Florida - Beaches and Fun

Jaydon and I spent a couple of weeks in Florida enjoying the nice weather - at least for the first part of the trip. Before things got cold we had a chance to drive down to Naples to visit Jaydon's Great Grandpa Forte and was able to get a 4 generation photo, each generation almost exactly 30 years apart. We also got a chance to go and visit the beautiful Naples beach and Jaydon loved it. He had fun sitting in the sand (and yes eating it too) but his favorite part was the water...waves and all. Every time I lead him back to shore he turned around and headed right back into the water. The ocean here was much rougher than anything he'd experienced before but he happily waded in to over his chest and got splashed and beat around by the waves. I wasn't prepared for Jaydon to enjoy the water so much so the next time we went to the beach I made sure to bring a swimsuit along. But by then the colder weather had rolled in and the water was much too rough to play it. Even the birds preferred to stay on shore rather than float in the water that day but it gave my dad a chance to try a few artistic bird shots. While back in Ft.Myers we did capitalize on a beautiful day by going out on my Uncle Deacon and Aunt Monty's boat. Jaydon was not a very big fan of the life jacket - it didn't really fit very well so I just opted to keep him in the Bjorn. Jimmy the dog came along for the fun and Jaydon also has enough teeth to share an apple with me. While in Florida Jaydon definitely lived up to being an Aquarius - he loves the water no matter what the circumstances.

Thanksgiving in Florida

This year for Thanksgiving I was able to make the trip back to the states to see everyone and introduce Jaydon to more of the extended family. I was able to get a whole month+ off between my saved up vacation and the various holidays in Dec ( Eid, National Day, & Christmas). Unfortunately, Steve wasn't able to get as much time so he stayed behind and met up with us later in CO for Christmas. 1st stop on our trip was to Florida where my parents and aunt have just bought a condo near where my grandfather and other relatives live. Jaydon and I flew from Doha to DC with Steve's parents (see previous post) and in DC they headed off to Alaska and I caught a flight to Miami. 24 hours of travel time and Jaydon slept for maybe 5 hours of it - he was a baby zombie by the time we arrived and apparently so was I because I lost his passport on the plane. No worries though - United found it and mailed it back to me. I was so relieved that I've promised myself to resist trash talking US domestic airlines until at least the next time I have to travel on them. Once in Miami my mom and sister meet up with us to drive to Ft Myers. We stayed the night in Miami and drove the next day. It ended up pouring rain the whole drive turning a 2+ hr trip into a solid 5 hours. Jaydon had had quite enough at this point and was not on his best behavior so at one point we stopped and let him enjoy the rain. And boy did he, by the time we got him back in the car his pants were completely soaked and he was content enough to sleep for almost the next hour or so (a big relief for everyone in the car). Aunt Sarah was only able to stay with for a few days because one of the rules in the military is that holidays are awarded by lottery and if you get Thanksgiving then you don't get Christmas. Well luckily this year she won Thanksgiving and was able to give Jaydon his first Christmas present (a little early of course) in person. He enjoyed tearing up the tissue paper the most (I think she put extra in it just for that reason) and the cute penguin bag squeaked which provided many hours of entertainment for Jaydon and Jimmy (my parents poodle) over the next days until it was demolished. Aunt Sarah had the foresight to realize that a baby coming from Doha and going to Colorado for Christmas was likely in need of some warm clothes so she got him some flannel overalls and this adorable sweater. She also couldn't resist giving him a shirt from her squadron - it'll be a few years before it fits but Jaydon is working hard at growing as fast as he can. With all that fun it was time to get the party started and open up the bar. Jaydon was quick on hand to help out however he could. The next visitor who arrived was Jaydon's Great Grandpa Forte who will turn 92 in March. Jaydon settled right down on his lap and they spent an amazing amount of time just sitting with each other (for anyone with a 10 month I think you can appreciate how rare that is). They even spent a little of Thanksgiving dinner together until it was time for Jaydon to have his first taste of turkey. He was a pretty big fan of the dinner... squash, green beans, turkey, potatoes - what's not to like. But his favorite was definitely the pumpkin pie and whipped cream for dessert. After all that eating and meeting people it was time to hangout with Grandpa Forte and relax a little before the next big Florida adventure.

Dubai with Grandma and Grandpa Connor

Steve's parents Billy and Helen Connor came for a visit. Helen had been here before but this was the first trip for Billy. Steve and I had to work most of the time they were here but they were happy to just spend their days hanging out with Jaydon. Both Steve and his Dad are Civil Engineers so we couldn't pass up the chance to visit the construction mecca of Dubai. We took a long weekend and a short flight and saw some of the sites. We had a view of the Burj Dubai (now the Burj Khalifa as a thank you to Abu Dhabi for helping Dubai out with a few billion $$) right out our hotel. This is the tallest building in the world and is very impresive to look at. We also went to the newest mall in Dubai which has a full size aquarium. This was definitely Jaydon's favorite part. My favorite was the Arctic crabs. I had never seen these in an aquarium before and they climbed right up to the window when you sat in front of them. I think we looked like a pretty good dinner...and so did they. A trip to Dubai is not complete without driving by the Burj which is the '7' star hotel shaped like a sail. We also had lunch out by the marina and visited a few other malls including the one with the ski slope but we figured we'd save Jaydon's snow adventures for the real stuff in Colorado.

1st trip to the beach

Jaydon had his first trip to the beach and this picture really sums it up well... Aiden is enjoying the beautiful day, a little cloudy and not too hot; Ella is on the move to see what other neat things can be discovered and Jaydon - well Jaydon is the one eating the sand... he probably got a good 4 handfuls down before I inserted the pacifier back in. It did give him the opportunity to practice chewing. He loved the water and kept wanting to go back in after I took him out. The water is so salty here that he kept floating away and he had a difficult time keeping his legs and bottom underneath him. This picture a quintessential Doha shot...camels, sky scrapers under construction, sand, water and sun.

More Austria pics

We finally got copies of the picture the other 2 families took while we were on vacation in Austria back in Sept (can't believe it been that long already). It was over 2000 of them so it required an external hard drive to be passed around. I've gone through and picked out some of my favorites... Jaydon's always a good pal to have around. And this is Jaydon's very 1st taste of ice cream - in case you were wondering he liked it and the Bjorn was pink for the rest of trip. Aiden, Ella and Jaydon on the bus right after their international overnight flight-they were troopers. Jaydon also got the hang of riding public transportation - he tried to grab these handles on every train and subway we went in. Jaydon was a big fan of the greenery. And the rest of these are various family and group shots.

Halloween

Jaydon's first Halloween was a big success. He was the cutest monster on the block. He just barely fit in the costume I bought him. Notice the sleeves are about an inch above his wrist I got it from a website going out of business back when I was still pregnant. Why I thought a 6 month size would fit him at almost 9 months I'll never know. I sure hope I got a good deal on it. All the kids in the compound were out for the festivities and a good number of neighbors also joined in the fun by letting us trick-or-treat at their house. The Mitchells' really get into decorating there little front yard so their house was the backdrop for almost every one's photos. There's 1 kid in the compound who's actually tricker treating age, we let him do all the door knocking, the rest of the bunch were more interested in the candy wrappers rather than the candy its self. Maybe next year Jaydon can taste what's actually inside the wrapper. After all the fun outside in the 80 degree humidity in a fleece monster suit Jaydon spent the rest of the evening playing with his new spider toy and trying to cool off. Oh yeah, and the adults had a little fun too. We held the 2nd annual Halloween Villa Crawl at our compound this year and is was another great party. What you're missing from Steve's costume is the cut off jean shorts and loafers with white knee high socks :)

Teeth

Jaydon has 4 pearly whites in now. As you can imagine teeth are difficult to get a picture of but tonight he was flashing a big tooth filled grin.
Now that he has teeth he's starting to expand his food repertoire. Cheerios are definitely his favorite. He's learning the finer art of picking them up and getting them into his mouth without dropping them. He's also figured out how to find the dropped Cheerios in his lap but he has to be quick before they fall to ground and get gobbled up by Athena.