Dylan is mobile!

Before we headed back to Texas for the month of December, Dylan was just starting to army crawl around the place. I was so excited about his mobility...what was I thinking??? He's all over the place now and I spend most of my time saying "no" and pulling him away from the cat, stairs, cat toys, receiver knobs, lint fuzzies on the floor, did I mention the cat?, speaker wires, and shoes. He has ventured onto his hands and knees and really crawled, but I think he prefers moving around on his belly since we have so much tile. He frequently gets to a sitting position from crawling and is pulling up on everything! Eeekkkk. He's had a few bumps on the head. If that weren't enough activity, he does his baby push ups several times a day to build up those pecs.

At his 8 month check up he weighed 17 pounds 9 ounces and the doctor could see a tooth just below the surface trying to poke through. That was on the 28th of December. When we arrived back in Dubai on January 8th I could see the tooth on the bottom poking out and also noticed the other one starting to peek. They are both out now! He's also trying to cut one on the top. I don't think that the whole teething thing has bothered him too much. Hopefully that trend will continue. At our visit the doctor told us that Dylan could eat pretty much whatever now. He eats our table food most of the time and I finally got him to drink from a sippy cup SOMETIMES. He really likes cheese and still loves bananas. His pincer grasp is improving, but it takes him a while to eat.

Dylan loves dumping his blocks out of their container and then chewing on them. He also likes to crawl under the coffee table and play peek a boo through the hole in the side. He is extremely social and likes to stay in the same room with me. We're working on waving bye bye and clapping. We can't wait for his first birthday when Grand Pa Rich and Grand Pa Frank and Grandma Debbie and Grandma Joni will be here to see him!

Dylan celebrated his first Christmas and it was awesome! He got so many fun toys to play with! In fact, we didn't have enough room to bring back everything in our suitcases! Luckily Grandpa Frank and Grandma Joni will bring Dylan his other toys in April. I helped him open his presents and he promptly grabbed everything out of my hands - wrapping paper, packaging, tags, and the toys. He seemed to enjoy the wrappers and packages almost as much as if not more than the actual toys. For good measure he tasted everything to make sure it was worthy.

Rain, water, and Bush

Let me apologize first for my lack of posts. We celebrated Thanksgiving here at our place with several other expats and cooking while my little pickle was roaming around proved a bit challenging! Then I had to prepare for the month long sojourn home.

Anyway, we're back and unpacked and adjusted to the time zone and waiting for the sun to come out again. For the past week we could have been in Washington (the state) instead of the desert. The rain keeps quietly falling and water has been finding its way into the villa. I haven't ventured out beyond our neighborhood, but I hear that flooding is rampant and several cars in typical Dubai mentality find their way into the "puddles" and surprisingly stall out. I'm sure adding water to the driving situation here is beyond scary!

If that weren't bad enough, we get an email on Sunday detailing road closures on Monday for President Bush's visit. The major highway is listed as well as several roads near the airport and around the mall area. Since alternate routes are non existent, the government decided to declare a holiday - George Bush Day. What was hilarious is that commercials were being aired on Monday afternoon for different routes to take to the airport. Might have been a little more useful earlier...

Day before yesterday I'm downstairs playing with the baby when I hear the unmistakable gush of water UPSTAIRS. I'm thinking that all the rain has caused a hole in the ceiling or some other horrible calamity. I sprint up the stairs and follow the sound to our bathroom where our ass cleaner is hosing down the room. I guess it was getting pissed from lack of use. For those of you who are clueless...the bathrooms here all have the spray nozzles next to the toilets for...well you know. We happily stick with toilet paper here, so the sprayers sit. I have attached a picture of the guilty nozzle.

Beyond the halfway point

Dylan is now 7 months old! The countdown begins for his first birthday. I am a bit apprehensive since he seems to be growing up very quickly. He would much rather be crawling around on the floor than be in your lap. And, if he's in your lap he's trying to get to everything, the remotes, daddy's laptop, everything that's not his.

His most impressive achievement (and my despair) is that he's mobile. Dylan has mastered crawling on his forearms and pushing with his legs that would be the envy of any good soldier. He is deceptively fast and I've come out of the kitchen after a few minutes to find that he's 6 feet away from where he was. Daddy's new receiver has attracted Dylan's attention and after saying no and moving him away multiple times, we employed a strategic pillow defense. Everything is exciting now. Cords, lint on the floor, and Taylor have become new toys. After putting Dylan on the floor with a few toys, I went upstairs to get some laundry. I heard Taylor meowing woefully and rushed down to find that Dylan had him in a deathgrip...by his ass hair! Taylor wisely moves away now when he sees the baby grunting excitedly and moving toward him. I finally brought his play pen downstairs and he happily plays in there until he catches sight of the cat, or a cord, or some lint...We're afraid of what will happen when the true crawling begins. He gets up on all fours and rocks, but military crawls to get around. He will also get up on all fours and flop forward to move, but no actual crawling.

His 7 month doctor visit was yesterday and he is a little over 16 pounds and 26.9 inches long. His thighs are beginning to show some chubbiness, but other than that he's pretty lean. I'm sure with all his movement he does the equivalent of baby aerobics every day! The doctor told me that he's ahead in his development, especially for a boy. He can sit unassisted, but we have to watch him because he will occasionally throw himself backward. He babbles in consonants and vowels and frequently says da, da, da, da. Much to my chagrin there's no ma, ma, ma... :)

He's eating quite a few different solids and will be starting meats sometime in December. He's also started on sippy cups here and there. He gets frustrated after a point and doesn't take the whole amount of formula, but gets through about half and we finish with the bottle.

We'll see how the plane trip goes this time around. I'm thinking it won't be as easy as when he was 4 months. Wish me luck! Back in the states in less than a week!

Once Upon a Ramadan

Our move halfway across the world was daunting to say the least, but we were not prepared for the commencement of Ramadan a week later. We arrived on the 3rd of September and Ramadan started on the 12th. During this time public eating, drinking, smoking, and displays of affection are prohibited. PDA - not a problem...smoking...fine, but EATING! Eeek. We hadn't checked out of the hotel yet and luckily the hotel restaurants still serve food, but block the view with curtains so that Muslims do not see people eating. The next day we had planned to move into our villa, but air freight had not arrived so I had nothing to cook with and nowhere to eat during the day.

The most fun part of Ramadan is the reduction of working hours. Our cable/internet took weeks to set up because we were scheduled as the last appointment of the day - 2:30 and by the time it was our turn the other appointments had ran longer than they thought so we were moved to the next day. Logically you would think that we would then be the first appointment of the day. No, no, no. Remember logic doesn't translate into arabic. We would still have our 2:30 appointment and surprise, surprise, no internet man.

As if the driving weren't bad enough, during Ramadan, the crazy drivers who haven't eaten all day become maniacs as the sunset approaches. Now that's fun. Even the radio stations warn listeners to stay off the road because the iftar (breaking of the fast) drivers are racing toward dinner.

On the last day of Ramadan which coincided with my birthday, we headed to the mall to shop for a coffee table and some end tables. After selecting the tables and paying, the worker asked if we wanted delivery on the morning or evening of the 22nd of Oct. It was the 12th. I told him I wanted it next week, and of course they were unable "because of Ramadan". But it's over I told him. Yes, madam, but we are backed up from when it was still happening. Fabulous.

It wasn't all bad though. Kel's company hosted an iftar at a hotel on the beach. It was held in a huge, air conditioned tent with carpets all over the floor and mini tents inside. The food was delicious and the views were gorgeous.

Friday Market

Even though becoming a resident here has been a bit challenging, we have had some fun. A couple of weeks ago we decided to head out to Friday Market in search of some rugs. The villa is all tile and we wanted some cushion for Dylan since hel'll be crawling soon. We were told that Friday Market had tons of rugs, produce, pottery, and other souvenir type items.

We head out on Saturday morning with only a vague idea of where we're going. Some friends went with us who've been here for a little over a year, so we felt somewhat more confident in finding our location. However, they'd never been either, and it's not like you can mapquest with any kind of success here. Roads are rarely named, and the maps are so outdated they are not extremely reliable. Most directions are given by way of landmarks. At the round about near the Dubai Land Advertisement turn left....at LuLu's Hypermarket go straight....when the road dead ends, take a right. The signage on the roads leaves something to be desired as well.

Despite all this I was excited about the drive because we would probably see camels (I hadn't seen a single one since we arrived over two weeks ago) and we were going through the mountains. Great picture opportunities!

About 30 minutes into the drive I finally saw my first camel! There were a group of them laying in the desert, but of course I can't get a picture because we're driving 120 km/hour and we pass by too fast. Not long after the mountains emerged. I've never seen mountains that looked so gray. I don't think I saw one spot of green.

We still hadn't arrived at the Friday Market and communications in the car were starting to break down. Just as our frustration level peaked, the Friday Market appeared on the side of the highway (literally). No parking lots -just gravel on the side of the road.

After "parking", Dylan is loaded into our snugli thing since I don't think the stroller will work and we begin scoping out all the rugs. There were at least 25 stalls lining one side of the highway with rugs. We finally agree on a color scheme and start looking for a pattern we like. The guys working the stalls make clicking noises at you to get your attention. We follow one and he holds a rug out of the way and we are in a back "room".

I'm not sure it crossed our minds before we left that this would be an open air market. The stalls had two side walls and a ceiling. The lack of AC was apparent quickly. Of course, since our timing was planned so well, we arrived at one in the afternoon. The heat in the stalls was stifling, but in the back room it was like a greenhouse. It's decided that someone will sit in the air conditioned car with the baby while the rest of us look. Kel and I find a rug we like and as we're admiring it laying on the floor, it dawns on us that we forgot to measure our rooms. Nice. After several scientific methods of approximating the dimensions - walking across the rug counting steps, holding arms extended...we decide on the size we think we'll fit.

Then, the bargaining begins. We start at half of what the guy tells us and move slowly up. He tells me that this rug is so high quality that my son will have it for his children. Uh huh. With the price agreed upon we take off and head to Fujairah which is on the opposite coast of Dubai. We walked along the beach and could see Iran in the hazy distance across the water.

We drove north along the coast and stopped at Le Meridien for a late lunch. It's a beautiful resort right on the beach with an amazing pool area.

I'm sorry there are no camel pictures yet! I'm working on it!

Dylan's 5 month update and pictures

I can't believe it, but Dylan is already approaching 6 months! The time is flying by and he's growing so fast.

He rolled over from his back to his belly on August 31st and there's been no going back. He is now exclusively a belly sleeper. I know he'll be crawling soon. He pushes up on his arms until they're straight and can stay like that for a decent amount of time. Today he kicked one of his legs and moved a little bit. I know I'll be chasing him around the villa in no time. I'm going to have to go buy the gates for the stairs! He also can sit up for about 30 seconds and then he tips over. He's learned to put his hands down to brace himself, but his head makes him a little top heavy.

He loves his exersaucer and plays with his toys. He loves to beat his rattle against the exersaucer. He reaches for toys and attempts to move closer to get them. Everything is going into his mouth now. I'm having a difficult time with that because I'm such a germ freak. I guess I'll have to get over it.

We started him on some solids about 2 weeks ago and he is loving it! He tries to grab the spoon himself and ends up covered in food. He eats sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, bananas, and pears. He didn't like broccoli by itself, but when I mix it with carrots or sweet potatoes he's fine. I've been making his food myself and really enjoy it! It's cheaper and I know exactly what's in it.

He's on a pretty good routine now and sleeps from about 9pm until 7:30 or so. At his checkup a week before his 5 month birthday he was 14.1 pounds and 24 inches long.

He laughs now and loves it when you play airplane with him.

We're looking forward to 6 months so he can go to the pool. The baby pool here has a nice canopy over it and the pools are cooled so they stay comfortable. It's still pretty hot here, but the mornings and evenings feel pretty nice.

He knows his name and usually looks at Kel when I ask him where daddy is. He is looking forward to a visit from Grandma Debbie in a few weeks and will be back in Houston for his first Christmas!

Stay posted for the 6 month update!

Don't drink the water

Preface - I apologize for these early blogs because some of them are out of order due to the fact that it took three weeks to get internet access in the villa.

After the AC "repair men" leave on the first day, Kel and I decide to take a shower so we can run some errands. We had originally planned on getting out earlier in the day, but the guys were supposed to be there "in five minutes". Anyway, we jump in the shower and as I'm shaving a leg, the water slows to a trickle. I look at Kelly and he's washing his face. Luckily, I had finished everything else and aside from one hairy leg I was clean.

I turn the faucet off and on - nothing. Ok, great. "There isn't any water is there?" Kel asks.
"Don't think so. Let me dry off and I'll see what I can get out of the sink." I am able to wet a wash cloth (barely) with water so he can rinse off his face. Figures. No big deal, we'll call the maintenance people tomorrow and it will be fixed. There's nothing that can be done tonight.

First thing in the morning I call the Ranches maintenance people. I tell them the situation and ask what time someone can be out there. I know what you're thinking....they'll be there in 5 minutes, but no, I get the worst response possible in Dubai..."they'll be there as soon as possible". I start yelling at the guy about how I need running water now because I have a baby. He won't give me an approximate time and I ask for a three hour window. "Madam, I cannot give you a time window, they'll be there as soon as possible."

I give up and realize that I'll probably be sitting at the villa without a shower until the evening. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the workers showed up about an hour later. I explain the lack of water and of course I have to show the guy how nothing comes out of the faucet. He goes back outside and lifts this big steel cover and points down in it. "It's too low."

I was under the faulty impression that our water came from pipes. Apparently there's a cistern in the front that is filled from who knows where. From what I could understand, the automatic sensor was not functioning and the water fell below the intake and therefore we lost water pressure. I was a little concerned about the cistern being in the carport - I'm thinking leaking oil and crap from our cars, but then I notice it has a plastic shield that fits below the steel manhole cover thing.

The guy goes to some other little box outside and turns something then he starts clanging the metal stick he used to get the cover off down in the cistern on the pipe. It starts filling up, but now the pump has to be reprimed and started.

They open this little metal storage box and start working on the pump. They need to rinse off part of the pump so one of the guys turns on our outside faucet. He lets it run for a minute while checking on the pump. I'm watching from the step when I realize that the water running down the dirty driveway is headed to the uncovered cistern. I shout at the guys that I don't think that water is supposed to get in there and they both start yelling at each other (I don't understand what they're saying) and one turns off the faucet and watches the water as it comes periously close to flowing in. The flood ebbs and the nasty water misses the cistern by about an inch. The cover is raised a bit, so the ledge helped keep the water out. What would have happened if I hadn't been out there? I'm sure we'd be sick and not know how.

I told Kel that we will not be drinking the tap water anymore. Bottled water here is so cheap anyway.