Potty time and bear caves

Tylor continues to want to do everything Jaydon does, even sitting on the potty.



Every once in awhile he evens succeeds in using it properly. We haven't decided to full on potty train yet.



Tylor's ready, but the rest of use aren't yet.



We also went over to the Fenn's to play with one of their new toys they call the bear cave.



It's essentially a gigantic plastic sheet, tapped together and then blown up into a cave with a big fan.



Tylor especially liked playing inside of it.



I got one of the Doha road kisses one morning while bringing the boys to school. A Qatari driving down the shoulder hit me, fortunately we were all going fairly slow and the boys were totally fine. I dropped them off at school then proceeded to the police station. I apparently didn't keep #1, #2, #6, and #12 of the following Doha Driving Rules in mind that morning...



Turned out the person who hit me was an officer there so paper work was quick to complete. Then came the hassle of getting the car fixed but I lucked out and some friends were headed out on vacation for the week so I got to borrow their car and upgrade myself to a Volvo for the week. It made me realize how old my little CRV is getting.



With the weather being so nice we've been exploring different parks in the mroning before swimming lessons.



After swimming lessons we always head out to lunch which usually means (lots of) ice cream with the kids meal. Tylor doesn't mind - he always digs right in.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned one and as usual the Fenn's had a big party to celebrate.






Tylor had a great time playing with all the kids.



Jaydon got to wear Jacobs superhero outfit which is one of his favorite parts of going to Jacobs house.



Jaydon also used his super hero powers to catch one of the most well behaved (or scared to the point of being paralyzed) geckos around.



The little lizard just sat in Jaydons hand while all the kids looked at him and petted him.



It was amazing. After eating a lite dinner of fruit Tylor tore into the cupcakes.









I'm not sure how many he had. It seemed everytime I looked at him he was having another one. After getting his sugar high he decided to wrestle himself a ride on an airplane.



He fell off so many times to the point where I was sure tears were coming but every time he got back up laughing and crawled back on for more.

Jaydon, Jacob and Clarissa having one last big good-bye hug before it's time to head home. Frosting covered faces and all...

Happy Birthday Steve

For Steve's birthday the boys got him a cake and helped blow out the candles.

Tylor thought the cake was super yummy and we had to be careful of saying any word that slightly resembled 'cake' around him, especially at meal time, because he would immediately stop eating and start demanding "more cake".

We also had the special treat of getting to see Natasha Bedingfield live and for free.

They always have concerts after the Doha Golf Open. We aren't big golf fans so didn't bother signing up for the tickets that are given out since my company sponsors the event. On thursday, I over heard one of my german colleagues asking one of my dutch colleagues if they've heard of this Natasha person. My ears perked right up, I went up to public affairs on got the last available ticket and later in the day learned that some of our friends had an extra ticket. The concert was outside, very informal, everyone just sat on the grass. There were only about 500 people there because there was no advertising for the concert so we all just stood around the stage. Natasha is an amazing singer, and a great performer especially considering all the technical issues the stage staff was having. We thoroughly enjoyed her show and are much bigger fans now than before we saw her live.

I also finally got the boys into the swimming program that I've been on the wait list on for about a year.

Jaydon is with the same instructor that I had coming to our pool on the side to give lessons but I thought it would be good to have him with other kids so he could have some peer learning.

Tylor loves swimming and is a gold medal back floater.

The teacher commented that she hadn't seen a kid his age be so comfortable in the water on his back.

But I think all that back floating got a little water in his ears.

He kept sticking his fingers in them over dinner. When he realized he got a laugh, of course, he just kept on doing it.

Back to school and haircuts

The boys were happy to be back at nursery after all the traveling.

It also helped us to get back on schedule.

Before we left we had been struggling with Tylor waking up at 5am every morning, with the help of jet lag he was finally sleeping in until 8ish so we weren't in a rush to change it.

The boys hair had also got very long during the trip. One morning Jaydon kept getting food all over his face because mid bit he'd brush his bangs out of his face. I joked with him that he needed a pony tail and he thought that was a great idea. So I found my little hair ties and ties up his bangs, then he wanted more.

I think we ended up with 6 or 7 all over his hair. Tylor, of course couldn't be left out, so he got some too.

They went out to play at the park like this and got lots of comments from people. The next day we finally got their hair cut and I was reminded why I like their hair long better then short...

bed head is the worst with short hair.

Happy New Year

After all the snow, presents and fun with the family we loaded up our bags (which turned from 4 to 7 over the trip) on the plane and headed back home. The trip was long but manageable. The boys did very well even considering our multiple connections. We made it home and started dealing with the jet lag. We arrived at 1am on the 31st, everyone slept very well that first night but we knew what was too come so didn't make any plans for New Year's Eve.

We had planned to go to bed early so went to some friends house who also wanted an early night since they had to work the next day (New Years really isn't a holiday in Doha) but still didn't end up coming home until after 11. Just as we were crawling into bed a little before midnight Tylor woke up, after about an hour and half I got him back to sleep only to have Jaydon wake up an hour later.

This continued for the next few nights but fortunately we had lots of new toys to keep the boys busy when they were awake.

Tylor was super cute in the fake doctor glasses that came with a toy medical kit.

Within 3 days Jaydon was adjusted, Tylor in about 6 and I took about 10. It's difficult to get in the right time zone when you're up all night with the boys :)