Well, things have really been picking up around our place! Curt and I took a LONG AWAITED trip to the Maldives together SANS KIDS! And while, yes, of course, we missed them, we had a FANTASTIC time, the boys were just fine staying with Tess and Ariana and it helps us feel like we can do this again! :) Yippee! We called the boys each night while we were gone and got to "talk" with them on the phone. They sounded so happy and didn't even freak out when we were like "OK, we need to go, we love you, etc". After our lovely 3 days in paradise, we had a tricky day getting home, that nearly removed all traces of relaxation (Qatar Airways wins "Company with no logic or heart" competition), we got home around 11PM (should have been home around noon) and sweet Gavin was laying in his crib with his eyes open. I truly think he was waiting up for us. He got up and we all had some snuggles, then Aidan woke up and we had some snuggles, then Brady woke up, some snuggles and then they all went back to bed. just delightful. They DID wake up and were sweetly calling for us at 530 AM that next morning - not quite ocean waves, but we will take it . . . :)
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| Islands on the way from Male to our resort - love how the circles dotted the water! |
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| RAINBOW! |
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| More rainbow! :) |
As for our trip, curt and I got to take naps, snorkel, read, eat when WE wanted to, TALK . . . goof around, it was great. after the last few months (ok, like 7 months) curt has had with work, he REALLY needed the time away. Kuramathi resort was just BEAUTIFUL - with bats and snails and sharks and fish and birds and crabs, etc. even though it rained 2 of the afternoons we were there, it was perfect for napping, and ensuring we didn't get sunburned. :)
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| The happy couple |
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| snorkeling off of our deck . . . |
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| i was hunting this shark like it was my JOB! SUCCESS! |
This past weekend, we spent it with the boys just hanging out. Friday morning we brought out the pools and chilled in the backyard while the boys played and ran around. Brady came up with a new game - i was sitting on a chair and he walks over to me with his yogurt bucket full of water and proceeds to POUR IT ON ME! Then the fun began! We basically had a water fight with the boys using their buckets and curt or I using the hose. It was so much fun! As you can see from the pictures Brady was on a TEAR with these buckets of water. The boys looked through our pictures from our trip and loved seeing dad and I doing different things and talking about the animals and different things we saw. Then this morning we took them to play in what will be the nursery school at the student center - they have all of these slides and indoor climbing things - it's clean and has AC! AMAZING! they were bonkers over all of the stuff to run and play on. There must have been like 15 different slides and i think they went on everyone of them in the first 10 minutes we were there. :)
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| Brady's black eye - a few days in (corner of coffee table hit JUST on brow bone - LUCKY). He looks like he has eye shadow from 1984 on . . . |
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| Aidan put these three pairs of sunglasses on himself and went around growling at us b/c he was a "monster" (said in scary monster voice) |
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| Gavin was just chilling out and reading one morning . . . |
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| The boys are loving alternating between Curt being a giant and the big bad wolf. I think he was "blowing their house down" on this one. :) ( B and A) |
Then we took them to buy big boy beds. We have been avoiding this for several reasons. 1) we aren't sure we want them to be "free" to get up/out of bed whenever they want. they are good sleepers in general, however they are beginning to outgrow their cribs and we think the reason they might be good sleepers is because they are trapped there and have to be. :) 2) it's one more step to them growing up. (gulp back tears). of COURSE we want them to grow up and are delighted at all of the things that come along with that, but it seems like it is just zooming by us . .. 3) we weren't super jazzed about buying furniture when we are only going to be here for another year, but at least they were on sale. :) the boys haven't yet been asking to get new beds, though when we come to get them in the morning brady and gavin will sometimes throw a leg over the rail like they want to climb out. i think both of their falls have made them cautious enough we don't quite have to worry about them trying to get out though. :)
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| Sheriff Aidan |
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| Gavin's first popcorn - YUMMY! |
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| Our day at the beach with Chris Silva (G, B, A) |
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| A,B,G chilling out and having lunch at Fuwairit beach in Qatar |
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| Playing along to some music - Aidan was intent on his guitar playing, Gavin was being an elephant, and Brady said puppy wanted to dance. :) |
After getting the beds we took them for their first experience of eating AT A McDONALD'S! it was pure laziness for curt and i, but still exciting for them even though it didn't have any of the cool stuff like the ones in the US usually have. The funniest part was brady asked me a few times where "Mickey was" and where "Donald was" and I was sort of lost as to why he was asking that. All of a sudden i realize it's the name "McDonald's" he is referring to and his closest reference is mickey mouse and donald duck and they were nowhere to be seen . . . i wonder if ronald mcdonald will be fun or scary when we are in the US?
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| Water fight day - Aidan figured out the hose and LOVED the power that came with it! |
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| oh my goodness, i just LOVE this shot. |
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| Brady really getting into the water fight :) |
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| you can see where he first soaked me! But I got him back! |
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| OK, so i didn't quite mean to aim so well . . . but he took it all in good fun! |
Then this afternoon we went to our friend Juliette's 3rd b-day party! the boys had lots of fun playing with her toys, eating food off of adult plates, eating pizza and playing on their trampoline. They weren't so good about sharing her little car, or taking turns climbing up the ladder, but they were having so much fun that a few head bonks on the trampoline and a bloody lip (gavin) didn't really even cause a bump in their fun!
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| why do we buy toys? who needs a jungle gym when you have chairs you can turn over? (B, G, A) |
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| Gavin: our tree lover/climber :) |
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| now he has TWO buckets! Look out! |
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| isn't this expression of joy just wonderful? |
A few fun stories:
A couple of weeks ago after bath, Gavin noticed that his fingers looked different when he was getting lotioned up. It sort of made him freak out and cry b/c he didn't like how they looked, but having us explain to him why they looked like that (though i don't understand exactly WHY your skin does that - anyone?) must have been good enough for him. After the next bath, he got out and as i was putting lotion on him he kept saying "Fingers Angry!". Apparently that was how he translated 1) "wrinkly fingers" and 2) what we were trying to tell him about why his fingers looked like that. very funny . ..
Brady and Aidan are both regularly saying things like "Play with me" "walk with me", etc. I just love how they will grab our fingers and take us wherever they would like for us to go and show us how they want us to play with them. It's pretty magical taking on a two year old's perspective. While we were gone, friends Heidi and Dave (Alexandra and Johanna) had invited the boys and tess and ariana over to play. they came back with a huge pop-up play thing that looks like a bus. Over the weekend Brady pretty much camped out in there - bringing in books, pillows, blankets, etc. He would ask us to come play in the bus and most of the time it would be to "sleep" with him. adorable. I'm guessing he will be our camper - i can't WAIT!
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| Dad reads to Aidan and Brady (sigh) |
You may have remember from previous posts that Aidan is our hobo - always trying to carry around as much as he can. well he is now using the giant yogurt buckets to carry around about 20 trucks and cars and whatever else he decides to bring with him. He likes to bring this bucket upstairs before bed and for awhile curt and i would dutifully bring it downstairs and put stuff away. Every morning when they would get up, before getting diapers changed Aidan would say "i'm going to get trucks" and would scamper downstairs for about 10 minutes then come up with his bucket full of treasure. So funny. The other night I just decided to leave it outside their door since he was just going to go down and get it anyway first thing in the morning. He was like a kid at christmas when I told him i left him a surprise outside their door and he went to see what was there.
FIRST McDONALD'S RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE
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| Aidan is now into wearing the engineer's hat everywhere. He liked eating like a big boy too. :) |
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| Gavin got into his juice. :) he would eat his hamburger without picking it up and just trying to rip off bun and meat. drove curt crazy. :) |
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| Brady really got into eating his hamburger like a big boy :) |
