SHOP & SHIP saves the day!

A friend of mine introduced me to a service called Shop & Ship, and it has saved the day for us!  You basically pay a small annual fee, and you are assigned an address in New York.  Then you can order practically anything you want and have it delivered to your NY address, where another service picks it up and delivers it to Dubai. It's a fraction of the cost of UPS or FedEx and it's faster and more reliable than the US Mail.  Baby Jake is on a hypo-allergenic baby formula, which we discovered is not available in Dubai.  We brought around 6 weeks worth of formula to get us by and had no luck in finding a substitute that agreed with his sensitive tummy.  So I was able to order enough formula to get us through til the end of our stay here in Dubai. And being the Amazon.com shopper that I am, I was able to order his formula and have it sent to NY with free 2-day shipping.  I only had to pay for shipping from NY to Dubai, which is calculated based on weight and comes out to less than $10 per pound.  It cost us a small fortune, only because 24 cans of formula is pretty heavy, but it was worth every penny to have our happy Baby Jake back!

This box made it from NY to Dubai in less than 5 days!

Cash & Jake love bath-time! 

Mr. Mason

It's safe to say that Mason is adjusting just fine to life in Dubai :)  He's enjoying school now, and has a couple of good buddies in his class.  Adam and Tate, and they are both from Canada.  We are still trying to get used to the 6-day schedule, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the Fri/Sat weekends!  I know the 6-day schedule must be confusing to everyone back home, so this is basically what our first two weeks looked like:

WEEK 1:
     Sun, Jan 2 - Holiday
     Mon, Jan 3 - Day 1
     Tues, Jan 4 - Day 2
     Wed, Jan 5 - Day 3
     Thurs, Jan 6 - Day 4
     Fri/Sat - Weekend

WEEK 2:
     Sun, Jan 9 - Day 5
     Mon, Jan 10 - Day 6
     Tues, Jan 11 - Day 1
     Wed, Jan 12 - Day 2
     Thurs, Jan 13 - Day 3
     Fri/Sat - Weekend.....Repeat

Not sure if this helped clear things up, but I've gotten questions from a lot of ya'll out there :)  I don't think it makes any difference to Mason, but I'm the one trying to keep up with homework, library days, PE days, etc, etc.

We had our first official playdate last week with his buddy Adam.  We went to Dino Live, which is supposed to be the "World's Largest Dinosaur Show!"  (Everything in Dubai is considered to be the "World's Largest" such-n-such! Ha!) But this was a pretty cool dinosaur exhibit filled with animated models, a 3D movie and an electric ride-on dinosaur :)  These pictures didn't turn out too well, but you get the idea!  (I realize most people look at the blog for the photos, so I've figured out how to enlarge them!)

 Adam & Mason roar with the T-Rex

 Mason enjoying his popcorn and slushie

You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the Texan out of the boy! Ride 'em Cowboy!

And I'm saving the best update for last.  Mason completed his first week of Mixed Martial Arts Class last week.  Yep, Mr. Mason is enrolled in an MMA Class (thank you Daddy!)  I thought it was more of a karate class, but it truly is a combination of karate, boxing, wrestling, self defense, etc, etc.  It's an hour long class, and they meet twice a week. Rod's buddy has had his three boys in this class for several months and had nothing but great things to say about it and the instructor.  Mr. Tam Khan is an experienced British MMA fighter, and the kids both love and fear him.  Basically, the first 45 minutes is full of intense cardio and drills: jumping jacks, crab crawl, punching the bag, push-ups, running in place, sprints, etc, etc.  Then at the very end, he pairs the kids up and lets them wrestle but no hitting or kicking.  Mason got a bit overwhelmed the first class during the drills and cardio portion, but he quickly got fired up when it came time to punch the bag and wrestle another kid his size.  He got that determined and serious look in his eyes (a lot of you have seen this "look" before!) and took his partner down three times in a row.  Papa Nelson would be proud of Mason's wrestling moves!  You can check out their website at www.contendermma.com.  The best part about all of this is I get to use this class as leverage now!  "Mason, do you think Mr. Tam would approve of you doing that?"  "Mason, if you don't stop doing whatever it is you are doing, then no MMA class for you!"

 Mason hitting the bag along side Mr. Tam

 Take him down, buddy!!

We Are 7 Months Old!

I can't believe the boys are already 7-months old!  Time flies when you are having fun, going nonstop, short on sleep, etc, etc!  They continue to amaze us every day, and they have such distinct and different personalities.

Jake is very laid back, is always smiling from ear to ear especially when his big brother Mason enters the room, loves to talk, sing and babble, is perfectly content rolling from place to place, loves to suck on his toes, still has no teeth so drools all the time and goes through many bibs throughout one day!

Cash is easy going as well but can have a temper, is very determined, loves to be on the go, is already trying to crawl, prefers to stand than lie down or sit, has had his two bottom teeth for over 2 months, sticks out his tongue when happy, has beautiful long eye lashes, has a sweet smile and lights up when he sees his mommy, daddy or brother!

We spend lots of time going on walks around the hotel complex and everyone knows us as the family with the twins.  However, we get asked at least once a day if: 1) they are twins and 2) one is a boy and one is a girl!  For some reason a lot of people think Cash is a girl even if he's dressed identical to Jake or in all blue, green or brown.  People also want to know if Jake is a couple of months older than Cash and who was born first.  People can say the darnedest things!  Jake is a bit bigger but surprisingly they are just 1 pound apart.  As of a couple of weeks ago Jake weighed in at 16 lbs and Cash was right at 15 lbs.

Jake & Cash at 7 months!

Jake & Cash (he's trying to crawl) 

Aren't we just precious!! 

Jake loves to roll on and mess with his "little" brother Cash!

We also like to think that Jake is practicing his wrestling moves...Papa Nelson would be so proud!!

We've got the whole world in our hands

Tuesday mornings are Assembly Day at Mason's school.  They start off by singing a song, which I believe is in Arabic, but I honestly have no idea what they are saying!  Mason's class then performed in front of the school today and sang "We've Got the Whole World in our Hands!" They are discussing the 7 continents in class, so they included them into their song.  Mason did a great job when it came his turn to hold up the sign for Australia.  After the performance, the teacher asked her students which country they were from, and then the other children tried to guess which continent that was a part of.  When it came to Mason's turn, he proudly announced that he was from the country of Texas!  Good thing his teacher is also from TX, as she laughed and explained that yes Texans do believe we are our own country! ha, ha!

One of the things that we are still getting used to is the 6-day rotation schedule.  Meaning the first day of the week is always Day 1 no matter what day of the week that is, and every subsequent day increases by 1 until day 6 and then it starts all over again.  A lot of school holidays either fall at the beginning or end of the week, but now they won't fall on the same "school day."  I think it's becoming pretty popular even back home in the states, but it's pretty confusing for us right now on top of the fact that our school week is Sunday - Thursday.

Yummy Yummy Sweet Potatoes!

We started the boys off on homemade sweet potatoes and so far so good!  Next on the menu are zucchini and squash.

 Jake: Not so sure...

 Very sure...give me more :)

 Cash:  Really not sure...

Very sure and wants more!

Mason's First Day of School

Mason started school on Monday, January 3rd at the Collegiate American School (CAS).  They wear uniforms, which is either a red, navy or yellow polo with khaki shorts/pants.  And they have a separate PE uniform of a white polo and navy shorts, which they wear twice a week.  We are still getting used to the idea that our school week is Sunday through Thursday.  Mason caught on very quickly back home to the concept of "Fridays" but now we celebrate "Thursdays" here!  "Yeah, it's Thursday" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it though.

Our first couple of days were a little rocky, we ended the week on a good note :)  He keeps talking about how his school and teacher back home are "much cooler" but this class will be fine for a few more months.  Even though it's an American school, there are very few Americans actually enrolled.  Mason has 15 kids in his class and only 3 are from the US, 3 are from Canada, and the others from Dubai, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Turkey and Sweden.  Quite the diverse class but what a great experience for Mason.  His teacher told me the other day they were discussing where everyone was from, and Mason told them he was from a town called Fairfield.  However, none of the kids knew what a "town" was.  Even the other American kids, who are from the North East, weren't familiar with the term town as they live in cities - ha, ha!

Mason's first day of school at CAS

New Year's Eve - Dubai Style!

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of New Year's Eve, but this year was an exception!  We rung in the New Year here at our hotel at watched the fireworks show from the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building!  It was beyond amazing, fantastic, awesome, etc, etc.  It literally took my breath away!  We gathered with friends and watched the 10 minute show from their balcony, which took place approximately 500 yards from our hotel!  It was definitely worth staying up late for, even though the twins decided to wake up early on New Years Day.  They obviously didn't get the memo that mommy stayed out too late and celebrated a bit too much the night before - ha!!  These pictures don't do the fireworks show justice, but trust me...it was awesome!  I also included a quick video that I took with my iPhone. 

Happy New Year's!

Traffic stopped on the road outside our hotel and below the Burj Khalifa