Austin Fun

At the last minute, Olivia and I decided we had nothing going on last week and why not go to Austin to visit with friends?! We had such a fun time! We stayed with Olivia's boyfriend, Jake, who is 6 weeks older than she is. It was interesting to see their personality differences. Olivia seems to be a pretty laid back girl. She didn't mind at all when Jake came and took toys away from her. She just went and found another one. We had fun at the park, at the pool and with lots of friends!

At a yummy steakhouse in Steiner Ranch, overlooking the water.

She LOVED this type of swing

Fun at the pool

CSD babies having fun with a cool toy that we later went out and got for Olivia. She loved it way too much not to! She can practice her standing skills and play at the same time!

All the old gang at Iguana Grill! It was great to see old friends.

Stephanie, Jennifer, and Maggie

Olivia and Claire

Doing a little light reading on the car ride back to Houston!

Pulling up already

It seems she went quickly with the latest milestones. She is already pulling up on things and I am NOT enjoying this one! Sharp corners on tables and the inability to get herself down safely means I am on constant "injury watch"! It is cute to see her so determined to get to whatever is on top of tables and other furniture!

Crawling!!!

Olivia finally took the plunge and began crawling on her 9 month birthday! It is really cute to watch. It has opened a whole new world to her and a whole new world to us...we need to baby proof!

She gets faster and faster every day!

3/4 of a Year...Happy 9 Months, O

Lots of changes this month!!! She got 3 new teeth, bringing the total to 6! She has since learned how to take bites with those teeth, so she has a lot more food options than just pureed food now. She started army crawling or creeping and then on her 9 month birthday, actually started crawling. She doesn't seem all that interested in going many places, though. She is content to go a little ways and then stop and play with whatever she finds there. If she can't reach a toy, she just finds another one! If there is something really desirable, like a "not toy" as I call them, she can really move it.

She has also started waving, so cute! It began with waving to herself. Being the paranoid speech pathologist, I thought she was enjoying watching her hands flap, a feature of Autism. So it took one of my friends in Doha to point out that she was practicing waving, DUH!

She is somewhat of a picky eater and has begun shaking her head "no" to foods she doesn't want to eat! She really only loves vegetables and food she can takes bites of (crackers, Puffs, waffles, etc.). She will sometimes tolerate apples and bananas, but hates all other fruit!

She is still NOT sleeping through the night! My round the clock feeding duties continue. I really don't mind too much though. It is only once a night and takes me about 20 minutes. We are both right back to sleep after. I like going in to visit her in the middle of the night...for now! :)

Here are photos of the past month: Olivia's 9th Month Photos

Crib Changes

The other night Mike went in to Olivia's room to find her sitting up in her crib!! She just figured out how to get from a laying down position to sitting up. Daddy arrived in Houston just in time to lower the crib! She is growing up too fast!

Helping Daddy lower her crib

The finished product

Cute bum in the air

Indy with Nana

The day after we got back from Rockport for Easter, Olivia and I boarded yet another plane to Indy to go see my mom, Olivia's Nana. We had a great time and enjoyed being in one place for a while.

With Nana, Grandpa Bill and Abby

Woo hoo for having our own row on one leg on the way back.

Blue Eyes

Interestingly, neither Mike nor I have blue eyes, but Olivia does. We have discovered that Mike's father, my grandfather, and my Aunt Murf all have blue eyes. We were thinking that Olivia's would change, but they just haven't yet. So, we were beginning to think they might just stick around. Well, I recently saw a picture of me taken when I was about 18 months and I had bright blue eyes! So, she may be hazel eyed like both of her parents after all!

Olivia's First Easter

The day after we arrived from Doha (a 16 hour non-stop to Houston) we jumped in the car with Olivia's cousins, Haylie and Aiden and went to Rockport for Easter. We had a great weekend with both the Ray's and lots of Stobaughs. We only made her wear the ears for a little while :) Olivia's favorite part was playing with her mini Easter basket and with her cousins!

With Nonna Easter Morning

Shaking her mini Easter basket

Best photo we got of the cousins!

Dining "al fresco" with Pong Pong

Too Sexy for Doha

I thought this was too funny! I was a store the other day with a friend and we saw this inflatable pool on one of the shelves. Apparently, the mom in a bathing suit is just too sexy for Doha and they blacked her out with a magic marker! I will miss this kind of thing in Canada!

I snuck this picture this weekend of two little Qataris. After 2 and a half years here, I still think the little thobe wearing boys are too cute! Too bad they grown up and become maniacs on the road.

Rockin' Miss O

We aren't going to be able to contain her much longer! All she wants to do now is practice her moves! It is really fun to watch the progression of skills each day.

Belly Laughs

In case you are not on Facebook and have not seen this video, enjoy! We sure do! This was taken in the hotel in Munich.
Too bad I never get laughs like this, only daddy is super funny!

Happy 8 Months Olivia!

Again, it is hard to believe she is already 8 months old! Time flies when you are having fun! Olivia is growing and changing so much. She continues to be such a smiley and happy baby...most of the time. This month brought two more teeth and her first illness. She had a cold with a fever; poor thing just wanted to be held.

She is all over the place now! Not crawling yet, but rolling and creeping to get to where she wants to go. In the past few days, she has been getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth. Sadly for me at home during the day, we won't be able to contain her for long!!

She LOVES books with photographs and smiles at her favorite ones. She has also grown lots more hair!! She is continuing to eat solid food, but HATES fruit! She loves her veggies, which is good.

The pictures from the past month are here: Olivia's 8th Month Pictures

Germany

We had the best long weekend in Germany! We saw lots of snow and froze coming from the desert! In our usual fashion since being here, we decided about 4 days before we were scheduled to leave that we would go to Munich. We knew we wanted to get out of town, but we couldn't decide where to go. We settled on Munich because it had the best flights. Olivia was a fantastic traveler, yet again. She had an absolute BLAST! It is getting trickier to travel with her though. She wants to get into everything and needs to get on the floor to roll around. When she was younger on our other trips, she primarily slept the whole trip. Luckily, she LOVES the Baby Bjorn and poor Mike carried her 20 pound self all around Germany. She just squealed with excitement and flirted with everyone who came near her the entire time. We spent two days in Munich and took day trips to both Salzburg, Austria and also to Fussen, Germany to see King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle.


In Munich In Munich Asleep at the Hoffbrau House

In Salzburg in front of Mozart's birthplace

In Salzburg

LOVING the escalator in Munich

Admiring Mike's wurst and pretzel breakfast

Ludwig's Castle

New Trick

Olivia's favorite new silly noises!

Swimming

We have a pool in the compound, but never go for some reason. I must be that I am paranoid about Olivia getting sun burned. She also puts every part of her body in her mouth, so sunscreen seems like it should be limited. Last weekend though, we lathered her up and went swimming. The pool chillers are already on (without them, the pool gets nasty hot), so the water ended up being a little cold for her. She wasn't the biggest fan. She sure looked cute in her bathing suit though!

Chillin' on a floatie

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A favorite activity--playing with Mike's chest hair

Al Malki Baby Art

Since our time is coming to an end here in Doha, I wanted to do something to commemorate the birth of all of the 9 babies in our compound. I came up with getting a canvas to stamp all of their hands or footprints on. Knowing that I am the least creative person alive, Mike asked me where I came up with this idea. I told him, "My brain". To which he replied, "Really?".

The Jacksons are leaving this week to go back to the UK and we and the Neils are leaving within the month. So, we rounded up all of the babies and decided one foot would be much easier than hands! They actually turned out pretty cute. We are still waiting on one baby to be born (Sheri is still in labor as I type this post!) and the other baby is home in Australia for a visit.

The finished product (Olivia in yellow).

Will testing it out on paper first.

Action shot

Jamie painting 5 week old Jaydon's foot

Photo Ops With The Locals

Mike and I have started going to the mall on Thursday night as that is the happening spot on the weekends for the locals (I guess when the men and women can't socialize together and can't drink, that is what you do). We think it is entertaining (this also demonstrates how little there is to do in Qatar) to see them all dressed up and cruising the parking lot and the mall.

They seem to love babies and give Olivia lots of attention, which she loves. They often ask to hold her and they want to take pictures of her. You are not supposed to take pictures of them without asking, especially the women. I have recently gotten brave and asked them if it would be okay and I have gotten some pics while they are holding her.

Babies, Babies, Babies

In our small compound in Doha (~30 occupied villas), there have been EIGHT babies born in the past year and one more being born as I type this! We have lots of play dates and other activities with all of the babies. Here are some pics from a brunch from last week at my friend Cheryl's villa.

Olivia trying to take 6 week old Ella's socks off!

Lilly, Ella and Olivia

Happy 7 Months Old

Olivia has been sitting up by herself for about a month now and it is so much fun to watch her play. She is completely happy to sit and explore a pile of toys. I am loving the fact that I can go do something quickly, like check on laundry, and know that she will still be there when I get back. I know this is short lived and I am enjoying it for the time being!

She recently began rolling from her back to her tummy. If you lie her down on her play mat, she just rolls in all directions. She has also started spinning in circles on her tummy to get to various toys. There are some signs of creeping, but definitely no crawling yet!

Biggest development...HAIR! She is finally really sprouting some hair!

She is truly such a happy and smiley girl. She is such a joy.

Click for the pictures from the past month here: Olivia's 7th Month