A little more Frankie

I have a few pics to post and catch-up on the past couple of weeks. We arrived in Australia 10 days ago and have since been enjoying introducing Frankie to our family and friends, a crazy Christmas and settling into our beach house - home for the next month!

Below are some pics I took on the 12th December, Frankie at 5 weeks and a comparison of Piper at the same age.

Piper - 5 weeks old

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas...

On the 1st December Santa sent Piper an early present. When she woke she found this Elf and storybook on her chair.

Santa has sent Max the Elf to live with us and report if Piper and Frankie are naughty or nice. Every night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa, Piper can also tell Max any wishes she has and he passes them onto Santa. Every morning Piper has to find Max and we put him back on his shelf for the day. 

Unfortunately it turns out our Max is a rather cheeky and mischievous Elf and has turned our house upside down over the past week. Below are the antics of Max over the past 10 days.

1. Max destroys the nursery     2. Toilet papered the staircase     3. After a couple of late nights Max took a nap

4. Connect 4 fun and games                              5. Max stole chocolates from her advent calendar... this caused tears

Piper decided to take control on night 6 and trapped Max under the laundry basket before she went to bed.... unfortunately Max's magic was too strong and he escaped and trapped all of the toys from her bed..... oops Max made Piper cry again!

7. Green milk anyone??     8. Piper's bear decided enough was enough     9. Scooter fun with Baby Molly

(P.S. I have had lots of queries as to where Max came from - in Australia PotteryBarn Kids are the stockists, in the UAE I purchased direct from the USA via souq.com)

Pasta and Paint

Do you use Pinterest? I have a love/hate relationship with it. 
I enjoy using it to pin ideas for shopping, house stuff, clothing etc but I loathe those pinners who seem to have all the time in the world to craft with their children all day, bake, sew all their children's clothes from scratch and then apparently still have time to cook a perfectly proportioned and well balanced dinner and pin that too! I secretly think they are full of crap and designed to make us working parents feel even more guilty than we already do half the time!

Just in case you have no idea what Pinterest and my above rant is all about - Pinterest is a virtual online pin board where  you can collate all the pictures and links you see across the internet in one place. A very handy tool or a good source of frustration and at times a brilliant time eater - depends on how you want to look at it.

Anyhoo, I have what I like to call my guilty working Mums pin board of all the projects I would like to do with Piper if I ever found the time, and my maternity leave seemed like just the time to have some fun and try some of these ideas out.

Below is the result of Piper and I spending the afternoon painting pasta and making necklaces.

I would like to say this rocked Piper's world and we had an amazing time - but we didn't. She couldn't of cared less, it took far too long for the paint to dry, she lost interest in painting the pasta after about 5 pieces but wanted the end result necklace, so I painted most of the pasta and thread the necklaces myself.

A Month of Frankie

Can you believe it has been a month since our little Frankie arrived?

I can't. It confusingly feels like a month has gone in the blink of an eye yet at the same time it has been one of the longest months of my life.

It's hard to imagine life before Frankie, she has slotted into out little family like she was always here. Piper is an amazing big sister, her patience with Frankie is impressive (except for when Frankie screams in the car - then Piper blocks her ears and lets it be known she is not happy). We are experiencing the usual hurdles of introducing a new sibling, but mostly our little family is happy and rolling with the changes.

Frankie is healthy and growing fast, and although she looks identical to Piper as a baby there is one big difference, Frankie is our chubby bubby. She has fat rolls layering all 4 limbs and so many chins I have stopped counting!
I have had some ups and downs since Frankie's birth, unfortunately there were some complications both during and after that have caused us a bit of stress and worry but we are almost over it all now and moving on.

A round-up of our month:

1. Most number of clothing changes I have needed in one day = 4
2. Number of times Frankie has poohed or peed on her Dad in one day = 4
3. Number of public throw-ups large enough to require an immediate return home = 3
4. Number of new grey hairs Naz has acquired = 4876 (he does the Richard Gere look well)
5. Return visits to American Hospital for Mumma = too bloody many to count
6. Ambulance rides back to hospital = 1 (Mumma not Frankie luckily)
7. 4 year old sister tantrums = 15
8. Maximum hours of uninterrupted sleep Naz and I have had in the past month = 4.5 hours
9. Packets of late night Tim Tams eaten = 22
10. Smiles in this house = 1,000

Ahoy there!

With all the change of welcoming a new family member and then a few medical issues since Frankie and I returned home from hospital, this weekend we decided to dedicate some time to Piper.

On Friday (jammed in between feeds and with Naz sitting outside just in case the boobs were needed) I took Piper for some girly fun and we both relaxed with a pedicure at our local salon.
Then today Naz organised the most elaborate and amazing treasure hunt for her. She is very much into pirates and treasure at the moment and got right into it.
Earlier Naz snuck out and with chalk marked out his crosses and skulls and buried treasure throughout our community - the park, the pool area and around the lake walk. This was all coordinated with a map and instructions he had prepared for her.
Her haul of treasure was a new set of glitter pens once she had located each individual pen!

Back pack organised and ready to go

Frankie slept as usual - and yes she is wearing a beanie in Dubai! Winter has arrived and we had a strangely cold and wet weekend

Sisters

I am loving these two together - the words 'my girls' makes me smile every time I say it.

First Week

Welcome Frankie Lulu

Frankie Lulu O'Brien

Born - 3rd November 2013 @ 9:14am
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Weight - 3.5 kg

Length - 51.5cm

Sisters first meeting

Halloween fun

Today was Halloween, and this year instead of trying to avoid it and whining about the commercialisation and having the 'what's the point' debates - we embraced it!

A conversation with a friend recently changed my view, and then participating in our community tonight cemented it for me.
A friend pointed out to me that the reason why he didn't mind Halloween and thought it was embraced so enthusiastically (particularly here in Dubai) was because it is one of the few celebrations that is not directly connected to one religion or race. It is fun the whole community can participate in no matter who you are or what your background.

This struck a chord with us - especially living here where everything from your salary to your ability to purchase alcohol (including how much per month) is determined by your religion and race.

So today Piper dressed up and went to school and enjoyed Halloween activities all day, then we all attended the school annual Halloween fair in the afternoon. Although she was already exhausted and sugar loaded we then had friends over and went trick or treating in the streets of our community.
It was so much fun - the kids had an absolute ball, we ran into familiar faces, met new neighbours and laughed with complete strangers.

Who knows next year we may even go so far as to carve our own jack-o-lantern!

Piper and her best friend ready for trick or treating

Some of our neighbours went to an amazing effort to decorate their homes

A morning at the farm

A couple of weekends ago at the end of Eid holidays we visited 'The Farm'. A stunning cafe built in the centre of a tropical green oasis on the outskirts of Dubai. 
The area the restaurant is built in is a purpose built lush green residential community that completely denies the senses you are in fact in the middle of the desert.
It is astonishing and thanks to the amount of greenery it really does provide a respite from the harsh heat and desert sand. I shudder to think how much water is consumed and labour is needed to keep this place alive - there are very few places in the world that could afford to do this.

To top it off the food was brilliant - I really wish I had taken photo's of our food for once, but I am one of those people who groans at having Instagram and Facebook feeds full of other peoples food pics. But unfortunately on this occasion there are no words to describe how awesome my pistachio and strawberry waffles were or Naz's breakfast.

Some pics of our walk around the gardens post breakfast.

A beautiful weekend

If you pop by regularly you will notice this little blog has had a makeover.
I guess in some way this is like the 2013 version of 'nesting' - blog makeover, sorting out my data clouds and digital photography filing and storage are all on my to do list  - now I have finally started maternity leave!

I have had so much on at work that I wasn't really consciously aware of the toll it was taking on me until I stopped. The freedom and feeling of not heading off to work tomorrow is exhilarating and very welcome, a break and some time at home is exactly what I need right now at 38 weeks pregnant.

We have enjoyed a great weekend with lots of relaxing and fun with friends. A BBQ and drinks yesterday which turned into a highly competitive board game evening and this afternoon we met up with a couple of other families for a sunset swim and picnic dinner at the beach. How gorgeous is the pic of Piper with her friends - I cannot put into words how well this group of kids get along and play together.

Ghosts of Dubai #1

After a 6 year boom the financial crisis in 2007 - 2010 had a significant impact on Dubai.

One of these is the 'ghosts of Dubai' - projects started and never completed. There are hundreds of these projects around Dubai, more recently they are tearing some down, filling holes and restarting. But a lot are rather iconic, and have now stood still in mid-construction for so long they are part of the landscape.

Below are a couple of pics taken recently, I will add some more over time. At 38 weeks pregnant my ability to get out and about on excursions for taking photographs is somewhat limited by my size, swollen hands and feet and the ever present Dubai heat which has made one final come back before winter kicks in.

Universal Studios - part of the never built Dubailand. It is a common theme in Dubai to build grand entrances first then construction follows - unfortunately this project never made it past the front gate!

These two connected towers would of been an impressive structure, however they are likely never to be completed having stood exactly like this since about 2009. They are eerie building sites - everything right down to workers belongings just sits there.

Life Lately in Happy Snaps

1. Beautiful entrance to Global Village at sunset - the weather is beautiful in the evenings now

2. Date night for the girls - Daddy was out partying at Atlantis on the Palm

3. This happened this week, the rings are off at 36 weeks - it took a lot of freezing and oiling to get them off too

4. Making masks at school

5. More pics from the garden now we can go outside and enjoy it without melting

6. Sleep over while Daddy was out - between Piper and all her 'kids' there was not a lot of room for me and my big belly

BBQ Season Begins!

Finally the weather is cooling down - by cooling down I mean today was the first day under 35 degrees in 6 months. 
It was still a very warm 34 but by 5pm it was cool enough to move outside, enjoy a gentle breeze and our first proper BBQ of the season in our new backyard. It was beautiful while it lasted but unfortunately by 7:30pm the humidity had rolled in the breeze departed, sending us back indoors.

Finally able to enjoy this beautiful space as a family

Not sure if it was the angle, the light or the silly trying not to laugh face , but I can see so much of Naz in this pic of Piper