Quick Update

This week started off on a bit of a low; Ottilie was a bit under the weather so we decided to call the Pediatrician around to take a quick look (one of the great things about living in Syria that you just have to call the doctors and they'll generally be round later that day, but in this case the Pediatrician was round within twenty minutes!).

He quickly diagnosed, after much screaming objections from Ottilie, that she had an ear infection as a result of the cold she had, which he said was pretty common and one of the first things he checks. So, Ottilie has been on a second (the first being to prevent another Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)) dose of antibiotics and these ones were particularly unpleasant and not at all appreciated twice a day and 3.5ml per dose by Ottilie which made giving them not much fun either.

But the week ended nicely with Ottilie back to her happy self with the antibiotics having done their job, but she's now learning to talk, spending most of this morning shouting "mamama"!

It's been a little bit stressful also this week what with all the demonstrations in Daraa and in support around Damascus and Hama this weekend. Hopefully things will settle down, but who knows? Although it feels safe enough (we're obviously avoiding any demonstrations but can't fail to see both pro and anti Bashar supporters driving around and the sound of ambulance and police sirens on the Mezzeh autostrada) we always have that niggling apprehension of getting evacuated in the back of our minds... so we'll be happy to be out of the country for the next week or so on our planned trip for the girls to see their grandparents.

Time to relax

We have a long weekend here in Damascus this weekend; Monday was a planned holiday but midweek the rumours started that Sunday would also be announced as a holiday and sure enough, midday Thursday it was formally announced at work, typically with such short notice that we're left with insufficient time to organise a short holiday!

What with our short trip to Beirut last week and our planned trip to the UK next week, we decided to take it easy and stay in Damascus, so now I have a bit of time to write a short post while the girls are having their afternoon naps.

Ottile has come on a lot this week. Not only is she becoming more photogenic, she continues to smile lots, is now laughing more and more and for the first time properly ate! She had some Thai sticky rice at the beginning of the week and couldn't get enough of it!

Maybe because she's supplementing her milky diet, but Ottilie's in a rush to put on the weight, now up to 8.6 kg. She enjoys having Beatrice around, laughing at her fooling around and very tolerant of Beatrice when she sometimes forgets that Ottilie is just a small baby and unintentionally is a little rough with her.

To balance things out a little, Beatrice continues to be quite a handful! Her default response to most of our questions is "No" and it gets quite tiring having to negotiate and walk that fine line where it is so easy to spark off a tantrum. But still, she's a pretty, smart and cheeky little two year old, so I suppose it's all part of the deal!

A Typical Weekend

You know you're an expat when you have the luxury problem of deciding which club you're going to join this summer. This weekend we visited a place a colleague of mine told me about called the Yafour Hotel and Resort. It appeals because, unlike a lot of places here in Syria, you can use the pool during the winter as they erect a glass house over it and continue to heat it.

Even better is that you don't have to actually join the place to use the pool but can pay per session and so Flo asked if we could come along the following day with Beatrice, to which the response was "of course". So, we arrived this morning only to find that a full on event with children racing in lanes and enthusiastic adults cheering them on was taking place and we had to disappoint Beatrice by telling her we wouldn't be swimming today. It sounds a bit petty, but it's little things like this that can make expat life a bit frustrating sometimes.

Fortunately, we're still members of the Hacienda Country Club, so Beatrice still got to play outside in the fresh air.

Completely unrelated, I took some pictures of Ottilie this morning, including this one of her cute little hands...