Miss-information

Misinformation caused us to miss the museum again today.  The website stated that it opened at 10am.  We arrived at 10:45am only to be told it didn't open until 12:00pm.  Instead of waiting around for an hour with kids in a sweaty car, we went to yet another mall.  I guess we have lived in Qatar too long.  "When all else fails, shop" seems to be the motto here.  Shopping establishments hold the longest hours, I think.  We had a little lunch, and some ice cream.

Qatar's New Rule

 Yesterday, the 25th of June was an historic day for Qatar.  Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani  willingly ceded power to his son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.  Normally, the transfer of power  from a living monarch is through an uprising or coup, such as Sheikh Hamad took power from his father in a bloodless coup in 1995.  Also, Sheikh Tamim is the youngest ruler in the region now at the age of 33.  While I may not agree with everything that Sheikh Hamad has done, I think he is a good man trying to do what is best for his country as well as the Arab region.  I think his son will try to follow on the foundations his father has established.  For more see here and here.

Sheikh Hamad

Sheikh Tamim

The ceremonial pomp and circumstance took place yesterday, Tuesday, which had been declared a holiday.  What we didn't know was that the naming of the cabinet and other steps for the handover would carry over into today, Wednesday.  We had planned to go to an exhibit about the Olympics at the Al-Riwaq Exhibition Hall.  It was only on until the end of the month, but because of being pregnant & then having a baby, we had not been yet.  Well, as we were driving there, we kept being diverted as the Corniche was being closed down.  Instead, we ended up at the new mall that just opened by our house.  Not even half of the stores are open, but we did see this guy.

Skin condition

We have been battling both eczema & cradle cap, which are skin conditions with completely opposing treatments.  This picture doesn't do it justice because she is looking strides better, but it has not been easy to balance which one to treat fearing that it will flare up the other.

If you have watched Once Upon a Time, I just fondly think of her as a little crocodile.

Blessing in disguise?

I suppose, I am grateful that my computer is old.  It can't hold a whole lot of photos on the hard drive or it runs really slow, so they are on Travis' computer.  I can't even upload the good camera to my computer.  So, when I want to put pictures on the blog/Facebook/email, I have to first upload them to Travis' computer, then email them to myself or put them onto a thumb drive.  I also have to find a time that Travis isn't using his computer in order to accomplish all of this, which would explain my lack of sharing photos (ie. neglected blog). 

Well, this ended up paying off (sort of).  Travis' hard drive crashed.  After many attempts to recover the information, he has given up.  We will make one more attempt when we get the hard drive to the U.S.  The pictures had not been backed up since April, so Easter, all birthdays (except Travis who is in the fall), Mirah's birth, etc. are all lost currently except for the small handful of pictures I had sent to myself.  These were taken 25 May, when Mirah was 3 days old.

Playing Dress-up...in the Middle East

Every day, we see four or more different outfits per child, be it their own clothing or dress-up clothes.

Check out the hula skirt

Leoni's blanket creation

We have a number of abaya/hijab variations.

Caught

Leoni likes to put on pretend makeup.  We have talked many times about not pretending with markers, pens, crayons.  I guess we need to discuss paints, too.

Relaxin' All Cool

Burke finds this whole baby thing a piece of cake

The Three Caballeros

Burke giving the cheese

Mirah looking adorable

Leoni wanting in on the picture taking Gypsy Rose Lee style

All three

My Excuse

I have admittedly neglected this blog.  I know I was never great at keeping it up to date, but it has only gotten worse recently.  One of these days I'll get a little more caught up.  I have a really good reason...

Mirah Delaunay Wilson

21 May 2013