It wasn't really planned this way but my birthday weekend ended up being very busy. We started off that morning heading out to the beach with the Pegasus Club.
They got a great deal on entrance fee for the Katara beach which has lots of fun activities for the kids.
The timing was right during Tylors morning nap so I found myself a nice lounge chair, fed Tylor and settled in for a nap on the beach with him.
Steve took Jaydon out to the floating kids place and had fun playing with all the other kids who came along too.
When Tylor woke up he wasn't so sure about this being outside and not napping in his bed but soon decided it might be fun anyway.
Jaydon and Steve discovered some tiny hermit crabs in the not very clear water and spent the rest of the morning catching and losing, I mean releasing them.
We all headed home for an afternoon nap and got up to join another get together in the compound. March is a pretty popular month for birthdays and our friends Paul and Patrick decided to have a shrimp boil to celebrate theirs. It just so happened the date they picked was my birthday so I told them we'd come along and I'd bring cupcakes.
It was a much better idea then getting all dressed up, dumping the kids with the nanny, and spending too much money on food at a fancy hotel.
Instead we got messy, played with sparklers and had fun with friends.
Birthday weekend wasn't over yet, the next day the boys had a birthday party to attend.
Jaydon played on the bouncy castle and took his turn at the pinata.
It was a princess rainbow party for Abby and Gabby and the moms are really into cake decorating (even took some classes for it) so the cakes were quite beautiful.
Tylor had fun watching all the commotion and everyone slept well that night - even with all the extra sugar they had eaten.
Tylor is quite a little character and has learned that being number 2 means you sometimes need to try new ways to get attention - or he's just a silly little baby. Either way were sitting down one night at dinner and looked over to see Tylor with his bread on his head.
We all cracked up and he LOVED the reaction and continued to do it for the rest of the meal.
Well, you have to be careful what you start, from that night on every meal he would select something to put on his head to get a laugh until we all had to make the effort to completely ignore our little comedian.
Jaydon has also tried to be very helpful with feeding Tylor, it's a great way to get Tylor to eat but can sometimes be just as messy as letting Tylor dig in himself.
We had a great time in the Maldives doing all the typical beach things like... playing on the beach.
Tylor was very curious about the water and the sand and kept himself entertained by splashing and eating sand. One of the reasons we chose this resort was because it is a kid friendly place with a great kids club that lets you bring (and leave) kids 3 and up (most resorts it 4 or 5 and up).
Jaydon had a great time at the kids club and it became our morning routine to wake-up,
eat breakfast, play in the sand then I'd head back to the villa to put Tylor down for his nap. Steve and Jaydon would play at the kids club or on the beach making neat things like sand turtles.
We'd then meet up for lunch once Tylor was awake and repeat for afternoon nap. Once he would wake up we head out to dinner and repeat. For the first few days this is all we did and I napped everytime Tylor did which was great to finally get some sleep.
The resort had many different restaurants but our favorite ended up being the Italian one. Lots of good food and a great guitarist which thoroughly entertained the boys.
All the staff at the restaurants were really great and would go the extra mile to try and make sure Steve and I had a relaxing meal (or at least got to finish our food).
It seemed every waiter/tress had their own trick whether it was singing or making napkin animals or showing off the resident geckos.
Some would even give Jaydon a tour of the kitchen and let him go meet the chefs cooking up our dinners in the back. We really could not say enough great things about them.
Half way through the vacation we realized that all we had done was eat, sleep and play on the beach so Steve decided to change things up headed out on a fishing charter.
He was entertained by a pod of dolphins. They had a good but not great day fishing but did bring home this beautiful fish.
The resort saved all the fish and cooked it up for us the next day for lunch. It was exceptionally good and an enormous amount of food.
We all gorged ourselves on fish, finished off some champagne and had a very good afternoon nap.
I took the next morning to go snorkeling. This area of the Maldives atolls is well known for whale sharks and our resort supported the local research center. The snorkeling trip was to find whale sharks and swim with them but unfortunately we didn't see any that day. After driving around for a few hours (inhaling diesel fumes) they finally decided to let go out and snorkel for awhile (and I was thoroughly sea sick by then). Before the trip I had bought a new underwater camera because we seem to have the worst luck with our camera getting jammed up with sand on vacation. This camera was great because it was sand and shock proof. However, I discovered that it wasn't exactly waterproof.
I jumped in the water, took about 6 pictures before bubbles started coming out of the camera - the screen went blank and that was the end of it. Looking back it's probably just as well we didn't see the whale sharks because then I would have been super mad about the situation or worse off been so distracted with my malfunctioning camera that I wouldn't of enjoyed them at all...
Back on dry land Jaydon showed me all the hermit crabs he had caught that day.
And decided to be a bunny at dinner that night thanks to arts and crafts time at the kids club.
One of the other big attractions for the boys at the resort was the feeding time.
On the north side of the island they fed the black tip reef sharks every night and on the south side they fed the manta rays.
Usually this happened during Jaydons nap time but there were a few evening that we were up in time to enjoy the fun.
Jaydon LOVED feeding all the creatures in the sea and we got a couple of cute videos of him making friends with the locals and feed the sharks and manta rays.
We got the feeling that they usually don't let the kids do this but he was so into it that they couldn't resist his enthusiasm and the other kids happily joined in (to the parents disgust since it was stinky raw fish with out a sink and water to wash up any where close by).
When feeding time was over the next bit of fun was catching the crabs that came out of their hiding spots to eat all the fish scraps leftover.
Jaydon thought catching crabs was great fun and by the end of the trip was very good at it.
All too soon the trip was over, and on our last day they decorated our room extra special.
We got some cute pictures of Tylor before the boys spread the beautiful hibiscus flowers every where.
We said good-bye to our personal butler and Jaydon's favorite best friend on the trip Yousuf.
Having him around really helped make the trip just as perfect as it could be. The last morning we were their we woke up extra early and caught our sea plane back to reality.
Jaydon loved the flight and Tylor put up with it (the earplugs were a fight - again).
We were sorry to go and our week trip was much too short. But it was well worth it!
Last year Qatar Airways had a 25% off promotion. I knew that we'd be going somewhere on vacation so pressured Steve into picking a place. We chose the Maldives knowing that it would be the first vacation (not seeing family) with Tylor so wanted something low key and relaxing. We had gone to the Maldives when we first got here in '06 so figured it was time to go back. Once the tickets were bought we procrastinated on finding a hotel. Thought about getting 2 rooms at the Conrad which everyone recommends but realized it was super expensive and we could get a large suite at other places for the same price. Found a good priced family room at Kurumba where we had stayed before but wasn't sure how we'd feel about staying in the same place twice - by the time we decided to book it it was gone. By this time we were convinced on having a 2 room suite but all the good deals at family resorts were already gone. We ended up at a wonderful resort called Lux* but paid so much for the 2 bedroom suite for the week that all the savings on our 25% airfare offer was essentially lost in the rounding... go figure. But enough about that - let's talk about the vacation.
Travelling with little one become soo much easier once they're into videos. Steve downloads some Dinosaur Train or Dora and Jaydon is set for hours (or until batteries run out). In the bus on the way to the plane.
Tylor was very excited about going on the adventure and was wide eyed and bushy tailed the whole trip. We arrived in Male with no issues (4 hour flights seem so short now), waited in the nice waiting area for our sea plane to arrive then headed to the resort. The sea planes are very loud so they encouraged everyone to wear ear plugs, well getting a 9 month to wear ear plugs is nearly impossible. He had them in about half the time but was not a fan of the tiny plane and being stuck with me in the little seat. He cried for more than half of the 25 minute flight but it was so loud that no one else on the flight really noticed (the plane held about 12 plus 2 pilots who wore shorts and flipflops - which they removed to fly the plane barefoot).
Our room was amazing, it had a glass floor overlooking the water in the living room and this is where I fed Tylor most of the time when we were in the room so he could watch the water and fish below.
They had pretty designs/decorations on our bed welcoming us to the resort which Steve turned into Jaydon's name which he got a big kick out of. Pictures don't quite do the place justice so I made a couple videos and even attempted to add music and comments to them. This is my first time doing such a thing on youtube so be warned that it's a bit basic.
Jaydon's favorite toy is his doggy. He's had it since he was born and this little guy has been everywhere! There was one trip to Jordan when Jaydon was 1.5 that we forgot him at home (so luckily he was waiting for us when we got back). After that trip I decided to find a back-up one just in case anything happened. Most baby books you read actually recommend doing this - buy 2 of the favorite toy or even cut a favorite blanket in half just in case. Also makes it easier when it needs to be washed and saves undue stress and heartache if the special toy is lost. Well turns out doggy is a special edition limited offer Carter toy - who knew. Replacement doggies run about $40 before shaping. So I decided to give up. Well when Jaydon headed of to Houston I found the one thought that made me feel better was knowing that Jaydon had his doggy and that that little guy could help him get through anything. I realized doggy had become as much Jaydon's security blanket as mine. So I decided to finally get a replacement one on e-bay (slightly used) for $30.
He arrived here in great condition and made me realize just how worn out poor old doggy was. He looked so fresh and different I was worried Jaydon would notice. But no worries, one comment about how great the washing machine worked to clean him up and make him fluffy again and Jaydon was sold. He even commented for the next couple days about how soft doggy was.
The old one is on a much needed retirement in our bureau - waiting for that unfortunate time when his twin may go missing.
Oh yeah, and I did learn from this. When grandma picked out Tylor's Monkey toy I was sure that she bought 2 this time.
The timing was right during Tylors morning nap so I found myself a nice lounge chair, fed Tylor and settled in for a nap on the beach with him. 
Steve took Jaydon out to the floating kids place and had fun playing with all the other kids who came along too. 
When Tylor woke up he wasn't so sure about this being outside and not napping in his bed but soon decided it might be fun anyway. 
Jaydon and Steve discovered some tiny hermit crabs in the not very clear water and spent the rest of the morning catching and losing, I mean releasing them. 
We all headed home for an afternoon nap and got up to join another get together in the compound. March is a pretty popular month for birthdays and our friends Paul and Patrick decided to have a shrimp boil to celebrate theirs. It just so happened the date they picked was my birthday so I told them we'd come along and I'd bring cupcakes. 
It was a much better idea then getting all dressed up, dumping the kids with the nanny, and spending too much money on food at a fancy hotel. 
Instead we got messy, played with sparklers and had fun with friends. 
Birthday weekend wasn't over yet, the next day the boys had a birthday party to attend. 
Jaydon played on the bouncy castle and took his turn at the pinata. 
It was a princess rainbow party for Abby and Gabby and the moms are really into cake decorating (even took some classes for it) so the cakes were quite beautiful. 
Tylor had fun watching all the commotion and everyone slept well that night - even with all the extra sugar they had eaten.
