Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We celebrated Baby L's first Christmas! She let us sleep in until 7:30am, and while she was still a little fussy from her vaccination shots, she let us dress her up in cute Christmas outfits.

The best family Christmas photo!

Baby L's all-day Christmas onesie

Baby L with Miss J in her church outfit that Mimi and Granddad sent to us

We went to morning church service at Christ Church in Jebel Ali, the Anglican Church we've been attending since we moved to Dubai. Miss J came with us for the first time, and we enjoyed a nice kids-focused service. I wore a sweater and jeans, and I wished I had worn a traditional Vietnamese ao dai for the service - it didn't even occur to me until we got to the church and I saw a lot of the Indian women wearing their beautiful saris! I might start wearing my ao dais to church on Fridays just so I have an excuse to wear them - they've been sitting in my closet since I had them made in Vietnam with little occasion for me to wear them. I did change into my red one when I got home for our family photos.

Baby L and I in my ao dai

 After pictures, I cooked for the first time in months! I made roast small chickens (because we couldn't find cornish hens), green beans, and mashed potatoes with gravy - a pretty traditional American meal. I would have roasted a turkey, but I didn't want the hassle (or the long cook time!), and for three people, the chickens were more than enough.

Since Baby L doesn't know enough to want to open presents first thing in the morning, we waited until after her afternoon nap. She was cheerful, squealing, and she helped me rip the paper off some of her gifts! All in all, it was fun filled day, though we wish we could have been with family.

We wish everyone a happy 2018! Look for more adventures of Baby L as we get ready for a big trip to Singapore and Vietnam early in the new year!!

Baby L is 4 months old! And that means shots. :-(

Baby L turned 4 months old yesterday, and to celebrate, we had gourmet donuts from Dum Dum Donutterie - an oreo cream filled donut for G, a nutella donut for Miss J, and a salted caramel donut for me (plus a sprinkles donut for Baby L).

She got her little hands on her donut and flung the sprinkles everywhere!

Grinning after her sprinkle-flinging handiwork

This little peanut is now double her birth weight, rolling over, and starting to teeth! She was kind of in an odd mood all day - we managed to get her to smile for her photographs, but she was generally subdued and a little fussy all day. We suspect the teething is making her uncomfortable. In conjunction with some epic Dubai fog casting weird diffused light into our apartment, it made for a strange day.

Photo of the fog rolling in, taken by G from our balcony. By mid-afternoon, it was a total white-out, and we couldn't see anything!

Today, she woke up happy and excited, more like her usual self, which was an extra bummer since we had to go get shots today. We want to make sure she has a full week between her shots and our long airplane trip to Vietnam, so we decided to do them right after her birthday, even it meant her being a little extra fussy for her first Christmas.

All smiles and giggles as the doctor's office!

Baby L passed her 4 month checkup with flying colors, with only the recommendation for more tummy time - since she rolled back to front before going front to back, the doc says she needs to work on her back muscles. Otherwise, this chunky monkey has gone from 40th percentile for weight vs height to 70th percentile -- all on mommy's breastmilk! We just love her little michelan man fat rolls!

I wanted Baby L to have a better experience with her shots than last time - last time she cried hysterically for about 5 minutes, and G had to take her away so I could listen to what the doctor was telling me. This time, after reading some articles on the 5 S' (swaddle, shush, side, suck, swing), I swaddled Baby L's arms tightly right before her shots, scooped her up afterwards and shushed and rocked her, and it worked! She calmed down in less than a minute (though it was a very teary minute!). I took a few laps around the waiting room while G paid the insurance co-pay, and we were able to get her in the carseat and home with minimal fuss. Miss J looked so upset, and when I asked her, she said she was just said that Baby L had to hurt - so that made me feel better than the woman with 5 kids and 2 grandkids still gets sad when a baby has to have shots.

Tomorrow, we're excited for Baby L's first Christmas!  More photos to come!!

My First Birthday Abroad!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! It's now a little after 8pm as I write this, and it has been an almost perfect birthday. This post will be short and sweet! It started with some family cuddle time in bed since Baby L let us sleep in a little later than usual. G had roses for me and cooked a hearty American-style breakfast of biscuits, sausage, bacon, and eggs.  After breakfast, Baby L and I had some playtime on the sofa will G and Miss J cleaned up breakfast - and I got this adorable photo of her!

My sweet Santa-baby! Look at that grin!!!

Then G took me out for lunch (Miss J stayed home with Baby L) at Din Tai Fung, one of my favorite places to eat. I'm normally not a huge fan of restaurant chains, and DTF is the exception to my rule! We ordered a bunch of food, and it was all in our bellies before I even thought to take pictures. 

After lunch, we caught an early showing of the new Star Wars movie - it was great, though a bit long when accounting for the 30 minutes of commercials before the previews even started. I had a classic comedy movie moment - I forgot to bring a hand pump for breastmilk with me, so I ended up with a wet spot on the front of my shirt. Fortunately, I had a sweatshirt with me for the chilly movie theater, so I was able to "cover up" on the metro ride home!

We came home to Miss J having tummy time with Baby L - she has learned to roll over! Watch out world, soon we will have a crawling rugrat!

Baby L is finally ok with tummy time! Soon we're going to need some baby gates!

We ordered Vietnamese delivery for dinner, and a pair of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery are on their way to our home right now! I don't think I could have asked for a better day - it was easy, laid back, and full of love and good food!

Early Adventures of Baby L - Long Weekend in Dubai!

Last week, we had an epic 5-day weekend in Dubai - Thursday thru Monday. We were celebrating UAE National Day, Martyr's Day, and the birth of the Prophet Mohammed all at once! We had grand plans to finish unpacking the house, and unfortunately, G came down with a allergy-induced cold. He'd been congested from all the dust in Dubai, and the post-nasal drainage he had at night caused a sore throat. Like champ, he powered through and we still got some important things done - like buying a Christmas tree.  We considered buying a real tree through either Ace Hardware or Bloombox, but at the end of the day, it was just easier to buy a fake one from Ikea (G's first fake one...maybe ever. Poor guy.) G didn't ship any of our Christmas stuff from Houston since we had no idea what kind of storage space we might or might not have, so we also needed all new ornaments. Enter Ikea and their National Day Sale - 50% off everything Christmas, including the tree! Yay!

Baby L's first Christmas tree!

G and I went to Ikea early Thursday morning to try to beat out the crowds - no such luck. Where Ikea in Abu Dhabi is pretty quiet in the morning, Ikea in Dubai is ALWAYS crazy busy. When G and I got home, we all pitched in to help decorate the tree, including Miss J! Baby L was not super enthusiastic because all 3 of her adults were distracted by the Christmas Spirit - meaning we weren't paying attention to her.  It's tough being a baby!

Miss J spent the rest of the weekend in Abu Dhabi packing up her belongings at her previous employer's home so she could fully move in with us! We were sad she was away and also super excited to know that she was coming to be with us permanently.

We took Baby L to Christ Church in Jebel Ali, which is just outside Dubai (and about 15 minutes from our apartment. We got there SUPER early because we weren't sure about the parking situation, and I think next time, we'll leave a little later. We really enjoyed the service, and we plan to try to come back every week!

Baby L's first trip to church in Dubai!

We also took Baby L on her first metro ride with some moderate success. Ibn Battuta Mall is 2 metro stops from our place, and my coworkers told me it's much less crowded than Dubai Mall or Mall of the Emirates. Basically Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates are for tourists, and Ibn Battuta Mall - while still very, very, nice - is more for expats and locals. I needed to send a gift via DHL to a friend back home, and we wanted to check out the grocery store since it might be easier to get to this mall than some of the others.

Baby L had her #grumpybaby face on the whole time. She was all cute and cheerful as we left the apartment, and then I think she was angry that she couldn't see what was going on from the stroller. I tried holding her face-out like Miss J does for awhile, and eventually put her into the Ergobaby (thank goodness we brought it with us!)

Cute to start...

Then #grumpybaby on the metro...

#Grumpybaby while waiting on Mommy at DHL...

And #grumpybaby in the Ergobaby on the way back home.

On Monday, G went to pick up Miss J from Abu Dhabi with all of her belongings, and we spent the last day of our long weekend chilling around the house. I finished Baby L's nursery (with the exception of her dresser, which is still a useless pile of lumber until I get  the right parts), and I finished the master bedroom.

We bought some lovely pieces from a local artist, and this round plate I hung just outside Baby L's room. It says "Peace, Hope, and Love" in Arabic.

Bit by bit, our place is becoming home - my goal is to have everything done by the time we go to Vietnam in January so that we're ready for visitors when we get back!