Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Doha Dinosaurs and cave parents. 

Jaydon has gotten to just the right age where he can really get into some of the silly traditions we have.  Halloween is a holiday that we expats have always gotten into since it’s so easy for everyone to join in on the fun.  Once we got Jaydon in his costume (Tylor was still napping) we headed out trick-or-treating. 

We explained to him that we would go to people’s houses; he would say trick-or-treat and then get candy.  Now Jaydon does not get very much candy and most of it is chocolate which for some reason he’s decided he doesn’t like (all well, more for me) so he didn’t really appreciate the candy part of the night.  We got to the first house and Jaydon did his part, got the candy then promptly ran in to the house. 

Steve fetched him back out, we went to the next house and he did the same thing.  At the 3^rd house we clarified the instructions that you say trick-or-treat, get candy, then don’t go in to the house but go to the next one – that’s when Jaydon asked, in a very concerned manner, when he would get to go in to people’s houses to go play. 

It was amazing how many kiddos where out and about and compounds are made for trick-or-treating.  We were also impressed how many people got into the fun.  The streets were full of kids of all ages and most houses, no matter what nationality, made an effort to give out some kind of treat. 

The next day I was chatting with some of our European friends mentioning how well I thought the previous night had gone and they responded that they couldn’t believe how many teenagers were out and about.  They felt it was very rude for them to be trick-or-treating, this confused me since in the US teenagers have as much fun with it as anyone.  I delved into this a bit more and they explained that they had assumed that like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny the Halloween trick-or-treating would just be for the younger kids.  I helped them understand that this isn’t the case so next year I think they will be better prepared.  Once Tylor woke up I went and collected him. 

Samina had stayed home to wait for Tylor and so it made sense to have her hand out the treats.  I gave her a witch’s hat and some necklaces and she really got into the fun of giving out the treats. 

I had purchased about 10 lbs of candy and we gave out everything.  That night we let Jaydon have 2 pieces of actual candy (the raisins, popcorn, and other baked goodies we got that night didn’t really count).  Then when he went to bed I cleaned up the house of any trace of candy or Halloween, hid away his bucket full of treats, and the next morning he didn’t say a word about more candy. 

So for this year Halloween was a one night thing – I wonder how many years we can keep that up for…    

Busy Weekend - Family Fun Day

The next day we headed out to family fun day.  Well half the family that is, since Steve works on Saturdays I opted to leave Tylor with Samina since the sand and the sun was likely to be a bit much for him. 

They had clowns at the entrance greeting everyone and handing out balloons. 

Jaydon also saw Barney and was very excited to get a picture with him.  After discovering the cotton candy we headed out to the beach. 

Jaydon had a great time on the beach hanging out with all his friends. 

And burying some new friends in sand. 

After all that fun we headed home for a nap and missed the big raffle drawing.  I learned the next day that my name had been called as the winner of the Wii - but must be present to win so someone else got it instead.  Looking back given the option between a Wii and a exhausted Jaydon with no nap I'm pretty sure I still would've opted for nap time :)  

Busy Weekend - 1st day

Boy did we have a super busy weekend! 

We first started by feeding Tylor some blueberries which made a complete mess and turned his lips and tongue purple for most of the day but he was sooo cute eating them all up. 

Next we decided to carve up Jaydon’s first jack-o-lantern.  We ended up with the pumpkin because Jaydon’s class at school had asked each family to contribute something for their fall soup day.  Jaydon was assigned a pumpkin; I had forgotten until the night before and sent Steve a txt message to pick one up on his way home from work. 

Well I should’ve known better and sent clearer instructions – Steve picked up a beautiful pumpkin for carvings rather than a small eating type. 

Pumpkins are hard to come by here and like Christmas trees have a huge mark up so he paid close to $35 for it.  I brought it to school and the teacher loved it so much she didn’t want to cook it so instead drew a nice face on it and kept it for decoration. 

The Thursday before Halloween weekend she insisted that I take it back home because she didn’t want to be responsible for such a precious item so, Friday morning our activity was carving up the jack-o-lantern.  Jaydon was all about the idea but wasn’t a fan of getting his hands all slimy in the pumpkin. 

Steve and Jaydon did a great job and Tylor was happy to sit and watch all the fun being had. 

Once that was done and everyone had their naps it was time to get into costumes for Lina’s birthday party. 

All the kids were encouraged to come dressed up so we suited up our cute little dinosaurs. 

Jaydon loved his costume but I think was a little self conscious of wearing it until we got to the party and he realized everyone else was also dressed up.  There were ton’s of cute costumes.

Lina was a princess (to match her princess party) and Jaydon’s good friend Abby was a cave girl which went perfectly with Jaydon’s costume. 

After some fun and cake we headed home and lit up the jack-lantern (Athena was the only one who I got a decent picture of posing with it – Jaydon was too busy blowing out the candle to sit still for a photo). 

We got the dino’s to bed then put on our own costumes and headed out for the annual adults-only and costume required Halloween villa crawl (an Al-Malki tradition that we introduced to the new compound Al-Rayyan this year). 

Our costumes were a little tight so no pockets for the camera but it’s probably just as well that we don’t have any other pictures of the night :)

5 months old

Tylor is 5 months old and is just as cute as ever.  He loves going on walks (especially when Athena is there to watch), is memorized by the running water when we wash his hands, and has already become an expert with his excersaucer toys. 

He’s almost able to sit up, probably a few more weeks and he’ll be a professional.  Now that he’s eating solid food regularly he’s become, well, more regular so no more worries about constipation. 

His reflux is also much better, though nights when he wakes up 3 or more times are usually directly linked to days when I eat too much dairy, citrus or tomatoes (also learned bacon is in that category – too fatty I guess). 

Tylor loves his big brother and they’ve started a new game where Jaydon tells him a story in gibberish and Tylor laughs and laughs.  It’s fun for everyone. 

Tylor is also a big fan of the baby swings at the park – I will get a picture one of these days because he’s so cute with his head sticking up over the swing and legs sticking out the bottom. 

We’ve settled into a pretty good routine now that I’m back at work.  He drinks almost the exact amount that I pump each day so no need to dip into the freezer stocks yet. 

All around he’s a pretty easy going guy and is growing up probably a little too fast.

October Parties

Apparently October is another popular month for birthdays. 

The boys’ calendar is full almost every weekend with a party of one kind or another. 

First it started with Sophia’s 1^st birthday party. 

They had a pool and bouncy castle for the kids to play on. 

 Jaydon had a great time playing in the kiddie pool.  Tylor loves watching all the kids running around. 

And the cake was big enough for everyone to have a gigantic piece. 

Next was Clarissa’s ‘play-date’ 2^nd birthday party. 

In a compound our size the invite lists can quickly get out of hand so the idea was to keep this one on the smaller scale but still had enough kids to fill up a couch.

I had also dressed the boys in their Big Bro/Little Bro shirts so got a couple good pictures of them.

Then came Jacob’s 2^nd birthday party and just about everybody was there enjoying the fun. 

And Jaydon was sure to show Jacob how to tell everyone how old he was now.

  

Day at the Beach

A few of the guys in the neighborhood decided to plan a boy’s only camping trip at the beach. 

Since Tylor was a little too young to join we stayed home (and I slept as much as he did recuperating from my first week of work) and Jaydon and Steve went to spend the day at the beach. 

A few days before Jaydon’s cough had started up again so I nixed the plans for camping out overnight. 

Jaydon had a great time playing in the water and flying his shark kite the Grandpa Forte had given him. 

Athena thought she was already in dog heaven and tried to be the energetic, pre-cancer puppy she used to be by spending the day swimming and fetching sticks. 

She did very well and seems to be all the better for it too. 

Jaydon decided that sunglasses are pretty useful things and looked very cool hanging out in the water. 

Since I wasn’t there I don’t have any actual stories to tell but do know the boys (and dog) came home happy and exhausted. 

When I brought Jaydon to nursery the other morning he asked why he couldn’t just go to the beach instead…