A Merry Dubai Christmas

We had a very Merry Christmas here in Dubai, even though it didn't quite feel like Christmas-time when it's nearly 80 degrees!  Mason enjoyed Evan, our Elf on the Shelf, and was amazed that he found us all the way over in Dubai!  We stayed in on Christmas Eve and ordered in one of Mason's favorite, The Noodle House (very similar to PF Chang's, another favorite of his).  We watched Home Alone, which rates right up there with Cars 1 and Cars 2 in Mason's book!  Mason left a note for Santa along with some cookies, a glass of milk and carrots for Rudolph and the other reindeer!


Mason woke up Christmas morning and discovered that Santa did indeed find him in Dubai, so maybe we wasn't so bad this year after all!  Santa was also able to come through our door off the balcony, which Mason decided was probably much easier than trying to climb down a chimney! We spent a good part of the morning opening presents and playing with Santa's toys before the twins woke up, which was nice for Mason to have all the attention focused on him.  We later ordered room service for breakfast and then had a nice lunch at the hotel.  They offered a large international buffet and had a separate room for the kids with games, face painting, toys and visits from Santa.  This was much different than our usual Christmas at home, but it was a nice and different experience for all of us.  


Santa was good to Mason this year, and he got the usual fun boy toys: Angry Birds t-shirt and games, Nerf guns, remote control cars, race cars, tractor/trailer and a few other miscellaneous games and puzzles.  Unfortunately, the nasty cough and snotty nose bug also made a visit to our house on Christmas day, and all three boys are still trying to recover.  We just can't seem to catch a break here lately in trying to keep everyone healthy for a long period of time!  Let's hope 2012 is a healthier year for us. 


Here are a few pics of the boys at Christmas:

 Jake & Cash

 Mason leaving cookies and milk for Santa

 Mason and Daddy enjoying his pop ball gun (just not sure which "kid" enjoys the gun toys more - ha!)

 Cash laughing at his very funny big brother

 My little elves :)

 Mason at our Christmas day lunch

 Baby Jake :)

Jake & Cash in their precious Santa outfits; thanks Gran Debs :)

Week 2 in Dubai

It's taken me a while to update the blog but we have successfully completed our 2nd week in Dubai.  It was rough at times, but we finally got the boys sleeping schedules straightened out, and they are taking good naps during the day and sleeping (for the most part) during the night!  These are a few things that we've been up to:

Mason's School - We visited and enrolled Mason into a new American School that is not far from our hotel.  It was not my first choice, but we are still on the wait list at the American School of Dubai, and the latest email I received from them was that his chances were "dismal" and to look elsewhere - ouch!  So he will be attending the Collegiate American School (CAS), and we just found out that his teacher is also from TX!  He starts on January 2nd, and the school week is Sunday - Thursday and from 7:50 - 2:30.  (Weekends here are Friday / Saturday).

Winter Carnival - We attended a winter carnival at the American School of Dubai with the Bryant family.  We got our picture taken with Santa, and they had a bunch of games and activities for all the kids.

Mason, Cash & Jake with Santa

Dinner with the Bryants - we've spent a lot of time with the Bryant family as they left on Sunday for their new home in Singapore :(  It was so nice to have a TX connection out here.  Rod and Deric were fraternity brothers at A&M, and I really hit it off with his wife Emily.  She introduced me to all the important things out here like a good mani/pedi place, a great hair girl that knows how to color "Texas blondes" - ha, a driver that can haul the whole family around in his suburban, a good pediatrician, etc, etc.  We are going to miss the Bryants, but wish them lots of luck on their new adventures in Singapore.

Dinner with Deric & Emily and Warren & Cathy (also from TX)

Madinat Jumeirah - This is a fun outdoor ampitheater with shops, restaurants, theater, galleries, etc.  They have a huge set up during Christmas time, so we met up with friends there and it was also the Bryant's last night before leaving for Singapore.  Check out Santa!

The Bryant Clan (Deric & Emily with Blake. Lilly, Luke & Olivia)

Mason and Blake Bryant

We are 6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that we actually survived the first two weeks of our travels in Dubai AND that the boys turned 6 months old the other day!  Wow!  While the last 6 months have flown by, it also seems like an eternity ago that we started this adventure with the twins!

Here are a few pics of the boys!

Cash & Jake at 6 months!

We have also started rice cereal and will start solid foods here pretty soon.  I'm getting a bit ambitious and hope to make my own food while over here, so we'll see how long this lasts :)  You'll notice the make-shift high chairs that we have been using.  I've been looking for a spacesaver high chair but have been unable to find one for a decent price, so my friends introduced me to a website called "Dubizzle."  It's similar to Craigslist, and I recently found 2 booster chairs and a whole bunch of miscellaneous baby toys for around $50! 

Baby Jake enjoying his cereal but was having a hard time keeping it in his mouth.  I think he drooled out more than he ate :)

 Baby Cash enjoyed his cereal!

Dunes in Dubai

Last night Rod and Mason went dune bashing out in the deserts of Dubai.  They went with our friend Deric and his boy Luke, and they had an absolute blast!  Rod said after riding the dunes, the two boys took off their socks and shoes and ran up and down the dunes for over an hour!  Followed by camel rides, henna painting, a BBQ dinner and belly dancing.  Mason did his Mimi proud and was one of the few to volunteer to dress in their traditional costume and dance in front of everyone!  He definitely gets his dancing skills from his momma's side, ha, ha!  Mason informed me the other day that Dubai is just a little boring and figured it was because Dubai was in the city and not in the country - ha!  We've raised that boy right ;)

I am also happy to inform that we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel with our sleeping.  The boys went to bed last night at 8:30 pm, woke up one time around 2:00 am and slept again until 8:30 am this morning!  I'm sure we are not completely out of the woods just yet, but at least we are headed in the right direction!

Rolling Over

Jake is officially rolling over front to back and back to front.  About 6 weeks behind his brother Cash, but we have quickly figured out that they are individuals and do things on their own time frame.  We joke that Cash likes to do things and Jake likes to talk about things - ha!  

Brutal!

Babies + Time change + Twins = Brutal!

Nobody said this was going to be easy, and I mentally prepared myself for two miserable weeks, but this time change is Brutal on the babies and mommy!  Just when I think we are heading in the right direction and take one step forward, we take many steps backwards!  I really have no idea how to go about sleep training these two, but it is naturally working out that we are moving our bedtime back by 1-2 hours every night.  So Sunday night was 5:30 am, Mon was 4:00 am and Tues was 2:00 am. I figure by the end of the week, we should be back to our normal 7:00 - 8:00 pm bedtime.  However, one of the twins seems to tune up for several hours during this time.  Last night was Jake's turn.  We had a pretty good day yesterday with Cash, and he even took his naps with little to no protests.  But when it came to bedtime (at 2:00 am) Cash went down without a problem, but Jake cried nonstop until 5:00 am!  Fortunately, a friend of mine referred me to a local nanny that is looking for some part time work, so we hired her for the week to help us with the transition.  It is not doing us any good to have Jenny and myself up during the night.  Rachel, a sweet lady from the Philippines, came over around 7:00 and she and Jenny watched the boys, while we went out to dinner with our friends Deric and Emily Bryant.  The boys were awesome and were in great spirits when we returned.  We gave them their last feed and put the boys down around 2:00 am, but Jake lost it and there was nothing that would calm him down.  Rachel was kind enough to sit and rock with him while I attempted to get some sleep.  I don't care how tired you are though, it is virtually impossible to sleep while you listen to your baby scream and cry and know there is nothing you can do about it.  He finally gave up around 5:00 am and fell asleep on Rachel's chest!  I was able to feed Cash and put him back to bed without any problems and then climbed into bed around 5:00 am for a few hours of sleep!  I know it's never a good sign when I'm going to bed at the same time Rod's alarm is going off!  I just pray that things are better tonight!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We finally arrived in Dubai after a rather eventful trek across the globe!  We left Fairfield, TX on Friday, December 2nd around 1:00 pm with our suburban loaded down along with a travel trailer packed full of suitcases and strollers.  The drive to the airport was rather uneventful but Baby Jake made his presence known with crying nearly the entire way there.  I was just praying that he was getting it out of his system in time for the 14-hr flight.  Which was exactly what ended up happening.  Once we finally boarded the plane, Jake took his bottle and was asleep within 1.5 hours of our 6:30 pm departure.  He slept soundly in the bassinet provided by the airplane and only made a few peeps throughout the flight.  Cash was a slightly different story.  He did great on the car ride down but once we got on the plane he was not so happy about being confined to such a small space.  It took him a while to get settled and once in the bassinet, he would prop up on his elbows to look around and check everyone and everything out.  He definitely likes his "look around time" just like his momma did :) Mason is our expert traveler and this flight has become "old hat" for him.  He spent several hours playing Angry Birds, watched Cars 1 and 2 and ate a big dinner before falling asleep around midnight.  All in all, they were troopers and did much better than I or anyone else sitting nearby us ever expected.   

Once we arrived to our hotel though, it was a different story.  According to their time clock, it was morning time and time to play, but it was actually 9 pm Dubai time.  (Dubai is 10 hours ahead of TX time, and the rule of thumb is for every hour of time change, it takes your body that many days to adjust to the new time - yeah!)  We figured that we had been traveling for nearly 21 hours from door to door, so everyone was a bit out of sorts.  We stayed up all night with the boys and played and finally put the boys down around 6 am.  (Note: when I say "we" I mean me and Jenny, our nanny we brought with us!  Rod had to hit the ground running and start work the next morning at 6 am!)  The twins slept for almost 6 hours and had a somewhat normal first day.  Jake has definitely adjusted better than Cash.  He's also a much better and consistent sleeper than Cash has ever been, so I knew this would be a more difficult process for Cash.  The hotel provided us with 2 pack-n-plays, which are set up in the dining room right in the middle of everything.  My goal is to transfer them to Mason's room once we get their sleeping back on track!

The last couple of days have been pretty tough on Cash, and everyone else within crying range of him.  His ears are definitely bothering him as he continues to pull and tug on them and has been very fussy since we have landed.  His longest stretch of sleep has only been 6 hours with just a few catnaps here and there.  The week before we left, both boys came down with bronchitis and ear infections, so we started them on antibiotics and prayed for the best.  He's also the kind that needs to "cry it out" when trying to go to sleep, and this usually only lasts for 5-15 minutes and not like 1-2 hours like he's been doing here.  The usual methods of rocking, holding and sushing him to sleep don't seem to work either because he really just wants to be left alone. This has been tough since he doesn't feel well and their bodies don't know they are supposed to be eating, sleeping or playing.  I think we are finally on the right track though, as he is napping as I type this!

Mason seems to be adjusting pretty well and keeps himself busy with various activities such as entertaining the twins, playing with his cars and trucks, the random cartoon on the local channels, Angry Birds and chasing/pestering Jenny - ha!  We also set up our Apple TV and are now able to watch the shows and movies that we enjoyed watching back home.  I have to say that the Dubai TV is getting more up to date with their programming and have shows that are current with what we watch back home.

That pretty much sums up our first three days here in Dubai.  We haven't gotten out much, but the weather is great so I'm sure we'll start venturing out here pretty soon.