Bubbles... Big Ones!

David has changed the fun of bubbles forever for our kids.

At bath time, we sometimes add to the fun by blowing bubbles. David knows how to blow really big bubbles out of regular bubble bottles. Me, not so much.

So now, when David isn't around, my bubbles aren't quite good enough. I am met with unimpressed faces, and Adam demanding "BIG ones!" while I try to explain that he will need to wait until his Daddy is around for those to happen. In one ear, out the other...

Now there's a playgroup I've started taking him to. It's brilliant fun and he loves it. We do singing, sensory play, messy play, and story time. And towards the end, the leader brings out her bubble bottle.

The first time we were there, I could see that Adam wasn't impressed with the regular sized bubbles. The other children were all thrilled to be chasing and popping bubbles, but my son stood back and watched, with a somewhat horrified look on his face.

Imagine my embarrassment when he then strutted up to leader and shouted "BIG ONES PLEASE!"

She looked my way with a puzzled look on her face, probably hoping for an explanation of sorts. But it's hard to explain over the music and excited laughter of half a dozen children, so she is unfortunately none the wiser and he asks again every week.

Sometime I'll send David in to demonstrate...

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Easter in Vienna, from Emily's Travel Diary

Remember when we tried the kids out in the cold? We did go to Vienna, for five days over the Easter holidays. Here is Emily's report of the trip.

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Big Messy Playdate

Before the insane sandstorm hit over the weekend, it was getting quite hot here in Dubai. Way hotter than February should be - even in this neck of the woods. So we took advantage of it by having a messy playdate in our garden. I turned into a mad Pinterest mum for a while and came up with all these ideas for the playdate (of which I only ended up using a couple). I knew we'd have a range of ages so I wanted everything to be somewhat edible, just in case. 

To get things started, I asked the older ones to find the grapes and raisins hidden in the jelly!

(The white mess on the table is from a can of whipped cream that we sprayed onto

their hands and told them to go and wash everything with. The edible version of this.)

Can I eat them? Why yes, you can!

There was colourful spaghetti (mad Pinterest mum actually dyed this herself that morning)

That was pure madness FUN to clear up...

We had painting: paintbrushes, stamps, fingerpaints

And we even had oobleck, though I don't think my version was very good. They enjoyed it anyway.

And then they had fun "cleaning" everything up.

(Which roughly translated into us adults having more to clear up than

we otherwise would have had the kids not helped)

We ended it all by having a rain feast (whereby I turn on the water hose and soak everyone), which always goes down well. We are very rain deprived here in Dubai, you see. 

Judging by the feedback that came in after the playdate, the little ones loved it, and some of the kids wanted to move to our house because it's "way more fun there." I know I had a blast! I guess we'll be doing it all again soon.

This is a link that came in very handy when planning this playdate:
Five Messy Sensory Bins for Babies and Toddlers

The End of the Day

I hit Pinterest tonight for the first time in a long time and came across this quote. It got me thinking about how, despite being the slight cleanliness nut that I often can be, I have learnt to let go. The kids get to make a mess and be dirty, roll in the grass, run down footpaths with no shoes on, explore mud and muck, hell - they even get to play in the sand on a regular basis. And I sit back and calmly watch them be.

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve "baking" mud pies and cooking up leaf soups for anyone who would pretend to eat them, and I'm more than happy to be able to do the same for my children. Children should be dirty, messy, and yes, their eyes ablaze from all the adventures they've had, and all the stories they can tell about the amazing things they've done. They should go to bed with huge, tired grins on their faces.

I'd like to think that is what childhood is all about.

An Introduction to the Cold at Ski Dubai

The only time Adam has actually needed to wear a jacket was for a week in January 2014 when we visited the UK. Other than that, he has mostly been a short sleeves baby (even in Maltese winter, he was in cotton long-sleeved tops and a thick gilet-style jacket). But we are thinking about possibly going on holiday somewhere cold soon and wanted to see how it would go down with him before we booked anything.

We decided to treat the kids to the Ski Dubai Snowpark. We'd wanted to go for ages anyway, so it was the perfect excuse.

Entertainer voucher in hand, we marched in, and queued up for our snow gear. Then we found a free bench and a locker and sat down for the long process of getting everyone ready.

They were excited (and Adam quite a bit confused)

The Frozen theme (running until the end of February 2015) was an instant hit. There are craft workshops and sing-along sessions you can pay extra to join, but we didn't feel the need for any of that. The scenery alone - and Olaf - was enough to make our two very happy.

And once Adam let me convince him to keep his mittens on and got over the shock of having a cold nose ("Nose! Cold!"), he had a blast.

They really, really loved it. Even considering the small fortune it cost, and even considering that we actually spent less than two hours in there, it was well worth it. We topped it off with lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in a booth overlooking Ski Dubai which they also loved. 

Some tips if you are planning to go...

- Signage says that children need to be over 3 years of age to enter. This appears on some level to be untrue. When we got to Ski Dubai and asked staff about this, they were happy when we said Adam was 2 (okay, so he's 2 months shy of 2, but he's big enough to be 2 and a half, so who's actually counting?), and let him in. So do ask. 

- Take a small across-body bag. The snow suits do have a small zipped pocket on the sleeve for your phone, but they don't all seem to be the same size. David's iphone fit in his pocket, my iphone didn't fit in mine. When I needed both hands, it had to go in my bra (!!) so a small handy bag would've been useful. 

- Set out early. When we left for lunch around 12:30, the queues at the ticket booths were neverending (and getting your snow gear does take time). 

- Gloves are included in the ticket price but they are very basic gloves and I wasn't convinced they'd keep hands dry. Take your own thick gloves if you have them, and a hat for the adults. Children won't need a hat, they'll need a helmet provided by Ski Dubai and if that's loose, pulling their hood up under the helmet works well. 

Have fun!


This is not a sponsored post. 

Interviewing the Birthday Girl (4)

Her party went off without a hitch. Emily loved it (and was more than pleased with the soundtrack), I think it's safe to say we all loved it. The kids had a blast and that makes the adults happy too. The crowd was fun, the weather perfect, the face painter an absolute hit, the colouring area never empty, the trampoline worked overtime and the cake was divine.

And a few days later, she is today officially four - and even understanding the concept of a difference between her party day and her actual birthday (which I had not expected), so we got to "celebrate" all over again today, and she was thrilled all day long. 

Before dinner, I sat her down for her Birthday Interview, which she loved.

Here are her answers this year. 

What is your name?

Emily

How old are you?

FOUR!

What is your favourite thing to do?

Colour and paint

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Lots of things... a nurse, a doctor, and a mummy

What is your favourite food?

Spaghetti, pizza and twirly pasta

Who do you like to spend time with?

Nannus and Nannas, and my aunties and uncles

What do you do really well?

I was really good at doing my orange dinosaur for the library, so painting.

What makes you laugh?

Tickling!

What is the best time of the day?

Singing my bedtime song

What are you afraid of?

Dinosaurs and big spiders

Who is your best friend?

Betsy. And Olivia and Maya.

What do you like to do with your family?

Stickers and dress up for school

What do you love to learn about?

Hippopotamuses and rhinos

Where do you like to go?

To school

What is your favourite book?

Charlie and Lola

If you had one wish, what would it be?

To have Elsa shoes

Do you get that she loves going to school?

But I was especially touched by her mention of Betsy. She hasn't seen or spoken to her since we were in Malta in July of last year, and yet she still considers her to be her best friend. 

My little girl is a sweet, kind, loving and considerate little soul, and I'm proud and honoured to be her Mummy.

Happy Birthday, little cherub. Here's to many, many more. 

Read last year's interview here.

Find the printable list of questions here.

Party Planning for a Certain Almost 4-Year-Old!

Now that Christmas and festivities are over, my focus shifts onto Emily's birthday. Her party is a few short weeks away and planning is well under way. I am currently working on a playlist. Emily has a few favourite songs (All About That Bass, Bailando, Wait On Me, Fun Fun Fun, and last but far from least, Boom Clap) that went straight onto the list. I then asked for friends' suggestions and the list is now looking great, and what's best - Emily approves of it.

We've been testing it out in the kitchen.

Luna didn't join in. She just watched us and thought we were mad, as usual.

This is what the list currently looks like:

Oh, yeah!

Foam

We had some fun with shaving foam the other day. Adam wasn't too sure at first (he's going through that "can't have messy hands" phase) but Emily loved it, she spent an hour "washing" everything in the garden with the foam - including herself.

I love that the weather is now finally cool enough to enjoy the outdoors. The garden is seeing plenty of action, as are the parks and sandpits (and yes, I still hate sand). Ironically, now that the weather is probably perfect for swimming, we haven't been to the pool in weeks. I guess I'm in Wannabe Winter mode, even if it is really equivalent to a British Heatwave.

Watching Emily and Adam play together has become fantastic. Now that he's talking so much, I guess she feels that she can now communicate with him better, he's reached a new level and they do play together so well. There's also a lot of affection between them, they often sit on the sofa watching Frozen together (they both love it), arms around each other, snuggled up.

A few short months ago I remember wondering whether having two children really would get any easier. And then it did.

Eid Mubarak

We have spent the long weekend celebrating sixth wedding anniversaries with steak dinners on 68th floors, and enjoying friends visiting from a place we once called home, watching the children get reacquainted while us adults sat back with a cool glass of white wine in 35 degree heat, and caught up.

My next project is finding the perfect pet cat to complete our family! Watch this space...

Wordless Wednesday: Tea Party

Broken

Adam has always loved bath time. He loves splashing and LOVES it when I turn on the showerhead, giggling uncontrollably, because - presumably - it tickles him when I shower him.

Then, last weekend we went to Ras al Khaimah for the long weekend and on the first day, we let the kids play on the sandy beach. We knew it would be a horrendous mess afterwards but we also knew they'd love it.

They did. Emily went about collecting shells and making sandcastles, Adam crawled around in the sand and threw it everywhere. When he started getting tired, he began rubbing it into his eyes and hair and it was time to head back to our hotel room.

And then showers. We had to get that sand out somehow. It was anything but easy. It meant holding the showerhead over their heads in an attempt to get as much of the sand out of their hair as was possible. Emily was fine - she obviously knows what "look up" means and will cooperate.

Adam was another story. There was none of the usual giggling. He cried so much I was practically in tears too by the end of the ordeal.

So the next day, as much as they had enjoyed the sand, we stuck to the pool.

And when bathtime came, it happened again. I turned on the water and Adam was in tears, desperately trying to scramble away from the running water.

The next day, the same. And the days after that too. Today will be the fifth day and i know there'll be more crying. I've broken my little boy so he is scared of the sound of water. I am so angry with myself and so unbelievably frustrated with the situation.

Sand! I hate the blasted stuff even more now.

Clean Paint Toy

This thing I am about to tell you about... I have no idea what it is called, but we made one.

It was originally a plastic folder, into which I dropped a little bit of red, yellow and green paint - and glitter, and then sealed with masking tape. I also stuck it to a small piece of cardboard to make it sturdier.

I made it for Adam, but made the stupid mistake of using Mickey Mouse branded paints. When he saw them, all he wanted was the paint bottles. He barely glanced at my creation. He moaned and moaned for the paint tubs, until I desperately popped them into a ziploc bag (he'd have worked out how to open them otherwise!) and handed them to him.

Emily on the other hand, loved my clean paint toy and has used it for several days running to draw things into. We've used fingers, rolling pins, cups, toys, hands, you name it, it's endured it.

The paint is very close to being one big squelch of brown now (I wonder, had I used blue paint instead of green, might I have prevented it?) but we don't care. It's glittery, it makes pictures, we love it.

There may be more of these in our future.

It's a Jungle Out There

We have lived in so many places over the last couple of years, and I've redesigned things so many times, there is always a part of me that tries to carry a certain memory from one place to another. I've always been a very sentimental person, and this is the way it translates to home decor I suppose. We saw it happen with Emily's birdy room (oh how I miss that perfect little room!) and we are about to see it happen with Adam's nautical room, although that is more because there was simply nothing else that seems to work so well for him right now than anything else.

I had some stickers from Emily's first room still lying around. No, not the bird room, her previous room!

I knew they'd come in handy someday, and lo and behold, I was setting up the play room last week (we've divided the huge living room into two parts - living room and play area), and it occurred to me that they might just be perfect for the job.

Take some boring old IKEA Trofast storage...

...and add colourful jungle wall stickers...!

And I think I was right.

The kids adore them, and every time I look at them, I remember setting up that first nursery, heavily pregnant and clueless. It feels like a metaphorical nod to 2010.


(Despite the huge amount of IKEA-bought toys in the pictures, this post is not sponsored by IKEA. They're just great toys!)

The Other Side

We've been in Dubai for a week now. It feels like we've been here forever.

The very beginning was not great. I kept thinking things had better get better. Malta International Airport offered up it's most unprofessional personnel, the plane we were on (for eight hours) was an old one so it lacked all the fancy stuff we'd promised Emily and stuff we'd banked on for entertainment, Adam screamed for three hours straight because he was annoyed that he wasn't in his cot, Emily gagged on a piece of pasta and vomited all over herself and her blankie, the meet and greet service we booked (to make things easier because we were landing at 1am and wanted as smooth a transition as possible) were waiting to meet and greet us at a different gate to the one we got dropped off at, and to top it all off, when we got to our (non-smoking but still stinks of smoke) apartment at around 3am, the cot we'd booked for Adam wasn't there.

I was in no mood for much else by that point. It was 3am, I was exhausted and really stressed out, and I regretted it all. Emily was in a similar situation, saying already that she wanted to go home. I hated that I couldn't muster up the positive energy to so much as try to convince her otherwise. All I could do was hug her.

The cot arrived and eventually, we went to sleep.

When we woke up, things were different. Somehow, we got the kids on to UAE time within the day, and they were in bed by 7pm. This was something I had been worried about as I didn't want to spend a week wasting mornings because they were fast asleep until 10:30am every day.

They did wake up late that first morning, but it was all about catching up on sleep. They were obviously so disorientated from the broken night the night before on the flight over, they had no idea whether they were coming or going so fell into the routine I offered them right away. I am hugely proud of them for this.

Everything got better. David and I were the walking dead that first day, but we had smiles on our faces. We ran some errands, and by the time David started work after the weekend (Sunday!), I was eager to and confident about getting out on my own.

The kids have adjusted well, Adam especially, but that's no surprise. Emily loves Dubai but has struggled with missing her friends. It's broken my heart (and the hearts of the mothers of the friends who also miss her) to think that they understand friendship so deeply at such a young age. We are eager to meet up with everyone in Malta in the Summer.

All in all, I regretted the move at 3am on the night we arrived, but there hasn't been a moment of remorse since then. I find myself wishing we moved here years ago. I feel at home, at last. I feel like I fit in. I am deeply happy and content and so very glad I gave in and said yes to the move.

I have lots to blog about. We celebrated Adam's birthday early the weekend before we left Malta, to be able to celebrate with family and friends there. We hope to move out of temporary accommodation and into the house next week. Emily is fully in big girl pants and Adam is trying to walk!

Here's a quick look at what we've been up to this week:

Interviewing the Birthday Girl

So Little Missy is officially three, and very proud of it. I asked her a set of questions the day of her party, which she answered without any hesitation and was nothing if not consistent. You'll see. The plan is to ask her these same questions every year on her birthday and keep her answers together in a folder. I wonder how long she'll let me keep it up.

What is your name?

Emily

How old are you?

Three

What is your favourite thing to do?

Playing

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A princess.

What is your favourite food?

Pizza

Who do you like to spend time with?

Betsy

What do you do really well?

Exercise

What makes you laugh?

Everybody

What is the best time of the day?

Playtime

What are you afraid of?

A dragon

Who is your best friend?

Betsy

What do you like to do with your family?

Play

What do you love to learn about?

Words

Where do you like to go?

Playground

What is your favourite book?

I Took the Moon for a Walk

If you had one wish, what would it be?

I want a cake!

Here is the printable set of questions. 

And boy did she get a cake!

And here she is with Betsy :)

Me and My Boy

I remembered this post the other day: Autumn Leaf Testing Procedures

I am all too aware that even since Adam was born, this blog is still way more Emily-focused than is right. Before I know it, Adam will be a year old and in this year, it somehow feels like I've done almost nothing by way of having fun with him.

I take Emily out, he tags along.
I run errands, he tags along.
It's never just about him.

I believe there are several reasons... sadly, that "second child" curse is probably the primary issue. Emily demands more attention and needs to be entertained far more. She is great at entertaining herself, but there are obviously limits to that. Meanwhile Adam seems happy to just sit quietly and take everything in. He spends a lot of time in the ergo baby carrier (which he adores) all snuggled up, often chewing on one of the straps.

However, as time passes, that is obviously not enough. He has recently started to crawl and if the amount he eats is anything to go by, has an awful lot of energy to burn... which isn't being used. This means nights have become madness again and it is becoming very clear that him tagging along just doesn't work any longer. (Did it ever "work"?)

And if I'm honest, I'm glad. It's about time I got off my arse and did something fun with this boy. Something especially tailored for him. It starts here. I am going to make it up to him.