They'll take your "10 miles, uphill both ways in the snow with no shoes" and raise you 110 degrees in the desert in a dress.

I can't make this stuff up.

The item with the photo was from the "Question of Culture" section of the local paper. I think he pretty much nails the mindset. The receipt is from the ag souk where you go to buy cheap plants, pots, etc. Do you think he ment Clematis?

Mmmm, bacon

The jet lag has been horrible for both Will and me. Made worse, I believe, because we pulled it together pretty well when we reached the states. I thought we'd be alright when we got back to Doha. Ha!

He's been up every night and it's only getting worse. It's 6:43am on Saturday right now and I've slept a total of 2 hours. I can't sleep anymore, but Will's finally out. He slept from about 10pm to 1am and didn't go back down until 5 in the A.M.

I do kinda like my new early morning hours though. Yesterday I made pancakes and some bacon smuggled in from Norway for breakfast and finished grocery shopping by 9am. Of course by 10am I thought I might die from fatigue, but the bacon almost made it worth it.

I just look at a piece of cake and it goes straight to my thighs!

From the salesclerk when I was making a return, "Those are some thighs!"

From the one hour photo lady at Walgreens, "Look at those legs. He's almost walking right?"

Me, "Um, no. He's not quite 6 months."

Walgreens lady, "GASP!" pause, "oh, sorry!" She was sorry about her alarming gasp, not her comment about baby boy's legs.

And finally Jamie, "At least Jade's not the only one with chunky thighs anymore." (Spoken friendly-like of course.)

“You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas” (Davy Crockett)

Big fun in the Lone Star State for our little man. He's been to an ultra exclusive girls weekend at the river, trips to Fort Worth, Austin and finally to Houston. He's turned out to be a fantastic flier and slept most of the 17 hours of plane ride home. Same for the 4 hour and 3 hour drives to Fort Worth and Austin to see his cousins.
Cousin Maggie loves to make him laugh, cousin Avery loves to baby the baby and cousin Katherine goes straight for his eyes.
Perry finally made it home this week and we couldn't be happier.

Already threatening to call CPS

I won't do more tummy time. I won't!


Whew! Thought you had me there for a second.

Hiccups and Head Control

Mmmm, Sangria and cinnamon sticks on steroids

One of the girls from the compound made this Sangria recipe and I'm hooked. It called for two 3" cinnamon sticks, which I couldn't find. Luckily, Perry found these on his way home.
That's a dinner plate and one stick. It might be cinnamon flavored bark, but it does the trick.

Carrie's Sangria

1 cup apple juice

1/3 cup Triple Sec

1/4 cup sugar

4 whole cloves

3 blood (or navel) oranges, cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 lemons cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks

1 Bartlett pear, cut into small cubes

2 plums, cut into small cubes

1 bottle fruity red wine

Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove cloves and cinnamon sticks before serving.

One of the many reasons he'll hate us later

Giving us a piece of his mind about that tummy time garbage

Pear-Banana Scented Bottoms

Perry found these today. There's nothing right about this, but Maggie and Avery will love it. Take note of the lapin (rabbit).

William goes to the beach

We took William on a long weekend to the Maldives this weekend. He was a very good boy.

He took a 4 hour plane ride. Slept.

He took a boat ride to get to the island. Slept.

He went on a sunset dolphin cruise. Slept.

Glass bottom boat cruise. Slept.

Dinners. Slept

Our villa was perfect-right by the water. Wills could take a nap in the room and we could hang out on the beach and hear him when he woke up.

He made a new friend. Some might say a ceiling fan can't really be your friend, but you'd be wrong. Each time we put him on the bed for a diaper change, he'd laugh and talk to the fan for as long as we'd let him. Not many people are imaginative enough to make a friend out of inanimate object. He's gifted.

Hair Club for Men

Wills has been losing his hair by the fistfuls. It looks like a black cat's been sleeping in his bed and car seat. It looks like it's growing back in a little lighter. Might have to change his name to T.J. now.

Wills goes to the hospital

Our little man had a yucky cough for 4 or 5 days. He was eating fine, smiling, sleeping and being our little man, just with a cough. I went to the EM doctor to get a referral for a dermatologist for myself and asked him to listen to little buddy's chest and make sure the cough wasn't in his chest. He had an appt on Tues for his 2 month check up and this was Sunday. He said he heard a "wheeze" and told me I probably needed to get it checked out. We go downstairs to the ped's office and he says "his chest is not clear at all". Then he orders chest x-rays and a culture to see what was going on. His chest x-rays showed some infiltrations, so the doctor tells us we're not leaving, he's checking Wills into the hospital for three or four days. Hmmmm.
We get a room. They put a line in (bad, bad, evil nurses. and he smiled at them when they were finished!) and start IV antibiotics until they know for sure what's going on. They give him the nebulizer every 6 hours. The doctor came in the next morning and said Wills has RSV/brochilitis with pneumonia infiltrations. They stop the antibiotics and tell us if he continues they way he is, we can go home the next day.
Now we're home. No meds, just saline drops for his nose. He's a tough little bug.

He is so yummy

EM Family Fun Day

Family Fun Day

Some of us napped
some got henna tattoos
some rode camels
and went swimming
Tent in the sand. So fancy.

Grounded

Six weeks old and this is what we get?

William's Firsts

First Bath
First trip to the fish market
First trip to the Souq
First swim in the ocean

Typhoid Mary Toys

Most of these are toys that William's cousin, Typhoid Mary, A.K.A. Avery Nicole, was nice enough to let us borrow. We couldn't take any chances and had to run them through the heavy duty wash.

Bathing will wear a boy out.

Catch and Release

After the camel races we took the boat out for a spin.

This is what P and Dad do on the boat,

what Mom does on the boat,
And what little William does on the boat...

Camel Races

Who knows when the races actually happen, but we decided to try our luck and head out to the track today. Check out flickr. A local took our camera and proceeded to take pictures of himself and his friends. Good times.

He Rolls

He yawns

His arrival

My last post before baby boy William was in anticipation of the doctors appt the following day. He didn't feel like waiting around for that. Monday night around 10 my water broke. I've repeatedly said it was just like in the movies. Perry and his mom had been out for dinner, and walked in the door about 10 minutes before. I was on the couch watching "24" and felt a little something that made me jump up off the couch and was rewarded with a huge puddle around my feet.

The hospital's 5 minutes away, so we weren't in too much of a rush, but we were certainly getting on our way. Packed up the car and headed out. No contractions yet.

The doctor decides that though I'm not dilated or having contractions to admit me and start antibiotics since my water had broken. Contractions finally started and got to about 6 minutes apart, then stopped around 3 or 4 am. I mean stopped dead.

The next morning they tell me they're inducing and ask if I want an epidural. Umm, yes. I only had a couple of really good contractions the night before, but I wasn't haven't any more of that. They take me to delivery at 9, start the epidural and the pitocian. Then some more pitocian, then some more, then about 1:30 or 2 there are actually contractions. The left side of the epidural wore off, had a baby boy at 3:05 pm.

P almost missed the delivery. The doctor that gave me the epidural was a middle eastern fella. I tell you this b/c it's the only way to explain why he told P around 2pm that he probably needed a break and to go get a drink, walk around, maybe take a nap...

P was falling asleep. He went to the room to get some caffeine and walk around, showed back up around 2:40 and we're ready to roll. He made it just in time for the fun.

William Richard Connell

He has arrived and he is gorgeous!



8 lbs. 5 oz.
21 1/2 inches
3/4/08 at 3:05 pm

This Week

Anybody else ready for a baby this week?

LOST

P thinks he's got the LOST TV series all figured out. He'd have to do the explaining, but he's pretty confident. Something about the past and future merging and people learning to not get on the plane, but they do get on the plane.

Lost lasts about 42 minutes without commericals and the conversation following is another half hour. Normally we're on the same page, but tonight...



UPDATE: P might take it all back. We didn't catch on, until my research after the show, that the book Penny's dad bought at auction was from the Black Rock. P didn't really know what the Black Rock was, so he might have to revise some theories.

Taking care of baby

I, personally, see nothing wrong with baby sleeping in a drawer or picking his nose with your finger...

http://www.makememinimal.com/2008/instrucciones-para-cuidar-un-bebe/

K.R. usually buys this book for her soon to be baby having friends but we didn't receive it. I don't know if she thought we were too well educated or hopeless. (These are actually pictures from a book that someone has scanned and downloaded.)

(I just noticed something wildly annoying about my blog postings, it spell checks in arabic. It's highlighted every word except for "I". I need me some help spelling too.)

Speaking of dusty

When the winds pick up, it looks something like this...

We've moved

Old backyard- the right corner villa
New backyard. About 4 times the size. There's even storage for our bikes beside me.
Old villa with no side yard and no privacy.
New side yard with garden and full privacy. This is what gives us an extra parking space on the front as well.

We were in a corner villa with an 8' X 10' "backyard", one parking space and nooo privacy. The housing committee initially refused our request to move across the street to another villa that had opened up, but we kept at them (with some help from Megan) and I'm thrilled that we did. This villa is much dustier than the old one, which was more protected from the winds, but it's a price I'm happy to pay. My cleaners might not be happy about it, but they didn't have enough to do. We use to have to close our curtains around 4:30 because it gets dark so early, but now we don't close them at all. The villa next to us has no high windows on that side, so we maintain total privacy and yet don't have the horrible closed in feeling having those heavy drapes shut for 6 hours a day.

The movers came at about 9am and hand carried most of our things to the exact same spot in the new villa in about 2 hours.

38 Weeks

How your baby's growing:Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

I went to a website the other day that supposedly tells you what color eyes little buddy will have based on his parents and grandparents. Our little buddy has a 75% chance of blue eyes and a 25% chance of green eyes. We'll see!!
After taking the doctor at her word when she said I'd go into labor days after she strips my membranes, I decided to check it out on line. Turns out, it will probably happen that way, but it's not a sure thing by any means. Some sources on-line said it doesn't work at all and some say it works within a day or two. My autistic tendencies loved the 2-3 day window to plan around. I'm off to rock in the corner or do a bit of hand flapping now that I know it's not necessarily a sure thing. And maybe try to sleep.
Oh, the elusive slumber.
Jamie is due March 8th and not sleeping either. I think we need to come up with some midnight activities. Maybe movies every night at 12ish?
Did you know that Demi Moore is still acting? I didn't either until about 1:30 am after washing the couch cushion covers and sterilizing the pump. I wish I knew the name of the movie to warn people from it. It was better than the news in Arabic though.

It's On

Went to our doctor's appt today and she wanted to strip/sweep my membranes. We told her we weren't quite comfortable with that since we're still not agreeing on the due date. (We know it can't be more than 38 weeks and she thinks we're 2 days away from 40 weeks) So now we go in on Saturday for a CTG (checks his heartbeat for about 10 minutes) and again on Tuesday the 4th at which time we've agreed to the membrane stripping along with the CTG. Little buddy should be here within a couple of days of the stripping. Whoo-hooo! Baby by the middle/end of next week. VERY EXCITED!
Anyone else come up with a name yet?

spelchek

My spellcheck's not working, maybe due to the slow internet, so forgive my spelling for now. And no Mom, I won't get out a dictionary. :)

Perry stole it

If this was our neighbor, I assure you P stole the statue. We have the same crazy lady a couple of doors down, with the 2 weiner dogs that "escape" everyday to use our lawn in Houston as their toilet. P threatens all types of retribution. This is hysterical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUJ4es4cYIU

He was robbed

The fellas decided that this contest at the baby shower needed an extra degree of difficulty by holding a beer in one hand throughout. You'll notice that the 'winner' didn't quite follow those rules...

You can see more baby shower pictures on Flickr.

34 Weeks

Hello, Kelly!Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies

We seem to have the lungs under control since he got some steroids last week. Now we just need to make sure he's nice and fat. At an ultrasound the other day, she said he was practicing his breathing. I couldn't see it, but she kept trying to point it out for me. So now we wait. And hopefully wait, and wait some more.

33 weeks and a pinapple (oww!)

Your pregnancy: 33 weeks

How your baby's growing:This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

I went in to the Dr. yesterday, with various complaints, one of which was pressure and a little cramping. She said you complain about this every time, but the pressure part got her moving a little. Yes, well it shouldn't be happening, so I'll keep complaining. And no, the complaint has never been cramping and pressure, it was contractions missy! So anyway, they hooked me up to some monitors, one to measure contractions and one for little buddy's heartbeat. No contractions, heartbeat good and all over the place like they like.
Then she did the stomach palpatation thing. She's wasn't happy. She said he's already engaged and that's where the pressure is coming from. Sooo, I get one steroid shot at the office for little buddy's lungs, and some meds to stop any contractions (that's right, the ones I'm not having). We got to go back to the ER last night for the second shot and were able to talk to a Dr. on the labor and delivery floor who told us engaged is just one thing they look for and it doesn't mean he's coming right now. Could be a couple of weeks. They keep trying to move the due date up to March 3rd, as I might have mentioned, and even after explaining to the Dr. yesterday that March 3rd was absolutely impossible, she said he needed to make it to my original 34 weeks, a week from today, but that the due date should still be moved up 10 days. Haven't you people every heard of a big baby?? We'd like him to make it to 36/37 weeks, so at our next appt on Sunday we're going to talk to my Dr. about keeping him in longer since my water hasn't broken. He might not come on his own before then anyway. EVERYONE'S FINGERS HAD BETTER BE CROSSED AND THOUGHTS OF "COME ON 36 WEEKS" SENT OUR WAY.
He's such a bad boy already!! Oh, I guess we'll have to get on that whole naming thing now.

Deaf and Dump

14 women graduate from police institute

Sunday, January 20, 2008

(Pictured)Policewomen who graduated from the Police Training Institute with their trainers and other officials during the graduation ceremony at the institute.

D*HA • The Police Training Institute (PTI) has trained the first batch of policewomen on the principles of communication between the police and people with special needs (deaf and dump).

Their words, not mine.

We have a Laugh Factory here, rather "The Laughter Factory", but who needs it when you can just read the local daily rags. If only this were the exception....

Church Service

He's not as angry today. It's kinda like watching church on TV, but just throwing open the window instead.

32 Weeks and a Jicama

Your Pregnancy: 32 weeks

How your baby's growing:By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

** I just noticed it said he'd be getting real hair. I don't know how much I would have liked him with a piece, so I'm glad he changed his mind about that.

She, I mean he needs to fatten up that belly with those next 3 or 4 pounds.
We started childbirth classes at the hospital Monday night. We missed a lot of it as I was double booked and had an appt w/ the doctor downstairs and P had a minor accident on the way to the hospital and had to leave his car behind. It should be interesting. It's two Swedish ladies and a local.
There is a couple in our class who also live in our compound and she's having an elective C-section. We (the 3 other couples from our compound) are curious as to why she's there. So far, none of the information has applied to her. We'll see how long they last.

Call to prayer

I can't get this right side up, but you don't really need to see the video anyway. Turn your speakers waaay up. I'll try to get better audio on the web cam later.

The speakers are suppose to be set up so that you can hear at least one in every part of town. We seem to be in a happening area. There are at least three. I can follow the first one for the 3-5 seconds it goes before the second and third ones come on. O.K., not really. You can also hear the guy giving the "service" over one of the speakers on Friday mornings. I'll have to catch that too. He seems angry.

And yes, it's raining. It has been for the last 3 days. Rainy and cold. I like it. And that's our back patio. If you saw the back of the exterior units, you'd know why we want to move. They have a little yard in the back and on the side as well as another carport.

Big Boy

We had another ultrasound completed last night to monitor the "liquor" levels. They're up, way up. It's now at about 15.8 up from 11.2 and 11.5.

Other than that, he's a big boy. She measured his head 3 different times as he moved around. It's measuring about 34 weeks 2 days, so almost 3 weeks larger. His abdominal circumference has always been right on or a little small at 30 weeks 5 days and his femur length is 33 weeks 3 days. We're going to have a tall, big-headed, skinny baby boy. He's almost 4.2 pounds (give or take 1/2 a pound)which is about a week and a half ahead.

When she first started the scan she was right over his face and he blinked for us a few times. Then she said she made him cry because his began rubbing his eyes with his little fists. Sooo cute and yet kinda creepy at the same time.

The MD that completed the ultrasound was an Indian lady. Dressed in her head scarf and long skirt with her white lab coat over all of it. We kept saying what a big boy he was and she giggle and affirmed that yes he was a big boy as she scanned down to show us his testicles. Niiice!

Would you like some gumbo with that smoke?

Perry invited some folks over for dinner tomorrow. The recipe says to make it a day or two ahead in case you burn the place down. Wait, I think it said it tastes better if it sits for a day or two. Details.

Wooo-hooo! 31 weeks!

Your pregnancy: 31 weeks

How your baby's growing:This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

He's been head down the last few times we've been in, so no somersaults. Just some gut punches and rib ticklers. He kinda slides from side to side too...feet in the upper left one day, punches in the lower right the next, good fun.

This pictures doesn't seem to show it, but I've put on twice as much weight in the last 3 or 4 weeks as I should have. Still have 9 weeks and 9 pounds to go. At night, I'm not sure where it's going to go. It hurts! Then I wake up the next morning, and it all seems to have worked itself out for another day.

Besides my hips painin' me as I try to sleep, I get the lovely, and oh so vivid pregnancy dreams.

This time, I took Avery (21 months old) to the Met in NYC. As dreams go, it's not exact. There was a huge fountain out front in a park. People were swimming in the fountain, so I hopped on in and tried to get Avery to go with me. She didn't want to. I told her to go back inside (up all those stairs and into that huge place) and find her mom. I didn't want to have to take her, I was swimming. Of course she didn't go back inside. Jill came out looking for her and she was gone. I couldn't decide whether to off myself (in my dream) or not. I told P about it this morning and said to go ahead and call social services because clearly I'm unfit and little buddy's not even here yet. And I'm never going to that museum with a small child in my custody. Screw culture. (sorry dad)

My birfday

Gifts from P. The thing on the left is a wooden carving. It looks gold or metal in the picture, but it's not.

Is that a crab in your pocket?

P went down to the "fish market" and bought some crab. He puts them on ice to "put them to sleep" he says. That's so he can rip their guts out without getting pinched. Then he steams and shells them. Obviously a stinky process. The varmints are still hanging out on our back patio.