For The Love of Art

I joined the middle muppet on a field trip this morning to the Museum of Islamic Art. It is a beautiful building right on the water and it has some amazing architecture and design though-out the building. I decided to save my sanity and not join the children on the bus ride over to the museum. The middle guy was disappointed because I had taken the bus with his older brother last week on another school outing. I didn’t think my nerves could take another bus ride with 20 six year olds in Doha traffic and I needed to be able to pick up the youngest muppet when his day ended at lunch time.

The children were instructed to look for shapes and patterns in the arabic designs through-out the museum and then to choose a piece of art to sketch as well as draw out some of the patterns they saw. As I made my way through the exhibits with the three super curious children in my group I answered questions the best I could about objects of the past. I explained to them that the perfumed bottle in the exhibit was hung around the neck of someone not only as a pretty necklace but also to keep them smelling nice since it wasn’t always easy to have a bath in those days. We also discovered old pots and containers that they could have used to store dry food or water. There was so much to see and the questions kept flowing from their little mouths that I thought I might have to start consulting Mr Google because I had no idea what the answers were!

When we finally entered one of the last rooms and the middle muppet pulled my arm towards a set of tiles on the wall. “That” he said knowingly “is what they used to use to play X’s and O’s in the olden days.” he paused and then said “Well it is more like X’s and Stars, maybe they didn’t have O’s back then.” The other children totally agreed with his analysis, each gave their two cents and went about drawing the pattern. I stifled a giggle behind my hand and then  told him that you never know what any of this stuff was used for, it is a all a guessing game. Personally I think his guess was the best! Future archaeologist on my hands I think!

Sad-ish

I picked up the youngest muppet after his class today and his teacher pulled me aside. “We drew pictures about feelings today in guidance” she said “You may want to have a chat with him when you get home.” I hate it when teachers are so cryptic the have me imagining the worst. I never know what to expect with the youngest muppet, he has surprised me from day one and hasn’t stopped since. My thoughts went directly to a picture of him as Darth Vader force choking everyone in the class, but then I remembered that he was not that great of an artist yet.

We finally arrived home after a long hot afternoon of grocery shopping and waiting for older muppets to finish school. As I emptied his folder I saw a drawing of him with a sad face. The title of the the drawing was Sad-ish… I really didn’t know what sad-ish meant so I called him in to the kitchen. I sat him down at the table ready for a heart to heart and I asked him what he was feeling when he drew this picture. “Did something make you sad at school or is something bothering you?” I asked gently. He looked at me lost, “No mummy, I was bored and didn’t want to draw about my feelings, I just wanted to finish and play with the trains. I wasn’t happy or sad, I just wanted to play ok?” I nodded an he hopped down from the table and ran out the door to find his friend. I got up from the table and put the picture in his file folder. I shook my head and laughed he is such a boy I thought and it is so typical of males not wanting to talk about their feelings.

Oh well I guess I will leave his future girlfriends to deal with that issue 😉

A Little Smile

The rain that poured down over our city all day put a damper on the muppets plans to play at the playground after school today. Instead we sat in traffic with little patience for over a half hour and moved very little. The rain had caused heavy flooding on lots of the roads in the city and also proved that Doha had some major drainage issues.

Usually on Wednesdays we have a take away night for dinner, husband is either golfing or working and this late in the week I am not in the mood to cook. But tonight I knew there was no way any of the delivery boys on motorbikes would be driving on the washed out roads. We made a decision to drive to a restaurant instead since the traffic had taken us on a long detour. As we sat at the table the muppets all told me about crazy their day at school had been. The middle muppet changed the topic and asked me what the white things were in his burger. I told him they were little onions and asked him if he liked them.  The oldest muppets interrupted our conversation with his little known fact “If you stare at an onion it will make you cry” he said proudly. I explained to him that if you are cutting an onion it will make your eyes water and that some people say that onions make you cry. The middle muppet smiled and said “That makes sense mum it’s not like an onion could really make you cry, unless it came up to you, grew a face and said I hate you!” I burst in to giggles and could not contain myself. I had tears streaming down my face.

All three muppets joined in my laughter. I told the middle muppet that he made me laugh so hard that I was crying. He was concerned until I told him they were happy tears. It was a crazy dreary day in Doha but the middle muppet brought a ray of sunshine and some tears to our day!

Dress Your Best

The middle muppet was excited today as we made our way to the pool. The weather has been slowly warming up around here (sorry Canada) and I had promised the muppets a pool date on their short school day this week. A few of our friends joined us at the pool and the muppets swam until they were tired and cold. As everyone dried off the middle muppet asked if he could go to a girlfriends house for a play date. I told him that he could get in to dry clothes and then he could go out for a bit.

A few seconds later as I packed up the pool toys he came up to me again and said “Mum what would you say my best dress is?” I looked at him confused, I didn’t really understand the question “What is your favourite clothes on me, you know the nicest ones that you have seen on me?” I smiled and laughed a little and then asked him why he wanted to know. His girlfriend had told him that he could come over but he had to be dressed in his best clothes, he blushed and asked me to help him pick something out of the closet when we got home.

We pulled all the pool stuff in to the house and the middle guy made his way upstairs to his closet. I pulled out a collared shirt and shorts and he quickly told me that he wanted the orange ones instead. I watched him pick out his shorts and analyze which shirt to wear. I smiled at him as he came down the stairs and told him how handsome he looked. He smiled back at me and got on his bike and made his way to his friends house.

My sweet middle muppet already trying to impress the girls.

The Count Down is On

The past week has been a blur. Since we returned from Wales we have been busy entertaining grandma. She has been to visit the boys school, down to the Souqs for shopping and coffee and enjoyed a trip to the cultural village which included a tour lead by all three muppets. She was also able to enjoy the boys gymnastic classes and watch 2 Saturdays full of soccer.

This past Saturday the muppets were super pumped to have grandma coming to their final soccer match. The oldest was so excited because he knew that at the end of the game he would be getting a trophy and a pizza party. The night before the big game he said to me “Isn’t it cool that grandma gets to watch me get my first trophy ever mum!” I agreed that it was really special that she was here and that we were both looking forward to watching the last game. Well we woke up on Saturday morning to rain. Now I know most of our family and friends are still stuck in a deep freeze so I won’t complain about the weather but we are never prepared for rain in the desert. I checked my email and nothing had been sent out about the game being canceled so I went about my morning routine and dressed everyone in their soccer gear.

Three minutes before we left an email came through confirming that soccer was on so we flew in to the car and made our way to the school, as we pulled in to the parking lot my phone dinged. Another email saying that the school didn’t want the fields used under such wet conditions. Grandma made a comment that if they canceled soccer in Wales because of the rain they would never play and I laughed and agreed that it really wasn’t necessary but what could we do. The email also said that there would still be pizza parties and a trophy ceremony so to show up at the appropriate time which just happened to be different for each muppet. We soldiered through 4 hours of waiting, pizza, cupcakes and trophies. The boys were all smiles as they presented their hardware to grandma. The middle guys asked me why the youngest muppets trophy was so much bigger than his when he was the smallest. I explained to him that it didn’t matter how big your trophy was, it mattered that you had fun and tried your best to play hard for your team. He completely brushed me off and then asked the youngest to change trophies for a while.

Our last day with grandma was yesterday, everyone was feeling low as we sat at the dinner table eating our last supper together. Their father piped up trying to lighten the mood that it would only be a few more months until we got to see grandma again and all the other people that we love and miss in Canada. After dinner stories were read, hockey was played and the youngest muppet and grandma looked at google earth and compared where Bampi was vs Grandma. This morning the three muppets sat at my computer as we tried to track down grandma’s flight to see where she was. “She is flying in to Romania Mum, she is almost in Wales” said the oldest muppet. The middle guy hugged me “Soon she will be with Bampi, she probably missed him lots” I agreed that she probably did, and the older to muppets started a hockey game. The youngest was still sitting on my lap watching the planes fly around the screen. “I miss grandma, I want to cuddle with her” he said “the summer is going to take forever to come!” I gave him a squeeze and told him we would start a count down today for summer. He bounced on my lap excited as we put in the dates for our flight home. We had such a wonderful visit with Grandma and today will be a hard day not having her around. But according to the youngest muppets calculations we will be leaving for Canada in 2 months, 20 days, 15 minutes and 45 seconds!

It will be here soon enough!