Home, sweet Houston!

Blog posts will likely slow down after this - as we settle into our lives in Houston, G and I plan to take it easy as far as travel.  After the trip to Italy and subsequent repatriation travel, I promised G that we don't have to take a family airplane trip again until he tells me he's ready!

Our flight home was fairly uneventful. We said good-bye to Miss J and sent her in an Uber to Abu Dhabi the night before we flew home, and that was a really, really hard night for all of us.  We wanted to make sure that L saw Miss J leave so that she wouldn't be confused later.  There were, as expected, a LOT of tears.  After Miss J left, L surprised both G and I by asking me to do bathtime and bedtime routine with her (I hadn't done it since before Baby H was born), and I literally had to get into the bathtub with her to keep her from trying to climb out. She discovered the shiny mirror though, and by the end of bathtime, we had the opposite problem that she didn't want to get out.  Once we wrapped up our routine, L kept asking for Nana to take her to bed, and I, still crying, took L to bed and held her as she cried for Nana until she fell asleep.

Baby L discovered the "mirror" in the bathtub (the drain knob) and is enthralled by it!

The next morning went a lot better - we all woke up early, got dressed and met our Emirates Chauffeur-Drive service in the hotel lobby. WheI forgot how fast business-class check-in goes, and we were relaxing in the lounge 20 minutes after arriving at the airport.

L in her carseat with the GoGoBabyz Travelmate (which turns it into a stroller) and Baby H snuggled into the wrap

Daddy is a champ watching the 2 kiddos while Mommy gets some breakfast - except Daddy forgot L's yellow water bottle on the table when it was time to leave.  2 days of drama while we waited for its replacement to arrive!

 As I've mentioned before, my company pays for everyone to have their own business class seat, including the baby.  For L, we put her carseat onto her airplane seat, so really the business class seat was kind of wasted on her.  It saved us from checking her carseat, and the carseat doubled as a stroller to wheel her around. This was a lifesaver on Houston end of the journey because the walk from the airplane in Terminal D of Bush International to immigration in Terminal E is quite long! The carseat also kept her secured to the seat since G was in a different "pod" from her, so the 5-point harness was definitely a bonus.

L, all ready to fly in her carseat with her videos.

I ended up using Baby H's extra seat a TON.  The bathrooms were quite busy, so I laid her seat flat and did most of her diaper changes in the seat. I was also able to nurse her in the seat without feeling exposed, and it gave me a place to set her down while she napped without having to set up the bassinet. The flight staff was kind enough to hold my meals until she slept, which made eating during the flight much easier for me. Photos of our flight, in chronological order (notice how progressively tired we look after 16 hours!).

We made it to Houston, and we paid for porter service to help us with our luggage. He and the Emirates Chauffeur Driver were great! The van came with 2 carseats, just like we requested, though they weren't installed. I'm assuming due to liability, we had to install them ourselves (the driver was really helpful in instructing us). We arrived in Houston just in time for Tropical Storm Imelda, and some potential flooding, but hey, that's Houston!

Poor Baby H has a drool rash, but welcome to USA!

L and Ong Ngoai were fast friends - I was worried that she might be afraid of him because of how weird she was on Skype calls, but she remembered him right away!

L and Ong Ngoai playing like best friends

Our first month in Houston was just as chaotic as our last month in Dubai. We've purchased 2 cars, gotten the girls settled into a routine with daycare, and already been through two rounds of sickness in our home!  We're fortunate to be staying with my dad and step mom while we wait on our sea shipment.  G's sister and brother-in-law just purchased their first home, so G helped them move out of our home and has started "baby proofing" our home ahead of our furniture arrival. We've been able to say hello to tons of friends in Houston that we've missed over these last 3 years and we're looking forward to seeing many more over the coming weeks as we settle in!

One last thing to note, if you'd like to be added to our Christmas Card mailing list, please input your address into our Postable Address Book here.  Until next time!