It's a . . .

It's a . . . . well first you may likely know.  Second, there is an announcement on the bottom of the page.

To catch you up quickly before the announcement, last weekend I was off in Dubai for a teacher leadership conference.  In short, it was a great conference, I learned a lot about managing conflict, building teams, and facilitating change.  I was also able to meet many people from many different schools which is great for our uncertain future when we leave Saudi Arabia.

This week we are off of school this week for Eid al Adha, this holiday celebrates the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.  We are having good relaxing family time.  Yesterday we went to Bahrain for the day and night to do some some shopping and going out to eat.  Unfortunately, Aden was a terror after a fitful nights sleep and being cooped up in a car for the morning, this lasted pretty much until dinner, with a short break while we were playing at the hotel pool.  The morning started with Aden running into a glass door to the no smoking section of Ric's Country Kitchen where we had breakfast.  After we opened the door for him to walk through we had to carry him across the doorway because he didn't want to chance running into another invisible forcefield.  Aden also successful convinced the other couple in the non-smiking section to relocate before their food arrived.  We were a little embarrassed. During dinner at Fudruckers, Aden was pretty good and stopped crying when the world's best hotdog came out for him.  All beef and wonderful!  You should try one.

This upcoming weekend it is boy's night in, as Tara shoots off to Dubai for a conference where she is going to attend math teaching work shops.  She is very excited . . . I don't quite get it though, but that's alright.

Ok, for the announcement!

What a cute girl and proud big brother!

Her picture at 15.5 weeks

I thought everyone would like this picture.  Aden helping Mommy brush her hair this morning.  Aden would give my hair one quick brush and then run back to Mommy's to do nice long comes down her nice long hair.

Big boy bed

Shortly after we came back to Saudi for the school year, Aden started a new nightly tradition.  He decided that he didn't like his crib and would cry a lot before finally falling asleep.  One night, Jamie and I were cleaning in our bedroom when the crying stopped and Aden walked into our room.  This was surprising since we had put him in his crib.  From then on, every night he would climb out (and got  quite good at it may I add).  We ended up putting a mattress on the floor and taking turns sleeping with him.  This was exhausting!  So, the first available weekend we had was spent shopping at Ikea for a new mattress for him and a gate.  Aden loves his new bed.  He still doesn't like going to sleep which is why we had to get a gate for his doorway, but the new freedom of being able to walk around is something that he enjoys. 

You may notice the blankets on the floor.  At first, Aden was not good at staying on the bed at night.  We would often hear a thud and then he would cry or we would just find him on the floor in the morning.  He has gotten much better about this. One thing has has changed since the picture was taken is that Aden no longer has the privilege of overhead lights.  He was continually turning the lights on when Jamie or I left the room.  His lamp also gets unplugged each night.  He is just too smart for his own good.  The next goal is to get him to understand that he has to stay in his room so we can get rid of the gate.

Another big adventure we have had lately is taking our first camel ride.  A few times while driving home, we saw a man with his camel in this nice parkish area by the ocean.  It looked like he was giving rides, so we decided to stop one day.  Below is a video of the experience Aden and I had while riding the camel.  I was glad that the ride was only about 5 minutes long. 

Afterwards, the guy tried to charge us about $50 for the rides.  Jamie put on his best bartering face and we walked away only paying about $15, which was still kind of crazy for the short and not fun rides we had.  However, now we can officially saw we've ridden a camel in Saudi.

Last but not least is a video we took at dinner the other night.  Aden is constantly amusing us by doing something goofy.  This is an okay video of his shoulder shrug.