It's the Ex-Pat way...

It's totally safe to go to a stranger's house with your baby. Right? Only in another country would you go to a stranger's house, with your infant baby, to meet someone for the first time because you share a common interest: friendship. 

It's the ex-pat way.

I've been bitching and moaning about not having any mommy friends and now that we are officially here for awhile, it was time I did something about it. I had been trying to get in touch with the leader of a mom and baby group here in my neighborhood for quite some time. Finally someone reached out to me last week and luckily there was a group play date scheduled the following day and I was added to their Facebook Group. 

So I peeled out of my driveway last Monday morning headed for a stranger's house to socialize with 8 complete strangers and their babies. Everyone was so nice and welcoming, it was such a relief. There were even a few babies close to Riya's age, but it seemed like I was the only first time mom. Well, that's fine with me, now I had plenty of people's brains to pick! 

Picture from the first group play date. Riya is on the far left:) 

There was only one other person that shared my American accent and she was kind enough to tell me  there was an American Moms Facebook Group and that they were meeting for coffee later that week. Sign me up! 

That coffee was also a success. Sometimes it's nice to hear the same accent when you live in a different country. It's nice to chat with someone that has a shared loved for Target (without having to explain what that is). It's nice to exchange tips and learn about new places and activities available in Dubai within the first hour. 

It's the ex-pat way.  

I'm new to this mom gig and these Facebook groups have been beyond helpful for anything and everything. This week I've already had two one-on-one play dates and there's a group coffee tomorrow. I'd say things are definitely looking up! 

So I take back all the negative things I said about the American ex-pats and ex-pats here in general. Clearly, I met the wrong group of women. I was meant to be in the mom group, where everyone is nice and has no energy for drama because let's face it, we are all way too damn tired. 

A Day in the Life of...

Since many of you have not met Riya, I thought I would give you a glimpse into a day in her life. At 5 months old, weighing 11 lbs and standing tall at 22 inches, baby girl has grown so much. She still has some catching up to do, but she's well on her way!

So what has she been doing the past 5 months? She's a cooing, smiling, drooling, milk chugging machine. (I wonder who she got the last part from :p)

LIKES:

1. Stand Up. After eating she likes to stand or be toted around the house to check out the world beyond her bedroom doors. She loves her stroller rides in the morning and afternoon when we walk Luca.

She's so serious!!! 

2. Tummy time. This is a no brainer, look at that smile! She's holding her head up high for several minutes and trying to both crawl and roll over. Crawling part makes me nervous, I'm not ready to have a mobile child. But we're so ready for her to learn to roll over! Swaddling is so last year. 

3. Snuggles. She loves to snuggle up to her crib bumper when she sleeps at night, which makes us a nervous wreck. I cannot tell you how many times we go in at night to make sure she's breathing.

Such a character! She cracks me up

4. Playtime. She is interacting more with objects around her. She's reaching for toys and grabbing onto blankets. It's such a beautiful thing to see the world through your baby's eyes and we feel so lucky to experience it.

5. Singing. This is the most successful distraction tactic. Too bad I can't complete a single nursery song. So for now, it's whatever song I know the lyrics too that pops into my head. Right now her fave is "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Ram, we're in trouble!

DISLIKES:

1. Naps are for babies. Apparently now that she is sleeping 12 hours at night (for the past month!), she thinks she doesn't need to nap during the day. Thankfully we didn't have to do the whole "cry it out" method at night but daytime is a whole different story. She loves to fake me out by cat napping in varying increments of time so that I will never know when that golden 1.5 hour nap will come.  I've bought every gadget and tried every trick. She's quite the worthy opponent. Challenge accepted. 

2. Swaddling. She is a swaddle breaking pro! I've literally seen her take one arm out to suck on and then the other. It's so cute but so frustrating!

Mid-reach

3. There's no holding her down. She already hates being strapped to the car seat or her bouncer. What are the chances she will enjoy a plane ride?

Check out her site for some cute pics and videos! https://riyaaiyer.shutterfly.com

Vacation, vacation, vacation

I have vacation brain! Ever since Riya was born we have been dreaming about the day when we can resume traveling again. Well, that time has finally come! But where can we go that's baby friendly??

This has been the debate for the past several months. Our criteria is simple: short flight (max 5 hours); resort type hotel; and minimal sight seeing prospects. Basically a beachy place would be ideal but those are quite expensive and baby girl won't even enjoy that yet, so not sure if it's a good idea. The fact that we cannot leave the hotel after her 7pm bedtime has also thrown a wrench into our planning.

After careful thought and consideration, we had to scratch the Maldives. I don't think it's safe to take Riya on a speed boat or sea plane to get to one of the islands:/ Then we thought of Seychelles. It appears that some of the hotels don't allow children under 13! And the hotels that have beach access and allow infants were super pricey, so didn't seem worth it while Riya is just a babe. It's on our list for next year though:)

Then we thought of Cyprus or Santorini, but the forecast in April is less than ideal.  Who knew that planning your first trip with a baby would be so hard.

So that leaves us with Oman and Jordan. All I know about those places is that Muscat, Oman has a beach and hiking trails, that are supposed to be beautiful. Jordan has the Dead Sea, amongst other sights. While those are places we want to visit before we leave the region, it's not sounding very appealing as our first vacay in a year. First world problem? 

If anyone has any suggestions, please pass them along!

Miracle Gardens

A few days before New Years, Ram and I decided to check out the Miracle Gardens, a mere 5 minute drive away. The Gardens hold the record for the longest flower wall in the Guinness Book of Records!  I can't say I'm surprised, Dubai's motto is "Go Big or Go Home." But this was only Phase I. They plan on making it bigger.

It was in the middle of no where, but we are in the desert after all. It was really nice to see some greenery and landscaping, and it was the perfect day for it. For a minute, I felt like I was out in the country. Apparently they have 45 different flower varieties and colors. (They all looked the same to me :p)

Riya decided to take a nap during our outing :(

I would love to live in a house made of flowers:) 

I totally want one! 

I look forward to going back when it's completed. Hopefully Riya will be awake to enjoy it too!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a fantastic New Years. This year was the first tame New Years we've had in awhile. We packed up our stuff (Luca and all) and went to our friends, Asif & Dima, place for the night. Packing everything up was an event in and of itself! The sheer amount of stuff we had to bring for just 24 hours was enough to make me never want to travel with Riya and Luca again.

I was very nervous about being out with Riya for an extended period of time. Lately, because of her acid reflux, she doesn't nap more than 30 minutes and I never know when her discomfort level is going to spiral out of control. Luckily, our friends are well versed in all things baby since they have one of their own who also had acid reflux. They reassured me that within a few months everything will be better and I will forget about this hardship. I don't think I will ever forget, but I am looking forward to better days...

I was worried about putting Riya to sleep in her pack 'n' play (she only naps in there once a week) and in a different environment since she has been sleeping 8 hours straight for the past week and then 4 hours after that feed. So now we are down to 6 feeds and a predictable feeding schedule. Hallelujah! I'm hoping by the end of January she drops that pesky night feed! I have forgotten what it's like to sleep longer than 3-4 hours a day...

The afternoon started off shaky, but she did pretty well at night. She even slept through the fireworks:) It was nice to be able to spend New Years with friends and get some much needed adult time. I even stayed awake past midnight! (I came to regret that the next day when no-napping Riya was back in action).

All in all we had a great time, with great friends. I'm looking forward to all that 2014 has to bring and wish everyone the best this year!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Dubai! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was extra special this year :) I finally got around to decorating the house and Ram was able to bring me back some holiday decor from Houston to top it all off:

Christmas Eve tradition: PJ's

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our place with our friends. Unfortunately, a few backed out last minute so we were stuck with a 12 lb turkey with just the 3 of us! Needless to say, we will have plenty of food to eat over the next few days. We had a lot of fun with our White Elephant exchange:) Some people do nice gifts when they do White Elephant, but we like to do funny/gag gifts:

Santa and Reindeer that poop chocolate

We spent our 70 degree Christmas Day opening presents, sky ping with family and watching Four Christmases:) Riya got some awesome gifts this year. Nothing tops baby's first Christmas! 

Check out Riya's site for the full set of pics. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Looking forward to what 2014 has in store for us! 

Holiday Cheer

For a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, they sure do go all out for their ex-pat population (or so I thought). We attended the second annual Dubai Christmas Festival this weekend where they showcased local eateries, christmas market, an ice rink, fake snow and Santa's grotto to name a few. Now if the malls would just catch on and sell more than just trees and ornaments, it would be the perfect holiday season!

Sadly, the Festival was a huge disappointment. The biggest disappointment of all was waiting in line for 45 minutes to get a picture with Santa only to be greeted by a 15 year old bean pole of a boy dressed as Santa. IT. WAS. TERRIBLE. Not to mention that we had to pay for the visit and we had to take our own picture! No professionalism what so ever.  I'm glad Riya is too young to understand these things. If I was a little kid and I saw that Santa, I would be questioning his existence for damn sure.

The Christmas Market that they boasted about at the Festival was also a let down, but I anticipated that. Since I don't have any holiday decor and couldn't find much, I had to get creative to make our house festive.  Ram is going to Houston the week before Christmas and comes back on the 23rd, so I was able to at least order the stockings and tree skirt that I loved. Too bad I have to wait until Christmas eve to display it. In the meantime, I was able to get a wreath outside and create something for our mantle (pending the stockings). So I found this craft shop and picked up some wooden letters and foam trees. Add a splash of glitter and voila:

I would have liked to do something a little more inspired, but given my limited free time, this will have to do! I'm currently working on our tree, at this pace, it should be ready by Christmas Eve! Ha.

Another thing I've been focusing on is establishing holiday traditions. Now that we have started our clan, I want to make the holidays a memorable event for our kids as they grow up. I never really had any traditions growing up aside from waking up early on Christmas morning and opening presents in our PJ's while scarfing down deviled eggs. So here is the list of traditions I plan on incorporating every year:

1. Christmas Box- every year on Christmas eve everyone gets to open their box which will contain new PJ's and an activity or game to do that day.

2. Elf on the Shelf- until Riya is old enough to understand this, I think I will have adult fun with this one;)

3. Christmas Scavenger Hunt- the weekend before Christmas spend an afternoon to search the city for all things Christmas related

4. Christmas Crackers- this is a UK tradition that I fell in love with and since Aberdeen holds a special place in our hearts, it will always be a part of our Christmas celebrations. It also makes for a great stocking stuffer! They even sell fancy adult crackers here where the "toy" is a wine opener, key chain, etc.

5. Advent calendar- I want to do some sort of countdown to Christmas, I really like this picture of Santa claus with his beard is the countdown:

So far I'm happy with that list but am looking to add. What are your favorite traditions?