Happy Birthday Callie Mac!

Well, well, where has the time gone? We can't believe a year has passed already and Callie has blown (well, maybe not quite!) out her first birthday candles. It seems like it was only yesterday we were taking her home from the hospital and I was in tears that they were carelessly discharging us already because we hadn't a clue what we were doing! Then there were all those nights in the beginning of trying to get Callie to go to bed at 7pm and us pacing the floor for hours till she finally, three months or so later, gave in and went to bed at bedtime! Ah, those were the days! Only a year later and Callie is walking - or should I say running - around all over the house and getting into all sorts of mischief! I never would have believed babies could develop so fast until I experienced it for myself. It's been a wonderful journey so far and we look forward to continuing the fun and adventures in Callie's second year!

As regards Callie's birthday celebrations, we decided on a low key affair, just Mummy, Daddy, Granny and Granda Cowie, with input from Granny and Granda Mac via Skype! Callie had a lovely day playing with her new toys - a tent and tunnel, a pushchair and dolly, a shopping trolley with lots of plastic fruit to sample and a cool pink racing car paddling pool (currently full of balls). Mummy even managed to bake a cake - carrot - of which she is extremely proud, especially as Callie had a whole slice for her birthday dinner and wanted more! The end result, unfortunately, was that she went to bed full of sugar and spent the next hour and a half bouncing around her cot continuing the party! With hindsight, might have been better to do cake at lunch - note for next year! She also went to soft play at Bizzi Bees near our house for a romp around in the afternoon which went down a storm!

More stories and pics to follow soon....

The Kid Can Walk!

Believe it or not, Miss Callie is up and running!

It's only been two days but I'm exhausted trying to keep up with her!

She's very shaky and can only take a couple of proper steps without her walker but it looks like she'll have it completely mastered in a couple of weeks or so...

I know I should be excited for her, but honestly, she's going to be a nightmare to live with till she truly understands the word "No!" and can obey it!!!!

For Tracey and Betsy!

Okay, so she does look quite cute in her little bow but, as anticipated it all ended in tears! Flower ripped off closely followed by head band... Don't worry Betsy, I've repaired it for use another day!

Quick Pics!

Hey Everyone, just a quick post this morning to add a couple of pics which is what Jamie was trying to do yesterday before he hijacked the blog! It's taking roughly half an hour to upload each photo so you're only getting two! These are just of us out and about exploring our new home. More chat very soon, I promise!

Jamie's Input

As this is the 'family' blog, I figured I should get some air time. OK, that is not strictly true - I've given up trying to up-load recent photo's of the youngster to send through hotmail, so thought I'd try this as Emma advised it was quicker. As you can tell by the lack of any photo's, quicker, my backside! We are making progress in windy & wet Bahrain. We found a house last week that we liked, and we'll hopefully get the lease finalised & deposit paid this week. At the 4th attempt, we managed to get a bank account opened today - with the level of difficulty experienced, you would actually think we had turned up in black & white stripey tops, with tights on our heads, carrying a bag with 'SWAG' written on in and that we were intent on emtyping their safe - not give them money! The CPR card still proves elusive, which means buying Em a car remains impossible, which in-turn means that I'll continue to get my ear bent on a daily basis for the foreseeable future. Apparently, once we have a house lease signed, we can then get a CPR card, but I'll believe that when I see it. Despite the lack of official documentation, we ventured round a few garages today,and got a feel for prices, availability & scope for negotiation. While I had some fun bartering with salesman, the end result was still the same - whichever car we end up with, my wallet is going to take a longtime to recover from this purchase. One thing that became apparent, is that the global economic crisis does not appear to have reached the small island of Bahrain. $25-$30K for a small GMC (without insurance or road tax). In Houston I reckon I'd get one free with a box of cornflakes! Any hoo, the purpose of me coming on here was to upload some photo's, but after 19 mins of trying, I'm giving up. I'm away to enjoy my weekend's quota of 1 small tin of expensive, imported beer. Cheers, J.

First Impressions - Part 1

Okay, so we've now, amazingly, been in Bahrain two weeks. After a somewhat auspicious start we are starting to settle in and are becoming more confident we'll adapt to life in the Middle East. On arrival at Bahrain International we were met by a couple of Jamie's work colleagues who took us to our new temporary home and handed over the keys to Jamie's car. A great start as both car and apartment are fantastic! However, things went downhill quickly from there on! Buoyed by our enthusiasm for our new apartment and eager to test drive the new wheels we decided to set out for a look see that afternoon... what a mistake! For a tiny island the traffic ain't half bad and the driving is way worse than anything we ever saw on the freeway in Houston (no offence to my friends there!). We were just out of the house and straight into a traffic jam which didn't move for two hours! Woo hoo! Just as well it was a big car as Callie was able to walk around the back seat while we sat listening to every other motorist bar ourselves toot their horns incessantly, as if that was somehow going to miraculously make everyone start moving again! Two and half hours later we made it, via every other part of the island as the map was crap, to the supermarket. Things were looking up... that is until we actually went into the place! HEB it certainly wasn't and we were hard pushed to find anything half decent for ourselves, never mind for poor Callie. No Gerber - total disaster! I'm still trying to work out what to feed her! The next few days saw more teething problems and an increased desire to head home to Houston, which we didn't appreciate was home until it dawned on us we weren't on holiday! The majority of our discussions was on how long we could realistically give it before we could ask for a move as this was NOT for us! The final straw, or so we thought, was brunch with some of Jamie's work mates that first weekend. The food was excellent, but the experience left us even more determined we had to get out of here - all around us were bad cases of Brits Abroad mentality, with the majority seemingly hell bent on getting hammered on the cheap plonk they were serving as part of the buffet and making total arses of themselves! Oh, what fun we had!

Thankfully, we have now turned a corner and are slowly coming to the realisation that, given a bit of time and a certain amount of compromise, we can enjoy our time here. Going to playgroup was the make or break for Callie and I, and with some trepidation we made our way to CHAOSS last Tuesday after three days of house arrest. We currently have no car and there are no roads outside our apartment yet... Did I not mention it was a huge building site with tower blocks in various stages of completion on all sides!? I had heard that the taxi drivers here were maniacs and was not in the least bit keen to subject myself, never mind Callie to the experience, but cabin fever having well and truly set in and depression looming as I hadn't found very much to be positive about in our new home, I decided to risk it! Truly, it was the best thing I could have done! First off, the taxi driver was very good and there were absolutely no sign of mad driving at all on his part. Secondly, play group was a roaring success after a slow start, so much so that Callie and I headed to our second group the very next day! It looks like there are quite a few things on for mums and babies, in fact we could be doing something every day. Also, there are a lot more expat mums and babies than I expected, although like in Houston, most of the babies are boys!! Must be something about 2008!

Anyway, think I'll leave this here for now and try to get another post on in the coming days... Miss Callie, unfortunately, is not very well at the moment, has a stinking cold and is grumpy as hell! Therefore, we're missing playgroup today and probably will tomorrow as well. She's supposed to be swimming on Thursday but, unless there is a miraculous recovery by then, I think that'll be off too. Boo!

Photos at the top are the view from our apartment balcony... Thought they'd make a nice change from Miss C!

Whew! We're All Set I Think!

After a hectic few days it seems we are finally ready for the off! Our apartment is empty and the airfrieght and shipping are enroute to Bahrain. We are currently enjoying our last day in Houston chilling at Tracey's and later lunching out with Marina. Hopefully I might also manage to get my nails done and my hair cut before we head to the airport tomorrow afternoon, but I guess I could be pushing my luck on that front! I would like to say that the moving process so far has been relatively stress free and that Callie has been her usual cheerful self, but alas that would be a lie... I am now ever so slightly worried about her reaction to the 15 hour flight to Dubai! Apologies at this point to Betsy on Callie's behalf for yesterday's naughtiness - bottle of pink wine all ready and waiting at Tracey's to help you recover! A great time to be developing separation anxiety, although I suppose it is understandable given every time she has woken up from a nap at home recently, something else has disappeared! She is only happy standing up and cruising the furniture and will throw the biggest tantrum if put on the floor when mummy needs to get something done! Monkey! Callie is still not eating that well, although she did neck her cereal this morning quick smart after having refused it for the past four days. She is very determined - obviously getting this trait from her father! - and lately has only been keen to eat the finger foods she can pick up herself. She would eat puffs all day if allowed! On top of the separation anxiety, tantrums and eating issues, of course she also picks this week to work out how to pull herself up on the furniture and in her bed meaning she has to be watched like a hawk or she's into everything! Oh, what fun we are having! Roll on the 10 hour time difference and trying to switch night and day for Callie and it'll be even more excitement!