The Trailer

This is Davy's "school"--The Trailer. You can see Ms. G in the back wiping his bum. :) There are 7 babies that are loved on here by 4 wonderful ladies from the Philippines.

When I found out that I was pregnant, all I could think about for a while was the unfortunate timing in regards to my mat leave. As much as we needed to leave QSI and move on, they do have an amazing maternity leave policy in that you can take off as much time as you want, and then go back to work part-time. It seemed a cruel stroke of fate that we had literally just (2 weeks previous to finding out the news) accepted jobs with a traditional mat leave of 10 weeks off, then back to work full time. I had trouble getting excited about the baby because I obsessed so much on "having" to go back to work.

When I wrote K, my new buddy at AIS-R, and expressed my concerns, she told me about The Trailer, the on-site daycare at the school. She had nothing but wonderful things to say about it, and tried to assure me that everything was going to work out. Then later, when we arrived in Riyadh, all the moms with babies told me more about how great the daycare was. I still didn't really get it, though.

Turns out that I actually only had 8 weeks at home, since Davy insisted on taking his sweet time coming out. And it sucked dropping him off that first day, I'm not going to lie. But, then I started to understand what on-site daycare means for working moms. Most of all, it means that I don't really have to miss him. He is no more than a 4 minute walk away at all times, and I still get to feed him close to 100% of the time. I rarely go more than 3 hours without seeing him, and I'm often there to see his sweet smile when he's waking up. I get to smother him with kisses every time I visit him, and squeeze his squishy cheeks. When I have to leave him, I hand him off to one of his adoring teachers, who is always happy to get her hands on him again.

Going back and forth to The Trailer is not easy. I miss out on prep time, eat on the run, and don't have much extra time to help struggling students. All the same, I think it is the ideal set-up for an imperfect situation. The best part is that Davy is most certainly happy. He is constantly stimulated by his baby buddies and the environment, and is truly loved by his teachers. Really, we are so lucky!

Vera Talk

One thing I'm sad about is how I have not recorded Vera's language development in much detail. I felt like once she really got started, there was no way to keep up. So, now that I have a blog again, I will try to periodically post about what she's talking about. Here a few recent stories:

Jim Valley is a singer/performer that seemingly came straight out of the 70s. For some reason he comes to our school every year. He sings songs with hand motions, and all the kids follow along. We took Vera to his concert last Wednesday after school, and she acted fairly indifferent to the whole thing while we were there. She sang a little bit, danced a bit, and then decided she would rather jump from the risers. That's when we left. Little did we know he (Jim Valley) had made such an impact. All weekend, she kept repeating "I want to go to Jim 'Balley'. I want Jim 'Balley' more!"

Our girl is a bit of a drama queen. Occasionally she will place the back of her hand to her forehead and proclaim, "I'm so sick!" Last night, however, as a ruse to get out of bed, she crept out of bed to tell us oh-so-sadly,"I not feeling well." When I told her to go get back in bed, she threw her head back and wailed about not "feeling well." Poor baby. When did she get so mature? She's only 2 and a half!

Tonight: "I'm a monkey!" (coming out of the bedroom wearing her monkey pjs)

Recently, when I tell her she can't do something yet: "When I'm big, I will...(ride a motorcycle, go to soccer practice, chew gum, wear hair like Ava's...).

This one I love: "Mommy, snuggle!" (after waking up, but not ready to get out of bed yet)

When she sees an airplane: "I'm going to 'Messico" and see sand and see water." :) She's dreaming about summer already, like her parents!

iPad pics

A few recent faves...the onesie is from Tia Bethany in NYC. We hope to meet baby Nathaniel in Playa del Carmen this summer. The sleeping kids is a snapshot of our family bed, minus the grownups. It's a wee bit crowded, but oh-so-sweet.

A blog from the iPad...

2 years ago I did not have an iPad from which to blog. Blog test #2!

We shall see...

If anyone remembers "Ethiopiaboundexpats," here's what our girl looks like now. :)

I've decided to try again with the ol' blogging. I quit in early 2009, after getting Vera, and giving up on China's censoring. Here in civilized Saudi, blogs don't seem to be censured, and I periodically think of ideas I'd like to write about if I had a blog. So...we'll see. I'm not going to tell anyone about this blog until I have at least 5 posts. I just made that up, and it sounds like a good plan.


For now, this is a test to see what the blog looks like, and to see if I remember how to post pictures, because that's all anyone will want to see anyway.


This was Davy, circa 2 months, I think. One thing I will do on this blog (if I indeed keep up with it beyond a few days), is tell his birth story.

Here goes...