Week 4

SO I'm driving up Al Wasl Road with Aiden, we are on our way to get a second X-ray of his belly after seeing Dr. Loubser (think the actor Michael Caine) for the second time this week.  Because we were headed into a weekend and Dr's only work on weekdays, I wanted to get him checked out one last time so we wouldn't have another Thursday night trip to the hospital.  As fun as the past nine days have been, sleep would be a nice change of pace (rather than the pacing that Aiden does back and forth at 2am when he has a tummy episode.)

SO we're on our way and Aiden says "My belly doesn't hurt anymore."
"What do you MEAN your belly doesn't hurt anymore? What about last night when you were pacing back and forth for 2 hours?" I say. "I was pacing because I was THINKING about my belly hurting." He says. "SO it wasn't ACTUALLY hurting?" I ask.  "No, I don't think so..." (Ahhh the recollection of a four year old.)

We get the X ray and head back to Dr. Loubser (who UNLIKE normal Dubai medical staff, has waited at his office one hour after the office has closed).  We walk in, he looks at the films and confirms constipation. He doesn't have any answer as to why Aiden only has nocturnal constipation..but I suppose there are questions in the universe that are far more exciting to ponder. SO after having spent a week on the internet Googling, WebMDing, talking to Drs, massaging bellies, forcing Laxatives, administering suppositories, I am now in constipation acceptance. (Is this the last stage of grief?) I have nothing left to give!  Ahhh, the life of a mother.

Since Aiden was pretty happy the rest of the week, and Mia is now pooping like a champion, we have been as busy as ever. Mia, Gracie and I went to the Antique Museum on Tuesday and bought some gifts to take back to the states. Mia was a hit with the men there (as usual!) She even got a gift on the way out! We had our usual playdates and Mercado trips with Sofie, but on Wednesday I also got to have her older sister Isabel over. The four kids played really nicely together HURRAY!


Since the kids were being so well-behaved, I left them with Gracie and made my first trip to the consulate sans Michael and actually got money out myself! Woohoo (do you hear the song "I'm Every Woman" playing in the background?)

I also had TWO grown up nights out, Tuesday night was Restaurant club (we went to Le Classique) and Wednesday night was "Wii Wednesdays" with my friends Kristin and Guy. We had delicious Iranian food and then proceeded to do stunts in their kitchen (think Dirty Dancing), handstands against their walls and we played "Just Dance 2" on their Wii...and NO there was NO drinking involved:)

It's now the weekend and poor Aiden now has a sore throat on top of everything else and Mia has fallen more times in the last two days then I wish to recount. BUT we did have a nice Friday spent playing red-light-green-light with our friends Grace and Neve and then I took the kids to the Mercado to cheer them up late in the afternoon. We played in the play area and watched the summer festival jugglers! 

The rest of the weekend was filled with our final swim lesson (tears? relief? who knows!) a craft project (we're making a pinata to celebrate the end of the school year) and a birthday party!


I have to finish this entry with a shout out to Uncle Bill!!  We were SO lucky that we got to see him on Father's Day as he was traveling through Dubai to pick up Baby William in Ethiopia!! We can't wait to meet the newest addition to the Owen family in a week when we go home!! Hurray for Friday!

Week 3

 

I thought week three would be busy but it turned out that it was even more exciting then I imagined.

The week started off normally, 

We had a super fun swimming playdate with our friends Sasha and Annalise on Monday night.

I had my friend Kristin over for dinner and we scarfed down a "happy birthday"apple pie! YUM!  

Wednesday was really memorable. In the morning, Mia and I had some special time together at gymnastics and on our weekly adventure to Mercado with Sofie and Shereen. I had bought the girls matching skirts, so they were really cute dressed as twins!

In the afternoon, Aiden and I went on a date to see "Room on the Broom,"a children's musical based on a book we read quite often. We went with our friends Amira and Nader and had a pretty fabulous time.  We munched on popcorn and Bounty bars (and made quite the mess in our seats) and then Amira even surprised each boy with their favorite Ben 10 toy (the latest super hero among little boys!) We finished the day off with ice cream...which

Aiden couldn't finish (THIS should have been my first clue that the week was going to take an ominous turn!).

    
Aiden fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived home (also perplexing)...that night he was up every two hours in pain...but seemed okay the next day.

Thank goodness he was, because on Thursday it was his big graduation from nursery!  He did an incredible job performing with all of his classmates. They sang "Zoom, zoom, zoom," "Elephants Have Wrinkles," and "Shake Your Silly's Out."  Then his teacher handed out superlatives...Aiden got "Best at Arts and Crafts!" SO proud.

Mia, Aiden and I went to Reeve and Scarlettes for our afternoon playdate and after playing with their marble tower and the Wii, Aiden put himself to sleep on their couch...(Clue #2 that this week was going down hill fast!)


Thursday night, he was up every hour with insane stomach pain (think labor!) Three of my friends came over to offer motherly support (thanks Lisa, Sara and Kylie) but we were all pretty perplexed by Aiden's behavior.  He would wake up in these delirious spells, curl in a ball and scream in pain. (Again, much like a woman in labor!) At 2am, I decided to call a taxi and take him to City Hospital.

Our hospital adventure certainly kept us busy...we got to drink nasty medicine, pee in a cup (Aiden did this rather well!) and then the most exciting part was taking an x-ray of Aiden's abdomin...Dr's ruled out UTI but couldn't come up with much else besides constipation...I'm still not sold.  We headed home in a taxi (actually kind of fun at 4:30am).  The nasty anti-spasm medicine seemed to work (although it's Dubai, so not quite sure whether it's safe for kids...need to check on that!)  Thanks to Gracie, Aiden and I got to sleep in until 8:30am. She's a saint!


We spent the weekend being lazy...we watched "Mary Poppins," baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, built tents, did puzzles...Aiden suggested we cut a whole in the wall, put a log in it and light it on fire to make our own chimney (like in Mary Poppins)...I had to explain why that might not be the best idea, but good that he's using his imagination!

We also worked on a Fathers Day signs for daddy, and I spent time working on a "Gotcha Day" painting for our good friends, Bill and Donna (they are finalizing the adoption of their baby boy as we speak!!  We can't wait to meet baby William!)

On to week Four...here's hoping there is more sleep involved!  Happy Fathers Day Michael (and Grandpa)!!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!

Week 2

Wow!  Another week is over...how did that happen?  We were relieved to know that Michael got to his location safely! He was flown on an itty bitty Indiana Jones type plane and with several delays due to scheduling and sand storms, he finally made it!  Unfortunately he arrived with no hearing (did you know that ear plugs are to protect your ear drums from the pressure AND NOT because of noise?) and with no luggage...eek!  Thankfully both his hearing AND luggage arrived on Tuesday.

Our household has been hustling (Mia's been doing most of the hustling) and bustling...We had another full week!  Mia and I had a beach day on Monday with our friends.  We met up with Mia's BFF (Sofie) and little Leila.  Of course, you think you're doing something wonderful for your child and they'll be ELATED...Mia on the other hand decided she HATED sand and felt just as strongly about the waves...we spent most of the morning washing her hands...but I did get a great pic of the girls during a few happy moments:)

We celebrated Meamaw's birthday on Wednesday with a playdate at our friend Nadar's house...with 10 kid running around there was a lot of commotion!  They all got to eat dinner on a blanket while watching the movie "Cars." It was the end of the movie, you know, when "Chick" slams into "The King" and "Lightning McQueen" stops and pushes him to the finish line, and Aiden looked at me and said "when I look at "the King's" crumpled body, it makes me want to cry!"  Be still my heart!  We ended the day with a call to Meamaw and even though we couldn't Skype, the kids still held happy birthday signs up to the computer as if Meamaw could see them:)





Aiden had Medieval Times dress up day at School on Thursday!  He was a Knight (along with most of the boys in the class.) I think we had one Medieval Fairy, a Snow White a couple of other Disney Princesses and an army!  He looked great in his costume and I was relieved that he liked the shield I made him...few!




The week ended with a lazy Friday spent with our BFF's Grace, Neve, Kieran, and Carol. We went to Fatburger, took apart our house, colored, played in our TeePee and had dinner over at Carols. Her Pasta with Pesto is the BESTO!!

We also had a BUSY Saturday, baby shower in the morning, swim lesson in the afternoon and birthday party in the evening!! By the way, Happy Birthday Uncle Dan!!!


On a personal note (isn't this whole thing personal?), I started doing Pilates in addition to my TRX classes which has been really good for my back and my spirit!! Hooray.  I need all the help I can get lifting a 51 lb four-year-old and a 28 lb two-year-old...

ALSO I got to go to Quiz Night (we won!) book club (no I didn't read the book but will next time, promise!) A baby shower (congrats Kellie!) And went to see "Whose Line is it Anyway?" (British cast--not American) with some friends! So fun!

Finally, one of my favorite moments this week was when I was skyping with Michael. I decided to do a painting for my friend Kellie (who is adopting 2 children from Ethiopia) and wanted to give it to her at the baby shower.  I was painting and Michael was surfing the web while we were skyping...we were talking and doing our own things and every so often I would show him the painting and ask his advice...as if he were next to me. He stayed up late just to help me finish my painting, what a guy!!  And even better, it felt like he was right there!!!  I can't wait to find more projects we can "do together!" Loved it!  

Week 1

Week one has been as busy as ever.  Aiden spent all of Tuesday playing with his friend Tamara from nursery. He went to her house for the world's longest playdate.  The rest of the week was spent painting, making bubbles, doing memory games, playing with the I-touch (how can a two year old and a four year old be so skilled?) and we had an extra special playdate at Reeve and Scarlett's house where we played Wii, swam and had a "lateover" (we got to stay late, hang in our jammy jams and then go home for bed). Poor Mia had some major tummy issues and got a visit from nurse Kylie...but all was resolved, thank goodness!
I went to Ameera's for a yummy dinner, board games and great company on Friday night and then we had swim lesson on Saturday, followed by dinner at the Wood's house!

This was a short week, but we made it through...our favorite part of each day is skyping with daddy and showing him our costumes, baby dolls, lego spaceships and singing him songs! Aiden taught us "skidda marinky dinky dink" so we could really wow him!!!  And Mia did a special video of the ABC song that we posted for all of our friends and family on Facebook. 


Just a few more weeks until we head back to the US for the summer! We're really looking forward to seeing our friends and family and abandoning the heat of Dubai!

The Journey Begins

Michael left at 5:30am on Tuesday, May 31st. Aiden made me promise to wake him up to say goodbye..any mother of a four-year-old knows this is a steep request because the chances of him going back to bed after Michael departs in that shiny beige and red taxi are basically 0 to none.  The odds were right on, so we tried to go back to bed, but decided to go down and watch a movie instead.


Michael had just been away for three weeks training in DC AND had spent three long years working very hard in Dubai, so we had spent a lot of time practicing for this year. We were pretty good at keeping busy with playdates and trips to the pool and play areas...of course this time was different.


We were definitely going to miss him. Mia had just spent a week begging for daddy to do her "night night" routine, so there was plenty of gloom to go round.

BUT we shook it off, and put on our game faces and began our year long adventure.