Going to the Park

We leave Bahrain in one week!  Wow!  We're trying to take the time to do things we haven't yet done or want to do again before we leave.  Today, we took Charlotte to a new park that was fantastic.  It easily compared to nice parks in the states and even had a large pool for paddle boating.  It was right on the coast so you even got a nice view of the Arabian Gulf.  The only downside was that it was VERY windy.  I'm not sure if that was just today's weather or if it's always that windy since it's right off the coast.  Even so, Charlotte had a great time today.  Below are some photos of our day and a video of Charlotte climbing up a wall and going down a spiral slide.  

 an observation deck at the park

 the playground for children under 5

 a view of the Hidd bridge from the park

 Chris at the top of the rope climb in the 6-12 year old playground....  ;-)

 Charlotte enjoying a crawl through tunnel

 going down a really tall spiral slide

 Mommy pushing Charlotte on the swing

the "pool" where you can go paddle boating...we're not sure if this is open yet but boy does it look fun

Videos and Photos

Charlotte loves looking at pictures and videos on our computer and I thought today, Why don't I post some of these on my blog?  So here you go.  Here's some videos we've recorded over the past month or so...two of them as recently as yesterday when we went to Wahoo! Waterpark again.  I've also posted some pictures of the Wahoo! Waterpark trip below the videos.  Enjoy!

Here is a video of Charlotte going down the kids slide at Wahoo! Waterpark yesterday.  She went down much bigger slides than this, but we didn't think to take video of her going down a slide until we got to the kiddie area right before we left.

I'm surprised at myself for posting this, but some people have been asking to see my preggo belly.  Here is a video that will show you how huge I am.  I'm definitely not a cute pregnant woman this time around and I'm going to have a lot of weight to lose in 2 months!  Part of this is my own fault.  I haven't exactly been eating healthy!

Here is a video taken when we went to Dubai with my brother Matt at the end of January.  The video was filmed at our hotel's pool.  Charlotte loves playing "1, 2, 3", which means being thrown from one person to another.  Uncle Matt was nice enough to take my place since it's too much pressure on my stomach to lift and throw Charlotte right now!  

This video was recorded late January at a birthday party Charlotte went to.  Charlotte loves to climb and jump and she was more entertained doing this at the party than she was playing with the other kids or doing the party games.

And here are some more Wahoo! Waterpark pictures from yesterday:

For those who might freak out at this picture, this is not a hot tub!  It's just regular temperature pool water with bubbles.  :-)  Middle Easterners don't really do hot tubs since it's usually so hot here.  This type of jet pool is what you'll usually find over here.

Big Girl Bed

Here's a picture of Charlotte in her new, temporary "big girl" bed.  She was pretty excited when we showed this to her, but we're having a hard time getting her to nap, as I know all parents deal with when they make the transition from crib to bed.  She's gotten up a good 6 or 7 times so far with various lame reasons and I'm sure she'll get up a few more times between now and when her nap is usually over, so we'll see how long it takes to break her into the new bed without the crib rails to keep her in...hopefully before Uncle Matt gets here in a week!

Christmas Party and More Sewing

This past Friday, we went to a Christmas party for Chris's job.  As is typical with all things State Department, it was a liberal party and there was not one mention of Jesus in song or otherwise.  For some reason, it's okay for the Embassy to sponsor, host, or attend Islamic religion events (especially around Ramadan), but a Christmas party specifically for Embassy families has to be "politically correct". Bah Humbug!  They put together a group of people to sing "Christmas Carols" at the party, and I was going to participate, but when I saw all the music was holiday jingles and that none of the songs had even a single mention of Jesus, I decided not to participate.  It was originally on the calendar as a "Holiday Party", so I guess I should be happy it was at least called a "Christmas Party" in the end.  Although, what is Christmas without Christ?  On our way there, I told Chris I wish I had a huge nativity necklace to wear to the party.  But I digress. As I stated in a previous post, I decided to make a Christmas dress for Charlotte to wear to the party and promised in that post to take plenty of pictures of her in it.  Well, here are those pictures!

Charlotte with her "ee ee" before we left.  I couldn't get her to smile.  I think she was still tired from her nap since we had to get her up earlier than normal to head to the party.

Charlotte and I before leaving.

Charlotte in a gazebo in the Ambassador's front yard.

Charlotte decorating a Christmas cookie.  I entered a Christmas cookie contest at the party and entered Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  I got third place....out of five.  :-)  I thought they tasted great, but I guess if not all the judges liked pumpkin....

Charlotte Decorating a Christmas Cookie

Back of Charlotte's Christmas Dress

Big smile!  This was the best smile we got from her all day.  She loves saying "Merry Christmas!" and smiles really big every time she says it.  She was in the middle of saying it when I took this picture.

Charlotte waiting for a Christmas story and for a present from Santa.

The Ambassador reading a Christmas story to the kids.  Chris was asked to read it if the Ambassador couldn't make it to the party (he was called away for something).  The Ambassador showed up literally a minute or two before Chris was going up there to read...bummer!

 Charlotte getting a gift from Mom and Dad via Santa.  She was shy once again.

On top of going to a Christmas party, I finished another outfit for The Boy.  I bought some teddy bear sailor fabric here in Bahrain about a year ago and figured I'd find a use for it someday.  I thought it had an adorable Japanese vibe to it and thought it was cute enough to add to my stash.  I looked through my sewing patterns and found one with an infant boy's sailor romper.  I wasn't sure if it would be super duper cute, but I thought I'd give it a try since I happened to have all the notions the pattern called for, along with coordinating fabric.  Even now that it's done, I'm not sure I love it.   I definitely wouldn't love it for a 2 year old, but for a 3-6 month old?  Maybe.  It's probably a little too cutesie for anything behind a 3-6 month old, but I did get Chris's stamp of approval on it, which is comforting.  Feel free to tell me your thoughts...good and bad.

Christmas Dress

A family Christmas party for my husband's employer is this weekend and I had the sudden thought to try and make Charlotte a pretty Christmas dress and jacket for the party.  I have quite a bit of Christmas fabric on hand with no intended purpose for any of it, so I had fun looking through my patterns and figuring out what fabric I wanted to use with which pattern.  I'm definitely glad I stock up on patterns and sewing supplies when I'm in the states, because it makes it super easy to do last minute projects like this.  Charlotte loves the new dress and keeps asking to wear it.  I tried it on her last night and there's definitely not any room for growth.  I guess it's good she can only wear it this month!  I used Simplicity 2270 and made a few alterations, as you'll see in the pictures below.  The pattern called for a zipper on the backside, but Charlotte loves buttons and I think buttons are cuter, so I made the backside a button closure instead of a zipper closure.  I also added some pom-pom fringe to the neckline to make it more festive, which Charlotte loves and calls them "balls", along with rack rack along the bottom of the dress and some colorful thread as a fun decorative accent.  I promise I'll get plenty of pictures of Charlotte in her cute little Christmas dress this weekend.  In the meantime, enjoy these:

The completed dress and jacket.

The backside of the dress.

Closeup of jacket back

Here's the dress front without the jacket.  There's also decorative stitching outlining the pockets, but you can't see that very well in this picture.

Closeup of front dress neckline

Closeup of rick rack and decorative stitching at bottom

backside of dress

Closeup of back neckline and buttons

another closeup of the back buttons

The pattern I used.