Nanny Nation

I live in a city/country where having full time help is a selling point to ex-pats. There are very few of us that consider taking care of your own children, your job.  The issue actually causes a divide in social settings.

I often get asked,

"Do you have a maid/nanny?"
"What? No seriously, you have no help?" <insert shocked look> 
"How are you managing on your own?" <insert confused look>

And we both walk away wondering if we can be friends...

Don't get me wrong, it's extremely hard to do it on your own. I heavily discounted the role of family. Like the ability to have a family member watch Riya for a few hours a week so I can get basic errands done, like go to the doctor's office or make a quick run to the store without having to pull out Every.Single.Baby.Contraption. (Why has no one created a drive through store yet?) Something that would normally take 15 minutes, takes 30.  Living abroad robs you of that freedom.

But having a complete stranger watch my child(ren) is not the solution, in my opinion. Am I jealous that these ladies get to have social lives because they have a built in baby sitter 24/7? At times. Am I jealous that they have time to workout? Yup. Am I jealous that they get to eat their meals with two hands? Sure. Would I trade my life for theirs? Never.

I have nothing against having full time help. But people here are extremists.  They don't even parent their children. No matter where you go, you can't swing your Fendi bag without knocking over children running around wildly with the nanny pretending to keep up.  The nanny's don't care what the children do and the parent's don't want to take care of them. Even on the weekends, the parents cannot be bothered to spend alone time with their children.

When you go to a house party here everyone's maid/nanny is there looking after the kids. I feel like I live in an alternate universe where its become the norm to not get involved with your kids. And when I leave they say, "I feel like we didn't really get to chat." That's because I was busy taking care of my baby while you chugged 3 beers.  No, I don't think we can be friends after all...

Baby Travel Survival Guide Part 1

As you can imagine, traveling for the first time with a baby, is overwhelming. Everyone always tells you this age is hard or this age is easy. Well for a soon-to-be 7 month old, it was a complete toss up.

So this is part 1 of my survival guide because something tells me by August, at 11 months old, I will be telling a totally different story.

1) Time Differences. You probably don't want to go somewhere for a few days that will completely throw off your baby's schedule. The island we visited in the Maldives was 2 hours ahead of Dubai. So it was easy to keep Riya on Dubai schedule. I even got excited at the thought of actually being able to go to dinner since her last feed wouldn't be until 8pm. That part was great, but I didn't factor in having to take turns eating breakfast while she slept till 9am.  Every morning the cafe would ask, "just you, by yourself for breakfast?" Yes dammit. My baby is sleeping and my husband is watching her. Shut up already. 

2) Stock up! Even if your baby has gone weeks without an explosive diaper or vomiting session, that streak is sure to break on vacation. So packing 2 daytime outfits plus PJ's was a must, and then some. Of course laundry was still a necessity but if you find yourself on a plane with a code brown situation, not much else you can do but throw the clothes away. Oh, and maybe don't have the baby travel in some of your fav outfits in case you have to part with them. I didn't think about that :/

3) Along the same lines as above, pack extra clothing for yourself! Let's be honest, any time a baby soils themselves, the lap bearer suffers too.

4) Distraction, distraction, distraction. Ram and I decided we don't want to expose Riya to TV/IPads for as long as possible. But agreed that we would break this rule when we travel, especially on that 15 hour flight to Houston (blech). So I downloaded a few apps on the iPad in case of emergency and had toddler songs ready to go on my iphone. Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to any of this. Riya was perfectly content with me cradling her and passing her back and forth between Ram and I.  Bringing a small mirror is a must so you can play the "who's that baby?" game. It never gets old!  

5) On the go essentials. A carrier was a must. Now that Riya has a time limit as to how long she will spend in her stroller (ugh, babies!), it's easy to give her a change of scenery, while allowing you to stay mobile, with the carrier.  We love our Baby Bjorn carrier because it allows her to face inwards or outwards, and it's good from birth to 12 months. She loves the forward facing view now that she's older. Also, if you're going to a warm climate or have a baby that overheats in general, a stroller fan is another must have. They are kinda puny, but it's better than nothing. We use ours daily here in the desert.

6) Playthings. It was vital that we had at least a playmat that we could put Riya on so she could play and amuse herself for small pieces of time while we got other stuff done. And to bring some familiar toys. Luckily Riya doesn't play favorites with her toys, but I made sure not to bring anything that wasn't easily replaceable. So all my coveted US items stayed safely in Dubai.

7) And baby makes 3. We ended up booking a one bedroom villa. Even though Riya is not a light sleeper, it still made me nervous to share a room. We've never had her in our room nor do we co-sleep. We had a good experience but not sure I would do it again. Even though Riya slept fine, every creek and peep made me paranoid and I kept looking over to see if she was still sleeping.  Sharing a room is especially hard since babies have early bedtimes and it's lights out after 7pm. So if you can have some separation, it's probably a good thing, especially so you can enjoy that glass of wine :)

8) Divide and conquer.  My friend Laine suggested that Ram and I divide the tasks to make things easier on travel day. This was excellent advice. Knowing what each of us were responsible for in advance made travel day go very smoothly. And I was shocked when Emirates allowed our rear facing car seat on the plane and fastened it in forward facing. I guess their flight attendants don't know the difference and I wasn't going to correct them :p 

The Maldives

Well we survived our first vacation with Miss Riya....barely. 

Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic.

Just as our taxi arrived bright and early Tuesday morning, Riya vomited 1/2 her bottle all over herself and I. I quickly scrambled to get changed and change her before heading off to the airport. Security was a breeze, they didn't even ask me to separate my baby food or sample it. I stressed over this part of the trip for weeks.  Thankfully it was easy breezy. By the time we boarded the plane and got her car seat strapped in, Riya fell asleep. It was just before her feeding time but I didn't care. I wasn't going to wake her up while the plane was taking off just to make sure her ears didn't hurt. But when she did wake up 20 minutes later, I had that bottle ready and popped it straight into her mouth. Crisis averted. Phew. 

Soon after her feed though, she needed a diaper change and out went outfit #2. By the time we landed, Riya was on her 3rd outfit for the day in a matter of 4 hours. Poor baby was having seriously tummy trouble. She was otherwise happy, so I tried not to stress about it. But by the end of the day she wasn't eating properly. The next day, she ate even less and continued to have tummy trouble. Out went another 2 outfits.

She didn't have a fever and was otherwise okay, so my instinct was that teething was the culprit. I heard this would happen. She would get sick and refuse to eat and you would worry that something bigger was in play, when in reality it's teething. And it just happened to strike during our highly anticipated vacay in the Maldives. Teething is pure evil. 

And then Ram fell sick for the majority of the trip as well. Our vacation was seemingly a major fail. It was disappointing to say the least. Thankfully the hotel staff and doctor were extremely helpful and took great care of my babies. They gave us a crib, baby monitor, diaper genie, kettle, and microwave for Riya. They even did Riya's laundry for free.

We managed to enjoy our last day at the resort. The resort consisted of mainly beach bungalows, with the beach right at our feet. All the restaurants had amazing views. Did you know that some world maps don't even have the Maldives on them? Apparently the Maldives is sinking and may not be there for long. I never knew the Indian Ocean was so sparkly blue. It was enchanting.

Our room with a plunge pool & beach access

Boat transport from the Airport to the Resort. Riya actually slept on that rocky thing! 

About to take her first dip in the ocean

Afterwards, a few tears but she survived :) 

Beach babe <3

We managed to have our anniversary dinner on the beach 1 day later and it was worth the wait. We caught the sunset while Riya napped in her stroller beside us. It was a picture perfect ending to our trip.

3 Things you didn't know about driving in Dubai

Everyday there's a headline in the paper about a car accident. It's hard to ignore. It breaks my heart to hear these stories because common sense doesn't prevail in Dubai.

1. Car seats are not a requirement in Dubai. Some cars, like mine, only provide latches for one car seat base. So what do you do if you have two babies?! I cannot tell you how many times I've seen babies being held in their mamas laps in the car as the husbands speed across the highway. And inevitably when an accident occurs, its the children that get hurt because they are not protected. For a city that is big on family life, I don't understand this oversight.  Moreover, how can any parent purposely drive without securing their child. It baffles me. 

2. Recently I heard a story that happened in my neighborhood. This lady rear ended a fellow expat BECAUSE SHE WAS NURSING HER ONE YEAR OLD while driving and didn't see that the car in front of her had come to a stop. The police were called to the scene and surprise, surprise, no ticket was issued. Oh and by the way, a law passed this year requiring a woman to breastfeed her child for 2 years. No exceptions to the rule. How obvious is it that a man created this law?  

3. Most roads have speed bumps because speeding is a major issue that this city cannot seem to curtail. Speeding fines are pricey, starting at $180 a pop, but there is no true penalty because driving records and insurance are not affected. In my neighborhood there are plenty of speed bumps, and though it's extremely annoying to have to slow down every 30 seconds to go over bump after bump, it's a necessity. Time and time again, taxis or other drivers will try to overtake you because they cannot be bothered to go the speed limit. This habit of overtaking has caused many accidents. Forcing the other driver to swerve to avoid hitting a nearby cyclist, curb, or god forbid a vehicle with a child.   It's no wonder why many moms that I've come across are afraid to drive with their little ones in the car. Road rage takes on a whole new meaning here.

Happy Birthday

to ME. So after turning 30, I haven't been in the celebratory mood for my birthdays. It's best to stick to milestone birthdays. No need to keep track of the ones in between. I don't need yearly reminders that I'm inching closer to 40, okay?! Isn't it bad enough that I can't stay awake past 9:30pm?!

This year one of my good friends, Kristen, was visiting so flying under the radar was not an option. It was so nice to see a friendly face and show her the place we call home. We spent my actual birthday at one of my fav Souks and then dinner at home. It was a lovely weekend and Miss Riya was all smiles and giggles for Aunt Kristen <3.  I'm getting pretty good at playing tour guide with baby in tow, so come one, come all!

Brunch fun:) 

Cocktail hour on the ocean. Doesn't get much better than this:) 

Next week we are vacationing in the Maldives! I really hope the flight goes smoothly. This will be a good test run for when we come to the States in August. Stay tuned!