The proud Mumma post (and super grateful wife)

Our little girl has gone from a baby to a grown-up in the past week and as exciting a milestone achievement as it is I am also selfishly a little sad my little bubba is growing up so fast.
Piper is officially daytime toilet trained (night time nappy only).
While I would like to take credit for this achievement unfortunately the only thing I can take credit for is buying her first knickers! This was all due to the hard work and hours put in by her Daddy.
Last week I had management from Australia in town and a huge proposal due in to a client so on top of the long hours I had been working I also had evening work functions every night last week. During this time Naz and Piper took on the toilet training challenge with great success! Don't get me wrong there were a few accidents, embarassing and awkward moments followed by tears but they won in the end.
We went to the mall last night for a couple of quick jobs and as we were leaving to head home Piper yelled out "toilet, I need to do wee" and off we went. She was so patient and grown-up about it all I had a teary departing the toilets with my little grown-up lady.
So basically this is a blog post to say thank you to my wonderful husband and let the world know how much I truly do appreciate his support and all the work he is putting in at the moment as a stay at home Daddy over here with very little support. Thank you xo

Eid al-Adha Holiday

We have just finished enjoying a weeks break thanks to Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) public holidays. Given we have just settled into our new home and I needed to work 2 days during the break we decided to stay and holiday in our own home and explore Dubai some more.
It seemed a lot of the festivities were happening in or around Dubai Mall and so we decided to brave the crowds and walk over for some night shopping and fun.
We were not expecting the masses that we experienced at all. We couldn't even get near the mall entrance via our normal route through Souk Al Bahar and over the bridge (normally a 10 minute walk). We ventured an extra 20 minutes around the outside until we found an entrance we could even get in.
It was a different kind of experience than what we were expecting but it was festive with a great atmosphere. Below are a few pics I took on our adventure.

First photo is people arriving at the mall.... mayhem! Second is the crowds around the aquarium inside the mall, yes inside a shopping centre. It is massive and has several sharks and a tunnel through the middle you can walk through while they swim over you. You can even pay and dive in there.

Piper enjoying the kids activities

Crowds watching the fountain show outside. Our apartment is in the building on the far right.

Tea Party with Cozy Bear

Just out of bed enjoying a tea party with her favourite bear on the balcony while Daddy swims his morning laps in the pool below! I love these mornings.

French macaroons to start the weekend

Secretly I think I buy these just for the packaging..... but they are also super yummy with an amazing choice of flavours!
We visited this gorgeous french patisserie on our way to grocery shopping this morning but unfortunately only 3 made it all the way home.

Halloween - Piper Monster

I promised myself I would never get sucked into all this halloween stuff.... then Naz called me at work on Monday afternoon to tell me Piper had been invited trick or treating in our building with her new friends.
So on my way home from work I detoured via the mall and am so glad we joined in. Piper loved it! The kids all had amazing costumes and some parents in our building organised 4 apartments for the kids to visit and collect their 'treats'. We had a few tears early on.... the skeleton boy was a little too scary for Piper.