Taking 2017 by storm

I'm officially 36 weeks pregnant today. A measly 4 weeks away from my due date. Although this pregnancy has been the easiest by far (no gestational diabetes or terrible aches/pains), I'm freaking out about becoming a family of five.

It was only recently that I got used to looking after 2 toddlers. I have no idea how I'm going to add a newborn to the mix. My stress levels are also higher because Riya's 3 week Spring break is perfectly timed around baby's due date (cue eye roll). Arguably it will be nice not having to worry about getting her to school, packing lunch, and picking her up those first few weeks, but the benefits end there. Riya does not like to stay at home all day, no toddler does, and since both Riya and Rayan don't care for TV (why, God, why????!?!?!), those first few weeks are going to be immensely challenging. Although my in-laws are here to help, as a mother, I'm never "off the hook" looking after my kids. Not that I want to be completely off the hook, but you know what I mean...

Everyone says the jump from 1 to 2 kids is a harder adjustment than 2 to 3, and I seriously hope that's the case, but having 3 kids under the age of 4?! Goodness gracious. How do you prepare yourself for one of the most challenging times of your life? Prayers for patience (tons) and grace are most welcome:)

Despite my fears, I'm trying to soak in these last few weeks of being a family of four. Riya and Rayan are at such cute stages in their lives. Riya does a little dance and song for everything now. Rayan is so fun to watch in action. He is very clever and picks up on things so fast. And 'Riya-watching' is the most hilarious thing in his book. Whatever Riya is doing, he's right there by her side, laughing uncontrollably and copying her. You can't help but beam watching them together.

So let's see what life has in store for the Aiyers as we anticipate the fifth member of our family. Will the baby share my birthday? (Eek) Will the baby be an April fool? (Please no) And most importantly, will we have a boy or girl?! Stay tuned folks!

A holiday before the holidays...

When Ram had to go to Dubai for his last work trip of the year, he asked us to tag along. Although I wasn't keen on pulling Riya out of school one week before her 3 week break for the holidays nor was I thrilled with the thought of spending Rayan's first birthday internationally, I'm SO glad we went.

It was so nice to play tourist in our old home town. The timing was perfect, it had been almost 2 years  since we left and the weather this time of year is gorgeous. I was happy to trade 30 degree weather for 70 for the next 8 days. Plus we got to stay in the best parts of town and catch up with friends.

Riya really came out of her shell and it was so nice to see her socialize and play with our friends kids who are similar in age. Even Rayan had a playmate, but of course they just ignored each other and co-existed as most babies do:)

Rayan's first birthday could not have been more perfect. We were staying at a hotel apartment off the beach and had our friends over to celebrate his big day. It was basically all the attendees from Riya's first birthday party, so it was pretty special.

Check out the pics and videos of our pre-holiday, holiday:)

This was definitely a vacation for the books because of the company and it was nice already knowing what to do to maximize our time.  Since Ram has to go to Dubai for work once or twice a year, we are thinking of making it an annual trip. Plus Dubai would be a good halfway point to reach farther East destinations once we are ready to travel as a family of 5...gasp.

New Beginnings...

We have been in the new house for 2 weeks and feeling settled already. This was the easiest move by far! I think all my organizing pre-move really helped. I spent most of last week deathly ill with Ram away on a 2 week travel stint and 2 kiddos to take care of. It was not easy and there were definitely days where I was feeling sorry for myself. But I am finally feeling better today and what a difference a good night's sleep makes!

Riya LOVES the new house and I am so pleased (and relieved). Our last place was the first "home" she actually remembers. She still asks about it, and we pass by it everyday on the way to school, but overall the adjustment has been seamless. YAY!

So I'm attaching a link to all the pictures of the house because there are just too many to post on here. But I will give you an idea of the layout first. Its a 6 bedroom, 4.5 bath Victorian house spread out over 3 floors. The main floor has the reception, kitchen, separate utility (equipped with separate washer & dryer !!!), a half bath, conservatory, and garden. The second floor has 2 bedrooms (Rayan's & Baby No. 3), a full bathroom, Master bedroom with ensuite and separate dressing/wardrobe area. The third floor has 3 bedrooms: Riya's with ensuite, Office/Guestroom, and the playroom along with a full bathroom. This house definitely makes us feel like real grown ups. It has so much British charm  and we instantly felt at home here. Excited to make new memories in this house!

https://goo.gl/photos/7uWdoUcgn2ZZYyrW7

October Happenings

September flew by while we were away in Houston. It was nice to have some family time, but we are so happy to be back home and roam around in cooler temperatures:) I love fall. Riya is even learning about fall and noticing the change in the colors of leaves. We take long walks after I pick her up from school and point out all the changes we see. I love it.

As it turns out, we also have some exciting news. Looks like Rayan isn't going to be the baby of the family anymore!

Riya, Rayan & TBD

It was an unplanned surprise, but we are gearing up for baby #3! Now that our family is expanding, we decided to look for a bigger place. Although our current place is quite spacious for London standards and has served us well, we felt like it would be cramped once baby comes, especially since my in-laws have graciously offered to come stay with us for those first 3-4 months. Luckily we didn't search for long and found a gorgeous house in our neighborhood. It will allow us to have a proper guestroom/office, a bedroom for each kiddo and a playroom. Plus this house has a large garden (backyard) and a conservatory (number 1 on my list! number 2 is a colored door). We move at the end of the month. I'm excited to have more space and a dedicated playroom for the kids. Not to mention Riya and Rayan's bedrooms won't share a wall anymore, so they can't wake each other up! Yipee!!!! But the thought of actually going through this move right now makes me want to vomit:/ Hopefully everything goes smoothly and luckily I'm not a big fat pregnant whale yet, so I should be able to get organized fairly quickly. Can't wait to show y'all our new digs in a few weeks!

Summer time

Yikes its been a whole months since my last entry! With all this Brexit nonsense, we were glad to have assurance that Ram's job is safe and we can stay in London as long as we would like. That settled, we began researching the school system here. Its so ridiculously complicated. And apparently, we are already behind in applying for September 2018 admissions. SIGH. But there are some good schools with short wait lists, so there is hope after all! I guess we should start applying for Rayan now too! Lol

We finally got some warmer weather here in July/August. The highs were in the 80's which made life pretty uncomfortable for a few weeks. Now, before you curse me out, let me remind you that there is NO air conditioning here! Very few common areas have it, so its hard to escape the heat. Let's just say Rayan and I made it a point to hang out at the grocery store a lot:) Luckily, we purchased one air con unit for our living room last year and that's where we spent the bulk of our time on those hot summer days/nights.

Thankfully its getting cooler now but we are headed to Houston, so its going to be HOT HOT HOT. I'm very excited for our friends and families to meet Rayan and to meet my new niece and nephew. Of course, my rockstar baby boy decided to start crawling a few days ago, so will make that long ass flight to Houston fun! Can't wait to see y'all!!!!

Aiyer, Family of Four, vacation Part Two: Sintra, Portugal

After 5 nights at the lovely Martinhal resort in Sagres, we flew out to Lisbon and then drove 30 minutes to a town called Sintra. It was only a 45 minute flight but we got delayed and were stuck on the plane for an extra 45 minutes which would have been a nightmare but my kids were behaving perfectly fine:) Riya was plowing through her gallon sized snack bag and contentedly staying seated while playing with her sticker books and stamps. I'm so happy we bought her this harness that attached to her seat belt, I think its the reason she stayed in her seat for all 3 flights. Obrigado Laine for the recommendation!!!

Another side note, we survived the long car rides and all 3 flights with zero screen time for Riya. As a parent, this made me really happy, but it also meant we had to do the bulk of entertaining, which was tiring. 

Okay, back to the trip. 

We arrived at the beautiful Penha Longa Resort around 2pm. Unfortunately our room wasn't ready yet and though both kids desperately needed a nap, it wasn't happening. We fed them both and enjoyed a drink while we waited for our room. Riya was happily running around the property proving that she was "not tired." Sintra wasn't as windy as Sagres was, so we felt the heat more. Thoughtfully, our hotel had an indoor play area that had everything a 2.5 year old could want- a home corner outfitted with a kitchen and plastic foods, drawing station, dolls, several different types of slides, a ball pit, and more. 

The next morning, we had plans to drive to the zoo in Lisbon, which is reputed to have one of the best zoological collections in the world. Unfortunately, Riya woke up with tummy trouble and we decided it wasn't a good idea to do the 30 minute drive and be out in the sun all morning. Once again the play areas at the hotel came in hand and despite feeling crummy at times, Riya was entertained. She even jumped on a trampoline for the first time!

The next day we set out to the Aquarium, another must see in Lisbon. Riya was not interested in seeing fish of any kind. Sigh. So we zipped through that place in record time. We did get to see Penguins (my fav!), Dragon Sea Horses, Frogs and other colorful reptiles.

Puffins! 

Sintra is a beautiful town that hosts several castles. For all my Bachelorette fans, you may recall the castle in Portugal in Season 6 with Ali. One of the episodes aired at Pena Palace, which is in Sintra! Pena Palace rests on a hilltop. I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice, but it looked so beautiful. I really wanted to check it out but it was a hike to get up there and it was impossible with kids in tow:/ Ah well, next time. 

Pena Palace

Because of Riya's tummy trouble, we also had to steer clear of the pool on this part of the trip. What a shame though because the pool was gorgeous with the mountains and golf course as a back drop. Ram and I did manage to take turns checking out the restaurants at the hotel at night. The food was excellent as were the mojitos:) I wish we had one more day in Sintra. These two places are definitely at the top of our list for future family vacations!

Aiyer, Family of Four, First vacation

We did it! We managed to trek a toddler and baby over to Portugal for our first family vacation of the year. The sheer amount of stuff we needed to make this vacation happen was insane, I wish I took a picture. But this is what it felt like-

To be fair, our vacation was for 9 days (5 in Sagres), so we did need plenty of clothing options plus beach and swim gear. Despite a 5:30am wake up, both kids did great. Rayan was a pro on his first flight, just like his big sister:) We flew into Faro and drove another 1.5 hours to a town called Sagres and stayed at the Martinhal resort.

Ram did a lot of research and found this highly rated resort that catered to families with little ones.  This place had EVERYTHING. We were so pleased, as was Riya, with all the amenities available. Our 2 story home was equipped with a lovely outdoor space, washer, full kitchen, baby bath tub, potty insert, stair gates, and two cribs. There was a grocery store on site, toddler splash pools, a bounce house, and several play areas throughout the property, 2 of which were next to the pools which came in handy! The added bonus was every restaurant had a play area with staff on hand to watch your child play as you eat AND every bathroom on the property had separate toilets for little ones.  They also had kid and baby club drop offs where they are entertained for several hours a day if you want some kid-free time. (We opted not to do that on this trip). This place really thought of everything and the attention to detail was impressive.

The weather was a mix of warm and cool. The city is right off the path of the Sahara Dessert, so strong winds were constant but with the sun shining through, it wasn't too bad. I was so excited to bring Riya back to the beach. We had been playing with sand for weeks and talking about building sand castles but once we got to the beach, she was not interested. She took one look at the sand and said "it's dirty!" and that was that:/ I don't know where this diva-ness came from. I was so disappointed. But she was happy for Mommy and Daddy to get their feet dirty so she could "stand" in the ocean!

Rayan had a lot of firsts on this trip: first passport stamp, first flight, first time at the beach, and first swim. He loved his first dip in the pool despite Riya stealing his floatie, lol. I was so impressed with how he traveled. Poor guy was teething badly those first few days and would boycott a nap or two but was otherwise his happy smiley self. I was worried that his 3 nap a day requirement would hold us back, but luckily his midday nap coincided with Riya's and then he got to do one nap in the room and one on the go. Worked out perfectly:)

Here's a slideshow of the first part of our trip:

Sagres was the perfect place to kick off our vacation. Next up, Sintra!