After we had given Steve's parents 1 full day to recuperate from flying all the way in from Alaska we loaded them back on a plane to take them for their first trip to Europe. Rome is a very easy flight from Doha and has good flight times (none of this leave at 2am stuff). We left on National Day so we made sure to leave extra early to avoid any crowds on the roads. Well our plane ended up leaving the gate late which meant we then got delayed for an entire hour on the tarmac so the Qatar Air force could go put on a show. We could hear the planes but couldn't see anything and Jaydon would've LOVED to see an air show. So to keep him entertained we discovered the Sponge Bob stickers Qatar Airways gives out in their kids welcome pack.
Jaydon had a great time with these unfortunately we had used all 3 pages of them up before we even took off.
My favorite part of the delay was when the pilot came on to say "Folks, due to an unforeseen delay we will be departing in 30-40 minutes". I guess the QA pilots and air traffic control crew don't read the newspaper...
We've decided the best way to travel with Jaydon is by renting apartments, we found one in a great location just a few blocks between Piazza Nouvona and the Pantheon. It was very well located and surrounded by a lot of interesting things to see however, the 3 bedroom was more of a 2 bedroom with a loft over the kitchen so once again Jaydon got to sleep in the bathroom (which there were 2 of).
The first site we had to see was the Coliseum.
When Steve and I where there last (during our honeymoon) we remember having to wait in long lines to see everything and literally melting in the August heat.
Travelling to Rome in December is a whole different experience, no lines anywhere you go (but be careful because sights close earlier than expected) and the weather was chilly and drizzly which was fine as long as you were dressed for it.
It gave me a good reason to wear my wool jacket Steve bought me last Christmas.
The Coliseum is also a great vantage point to see many of the other sights in Rome like the Arc of Constitene and the Forum.
The next day we ventured over to Piazza Novona which was in full holiday spirit with a Christmas market and carnival set-up.
With all the festivities you hardly notice the famous 4-seasons fountain which is usually the attraction for people to come to this Piazza for.
Jaydon was much more interested in seeing the people, dancing to the music and riding the horses.
We discovered one of Jaydon’s new favorite things – carousels. He loved them and would go round and round all day if we let him (this past-time is Jaydon - Daddy thing only, no spinning in circles for pregnant mommies – yuk!).
Every one we came across had to be ridden and we single handedly made sure the carousel owners had an especially good Christmas this year.
Jaydon also couldn’t resist the carnival game with Mingos! And the best part was after you caught and hugged the Mingos the guy behind the counter gave you a neat stuffed animal.
After we had played the game several times on several different occasions the guy started ‘upgrading’ Jaydon’s toys to the higher valued ones, but Jaydon had no interest in the neat action figures, he wanted the stuffed fish and crocodiles…
We visited the Pantheon but didn’t get any good pictures of the outside since it was covered in scaffolding and always seemed to raining.
It did make you appreciate the fact that roof is wide open to the sky and there are holes in the floor to assist with draining the water away.
Jaydon enjoyed the fountain outside mainly because it was a gathering point for all the pigeons.
This picture was from an adventure that Jaydon and didn't go on so not sure where it's from.
Towards the end of the trip once Steve’s parents had recuperated from all the flying they started to venture out on their own when Jaydon was having his nap. Here they visited the Forum again (I think).
Italy is an ideal place to travel with toddlers mainly because you are guaranteed to find something they will eat on any menu in town. Jaydon ate pasta for lunch and dinner almost every day. We had to put him through a detox program when we got home to let him remember there is more to food than just pasta.
Also B&W is the way to go for pasta eating pics, you can’t actually tell that his face is orange here.
Back to the Forum with the whole family; this place is so large that you could spend your entire trip just exploring all the nooks and crannies of it. Jaydon discovered the fun of rocks which is an excellent pastime in a city full of ruins. He usually had to have a rock in his hand or lap every time we strapped him in the stroller. Yesterday I used the travel umbrella stroller for the first time since the trip and there is still about 2 lbs of rocks in it from all of Jaydon’s collecting.
A trip to Rome isn’t complete without a visit to the Vatican city. We visited a few days before Christmas and they hadn’t quite finished setting up the nativity scene yet.
The way you do the Vatican with a (almost) 2-yr old is spend 40 minutes outside in the square chasing pigeons.
10 minutes waiting in line through security and the bag/stroller check.
10 minutes quickly walking through St. Peters church (listening to the ‘crying’ church music) then back to the square to wait for the rest for the group.
(This picture could so be an ad for GAP)
Then you send daddy, grandpa and grandma back the next day on their own to do the museum and take a trip up to the view deck above the city.
The plan was for us to meet up with them in the afternoon and head to the zoo but that ended up being the worst rain day of the whole trip. We were soaked by the time we met up and had to cancel the zoo plans.
If you might recall from an earlier posting Jaydon is not a fan of Santa this year. This was as close as we could get to a picture with Santa – note also Jaydon’s new found attraction of making faces at the camera (encouraged of course by Daddy).
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! (though very late since I'm writing this in March...)
We've learned that Jaydon can really only handle about 2 gifts at a time so it means we can spread the fun out over several nights. 
He loves tractors and everybody knows it so he had a tractor filled Christmas including both toys and books that made neat rumbling noises. 
Jaydon liked the camel saddles and had to try several out before he found his favorite one. 
They also had some beautiful Arabian horses on display and even let the kids come up and meet the jockeys and pet the horses. 
They also had a pony there for the kids but Jaydon was content with just petting him and had no interest in riding it. The kids also got a chance to show off their falcons. 
I would equate it to the 4H in the US where kids raise and show off various farm animals, except here it's falcons. While we were watching one of the birds 'escaped' but nobody seemed to concerned except for the boy who had let it go. 
The horse show started and Jaydon got to enjoy one his favorite treats - popcorn. 
They also had a camel show but for some reason we didn't end with any pictures of it. I guess they becoming so common place to us that we don't even get our camera out for them anymore...
He got a cool Thomas Train Christmas set, one of the cars sang jingle bells but he actually wore the batteries out of the engine before the jingle bells car stopped (much to our relief). 
He also got a farm book which has turned into his new favorite book that has to be read before going to bed and first thing once waking up. 
Steve's parents made the long journey to Doha to come and spend Christmas with Jaydon. 
Jaydon and his Grandpa Connor discovered that they were a great tower making team. Most nights his towers would still be standing in the morning (as a long a Athena's tail didn't come to close).
They did a really great job decorating for the party and thinking up activities for all the kids to have fun with. The whole week prior I talked to Jaydon about visitng Santa and saying hi and sitting on his lap hoping this would be a good picture opt. The day of the party I let Jaydon have a nice long afternoon nap (which meant we arrived at the party at the very end) and walked around the nicely decorated room. 
We got to Santa and Jaydon took one look at him and latched on to me with all legs and arms and refused to even look at him. If I took any motion towards him he started to say "No,No,No Santa". A few knowing parents smiled at this exchange. 
As soon as Santa said goodbye to all kids and started to leave Jaydon perked right up. We followed Santa out the door (at a safe distance) and Jaydon very enthusatically said "Bye, Bye Santa" once he was about half a block away. But Jaydon loved all the Christmas trees and the variety of neat decorations so he got me inspired to go buy a tree. We've only done a tree twice (I think) in Doha and both times I've found a real one. This year they were just too expensive. I think they realized that expats were willing to pay anything for them so they marked up the price. 
For half the price of a real tree I bought this very nice fake tree. Which ended up being much bigger in the house than it looked in the store. 
Fourtunatly Steve has a lot of experience with putting together fake trees so I supervised (and fluffed branches) and he did most of the work.
