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| The same onesies they took their one month picture in :) So adorable. (ABG) |
The month of May has been chock full of things as our move looms large. The boys are have done fairly well in terms of understanding that they soon won't live in Doha, they will be moving to Iowa City, and most of their stuff will be coming with us. As we have sold items off (or discreetly given them away) we have had a few "HEY! Where's my . . .?" For the most part they have accepted that it's not a toy the play with/it's too big to bring with us to Iowa/another child needed it/etc. The closer we get to the move, the less understanding they have been and the more we have seen outbursts - often around them missing the cars we sold in less than a week. I think Aidan must have been the most attached to the red and blue car as his emotions seem to run the deepest, but Gavin too has shared his sadness about not having our cars any more. Hence, the picture below - hope it brings back good memories boys! :)
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| GAB in the minivan the day before we sold it! |
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| Good friends - Heidi and Sam |
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| Gavin, Johanna, Aidan, Brady and Santi - enjoying the sprinklers |
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| Gavin, Aidan, Brady, Alexandra, Santi |
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| Gavin the cat and Aidan |
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| Who knew Aidan could balance a fork on his nose? |
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| Brady too! Our boys will have a long and prosperous future I can tell . .. . |
Here are some pictures the boys have been drawing. I'm so impressed by what they have begun doing and always love the labels they put on them . . .. :)
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| Aidan - Elephants at the zoo |
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| Brady - Self-Portrait |
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| Aidan - Self portrait with Brady |
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| Gavin - Happy! |
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| Gavin - Gavin and a sad baby |
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| Gavin - Scared with Shadows and Thunder and Lightening |
As I type I am listening to the sounds of packers taping up boxes - YEEHAW! The boys are with Tess at our friend Heidi/Johanna's house and I have a few moments to sit and think. In all the excitement of the preparation for moving, Gavin has decided to potty train himself, and I do mean HIMSELF. Last Sunday he announced at the pool that he wanted to poop in the potty, I made a MAD DASH to get all of us home, only to find he then said he did not want to use the potty. OK, no worries. Then while he is in the tub, he says he is "holding it in" and I tell him he can sit on the potty while we are taking a bath if he wants to and he agrees - HOLY COW. The kid must have been holding his pee all morning, because he pees for about 2 minutes straight - full on Austin Powers. He is SO PROUD of himself, as he should be! We are jumping up and down, Brady and Aidan are telling him they are proud of him. It's awesome. On MOnday, he pees twice at school. On Tuesday he pees at home 3 times, once while visiting the Dr where he says "Mommy! I have to pee!" just as we enter for the appointment. Luckily we have an excellent pediatrician who says "be my guest!" and Gavin goes and pees on a PUBIC toilet without the help of our seats at home - amazing. At school he peed on the toilet 5X between 730 AM and 1230 PM. he is ON LIKE DONKEY KONG and now he's a pro. He says he is still nervous about trying top poop on the potty, but he has started telling us more regularly if he is dirty since he's not wearing undies yet, just pullups. I think the books say not to try to potty train during times of high stress, like a move, end of school, etc, but I guess they didn't take Gavin into account. :)
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| Gavin YOU are a SLAM DUNK! :) Way to go buddy! |
Last week was also one of the saddest weeks here in Doha. Sadly, there was a terrible fire at Villaggio Mall that ended up trapping kids and teachers in the Gympanzee. All 13 children, 4 teachers and 2 rescuers died from smoke inhalation. Every death is a tragedy because it SHOULD and COULD have been prevented (especially when we read more and more stories about how things have unfolded) but even more distressing for us were that the two year old triplets we knew perished. Lilly, Willshire and Jackson were 6 months old when I met their mom Jane and they were a very kind couple whom we did not know well. Thinking about how devastated Jane and Martin must be will forever haunt me, as I'm sure it will them. I can not imagine losing all three of our boys in one fell swoop. Nor can I imagine having lost only one or two - how could you not just smother the other two by keeping them twice as close if you had lost other children? Our boys were lovely all day the day I learned about Jane's kids, hugging each other and me. Hopefully people will use this as a learning experience and will truly improve safety features and training, and people will take fires seriously. We had visited the nursery/drop off babysitting site when the boys were small, and while we had both thought it was a pain to get our stroller into and was a little claustrophobic, we never connected it to fire safety. I will never be able to look at another place where my kids are going to be in the same way again. Thankfully.
We have also had the opportunity to do all of the things you always plan to do, but never make a priority until your experience comes to a close. We have gone out for dinner with some adult friends, hit up the jazz club that plays anything but jazz, and just lived it up with the boys as much as we could without completely losing our minds from exhaustion. It's been great. One thing I hope the boys remember is that even though they will miss these friends, they have made some really good friends whom we plan to have reunions with and they will make even more friends in Iowa City. Moving is always hard, I know i've done it enough, but this move is easiest for me because my family is moving intact to a familiar place and I'm old enough to know that the most important people are together.
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| At Al Shaqab under a pic of HH The Emir and one of his prized arabians (Brady, Santi, Aidan, Johanna, Te'a and Gavin) |
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| A little MOther's Day fun at Same, Santi, Te'a and Shawn's house (B, Santi, Te'a, G and A) |
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| Fun with Ahmed and Maria (AGB) at Ameena and Hamads' house! |
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| Feeding horses at Al Shaqab (GBA with Johanna and Santi in the background) |
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| The whole gang at Ameena and Hamad's house |
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| More playdates! |
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| Our dear Tess with GAB |
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| Wil Arooj and Jess with BGA |
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| JIll Duffy with GAB |
