SAHM - Day 1

From July 4th parade (their first! G, A, B) - WHO gives out POPSICLES on a 90 degree day???  It was a sticky mess :)

Well, I feel like today was my first day of being a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) even though my last day or work was 22 June.  Curt left for Doha on Sunday and Peggy is off of work on Mondays, so I still wasn't completely on my own until today.  All in all it went well.  We had our first skype call with daddy after breakfast, then we went to a park to play and have a snack, then we came home to get out of the heat and humidity (it's not Doha hot, but it was pretty uncomfortable) and yes, they watched Cars.  To be fair, while we were in CO last week for cousin Jeff's wedding, they pretty much begged all week to watch ANYTHING and they didn't get to.  We had some lunch, they took deliciously long naps, then after nap they played in the sprinkler until grandma K got home.  All in all a really good day. 

As I was watching the boys run around the backyard, i kept thinking "wow, I don't have anything else I need to be doing or thinking about right now.  For a change i'm not trying to think through an issue at work, or feeling like I have a dozen emails to respond to, or minutes to type up from a meeting.  I get to just sit here and giggle at my kids shreiking as they run through the sprinkler.  This is awesome."  Then I got up to "be a monster" and chase them around the yard.  Now, i'm sure not every day will be this idyllic or easy.  I may even get stir crazy, but the fact that it definitely felt manageable and FUN was great.  And it is true, the boys are SO well-behaved when it is just one person there.  No one to play against the other. :)

Some other highlights of the wedding trip.  The boys got to spend some quality time with cousins Jadyn, Noah and Gabe, we saw some cliff dwellings (i.e. several hundred year old kids climbing equipment), went to see the Royal Gorge (way awesome!), saw Tom and Kyndra and Jordan and Hutson, saw Claire and Mike and Jackson, Charlie and Henry and not only did we walk the kids through a small part of the Garden of the Gods, but Curt and I had a little date night there on his last night in the US.  We did a short challenging hike which was fun to see if we still had any fitness for hiking left in us, climbed some rocks and got to sit and talk until the sun set.  And the of course went to get some homemade ice cream! :)  Why would ANYONE go to a baskin robbins if there is homemade ice cream within driving distance?  I mean really.

PS I apologize for there being no rhyme or reason with pics on this post.  It's being cranky and I wanted to get these up sooner rather than later. :)

Brady and Jadyn



Jadyn and Aidan at her b-day celebration



B, G, A and Hutson and Jordan Wilson and Tom & Kyndra's in CSprings - too fun!

A,G,B and Henry, Charlie and Jackson with mom and Claire in CSprings

Garden of the Gods the day dad had to fly back to Doha.  Brady wasn't very happy (B, A, G)

Gavin gets a good snuggle before dad has to leave

Aidan and Gavin were being so cute at dinner one night holding each others' hands.  Melts my heart . ..

Brady with Uncle Chad on the Royal Gorge incline railway - i think he's having fun, don't you? :)

In other news, Aidan's been cleared to go without his sling as of yesterday.  The Dr. said the bump that is scar tissue around the break will dissipate in 2-3 months and then there will be no outward sign of the break.  The other good thing is that he broke it in 2011, and not 40-60 years ago!  The nurse who checked him in told me this AWFUL story about how she broke hers about 60 years ago and how for 6 weeks straight she was TAPED in a figure eight on her body (to mobilize it) and she STILL remembers the Dr. ripping the tape (and her skin) off and then retaping her every few days.  I just want Aidan to know how fortunate he is that medicine and understanding of the body has advanced!  I will take him whining about the sling (which he only did the first day or two) over ripping tape off of my kids body for 6 weeks ANY TIME! :)

A local junk yard has "Tow-Mater'd" an old tow truck.  It was way cool (A, B, G)

Centrifugal Force: 1, Aidan's Clavicle: 0

Well, we have been on our vacation for just over 2 weeks, so we were bound to need a little more excitement in our lives, right?  This morning, Curt and I took the boys to the local park to play before it might rain.  They were running around and having a BLAST for a good half hour.  This park has one of those single post centrifugal force pieces with the small foot piece at the bottom.  Brady had asked Curt to spin him on it (slowly) and so he did a few times, and then of course held it still for Brady to be abel to get off. Aidan then decides he too wants a spin and I hear Curt say "Now let me know when you want to get off" as he begins to spin it (I was watching Gavin play with a pinwheel in one of the yards that butts up to the park), when all of a sudden I hear the "pain" cry.  Aidan is laying on the ground next to the equipment (torture device?) and is just SOBBING.  He is also FILTHY as he seems to have been flung off of it into the dirt and woodchips.  Curt tells me that after he told Aidan to let him know what happen, Aidan proceeded to just let go of the equipment. Physics is not on your side when this happens. So Curt and I are both giggling a little bit as we try to clean Aidan off and help him calm down.  Aidan then proceeds to sit in Curt's lap the ENTIRE rest of the time we are at the park (a good 30-45 minutes).  This is pretty unusual, even for Aidan, but we sort of chalked it up to it probably scared him/knocked the wind out of him. 

When we get him home he is still whimpering and wants to be held.  For the next 2 hours.  I'm starting to think we probably need to take him to see someone when I pick him up to put him in his booster for lunch. As my hand goes under his left arm pit, the poor kid COLLAPSES into tears and a scream of pain.  I try to calm him, and take him to the couch to do some light poking and prodding.  It is clear his collarbone is what hurts and it hurts bad.  I get him back in his seat for lunch (it's urgent, but not an emergency) let Curt know after lunch i'm going to take him somewhere and then get stuff together.  Since it's sunday afternoon, no walk in clinics are open (though I figured he'd need an x-ray anyway) so our good friend Julie Carroll, Aidan and I head for the ER.  We were seen by a nurse in about 5 minutes, the dr. about 30 mins after that, and had our xray completed within an hour and a half of arrival.  Aidan even got a good hour and a half nap sleeping on me (so yummy!). Not too shabby.  The Dr. was great and said Aidan has a "Green Stick" fracture.  The bone has "bent", but it's not a splintered break like an adult might get and isn't such that it needs to be reset.  That's the good news.  He also says kids this age tend to heal much faster than adults, so 6-8 weeks might not be how long before it's totally healed and he said he will feel noticeably better MUCH before that.  The bad news is, he DOES NOT like wearing the sling (it's basically meant to be a visual cue for him, us, his brothers to go easy on that arm) and if he falls again he could make it worse. 

We get home after our trip and Julie says her good byes and we explain the situation to Brady and Gavin and then Uncle Matt, Grandma and I take the boys to Culver's for some greasy, yummy fast food and ice cream!  I mean, it IS our first broken bone.  I only wish I could know it would be our last. :)  Curt and grandpa are actually in Iowa City looking at the top two houses Curt and I had viewed yesterday when we went house hunting, so we kept them apprised with updates.  They were jealous THEY didn't get to go to Culver's with us. :)

I will admit, in the past any time I have heard about kids this young getting a broken bone, I have always sort of wondered about it.  How could it REALLY happen to a kid unless they weren't being properly supervised, yaddahyaddahyaddah.  Well, I shall now dine on all of those accusatory thoughts. :) 

I'll update with some pictures of the boys on our summer adventures soon! :)

Vocabulary Fail

OK. So Curt and I had a mirror held up to us this weekend and we recognize we REALLY need to watch our language.  I know I have probably mentioned that the driver's here in Doha are RIDICULOUS, and from time to time they really get under our skin (understatement of the year) when they do things like: turn left from the far right lane, don't let people merge, cut people off all the way up to the line at the round about, drive far faster than necessary or they have the skills for, ride your bumper, flash their lights for you to get over when there is nowhere for you to go, and so on . . .

On Saturday morning Curt was in the kitchen, and the boys were playing and just doing whatever in the play area.  I was clearing the table and I hear Brady saying something (over and over again) that vaguely sounds like "F&*^ing Idiot".  I look to see he is sitting inside one of the drawers that stores toys and i walk over and say "Hey Brady, whatcha doing?" and he says "Driving a car."  I about DIED.  He proceeds to say it a few more times - with EXACTLY the right amount of anger and under his breath tone that we may or may not have used from time to time :).  I say, "are you talking about those CRAZY DRIVERS?!" trying DESPERATELY to sink something else in his sharp little brain.  and he says "yes".  I then walk in the kitchen to tell Curt what has happened.  we both have a look of dread on our faces as we can still hear him saying it (again, still under his breath) over and over in the other room.  Trying not to bring too much attention to it, but still trying to implant other phrases, I head back in the play area for some re-training. :)

So tonight, we go to get the boys haircuts in the mall.  They are all being VERY good so Curt would take two of them to play and walk around while I would stay with whomever was getting cut.  Curt asks me when we are in the car on the way home if Brady had shown me his favorite car to "ride" in in the toy store when I had gone in with him.  I say "yes, the red one" (like a ferrari for kids).  Then Curt says "Did you hear what he was saying while he was 'driving' it?"  My eyes must have been as big as saucers because since the weekend we have BOTH been sure to keep it clean 100%.  So yes, apparently he associates driving with what has been an oft used phrase by Curt or I.  OUCH.  Kids truly do reflect your  best and worst don't they?

You can probably guess that Curt and I debated over whether to share this story or not in this venue.  I said it was 1) the truth and 2) maybe we needed some additional public shaming to make sure we clean it up around the kids.  Curt sort of felt like it might be truthful, but the painful kind.  I still really feel like this blog is more for me and the boys eventually than anything else, so I figure when they get old enough to read it and understand, they will have a good laugh at mom and dad's expense. :)

In other news we have made the switch to the big boy beds!  Friday morning the boys found that we had put them together in the guest room and were SO EXCITED they wanted them in their rooms with all of the beds made up RIGHT THEN!  So before breakfast we move the beds into their room with the cribs still in place and the beds next to the cribs.  They practiced laying in them and checking out the new sheets and covers and are SO PUMPED.  We also got a clock for their room with numbers so we could give them clues about when they are allowed to get out of bed, etc.  For nap time, all went down and were SO EXCITED to be in big boy beds.  We had told them if they didn't stay in the beds we would have to put them back in their cribs to sleep and after Aidan made himself known to be running around the room after an hour, that is just what happened.  Curt gave him a warning and 5 minutes later he was up and running around again.  Curt goes in and plops him in his crib and he proceeds to CRY.  He eventually falls asleep and Brady and Gavin DO NOT BUDGE from their beds. :) They do a great job for that nap, for bed time and even getting up in the mornings - we can hear them chattering but not running around until we go in at 630.  Until this morning.

Gavin had been singing by 550 AM, but otherwise was pretty quiet.  When my alarm wet off at 615AM i thought i heard pounding little feet (when they are hobbit feet, that's just what it sounds like).  I crack their door to see Gavin IN bed with Aidan and they are just giggling like crazy.  Brady is still in his bed like a good boy.  I open the door wider and give the meanest face I can even though my heart is just MELTING at the sight of these boys, I point at Gavin, then point at his bed.  He slowly gets out of Aidan's bed and then jumps in his bed.  15 mins later, I go back in to get them up and Gavin is still laying in bed with his feet hanging over the edge and Aidan and Brady have also stayed in bed.  So hysterical. :)  We did hear that Gavin and Aidan had to be put back in cribs for nap today.  Hopefully we can get the good habits to sink in this week - there is a woman here who is having twins in early July and she plans to buy them! :)  YEAH!

Evolution of a Black Eye

Aidan's Black Eye - 2 days in

Day 3

Day 4

No black eye - Brady and puppy didn't want to be left out of having pictures taken. :)

Daddy tickles Gavin - if only you could have heard the giggles from both of them.  :)

Day 5 of the black eye.  Stitches come out tomorrow!

Table Edge:1, Aidan:0

Well, this is one of those days where I count reason number 452 as to why i'm happy about being a SAHM in 3 weeks (from today BTW).  SO, after a LONG ASS week of work (including 1 trip to the ER for brady - no stitches in his lip, but a nasty cut and a follow up with a dentist, curt taking 2 trips to try to get his Qatari ID replaced after he lost it, 2 vaccinations for each the 3 boys (BTW it SUCKS to have to hold people still for 6 shots) and trying to wind up the last 4 years of work so I can leave with a clear conscience) we didn't have ANYTHING for dinner.  Sure, we could have probably done pasta and red sauce, but that jsut didn't sound good.  So we decide to play it loose and drive to mega mart to see if we could get the "good" fish sticks LuLu has quit carrying.  TH eboys were in a great mood, helping out with the shopping and we hit the mother load on fish sticks.

Of course they take awhile to cook, so while I was cutting up watermelon and curt was readying gavn's breathign treatment, they were getting squirrely.  Curt sees that Gavin has DRENCHED his t-shirt by drinkign water and then spitting it on himself, but did not notice that it was also on the tile floor by the couch.  Brady and Aidan had begun chasing each other around the room with oven mitts and I thought to myself, "Maybe we should just put them in their chairs and get the veggies and watermelon for them to start eating since we still have another 10 minutes."  But i didn't.  Curt began gavin's breathing treatment and the next thing I know i hear THE CRY.  Curt calls me in as I am already halfway out of the kitchen to see Aidan laying completely still on the ground, having slipped on the water Gavin had spit on the floor.  OUCH on the back of the head.  Then I see he is bleeding from JUST below his left eye (where he had hit the corner of the coffee table on the way down) and I kind of freak out. 

Long story short, I am entirely short tempered with Brady who is yelling things like "He's not bleeding!" (just after I say to Curt "He's bleeding near his eye") or "He doesn't want to lay there!" (as I lay him on the couch). We are applying pressure and after a minute or so has gone by i check it and see that it is pretty deep and is almost 100% likely in need of stitches.  Because i'm becoming a little unglued, Curt offers to take him to the ER, and I let him.  Brady is VERY sad to see dad and Aidan go and it only takes about 20 minutes for him to settle down.  The 3 of us have some dinner (though no one is really in the mood) and talk about what happened.  Curt calls about a half hour later and shares that Aidan got stitches.  WE talk with him on speaker phone with Brady sweetly repeating "I love you Aidan! I hope you feel better Aidan!, etc" and Gavin dancing around in the background with his shirt off (b/c it was soaked).

I get the boys up to bed and they are being SOOO good!  B/c gavin's breathing treatment was interrupted, once he is in PJs i have him wear the nebulizer while he reads a book and I change Brady.  Then we read a couple of books and when I ask "Are you boys ready for bed?" Brady says, "Yes." with a sigh.  Off to bed they go and they are SACKED Out by the tiem Aidan and dad get home.  Aidan eats a decent dinner and then gets to bed nearly 2 hours after bed time. Curt and I feel like we have been through the ringer.  In my mind, were we not BOTH so completely exhausted with work, we would have had plans for dinner at the usual time and the boys wouldn't have been trying to entertain themselves leading to the slip and slide of death . . . Of course, there are lots of what if's and if only's when stuff like this happens.  I'm sure there will be pictures to follow this post once we get the bandage off . . .

Brady's Laugh

OK, so I haven't done any video in FAR TOO LONG, but i thought this one really captures Brady.  He has developed this mischievous Dr. Evil laugh that makes me laugh out loud every time . . .  Enjoy. :)

Maldives trip and more!

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 . . . :)

Islands on the way from Male to our resort - love how the circles  dotted the water!

RAINBOW!

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. :)

The happy couple

snorkeling off of our deck . . .

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. :)

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 . . .

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)

Gavin was just chilling out and reading one morning . . .

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. :)

Sheriff Aidan

Gavin's first popcorn - YUMMY!

Our day at the beach with Chris Silva (G, B, A)

A,B,G chilling out and having lunch at Fuwairit beach in Qatar

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?

Water fight day - Aidan figured out the hose and LOVED the power that came with it!

oh my goodness, i just LOVE this shot.

Brady really getting into the water fight :)

you can see where he first soaked me!  But I got him back!

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!

why do we buy toys?  who needs a jungle gym when you have chairs you can turn over? (B, G, A)

Gavin: our tree lover/climber :)

now he has TWO buckets!  Look out!

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!

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

Aidan is now into wearing the engineer's hat everywhere.  He liked eating like a big boy too. :)

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. :)

Brady really got into eating his hamburger like a big boy :)