Davy's 1st Birthday Celebrations

I decided on a "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" theme for Davy's 1st birthday.  I was kicking myself for not visiting the party store while in the States, as that would have made things so much easier!  Even pulling together three colors--green, red, and blue--was not easy.  Several shops were involved, and shopping itself is baically impossible in this country where 1. I can't drive myself, and 2. all the stores shut down 5x a day for prayer.  I bought streamers and napkins at Tamimi, the wrapping paper that served as a tablecloth and some party favors at the 7 riyal Japanese store, more streamers and cups at Carrefour, and borrowed the paper for the paper airplanes from school. We decorated the table with Davy's toys, and wahlah!  A theme birthday party.

The cake was a 2 layer chocolate midnight cake with 7 minute icing.  It was actually my very first time to do a layered cake, and I had several troubles: the cakes stuck, and it took 2 batches of icing to piece things together.  Davy didn't seem to mind.

For his birthday party we had babies and 3 year olds, and it was just the right amound of kids.  Our two helpers, Ms. Mildred and Ms. Wendy, helped the entire time, and basically by the time everyone left the house was in perfect shape and all the dishes washed and put up.  Amazing.

Davy also celebrated at The Trailer, with his trailer buddies and teachers.  I brought cupcakes (zucchini/low sugar), and Shannon and I picked up Vera on our way to the party.  The ladies had made a poster with his picture blown up for the back-drop.  So sweet. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Day of School and More

Sometimes when I'm so far behind with something (like the blog), I will give up on it altogether.  But, not this time!  We are on a one week holiday for Eid, and catching up on this family blog is on my to-do list.  I really need to go back to the summer, but for now I'm starting with the first day of school and some other photos from around the compound.  Davy started walking "officially" on August 12th, so we have been hard-pressed to keep up with ever since.  Vera is thriving in Pre-K, and LOVES everything about school--her teacher, her friends, and especially the sneaky cupcakes Mommy sends in her lunch. 

Vera's Room



Davy and Ms. Tes

 

Shy Vera at the beginning of the first day

 

 

End of the first day!

"Serious Davy" DOES smile!

The Bathroom = The Perfect Play Room

Balloons!

The first birthday party of the year

Transport around the compound

Dancing Vera in the play room

Climbing!

More silliness

Ding dong!

Taking a rest

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!