Merry Christmas Everyone!

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A Christmas Carol

Counting down the days to Aiden's first Christmas - after overcoming jet lag and head colds we're ready to enjoy the holiday with our family and friends. Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas filled with joy and laughter!

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Almost 9 Months!

I am shocked and a little scared at how much Aiden has discovered in the last few weeks, especially after our checkup today when the Doctor told me he could be walking within the month. Yikes!! 10 months and walking, not sure I am ready for that.

So here is what he is up to these days:

1. crawls- Super FAST
2. Says Daddy and da-da-da-da-da
3. Has one bottom tooth poking out and one top tooth, the other two are close behind.
4. Holds his own sippy cup and loves water.
5. Eats 3 meals a day- about 7 jars of baby food or 10 cubes of homemade food plus a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Yea he is hungry.
6. He remembers where things are- always goes to the dog bowl or bathroom
7. Pulls up on everything- pushes his car while standing.
8. Climbs in everything including, the bench, exersaucer and DOG DOOR!!!
9. Loves to stick his tongue out
10. Waves bye-bye
11.Gives Great kisses!

Still working on High Fives!




This is the teething rail cover I made and you can buy!!! nice plug huh!

Winter Ball at Four Seasons!

Living in Doha you jump at the chance for any event since most nights are spent watching re-runs on TV or going to bed at 9!! So when the Winter Ball came up we were all for it. A night out at the Four Seasons, getting dressed up, dinner made for you, and no dishes!!! Unfortunately we didn't win any of the prizes or get a chance to strut our stuff on the dance floor since our babysitter gave us a curfew of 11:30! Here are some pics of a night out with some friends! We clean up well!

November and still 100 Degrees!!!

What do you do when it is November and still blazing outside, go to Family Fun Day at the Intercontinental Hotel to play on the beach! Brandon's company puts this event on every year to get together and play games, have food and hang out with 1000 of your closest friends. We all thought that since it was in November it would be nice and cool to sit outside and lay by the water. But yesterday was at least 100 and with Aiden in tow we had to make camp inside the air conditioned tent. All in all we had a great time and Aidens first experience in the sand was a fun one. Here's to hoping we are in the 90's this week!

Did I mention it was an Aladdin theme! Here is our little Abu.

What is this stuff?

Aiden and his friends, Ella and Jaydon!


Daddy Phillips and Daddy Fuller!

Just Mommy and Me!


All the fun wore Aiden out!

A not so Happy Halloween:(

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Here is a little teaser of Aiden and Ella before he unveils his Costume!






Mom-- She is taking my candy!

More Photos!

And, yes he picked up his book and began reading without any help!!!

Movin Man!

CopyCat!

When Aiden decided that sitting in his bouncy chair at the gym was too boring I have had to start to do videos at home while he plays on the mat. I thought he was playing but I guess he was watching mommy closer than I thought cause he has started to do his push-ups just like mommmy. Who knew I had an audience!

On another note he is trying to crawl and is great at moving backwards but going forwards he goes into push-up position and gets further away from his target, the cell phone. It has been really fun to watch him figure things out. Baby proofing here I come!

Thinking about it:


Holding in his Core!!



That was hard work!

Mom Cut My Hair!

Okay so for the last few weeks I have been receiving pressure from unnamed sources, Brandon and friends, to cut Aiden's hair. Brandon believed that Aiden was starting to look like Celine Dion's child which I denied, since Aiden is much cuter. So after eating in his high chair I got the scissors. Let me tell you cutting a 6 month olds hair alone is not advisable. It only took 3 snips and I was heartbroken. My little baby is now a big boy. Didn't know a hair cut could do that to you but it did. So I am posting the before and after pics to see what you all think. I am still voting for the before. I think now he is too much of a prep and lost his baby look. Brandon thinks it looks better. Here you go.
Before:

After:


Here is a preview of our soon to be crawler!!

The Game Changer

We celebrated Aiden's 1/2 year birthday yesterday with an early morning playdate with dad, adventure to church, and some yummy oatmeal and banana mush. In one sense it's hard to believe Aiden has been with us 6 months - in another, it's hard to imagine how our little boy could possibly have grown so big in such a short period of time.

The game changer for all of us has been stability in sit-up mode... a new feature that appeared during his 6th month and has developed steadily in the past few weeks. Around 3 months he recognized daddy when he'd come home, which at the time was a BIG step... shortly after we had our first trip to the pool, which also seemed like a BIG step; but nothing to-date has had the impact of sitting up. Aiden loves it because he doesn't have to stare at the ceiling 80% of his days, AND he can hang out with his girlfriend Ella.



He has also developed an adventurous dare devil side - especially after watching his girlfriend zoom around the room in crawl mode... he is working his 'lunge' transition from sitting to crawling, resulting in quite a few bumped noggins (big shout out to our soft playmats). He is also working his belly time butt lifts - think he's watching our David Kirsch DVDs... all signs that 'sitting up' won't be the biggest game changer for long!

Mom and dad love 'sitting up' time because you can interact at his level using all those toys we've been stockpiling downstairs... also makes for some pretty cute photos (as you can see)!

Favorite things at the moment are:
1) his walker (which provides a scary reminder of how life will change when he can move around the house under his own power)



2) his rings (still trying to get the teeth to cut through - can see two on his bottom gums, just haven't broken the surface yet)



3) his oatmeal (messy eater - but he LOVES his oatmeal... just like daddy)



4) his night time stories (Good Night Moon, That's Not My Lion, and recently survived the full Cat In The Hat)

Encouraged by sitting up and playing with mom & dad, Aiden's personality continues to blossom... new facial expressions, more frequent laughing, adorable squeals, and joy-filled snuggles. And we all love snuggles!

Its Been Awhile!

Alright so we are a little behind in our posting so I will try and update whats happened since we returned to the sandbox in July.

1. We survived jet lag with a 5 month old
2. Aiden was put through his 2nd round of vaccines
3. He now rolls and sits up on his own
4. We started sleeping through the night
5. We started teething, which means no more sleeping through the night
6. We love tylenol
7. Still no teeth sightings, but we feel the pain!
8. A glimmer of white shows through the gums!!!! Almost home free
9. Starting big boy food this weekend!!!!
10. Our little man will be 6 months old, Sept 11th!!!!

I am shocked by how much he has changed since we last saw everyone in July and am enjoying this sitting period as I watch our friends little ones crawling. Hopefully our next post won't take this long.

Back to "Normal"

After an incredible vacation back in the U-S-A where Aiden got to meet all his family and friends, we reluctantly boarded the 15 hour non-stop flight back to Doha... admittedly I was expecting the worst (15 hours of entertaining a cranky little boy); instead Aiden was a superstar, sleeping most of the flight allowing mom and dad to catch a few critical hours of sleep [remember the 'slept the whole flight' part, that's important later]. We arrived back in Qatar ahead of schedule, which also meant ahead of the other 20 flights that arrive between 7 and 9pm, which in turn meant no wait at immigration! Our 8 bags came out within the first 15 or so and we were homeward bound thanks to the extra large baggage carts and a friendly pickup from the Fuller family.

It felt really good to back 'home', even if we were again halfway around the world from the people we loved the most... we miss the States more with each visit. Once we convinced the dogs to settle down, Sheri and I simultaneously put our little 'un to bed, showered, partially unpacked (8 bags remember), and even managed to cook some Mac and Cheese before heading to bed. We had no idea the adventures that awaited us.

Jet lag is a phenomenon you get familiar with as an expat. You know to expect weird sleep patterns the first few days into and out of a trip overseas... having trouble falling asleep at 11pm only to wake up at 2am wide awake. Apparently infants experience jet lag too - but instead of heading downstairs for some toast and early morning TV they opt for crying during all nighttime hours until passing out around sunrise. For those parents who have traveled cross country and had a few restless nights, I'm sure you can appreciate what 2 full weeks of sleepless nights and one very cranky son is like. We were equal parts heartbroken that our son was so upset and at the same time completely frustrated that we were back in week 2 mode, taking turns sleeping 3 hours a pop. I can honestly say that I've never had a more challenging experience in my life - and I only covered the weekend since Sheri was a total supermom and took the school nights so daddy could get his beauty rest for work. I'm happy to report that Aiden is going to bed at 7pm again as of last weekend; but he has yet to fully recover his pre-trip sleep pattern, instead waking up every 3 or 4 hours like months 2 & 3. We're worried he's starting to teeth, which may prolong the sleepless night syndrome a few more weeks.

Despite the challenging return to reality, Aiden continues to grow up. He's now rolling over on his own (typically when mom or dad aren't looking), actively grabbing everything at arm's length and jamming it in his mouth. He's nearly sitting up on his own (especially in the bath), and loves his highchair. Recently he's discovered his feet are indeed HIS, thinks the dogs are hilarious as well as when mom raspberries his belly and dad tries to eat his toes.

If you were expecting phone calls from us in the past two weeks, sorry, but the telecom monopoly of Qatar has abruptly and intentionally interrupted our Vonage service (along with Gmail chat)... to make matters worse the embassy and newspapers are warning folks to avoid shorts and revealing tops as Ramadan approaches... typically this was directed at women, but now they are singling out men too (ahhhh) nothing like wearing jeans and a sweater when it's 120 degrees out! Oh, and if you recall, Ramadan means no food or WATER in public places for a month (like the car, mall, or office) during daylight hours unless you smuggle it into the office yourself. Should have planned our vacation more carefully.

[Aiden isn't a fan of censorship either]

Speaking of vacation, returning to an even more frustrating Qatar is motivating us to plan a last minute trip to Austria with some friends for the Eid holiday in September... should be nice to celebrate the end of Ramadan in a much 'cooler' location (temperature and amenities). If you have any ideas for places to see in or around Vienna / Salzburg leave a comment (we already have penciled in the Eagle's Nest and Innsbruck).

The Perfect Business Model

I've posted a few times about the Middle East's culture around status... when you and your neighbor both have rolls royces, you need another way to distinguish who is 'cooler'. That's where license plates came in - available to only the upper crust at a rediculous price. And it works... I'm far more impressed by the Porsche 911 Carerra GT2 that has plate '911' than just ANY Carerra GT2. Same goes for the S63 with license plate '63'... I kid you not - people will spend 10x the cars value to get the perfect license (and when the car costs $200k to start with - that says a lot!).

Well... fancy numbers are no longer for only the high ranking families in the region - you too can enjoy the thrills of status, thanks to Vodafone's brilliant grand opening TODAY. Instead of offering much needed price point competition, or fixed monthly rate plans; they are basically an overpriced duplicate of the nationalized monopoly... as you might have assumed since they rely entirely on Qtel's infrastructure. What they do offer is far more important - after you choose your overpriced, pay as you go plan, you get to search for your own phone number. But act quickly - the numbers are disappearing as I type this post.

http://www.vodafone.com.qa/go/en/NameYourNumber

I kid you not - you find it, you can buy it. According to the webiste prices range from Free to 10,000,000QAR (~$2,800,000). I myself went on a quick search - knowing full well that since the number MUST start with a 7 that I could find the 10,000,000QAR number in one attempt. I typed in '7777777' and found the number was unavailable (I interpret that to mean, 'someone already purchased this number, try again'). I then tried all versions of '7######' where # was the same number, and I hit ONLY two as available. At a cost - get this - of 2,000,000QAR (~$550,000). I could have seriously clicked 'BUY' and the numbers 7111111 or 7333333 could have been mine. Looking for something a bit more in your price range: how about 7771111 (which here would read 'triple seven, quadruple one')... a mere 300,000QAR ($83,000). Have a go - you will be amazed at how many numbers are for sale and what folks are paying for them.

Here's the real revelation. This site opened 6 hours ago, meaning that someone has already laid claim to the 10,000,000QAR number, which had to be "septuplet seven" 7777777... and if that wasn't shocking enough, 8 other numbers worth 2,000,000QAR have already sold. You should check to see if you can even get 7111111 or 7333333 later today. I'm fairly confident that setting up and operating a phone number like 7111111 costs no more than 7628769, meaning that the geniuses at Vodafone knew exactly what they were doing when they joined forces with Qtel and passed the extra fees to their users... they managed to make over 26,000,000QAR in less than a business day. To put that in perspective that's almost as much as my company makes every hour in the year (suddenly doesn't seem like much).

If all you had was 5 minutes to learn about the culture Sheri, Aiden, and I live in - just visit the website and experience the madness for yourself. Let me know if you can find a number worth more than 2,000,000QAR for sale (try the fancy combinations - like 7171717... they like those). To be honest the only number worth throwing down would have been the 7x7... so many ways to throw it down.

Thirty years ago, before speed dialing, electronic address books, or remembering your friends numbers... this would have been a nifty feature.

Guy at Honda Service Station: "Sir, can I have your number to call you back - I'm going to write it down right here so I don't forget?"
You: "Don't bother writing it down - it's ALL SEVENS, that's right, just keep mashing 7 until it calls my gold plated Nokia N95 with hydraulics and presidential window tint... ALL SEVENS"

Donald Trump, eat your heart out.

Happy Fourth of July

Fourth of July actually seems more meaningful when you're overseas; only 1 more week until I get to join the family in the USA! Our little man is growing like a weed, but between being temporarily separated and long nights at work we haven't gotten an update posted in a while... more to come when we're reunited.

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Kids Are Resilient - Dads Not So Much

Aiden will have to wait atleast one more season to experience his first Stanley Cup Championship. What an incredible finish to a great series of hockey. A crossbar and one incredible save in the final minute leaves the Wings one win away... as much as I would have preferred a different outcome (and not losing my satellite signal for 15 minutes of the final period), it was great to see a young Penguins team rejuvinate the sport. I'm not a superstitious guy - but the Wings lost all 3 of the games I woke up at 3am to watch... I'm not sure what is better - to watch good hockey and have my team lose the Cup, or not watch my team win a Championship.

Fortunately Aiden is too young to realize just how hard it is for a team to get to the Finals... plenty of time to see the Wings hoist the cup for his generation.

Always next season...