Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

Our daughter is such a happy, funny, animated and outgoing child. Yesterday at Matt’s (the son of our friends Kutch and Matet) 4th birthday party at McDonald’s, she definitely showed all these qualities. She joined all the games, well almost all the kids did, but she did with so much gusto and enthusiasm. Out of the 4-5 games that they had she won 2. Well, one she won fair and square while the other one, she won using her wits, charm and persistence.

In the first game where she won, all the children were asked to take off their shoes. Then the shoes were all piled up in the middle and the kids were told turn around. Then they are told do an about face, now facing their shoes. The first one to find his/her pair of shoes and be able to wear it wins. Well Xiane spotted her shoes right away and was able to wear them in a matter of seconds. Luckily, she was just wearing her pretty gold slip-ons. She was more than happy to have won in that game because she got the red, swirled straw that she had been eyeing even before the game started.

Then there was the Musical Chair game. In this game, the children are asked to go around a number of chairs forming a circle. The number of chairs should always be 1 number less than the number of participants. Music is played and once the music stops, each kid should be able to sit on his own chair. Whoever didn’t get a chair will be out. Now it was down to 2 chairs and 3 contestants: Xiane and 2 boys probably about 5-6 years old. So there they were going round and round, then the music stopped. The 2 boys got up the chairs and then Xiane, rushed to and got up the same chair where the other boy was already sitting on and even held on to the boy. Naturally, she was out. But she didn’t seem to know. She really was determined to keep her place in the game. Seeing her persistence, the party-host herself couldn’t get Xianelle booted out of the game. So she asked the 2 boys “who’s out?” The boys replied “Xianelle” but Xiane told the host “but I’m still sitting on the chair. Everybody had a good laugh at hearing this. The host made the 3 of them go around the chairs again only to get the same results. Having seen that nobody would want to give up; the host decided to make Xianelle and the 2 boys the winners of the game. At least her persistence or in a more mature term, her determination really got her a nice prize. It was really fun to watch Xiane enjoy these things. Then you really get to realize that she is no longer a baby though you know deep in your heart that she’ll always be your baby.