Eating Habits!

I promise you before I took this clip Callie managed to stab and eat at least 10 pieces of melon unassisted, honest! Of course, as soon as the camera is out she cheats and then loses interest in forking altogether as the camera is so much more interesting... sigh!

Feeling Guilty!

After too many nights of having to get up and rescue Callie's dummy (pacifier to my American friends!) which keeps rolling out of her mouth and off the bed onto the floor, Jamie and I decided it had to go! Thursday night was crunch night after we were woken at least half a dozen times by angry squawking! Friday morning saw me furiously researching the internet to try to find a humane way of getting rid of dums but there was nothing obvious, so we just went for the inhumane route instead and poked a big hole in it! Friday afternoon we put Callie down with her "broken" dums.... She was NOT pleased! She realised straight away something wasn't right and kept taking it out of her mouth and handing it back, politely requesting another... Unfortunately, she was out of luck! We then endured approximately an hour of serious complaint, with Jamie wanting to cave around the 45 minute mark. Fortunately, me being so "hard and unsympathetic" (Jamie's words, or rather a more polite version of!) paid off and she dozed off roughly 20 minutes before her nap time would have been over. Success! Since then we have had minor histrionics but mostly Callie has gone off to bed without much fuss and has slept better through the night. Last night we didn't have to go in at all, woo hoo! All in all, although I still feel a bit guilty about taking away such a prized possession from such a little person, Mission Dums has been more successful and much less painful than anticipated. Well done Miss Callie! What a big girl!

Big Tall Girl!

We took Callie for her 12 month check up and vaccines a couple of weeks ago, her second trip to the docs since we arrived in Bahrain. Fortunately it passed without incident and she was a trooper when it came to her MMR and Hep A jabs. Obviously, she screamed the place down during, but recovered quickly and trotted off to the fish tank in the waiting room to see the fishies again before she left without so much as a whimper! She has also been completely fine since the jabs. However, the interesting information to come out of the visit is that Callie is apparently now in the 98th percentile for height, just short of 32" and the 75th for weight at around 24 pounds. Given she was a wee scrappy thing when we left Houston and only measured in the 40th percentile for both height and weight, we are quite shocked by the change. Having said that, we shouldn't really be that surprised as the amount of food that kid can shuffle away every day is frightening! We're now psyching ourselves up to take Callie for her first dental appointment, confident it will be a challenge given her aversion to having her teeth brushed! Also, having just read Gina's blog about Carter's first trip to the dentists, I'm even more concerned... there is absolutely no way on this earth we'll ever be able to floss Callie's teeth! We can barely get a toothbrush in there! Hmm, maybe I'll leave it till we get back from Scotland...!

Abu Dhabi - June 2009

After many hours of toil (not to mention blood, sweat and tears!) I have finally finished my entries for May and can move onto June, whew! It seems the key to blogging is to have everything just thrown onto the page and it sorts it out when you post, but if you make it all nice pre post it totally arses it all up for you! Anyway, I digress...

The second week of June saw Callie and I jetting off again! Jamie had organised a business trip to Algeria and Libya for part of the time my parents were over but unforunately we didn't quite work the dates out correctly! He ended up taking off when my parents were also off in Abu Dhabi, hence Callie and I decided to have another wee vacation even though we were just back from Scotland. (Jamie may be starting to have a point about my being on a permanent holiday!) Anyway, we went for a few days as there didn't seem much point in us staying home alone when all my family were only a 40 minute plane ride away. I'm so glad we made the effort as we had a great time all together which hasn't happened very often in recent years due to our dispersal all over the globe!

Callie took to Uncle Jonathan very quickly despite only having met him once before and very briefly... she obviously recognises he's a bad influence who will lead her astray and so was right in there! He also has a lovely tank of tropical fish which she was fascinated with! However, I'm not so sure the fish were all that enamoured by her attentions, what with all the banging on the tank for four solid days and the lights being kept on much longer than usual so she could see them better. They must have been totally dazed and confused by the time we left, not to mention relieved!

To be honest, we didn't get up to a whole lot other than eating loads and wandering in the malls as it was way too hot to be outside and alternative inside entertainment is limited! We did find a large ball pit in one mall that met with the approval of two of the party who spent some time bouncing about and throwing balls at each other... don't know who's the bigger kid, Callie or Granda!?! The highlight of our trip was lunch at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi's 7* hotel. Yummy! It was pretty pricey but we lucked out as we didn't have to pay for Callie and she probably ate more than anyone! It turns out she has something of a penchant for lobster and duck! Trust her to have expensive tastes! All in all we had a lovely afternoon of grazing in plush surroundings with champagne on tap and all had to go home for a nap afterwards!

How much noise do you think I have to make before they throw me out!?!

A rare photo of the Cowie clan all together!

At Granny and Grandad Mac's

At the park with Mummy and Daddy... I liked the big slide the best!

Feeding the ducks with Granny and Grandad...

It was going well till one pecked my finger, hmmph!

This had better be easier than yesterday!

Okay, having now calmed down from yesterday's tantrum, I'm going to attempt to add some more photos to finish off the May section of the blog... wish me luck! I think I'll need it!

I hate blogs!

After having had at least 30 attempts to publish those last four photos and two captions I've decided that this blog is the most irritating and infuriating thing in the world! I can't even contemplate attempting another post involving photos I'm so mad right now! Can someone please tell me why it is that, after I spend forever arranging my photos and captions and previewing them to check everything is sitting correctly, when I publish my post everything suddenly shifts to create the biggest dog's dinner you've ever seen!? Help me before I totally lose patience and throw my laptop out the window! Thank you!

At Granny and Granda Cowie's

Down Cullen Beach... no rain but a wee bit chilly! Yummy, the sand tastes delicious! In the back garden playing in the sunshine (believe it or not!) Football or dollies - hmmm, can you guess what I liked the best!?!

At Auntie Em and Uncle Richie's Wedding!

Giving Auntie Em and Uncle Richie a lucky horseshoe.

With Granda Cowie in my pretty dress - I kept it clean all day!

Auntie Em and Uncle Richie's first dance - Callie giving it big zzzz by now!

Blowing bubbles with Granny Mac the morning after!

Some Serious Catching Up to Do!

Okay, so I started off really well and got totally into the whole blog concept, but as usual that fell by the wayside quicksmart despite my promises! However, I am determined to make amends and, although that means there will be stuff all out of order, hopefully it'll make some sort of sense! I'm going to start way back in May (yes, yes, I know that's now several months ago) as that was a very busy month for us - hence why I never did any blogging! The end of April/beginning of May saw all our worldly goods arrive by boat from Houston and us getting into our new house in Bahrain. We were very pleased and relieved that everything a) turned up in good time - early in fact! and b) was still in good working order when unwrapped! The timing could not have been better as our flights were booked for Scotland on the 7th May and we really wanted to get into the house and get it in some sort of order before we headed off, Jamie for two weeks and Callie and I for three. The last thing I wanted was to come back to a house full of boxes and no idea where anything was. We are really enjoying our new house and have settled in well. It is huge in comparison to our flat in Houston and there is loads of room for Callie to romp around and for her growing pile of toys to be stored! She loves doing the 'circuit' from the living room, through the dining room into the kitchen and out the other side, down the hall and back into the living room... honestly she must do it about 200 times a day! We are in a compound of around 20 houses so there is a lovely pool, tennis courts, squash courts, a playground and a small gym on site. The playground has just been revamped with loads of Little Tykes gear so Callie is loving it - pity it's over 100 degrees now and far too hot to get out at the moment! If she went on the slide in this weather she'd burn her bot! I'd like to say we are now super fit with all the opportunities for sport on site but that'd be a lie! Since leaving Houston we just haven't really got into much of a routine as far as exercise goes - it's still on the To Do list! As I mentioned we were off to Scotland for a large part of May and had a lovely time with family and friends at home. Our main reason for making the trip was Auntie Em and Uncle Richie's wedding on 16th May which was a wonderful day despite the torrential rain at various points during the event! The sun came out at the right times which was what mattered and bride and groom had an absolute ball. Callie lapped up the attention coming from all sides and was a wee star in the cathedral, only having a few tears at the very start just before Auntie Em came down the aisle, after jabbing her finger on Daddy's kilt pin! I think Emma and Richie went off to sign the register at the right time though as Callie was beginning to squirm! She could then get down for a run around the front of the church. She fairly played to her large audience, even attempting a climb to the pulpit before being rescued by Mummy! Her next piece of showing off was during the pre meal speeches, throwing in a few well timed raspberries when Grandad Mac was on the floor causing him to have to pause and regroup before continuing! Her performance has been captured for posterity on the wedding DVD which we look forward to viewing in the near future! The rest of meal she happily toddled around the venue and was missing in action on several occasions! The rest of our trip saw us spending time with both sets of grandparents and trying to see as many friends as possible without dragging Callie around too much. She really enjoyed her trip home, much more so than in November and we are so pleased she now seems to know exactly whose who in our family. She relaxed very quickly with both sets of grandparents and slept very well the whole time we were home - definitely an improvement on last time! She was, of course, spoiled rotten by the all the attention which was then continued with my parents flying back to Bahrain with us for a few weeks to be present for Callie's first birthday celebrations. I even managed a girl's night out with some friends from hockey - Raeleen, Lisa, Maz and Gemz. We had a lovely time celebrating their truimphant season as triple trophy winners, making me happy and sad at the same time as I realised how much I miss being part of Inverurie Ladies HC. Maybe they'll start a third team for me when I eventually come home as I don't think I'd cope with either first or second team standards! On that note, I'll have to finish for now as Callie is squawking! Will add some pics in the coming days and get on with my update now I'm on a roll!