He's officially a toddler!

On January 8th, our baby boy became a toddler.  We no longer tell his age in months, but in years.  The past year has been full of fun, laughter, tears, doctor appointments, smiles, milestones, frustration, laundry, spit up, and most of all love.  Since Sunday is a school day for us, Aden celebrated his birthday at school with his friends there and then again when we got home.  We decided to have a small birthday for him that included cupcakes and some presents.  We also invited over our friends Patty and Chris Young because it was Patty's birthday too!  Chris and Patty (known to Aden as Noni and Papi) are also his surrogate grandparents here in Saudi.  After four Christmas's in the States, he finally seemed to understand and enjoy opening presents.  It was a nice, laid back birthday for a very special little boy.

Yesterday we went to the doctor and had Aden's 1 year appointment and vaccinations.  Aden is still a healthy boy at 24.7 lbs (75th percentile) and 32 inches (90th percentile).  He has popped a second tooth, but they are taking their sweet time to fully come in.  He continues to improve his walking and has even begun running.  Going for walks is now more fun, but also more exhausting.  He has decided that he is in charge of where we go and it sometimes involves chasing cats.  Getting him back to the house can be quite difficult, but we are glad that he loves the outdoors so much.

Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Tara

 The birthday boy!

 Eating his cake, he didn't get very messy and wouldn't actually eat the cupcake until we had broken it into smaller pieces... funny boy

 Opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa

 Stackable cups!

Aden's friend Mahana was born just three days before him so they celebrated together!

 

He really wanted to touch the candle

A few more pictures from winter break......

 Playing in the snow!

 On the train into Chicago

Aden helping Daddy sweep

Has it really been that long?

So my mom reminded me the other day that we haven't blogged since December 20th.  Has it really been a month!!??  I sincerely apologize to those of you who do read, but I will try to get you caught up.

We spent a great 3 weeks in the States and were able to see a lot of friends and family.  Aden was showered with gifts that now litter our living room floor every day.  We were a bit disappointed at the lack of snow, but from what I hear there is plenty now.  Thank you to all of you who housed, fed, and spent time with us.  We feel very blessed to have friends and family who are willing to help us out while we are back in the States.

We flew back to Saudi on January 3 and Aden did a fantastic job.  We tried out a new (for us) flight straight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi which is about 13 hours long.  I was really nervous that it would be torturous being stuck on a plane for that long, but it really wasn't.  Aden did a great job sleeping and there was an awesome entertainment package.  We'll definitely take that flight again if we can.  Jet lag took a bit to get over, but Aden was sleeping through the night again before the week was out.  Look below for a video of Aden dealing with jet lag.  Poor guy!

I honestly can't believe that we've only been back here for 2 weeks.  We've jumped back into teaching and helping out with the cross country team.  I went to a math curriculum meeting at our district office for three days.  And on Monday we go down to Khobar for Aden's next set of vaccinations.  There is always something going on.

The next big developmental step that Aden has reached lately is that he got his first tooth!  We don't have any pictures because it is still just barely breaking through, but it is there.  Perfect timing since he is only about a week ago from being done nursing.  The funniest part of the story is that another baby here, Shea, got his first tooth this week as well.  But Shea is only 5 1/2 months old!  Aden was a bit of a late bloomer in this area.  It has been so much fun these past few weeks as Aden's personality has really begun shining through.  He is a big goofball.  Seriously, he made me laugh so hard the other night that I started to cry.  He just does the funniest things that make me think "what is going on in that little head?"  We are really looking forward to the next few months as he continues to develop and starts communicating more with us.

Tara

Aden was having a hard time dealing with jet lag one night at dinner.

We found snow up near Superior and Aden loved it!

More pictures and first birthday post to come soon!

In the USA

We are here!  Aden did a good job on the plane, but the flights were long and he wanted to move.  We flew in on Dec. 15 and spent a little bit of time with Katie (Tara's best friend) and Mike Verlee and their 2 year old son Asher in Chicago to start off our trip.  On Dec. 16th we met up with Grandma and Grandpa and have been doing a lot of relaxing ever since.  However, Aden did get a little ear infection, which made for an unhappy camper, but we got it cleared up pretty quickly after an urgent care visit.

Here are some pictures of the early Christmas and our time home so far.  There will be more Christmas post(s) to follow.

Jamie

The family in front of one of the Macy's windows in Chicago

The Chicago Bean

You look pretty short in the bean Tara

Aden playing at Lion's Park in Mauston

Look at that big boy!

Here comes Santa!

Aden's Turn!  He's so excited . . . or not.

A White Christmas and Next Year

Here's the scoop, after a lot of prayer and thought and indecision, we have signed another one year contract with our school.  The thought is that next year will be our last year in Saudi, but we won't be able to say for sure until this time next year.  We are excited about our decision and the outlook of being able to take steps to futher settle in to our roles here and our awesome house. 

As for Christmas plans, here they are.  We will be flying into Chicago on Dec. 15th.  Sometime on the 16th we will make our way back to Mauston.  On the 18th, we will be in Eau Claire for the day to go to church.  the rest of the week before Christmas will mainly be spent with Grandpa Brian and Grandma Wendy, this is the calm before the storm of Christmas.  Seth and Kelly we come into Mauston on the 25th it looks like.  There is also talk of a short trip up north while Seth and Kelly are here.  We'll be at McGuire Christmas on Dec. 31st (very exciting) and the Gillaspie Christmas is TBA as of yesterday.

We are a little busy, but since we are not back in the states all that often we would love to see anybody whose schedule might fit ours.  Everyone will be amazed with how much Aden has grown since summer.  Check out the videos I posted.

We are very excited to be finishing our last Master's class of the semester next week and to enjoy some good family and friend time.

Jamie

O.K. a good walking video finally

A unique laugh for a baby and it is contagious

All About Aden

He is walking!  With how busy we have been we have forgot to mention this news on the blog.  The video I posted is of some of his earlier steps.  He is a little studier on his feet now.

Also, it is the Thanksgiving/Christmas season over here.  We let the two overlap, especially since we are headed home in three weeks.  We have two Thanksgiving meals to go to this weekend and our tree is already up and the Christmas music pours out of our windows.

We are looking forward to coming back to Wisconsin soon, but are wondering how we will handle the cold after our last few winters where the highs were in the 70's and 80's.

Enjoy the videos.

Jamie

yeah!

He is figuring out new things all the time.

Excited for his first Christmas!

A video of Aden in the pool at the Al Bustan in Muscat.

Oh man! We're in Oman

We are off of school for one week for the Hajj Eid.  On Thursday we flew into Dubai, rented a car and took off for Muscat, Oman on Friday morning.  Our four hour drive turned into eight after some troubles at the border.  We waited in line for two hours to get our Omani visa only to be told we don't have an U.A.E. exit stamp!  Apparently we drove right through that check point.  So we got back in the car to drive the few miles back to the U.A.E border.  We ended up taking turns getting out of the car and walking the last part of the way to the border because the border traffic was so bad at the check point.  A little over an hour later we went to the front of the line we had already waited in and were issued our visas.  After that we only had to finish the last three hours of our drive.  We checked into our hotel and went to sleep.

Our first day in Oman was spent in Old Muscat checking out the Sultan's Palace and the old forts.  We had a fun time exploring and letting Aden get some exercise after such a long day in the car.  We ended up on the public beach letting Aden play in the sand with some kids from Kerala India.

Our second and last full day in Oman started out with a trip to the corniche where we were going to check out the souqs (markets), but they were all closed in the morning.  Having to change our plans we went to a big park where Aden was able to wear himself out playing.  The highlight of our trip was spending the afternoon at Al Bustan hotel.  This place was built in 1985 for a GCC (Gulf Coastal Countries?) summit.  It was amazing.  We at lunch at a sea side restaurant and then went swimming in the infinite pool and Gulf of Oman.  We checked out the prices to see if we could ever justify staying there, but for almost $500 a night we don't think so.

Our vacation is going to finish up in Dubai with shopping at the awesome malls, playing in parks, and hopefully having dinner with friends who live in Dubai, but it is also their vacation so we'll see if our schedules line up.

Only five weeks until we are home for Christmas!

This isn't the kind of hiking we usually do on vacation

Can you reach the pedals?

The Sultan's Palace

Ahhhh!

What a cutie!

A royal diaper change

Can you hear him laughing?

Omani boys

The landscape is quite different from the Eastern Province in Saudi

Al Bustan

Infinite pool

Checking out the Gulf of Oman

Bazaar!

The last few weeks have a blur of school, home, school, the beach, school, and friends.  Did I mention school?  I think sometimes that it would be more beneficial for us to just bring some clothes, blankets, and food to school and live there.  We finally had a two day weekend this past weekend and it was glorious!  I will never take them for granted again.  The first day we went to the Murjan Bazaar which is an event we really look forward to each year.  It is pretty much a big craft fair, but stores from around the area come and bring items to sell as well as individual people.  We love to look at carpets when we go to Bazaars.  We were successful this year with finding one we both agreed on that was in our price range.  We also have a very crafty friend, Lindsey, who was selling beautiful cups, clipboards, trays, and folders which she then personalized.  Look below for a picture of what we bought from her.  Aden was so excited for his tray table.  Right now he just likes to hit it, but I can see him using one day to color on or eat a snack.  While at the Bazaar we stopped into the hair dresser Jeanne Renee, who did a wonderful job cutting Aden's hair.  It was getting so long that it was starting to resemble a mullet.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend.  I'm talking low 90s with a slight breeze....perfection!  On Friday we had friends over who have a 1 year old daughter, Kamilla.  Her and Aden had fun causing trouble around the house and really enjoyed playing in the sand at the beach.  Kamilla is walking and Aden had to work hard to keep up with her.

This past week was our last 6-day work week for awhile.  Thursday we had parent/teacher conferences for almost 9 hours.  It's nice to remind myself that on Thursday we will be boarding a plane for Dubai as we take a much needed vacation.  I plan on doing a lot of relaxing, reading, and having some quality family time.  I'm sure we'll have lots of fun pictures to post after that.

Enjoy the pictures!

Tara

Our new carpet

Fun new personalized items

Aden hanging outside just before his haircut

Hanging out with our friend Savannah

Fun times with Unky B (notice the big boy haircut!)