Brady and Dad on the swingsThis is my favorite week to live in Qatar. The week after Ramadan (the month of fasting and shorter workdays which gets OLD, my friends) we get a week off from work. All of our colleagues travel, but I am on duty 1) b/c someone has to be and 2) so I can add this on to my vacation in the states in December! I don't know if you have ever taken a week off of work but stayed home, but it is actually REALLY relaxing. even with three rugrats who are into EVERYTHING. :)
The first night of our break we fell asleep on the couch by 8:15 PM and were in bed by 9PM. awesome. there is nothing like 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep to do a body good. since then we have been in a nice little routine - occasional walk to the park (still pretty much too hot and humid to be outside very long), some playing in the sand (and yes, both Aidan and Gavin decided to try to eat ROCKS), occasional trip to an "illegal" neighborhood pool, a lunch out, etc. it's been great.
Gavin shows a little skin in mid-tantrum
The boys are eating up a storm. We had our first meal "out" with them since we were in Des Moines this summer where the highchairs straps didn't work and the boys were either climbing out or throwing rice on the floor. not fun. OUr friend Kevin foolishly called to meet us for lunch yesterday and said he would be happy to help with the kids. I have known for awhile we needed to start doing this with the boys, if only to get them used to being out in public and just to have something different to do. I got these great kiddopotomus placemats that stick down and have a pocket and then just roll up when you are done (thanks Lindsay W for the recommendation!) even though after our lunch in des moines curt said he would never go anywhere with the boys until they were about 6 years old. HA! anyway, we took them to Applebees (your friendly neighborhod restaurant, even in the middle east!) and they were SOOOOO good. the key is of course to keep them busy. They are too young for coloring, but since they LOVE food, that was our ticket in. they were also jazzed to get all of the attention from teh staff, to look at the different environment and all of the people coming in and out. it was pure heaven for them. Now, I have never really paid much attention to kid's menus until now. MAN do they suck for any decent healthy menus - at least here. They boys split chicken fingers and a grilled cheese and fries and broccoli. there was an option to ask about their "healthy" options instead of fries. I think i was the first parent to ever ask for this. the waitress literally did not understand my question, even after showing her where we were reading on the menu. she then tells us the healthy options are mashed potatoes (for 1 year olds, not in public thanks), or a baked potato. we finally got her to share they could give us steamed broccoli, but it really did seem like it was completely out of their day to day requests. On our way home the boys seemed like they were SPENT. they didn't sleep, but they did look like the guy who did the Supersize Me movie - like they had just ingested enough fat and salt for a week. Luckily they still were HAPPY to eat the tofu and acorn squash for their dinner that day. I think all of the fried food was jsut a little much for them all at once.
We also had friends offer to be our third adults and go swimming at a local pool with us. It's not in our compound (that is supposed to open "in shallah" - i'm thinking god is NOT going to "will it" before the end of the calendar year :( ) but a colleague who has the authority to, told me to go ahead and use it since we had small kids with little options to get them outside right now. it was AWESOME. Gavin had a perma-grin on his face the entire time we were there. I think he drank half of the pool water, but he didn't care. Aidan was much more reserved and Brady was just taking it all in while he clung to curt or me.
Some last bottles for Aidan and Gavin
And of course, what are the boys up to these days? well for starters, Aidan is our little climber. he first used a pillow to climb on the couch, but has since been able to haul himself up by grabbing on to us, cushions, putting his little knee on the couch, etc. it's really cute, but also a little nervewracking since it's his new favorite activity. He of course now wants to climb EVERYTHING - coffee table, entertainment stand, etc. He is really pushing the envelope with what he can get away with, but has also entered a really snuggly and cuddly stage that is so nice. i'm really reticent to end the bottles when we are out of formula in a couple of days, but if we still get snuggles like this, it will be easier for me.
Super Aidan
And Brady is asserting his independence. It's not that he doesn't like the food we serve, he sometimes just doesn't feel like eating it at that time. He has started a nasty habit of throwing food on the floor which has resulted in standoffs that resemble this: He picks up the egg/pepper/fruit/toast/whatever and puts his hand out over the floor when he doesn't feel like eating it. We will see him do this and will say "Brady, do NOT throw that on the floor." He will then sit there with this shit-eating grin on his face for 10-30 seconds and then PLOP! drop the food on the floor. SO UNFURIATING. this means he loses his tray and is done eating whatever we are currently feeding them (but if there is another course, like the fruit, he can have some of that), or he may be done for the meal. This has involved him sitting in his highchair without his tray and watching his brothers eat quite a bit lately. He will cry for the first minute and then sit there just taking it all in until we bring out the next course. He also thinks "no" is funny. like HILARIOUS. also, infuriating. he is our little fire marshall though. his new favorite trick is closing doors. the big ones. he will see his bedroom door is open, crawl purposefully down the hall and then slam the door, only realizing later that he is now locked inside. it drives him CRAZY if he didn't shut the door hard enough and it stays just kind of propped. This is funny to watch, but also a little scary since he has now caught his fingers in a door more than once as he tried to make it shut.
And Gavin. He is our rough and tumble boy. He does not yet get that he may be hurting or annoying his brothers as he "plays" with them. Gavin and Aidan have this great game where they will steal each others pacifiers back and forth ( see video below). Sometimes this results in sadness (see end of video) but it can usually go for quite awhile with them giggling and squealing at each other. The other morning he had his pacifier and was trying to take aidan's while they were standing in between two cribs. Aidan is behind him against the wall and Gavin is holding on to the pacifier in Aidan's hand with ALL HIS MIGHT and turning bright red and screeching. Aidan has begun to cry and complain about the situation when Gavin loses his balance and lands his nearly 24 lbs on aidan's 20 lbs. This is reminiscent of much of how Gavin plays with his brothers when he gets over excited. We only had some bruised egos on this one (everyone lost their pacifiers after this little incident) but we are constantly worried he will accidentally take them down and acutally hurt them as they hit a table or something. He doesn't do this stuff to hurt them, he just gets wrapped up in the toy or game and can NOT let it go. we had to take a mom/gavin time out this afternoon after he was SO excited about the ball toy (plays music, shoots balls in the air) that he kept falling over on it and subsequently making the toy hit one of his brotehrs in the head/face/hand/etc. It took him a solid minute to get his breathing slowed down and to be able to focus on a different toy with me, out of sight of the original toy. He is also actively trying to walk - he will stand with one hand on something and you can see him set his concentration to try to walk to one of us or another piece of furniture JUST out of reach. It's so exciting to watch - and maybe it will mean his lazy brothers will bother trying too. :)
Stealing Pacifier Game - Aidan and Gavin
