Royal Watchers

I had a couple of excited Princesses here yesterday, one in particular... I present to you Princess Lily and Princess Monet.

MrL and my sister went out for a few hours, they weren't interested in watching all the pompous.
Myself and my girls definitely were.

Lily even waved to the newly wedded Royal Couple. (Yes, it was very cute)

It was a grand wedding, wasn't it (those of you who watched)?  Such a gorgeous bride in a stunning, timeless, modern dress and the future King of England looking very grand in his Irish Guard Uniform.  Ahh, it was worth all the build up, if you ask me.

Mookah Skirt

You may remember a few weeks back that I made my own skirt? Well at the same time, I ordered via the net a skirt made by my long time (school) friend, Leisa of Mookah fame, which is a business run by her and sister Nicole.

Anyway, yesterday my skirt arrived on my doorstep and I love it.

(I'm getting good at taking my own pics of skirts - NOT.)

The skirt is perfect for our current climate here in the UAE - made from a light grey fabric with a screen-printed flying bird and insect, A-Line with zippered waisted. I'm sure it will be a firm favourite and will be in high rotation in the months to come.

If you like it, I suggest you visit the Mookah online store, or drop by their blog page to see what projects the sisters are up too.

Dip

With our weather here in Abu Dhabi heating up, one thing MrL and I are grateful for, is the fact that we moved to a villa that has it's own pool.

I have a feeling it will give the stifling summer heat a different spin. It is temperature controlled too, which is a bonus, so even in the depths of summer, it should/will be refreshing.

The pool is not big (it is just under 5 metres in length) but it is big enough for us all to take a dip in whenever we feel the need.  Monet can now just about touch the bottom too, so it is not too deep.

It still is pretty weird that the pool might be sitting at 31 degrees and the outside temperature is lately hoovering around 40 during the day, but when you get out, it may as well be 15 degrees, it is freezing! (Ask Kimbofo, a London resident, who will surely agree with me.)

So Summer, come on and show me some desert heat again, (for our third year running.)

Easter Morning

So, I found out that Lily *loves, loves, loves* chocolate and gets very excited (umm, maybe the word is hypo) after munching on too much. I also found out that Monet is very good at sharing and saving her chocolate goodies.

Hope you all had a lovely, relaxing, chocolate-filled day.

Loopy OR How To Tell If Someone Is Visiting From London Who Spends Quite A Bit Of Time In Ireland As Of Late.

Not only did Kimbofo bring with her some 'William & Catherine' gifts, she also brought along with her some gifts purchased during a couple of visits to the Emerald Isle.

Our place seems awash with green it seems... (don't ask about the 'specks' Monet is wearing - all will be revealed in the weeks ahead about those! lol)

Big and Little Sister

I love the quiet time these two girls share. Warms my heart. =)

How To Tell If Someone From London Is Visiting Your Household

This is how you tell.

Having two girls in the house, (that would be Monet and I), who are both rather looking forward to seeing a bit of history, it was a nice surprise to see that my sister, who resides in London but has chosen to escape the London madness for the next week, brought with her some Wedding souviners.

Yep, I now have a teatowel with the bride -and-groom-to-be and Monet now owns a book about the couple and a (very cool, very chic) paper doll book.

Happenings.

We have a VIP arriving late tonight. Kimbofo last saw us for a few days in November last year when she was on her way to China and Australia. This time though, she's staying for a bit under two weeks and I'm looking forward to her coming to stay and play.

Image has been pixilated for privacy reasons. lol

Monet is pretty excited and I'm sure within 24 hours of Kimbofo's arrival, Lily will be crawling all over her and talking in her babble, babble non-stop to her.


In other news....

MrL had a wisdom tooth taken out yesterday IN THE CHAIR and the tooth had not even broken the surface! *Urgh* It was growing at an angle it should not have been but it is out now and hopefully it heals well. He has about 5 stitches in his mouth. He tells me too there was a lot of blood. He is the opposite to me when it comes to sitting in the dentist chair. Where as I sit with my eyes firmly shut, he watches what's going on by the reflection of his dentist's glasses. Umm, no thanks.

Monet has gone to school today, looking quite the individual. The kids at her school must wear a school uniform every day but they can wear whatever shoes they want. (I don't agree with this - if they have to wear a school uniform, it should also apply to the foot region, but alas, it is not my job or place...) On her feet she is wearing knee-high blue polka-dot socks with pink high-top runners. Her hair I had to put into two small pony-tails on each side. I should've taken a pic.  I think she's trying to find her place, if you know what I mean.

My parents celebrated 43 years of marriage yesterday. My father bought my mother a brand new MacBook to start to get her 'computer savvy'. I wonder if we'll see more comments from her on here from her?

And can someone please tell Lily to STOP STANDING ON CHAIRS???

I See A Holiday In Our Future

We've been umming and ahhing for a few weeks now, on where to go on holidays for a couple of weeks over the summer. We've talked about this place and that place. It is a hard decision on where to go and we've been waiting for MrL's holiday form to be processed. It seems now his holiday form has been approved for a couple of weeks in July.

You little bewdy - a two week break from the heat that Abu Dhabi has over summer, the 50 degrees plus.

Along with a time frame, we also have a budget.  And a tight one at that.  So it has been a case of sourcing the best air deals that money can buy on our chosen destination/s.

Australia was in the running for a while but the middle of winter? Hmm.  And for the price of the four of us to travel to Oz kinda adds up to the price of the four of us going somewhere in Europe PLUS accommodation.  You do the math.

And besides, we aren't sure when our time is up here in the UAE, so we're going to make the most of it whilst we can.

We've done London for the past three years in a row and you know what, I would gladly go there again this year in a flash.  I love visiting London.  But this year, I think we want to visit somewhere new and a couple of cities are swirling around our heads which are places we've never been to, but have been wanting to visit.  This July may just be our time to visit those cities.

Watch this space.

Monet is ultra excited about going on holiday, she's already talked about what she'd pack and has also been studying the world globe somewhat.  And Lily?  She loves planes and gets very, very excited when we see them, which is practically every day.  (We live quite close to Abu Dhabi Airport.)  She's looking forward to jetting off too, she's already packed her case....

Where would you go if you were us? =)

No Sticky Ice-cream Fingers

I wonder if you remember this post?

Hard to believe I now have a toddler using the same ice-cream cone holder.  But now we aren't in FNQ, but Abu Dhabi.  Weird.

I still helped her eat the ice cream, I mean, c'mon, I had too! But I tell you what, that pink cone holder saved me cleaning up a big mess...

*nom nom*

#6

Monet wibbled and wobbled her sixth loose tooth last night, until finally....

*shudder*

Now she talks with a cute 'lisp'. =)

Sally?

This post may freak my big sister out. Why? Cause it kinda freaks me out.

My big sister and I played a lot with this doll...

If memory serves me correct, I'm pretty sure her name is Sally. And now I have my youngest playing with her all. the. time.

But she's one of those dolls that are really fustrating, as when you want her to sit in your toy stroller, her legs do not behave.

Breaks your heart doesn't it?

Precious

Can you believe our baby Lily is now 19 months old. Not much of a baby now, I know, but I know she'll always be my baby.

And such a precious baby she is.

And she is also a poser. (Just mind the crumbs in her blonde locks!)

I'm trying to record these moments and put them here. Lately I've been rereading posts of old and am so very pleased I have done what I have done, here, on this blog.

Lily is so very funny at times - she has these amazing conversations with us - very animated in her movements. Still not talking much in a language we understand but the word 'bab-ee' (as in baby) is very big around here. (She was very excited to get all of Monet's old dolls last week! Bab-ee, bab-ee, bab-ee!) She still gets excited at seeing the Teletubbies on tv and her latest loves are being able to give the thumbs up to stuff and waving/smiling at one particular security guard at the entrance to our compound.

She's so very precious.

Quiet Time

MrL and I grinned to one another when we spied Lily doing this on her own accord the other evening...

Clearly taking a page out of her big sister's book.

(We tend to see Monet doing this quite often.)

What Easter Build Up?

I can't believe it is Easter next weekend. Didn't we just celebrate Christmas?

I guess I can't believe it because over here in the UAE, there is no real 'build up' to Easter. There is no Easter School Holidays (we had 'Spring Break' a couple of weeks back), there are no Hot Cross Buns lining Supermarket shelves (except for some I found in Spinney's Supermarket last week, but are named 'Fruit Buns' with no obvious cross) and only now are shops bringing out the Chocie Egg stock, mostly imported from the UK with a few I have seen imported from Australia.  It is little things like all that, that I do miss from home.

But, Easter Bunny will always be found, wherever we might live.  Even here in Abu Dhabi.

(And if anyone could point me in the right direction for Homemade Hot Cross Buns recipe here on the net, which are easy could you let me know? Cheers in advance.)

An Accomplishment

It's been a while, but I've been sewing again.

Finding nice fabrics on hand in Abu Dhabi is not an easy thing. Most materials you do come by are silk and flowery. I guess that's part of the reason why I like IKEA - there is a more nice choice of fabrics to choose, on hand, from than anywhere else.

So, I've been dreaming up a skirt design in my head for a while and today I put that design into practise. I do need more practising though.

The sewing is a bit shonky and it is something I would never show a professional sewer - they'd probably drop dead to the floor in shock. Also no zips on hand in this neck of the woods, so it was elastic for me (which I was fortunate to find!).

Here's me modelling the final product.

I'm no supermodel either, believe it or not.

I'm just wondering if it is one of many?

It's Monday. That means both Western and Karen to me.

Monet has a lot of stuffed toys. She's had a lot of them since forever and they are all individually named and loved. She goes through phases of they all go on her bedroom shelves or, like at the moment, most sit each morning on her made bed.

So here I introduce you to guys like 'Western', 'Bella', 'Pickles', 'Toast', 'Cheese', 'Lee and Karen' (the rats), 'Monet' (can you spot the Claude Monet stuffed toy there in the centre?) and 'Cricket' to name a few.  It is all rather cute and I am sure each one of them holds a special memory for the six year old.

I gave Monet a while ago, a little notebook for her scribblings. She likes to write little notes to herself, to me or to her teddies. A while ago she came up with this idea... I hope you can work it out.

She has written the days of the week, twice, and before each day she has written the name of one of those stuffed toys on the page.  This means that on that particular night, that particular toy gets the privilege of going to sleep with her.  (And you must notice she writes her name as Miss Lulu.  She wants to be a teacher you know.)

I just hope this isn't a glimpse of her future 20 years from now. Lol ;-)

Better to be Safe than Sorry

Had to take our Miss 6 year old to one of the local hospitals this morning. Here in the UAE when you need to see a doctor, for whatever reason, you can actually go to the hospital. You either go direct to the specialist (ie Dermatology) or to the GP rooms. That's what Monet, Lily and I did this morning.

Monet found out last week at school that she is a bit uncoordinated (like her mother) when it comes to play equipment. She feel off the monkey bars, landing a bit hard on one of her legs. She said she cried and a teacher on duty took her to the school nurse, who examined the leg and sent her off after a little rest. Hmmm.

"Okay", I said, "just take it easy and stay OFF the monkey bars, even if other kids are playing on them, doesn't mean you have to".  (HATE monkey bars - I was never a kid who used them - can't you tell?)

That, was last Tuesday.

Monet had a couple of crap days of school - think she was feeling a little unsocial and a bit scared to keep playing on the new play equipment whilst her little buddies clambered over the monkey bars, down the slide, through the tunnel etc., etc., However, she was fine at home - had a bit of a limp, no bruising and was using the pool like an Olympic swimmer training for the 2012 Games.

But still having a little limp.

MrL and I couldn't work out if she was exgaggerating the limp or not and so last night was the last straw.

"We're getting this leg looked at tomorrow!" I told her as I tucked her into bed.

So this morning we went off, arriving at the hospital at 8am where she was looked at some 30-odd minutes later. We were sent off for her to have an x-ray, just to see if there could be any slight cracks in her bones. Brave Miss Monet had to enter the room alone and have the x-ray done without me being there, as I had Lily with me and she wasn't allowed in. *oh my heart* Thankfully the x-rays gave us the all clear. It seems as if she has a bruised muscle and we left the hospital with a bagful of pain relief ointments and medicine.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Happy to get school (that's my girl!) she was all ready to tackle the day from 10am.  I hope she's having a better day today.  =)

*You may have noticed I have changed back to using the real names of MissM and MissL - I think most of my readers know their real names anyway, no biggie*

Australian Idol.

I know I have said this before, but gee, MissL idolizes her older sister.  Can you figure out this photo below and why I would say that?

Yep, that's her older sister's tee shirt MissL insisted on wearing for half the day whilst MissM was at school.

And when MissM did get home from school, I spied some of this going on.

Cute eh?

The rest was enough for MissL to get colouring with her big sister.

Australian Idol?  Sister Idol. =)

Proud Parent Moment

I'm actually liking the eldest being six point five years old.

It is a good age. MissM's tantrums are now further and further between, you can have proper conversations, she can swim independently, she can take responsibilty for stuff, helps out when she can (ie. is more than happy to hang out the washing for me before school), knows what she does and does not like, is very good at playing with her sister and now can read chapter books to. her. self. (LOVE, love, love that!)

It's not to say that MissM is an angel - she's far from it at times and it's not to say that MissM always acts her age, she literally does act her shoe size! (She's a UK size 2 - big feet our girl and currently stands at around 130cm - she's going to be one tall girl)

The 5 year age difference between my girls for us is perfect. MissM is a great role model and teaches her little sister things like "when you touch this button on the remote, it changes the channel", "if you keep asking mum over and over and over again for something to eat, she'll cave in and give you something" and "when you touch the iPhone screen you can watch videos of yourself or of Telly Tubbies"...

The coin dropped quite some time ago with MissM and her reading. She has always shown an interest in books (which MissL is starting to now) and I've always read to her, practically every night of her life. (I now give myself Thursday and Friday nights off from that duty!)

When my parents visited last year, my mother bought MissM a 'Junie B Jones' book which they read together. A couple of months ago we noticed in Borders a whole section of Junie B chapter books so bought the first couple, which I read to her. When they were finished I bought her a couple more, in which we shared the reading. I'd read a page, then she would read a page. Last week MissM spent some of her pocket money on a new Junie B novel. On the way home from Dubai (where we bought it) I did not hear a peep out of her. As we pulled into the driveway MissM proudly announced "I'm up to page 46!" She had been sitting in the back seat reading quietly to herself. Whoo-hoo!!

She raced inside, sat on the couch and quietly continued reading until she had read all 80-90 odd pages! "I just love reading" she told me. =)

The following day, she read two whole Junie B Jones novels to herself, in her bedroom!! Awesome. And best thing is, the words are actually sinking in, as I asked her what the books were about.

I've been waiting for this day to happen and it seems as if that day has come.

Now wait until I tell you about the book she wrote and illustrated!