Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Austria

This year for Eid holiday we wanted to do something easy for Jaydon's first real vacation. 1 flight, less than 8 hours and no connections. Being in the middle east this left a lot of cities open to us so we decided on Vienna. But since that was so easy we decided to go ahead and get a little more challenging and invite along our good friends the Fullers and Phillips who also have babies close to Jaydon's age. 3 babies touring Europe - no problem.
Here's Aiden, Ella, and Jaydon enjoying the cool grass at the Salzburg castle. After doing some research on Austria we realized that we couldn't make a trip there without also seeing Salzburg. Salzburg is a beautiful town in the mountains that was an easy train ride away from Vienna. So we spent 3 nights in Salzburg and 4 in Vienna. I think if we could've had the great accommodations of the Hilton Vienna (where we stayed in Vienna) in Salzburg it would've been perfect for the whole week. As you can imagine traveling with 3 babies caused quite a commotion where ever we went. We constantly had tourists (usually from Asia) taking video and pictures of our babies. Jaydon didn't mind - he loves to flirt with new people and have a good 'ole time.This is the castle in Salzburg viewed from the river below. We hiked part way up to the castle and took a vernacular the rest of the way. Jaydon is posing on one of the canons they had set up on display. We all loved the parks, Jadyon got soo excited every time we set him down on grass. He's flapping his arms so fast that the camera can't even catch them.
With Oktoberfest going on in Germany the crowds were much smaller than what we had expected and in the spirit of it Steve made sure to test all the local brews. He especially liked it when he could get a mug of beer as big as Jaydon.
Jaydon took to travelling very well and learned how to eat and sleep in all kinds of weird places. We also had fun buying baby food based on the picture on the label. Spinach was pretty easy to figure out and Jaydon loved it.
This is from the butterfly house in Vienna.
We had a big bay window in our room in Vienna. Got an awesome deal at the Hilton thanks to Steve's Gold membership there. Jaydon loved to hang out in the window and watch all the goings on down below.
Just in case you were wondering exactly how much luggage 3 babies (and their parents) need to go on a week vacation. Keep in mind this doesn't include the 3 strollers, diaper bags and day packs we had with us for the train ride from Salzburg to Vienna.
Enjoying another beautiful day at a beer garden in Salzburg. Jaydon had his first taste of soft pretzels here (and promptly threw it up) and also had fun feeding the pretzel to me.
Few - all that vacationing is tough work. This is how he'd usually take a few of his naps during the day, on the go in the Bjorn. He got pretty good at it but the naps were never very long or refreshing.
Jaydon also decided that it's much better to see the sights perched up on dad. There's also the added benefit of having all that hair to pull.
Here's a shot of the city of Salzburg from the castle. (I know these pics are all out of order but blogger and I haven't been seeing eye to eye lately and I finally gave up in the interest of time wasted arranging pictures...)
These butterfly's were enjoying someones flower garden outside their cute little Austrian cottage.
Did I mention the pretzels. Our friend Brandon couldn't resist buying the one bigger than his baby.
Hmmm - looks like someone is looking for trouble.
Don't worry Jayodn didn't drink the beer (at least that's what dad claims) he just liked chewing on the edge of the cold glass. 2 top teeth where trying to make an appearance, his gums were swollen the whole trip.
These last few are from our day trip to Germany to see the Eagle's Nest which was one of Hitler's mountain retreats. The views were great and all the kids did a great job traveling from train to bus to bus to train.
The theme of the vacation was 2 out of 3. At any one time 2 out of the 3 babies were doing something the other wasn't whether it came to sleeping, eating, crying, or pooping. There are more good pics our fiends have taken so when I get a copy of them I'll post those too.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Brussels

I had my first business trip since going back to work and was lucky enough for it to be in Brussels. It meant spending 2 days away from Jaydon which was tough but the beautiful weather, greenery and good food helped the time pass by.
The offices are on the outskirts of Brussels so I was only able to go into town one evening before I left to meet Steve and Jaydon in Vienna (next post coming soon). I spent the evening walking around town. Enjoying the sights of an old city and buying a little box of chocolates at every chocolate store I came across.
After about 100 Euros of chocolate purchasing I decided that the chocolate from one shop must be similar enough to the other shops so I stopped and had some dinner on a chocolate laden belly.

But what's a trip to Belgium without the waffles. So after dinner I had a waffle topped with chocolate ice cream. The waffle was amazing and the ice cream pretty good too. It was definitely a good way to start off a vacation (that's the Vienna part). These were the only pictures that were worth posting from Brussels. Doesn't do it much justice...next time maybe I'll just photograph the chocolate and waffles.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Silly Daddy

This one is great, Jaydon loves playing with his daddy :)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Helping at Work



Jaydon already has the keyboard all figured out. We're waiting for his first poetic masterpiece...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Playing with Ella, trip to Dubai and mohawks

Jaydon's decided that his girlfriend down the street has some really cool toys. He loves her bouncy seat and jumped in it so much that he realized how to use his Johnny Jump Up (the jumper you hang from the door frame). He's also a big fan of her cool walker car. He scooted around in it and had a great time playing with all the buttons and lights on it. Don't forget to check your blind spot before merging... We also had to take a day trip to Dubai for Jaydon's shots. (There's one that they don't give here in Qatar). The tiny nurse who gave him the shots made him look so big in her arms we all thought it was pretty funny. He's over 19 lbs now.
Jaydon also got to visit with his Aunt Sarah again. We all went to the souqs and Jaydon couldn't take his eyes off some stuffed animals...not quite the teddy bears he's used to playing with. Jaydon's hair style has also progressed from mullet to mohawk. The hair in the back has fallen out and now he's only growing it on the very top. One morning he woke up with it all standing straight up. We thought it so funny we couldn't help but document it even if he wasn't in the mood for pictures.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

First Food

Well time sure is flying by and it's already time for Jaydon to give solid foods a try. 1st step was getting the nice (and clean) high chair set up. Jaydon liked hanging out in it especially sine it made him eye level to the fish tank. Jaydon's 1st food was oatmeal, no reason why - just happened to be what we had. He took to the food very well and even made a few surprised faces that made us think he was really enjoying it. Not that we had any doubt in our mind but Jaydon has turned out to be a great little eater. And funny enough he is now drinking even more milk than before we gave him food. He better be heading for a growth spurt soon or our baby is going to more round than he is tall. Jaydon also decided that spoons are pretty fun toys. He just needs to learn to not gag himself with them. Once Dad heard that Jaydon was eating grown-up food he decided to introduce him to one of his favorites...Jaydon liked the cold can on his gums but we decided he better stick with the baby version of grown up food.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Brunch and the Pool

One of the big things to do in Doha on Friday when everything else is closed is to go to one of the western hotels and have a 5 star brunch. A bunch of people in our compound were celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and even an engagement so we decided a group brunch was in order. We headed out to the Intercon and spent the afternoon enjoying oysters, shrimp, chocolate fountains and all kinds of other good food.
With all that eating we needed a little activity so headed out to the pool for a quick dip. Jaydon really enjoys the pool and is getting a better hang of it. He almost floated on his back without dad's help.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Giggles

Well Jaydon has turned into quite a ham. He spends a good portion of his day just cracking up at things. This video was too cute not to post, so if you need something to make you smile this will definitely help!

So I forgot again that you can't rotate videos so just turn your head to the left and enjoy :)

Monday, July 13, 2009

Aunt Sarah

When we went back to the US in May to introduce Jaydon to the rest of the family my sister at the same time was moving to Doha.
She's a C-17 pilot for the air force and her current station is in Doha for the summer (lucky her). The AF has all kinds of rules regarding how, when and where she can go when leaving the base. She'd also been flying around all those 'stan' countries so much that Jaydon still hadn't met her.
She finally got approval to leave the base and 'certified' to drive in Doha. She was able to join us for dinner at our favorite Arabic restaurant. Jaydon had a great time and can't wait to see her again soon before she heads back to the States.
We found out the next day that she could come for the morning on Saturday so we set our alarm and drove out to the base to get her. Jaydon had a great time swimming with Sarah and even dunked his head under for the first time and didn't seem to mind too much. He also got to try out his new pool float which was a hit. **For some reason blogger is refusing to load the pics but they're on facebook for all to enjoy.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy 4th

Jaydon spent his first 4th of July like all Americans should.
Out by the pool having a BBQ. Jaydon didn't come out until after the sun went down and the temp dropped back into the 90's.
And mom forgot to bring the camera out so no pics of the night. All well, there's always next year.His dad got him a special outfit for the occasion and it was a big hit. Next holiday to celebrate is Ramadan...we're still looking for a "baby's 1st ramadan" outfit.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

BFF

Well Jaydon is almost 5 months old and is growing - well, like a weed, I guess.
He's learned how to sit-up and does really well until he gets so focused on playing with his toys that he forgets about balance.
We even have him mostly sleeping through the night, he sometimes wakes up to early but seems to sleep about 9-10 hrs every night.
And his very favorite new play thing is...
Athena.
He has a giggling outbreak at her at least once a day. Don't know why but he thinks that she is hilarious.
Every time he hears her paws on the tile he's craning his neck to see her. He loves to touch her and get licked. Athena is still trying to figure this all out but loves the attention she gets.
Jaydon and Athena will definitely be BFF!