my workout while Missy watched over them for lunch. A while later Carl comes upstairs moaning and groaning about his belly. I asked him what was wrong and he again said he did not know. Ha-Na came running in asking if they could eat a piece of their easter candy (after easter it gets put away and rationed). I asked them if they had eaten all their lunch and Carl says "I tried but I could not finish." I thought this to be odd considering he eats more than anyone in the house. Then he says "I just couldn't finish the fourth one". "Fourth what?" I asked. He then goes on to tell me that after he had finished his lunch I had given him he asked and received more hot dogs from missy and finally stopped at four. Carl does eat a lot, well after each of us finishes dinner he continues. I had to then have a talk with him that the purpose of eating is to be satisfied not stuffed till we burst or in his case moan and groan for an hour. It amazes me that all that food fits in his little body. Again tonight he was his usual self, he had two helping of chicken, three helpings of pasta and four helpings of salad, and that was where I stopped him. If he is eating this much now I am scared to see him as a teenager.

Sweetening our horizons

When we first came to Bahrain we had the goal of trying some new fruit each time we bought produce. That lasted a couple of months and we did add Lychees to our palate (especially Ha-Na) but then we stopped trying new things. With our time here coming to an end (probably, maybe) we decided we ought to take the opportunity to expose ourselves to some more new flavors. Today we brought home Mangosteens and Rambutans. They are both from Southeast Asia. The mangosteens have a hard deep red rind and look like something I would have stepped on before we tried it. When you open the shell there is a segmented white fruit inside. It is very sweet and we all liked it very much. Rambutans are more fun to say and look at than exciting to eat. They are good but they are pretty much the same as Lychees if you have had the chance to eat them. The difference is that the Rambutans are covered with long soft spines and are red so they look like something you would see in a sci-fi movie which makes them more fun to eat than lychees because you can let your imagination run with the experience.