Dubai Pets

We currently have far too many pets in both Dubai and Budapest. In Dubai we have 1 cat and 3 dogs. 

In Budapest we have Betty and Gigi. I'll post about them shortly.

First, here is Oswald (aka Ozzie) with his reindeer ears. He is so ugly and so cute at the same time. He turns 1 in January. Note to self, look up his date of birth. PS He was born in Hungary.

Coco, our elf (right below), is a silly Dubai desert rescue. She is so timid and afraid of her own shadow but craves attention and love all the time. 

Lucky is the alpha of the group - when Daisy isn't around - and another Dubai desert rescue. We thought Lucky would be a small to medium sized dog but he grew and grew and grew. He's lovely but also a bit protective so friends who visit know his bark. Below is a photo of him with Ozzie. For some reason we thought it would be funny to have Lucky wear my dragon boat team top. I think blue suits him! Paddles Ready!

Early on, after Oswald joined our family and Lucky started accepting him, we would (and still do) find Ozzie taking cover underneath Lucky. He fits perfectly. Sometimes he cleans (yes, ewwwww!) and sometimes he just hides.

Daisy is our cat and she is the best cat we have ever owned. She is super cool and friendly, spends her nights outdoors (so we don't wake up with her running across our faces or to her howling at 4am), doesn't jump up and eat our food and leaves our Christmas tree, water glasses and fragile items alone. 

Photo below on left is Daisy and Ozzie about one month after Ozzie joined our family. Daisy took the longest time to accept him and he was so afraid and curious of Daisy.  Every day he inched a bit closer. Today, about 4 months later, they can lay on the same couch as each other and she doesn't hiss at him if he touches her.

The other photo is one of my usual views when I come out of my bedroom and look down into the kids' TV room. Terence in his element (when he is home from school): food, video games, laptop, animals. Usually he has Daisy and one or all dogs surrounding him. His sunnies are nearby as he probably just got home or about to go out. 

This last one is a video. Love it as it captures how I dog walk. Ozzie is off the lead / leash but has to take part so instead he likes to keep either Lucky or Coco's leash in his mouth. It's his attempt of either being in charge or being part of the pack. I have yet to work it out but find it amusing. He goes for Coco's leash more than Lucky's as I think Lucky is bit too tall and he has trouble jumping up to reach it.

Early Christmas

Due to our trip this year to Vietnam, we celebrated Christmas a bit early. We had our Christmas celebration on December 18th (also on Robert's birthday). Our departure to Hanoi, Vietnam was on December 20th at 3:30am on Emirates flight EK394. So technically we had to head to the airport at about midnight on the 19th.  This made December 18th our best option for an at home Christmas celebration.

Christmas was lovely and, as always in Dubai, feels a bit strange in t-shirts and shorts. I had put up the tree this year before Thanksgiving which I have never done before but as we found a lovely large artificial (slightly white to give it a snow dusted appearance) tree, it was easy to do without all the maintenance of a live tree. 

With all the kids now knowing the 'truth' about Santa and his magic, the presents started to pile up under the tree in the weeks and days leading up to our Christmas celebration on the 18th. This heightened the excitement and made it all easier and more fun to celebrate early.

The hardest thing for the kids (mostly Ali and Mia) was that I didn't allow them to wake up on the 18th and open presents right away - as we always do on Christmas morning. Part of the reason why was it was still a work day so Curt left before they all woke up. I did my usual 'mom' activities and hit the gym then finalized shopping for all the food items, breakfast treats (knowing they wouldn't wake until late morning when I was due back home), and last minute holiday necessities (including a few last minute stocking stuffers I had forgotten).

When I returned home, I only heard a bit of shuffling from our trio upstairs so they were all treated to a special breakfast in bed. I wish I had taken pictures as their breakfasts were all served up on Christmas plates and included all sorts of yummy foods that they all loved including some delicious fresh fruits, freshly baked croissants and donuts (from Baker and Spice) and for Mia her favorite avocados. She can eat avocados all day and night. 

Normally on Christmas morning I make home made cinnamon rolls but with all the travels I had been doing and about to do and Christmas presents still to wrap and dinner still to prepare, the Baker and Spice treat seemed like the perfect breakfast treat and they were all very happy!

Curt returned home at about 4:30pm with the last of the presents that just arrived via post. Phew, that was a close call! I was still at the dentist with Ali (really not a normal 'Christmas day') but made it home just after 5pm to do a quick 45 minute packing job and dinner preparation. 

Dinner consisted of amazing grade 11 wagyu steaks prepared by Curt on the charcoal grill, mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beans, tomato salad and home made dinner rolls. We all gobbled it up and the kids were bouncing around ready to open our presents before we even had a chance to clear the table.

We decided to leave our dessert of homemade Angel Food Cake for after our present opening. 

Below are some of my favorite photos of our tree and the kids. In the next post (may work out to be previous post as it's been a while since I blogged), I'll post a few more pics from the day. 

Terence - Football

I don't ever get many photos of Terence. The girls are a bit better about the camera. However, I got this one of T last week after dropping him off for football training. Doesn't he look like a man? He is so big (nearly 6 feet tall) and only 13 years old. His shoe size is 45 - 46 EU!

Fun Weekend Stuff

The best parts of the weekend were on Thursday night and Saturday (all day).

On Thursday, our family hit one of our favorites spots for dinner: Ruth's Chris. I only have a few photos of the girls from this evening as we were so busy chatting, eating, enjoying the evening that I didn't take any other snaps. I had to take the first one of them, on the escalator after dinner, as I looked up and suddenly saw two young ladies. Where are my little girlies? At the top of the escalator, I took the 2nd photo of our gorgeous girls.

 

On Saturday, I surprised our family with a trip to the Wild Wadi water park. It was a fantastic day and a great way to stay cool in the 40+ degree Celsius desert heat.

Chilling in the shade in between water slides.

Our little cabana tucked away.  It was perfect. 

Terence napping after about 5 or 6 hours of water slide fun.

 

 And a few more of the girls. The first is of them watching the surfing which they later took turns on (photos coming) and temporary tattoo time! The fun was non-stop. We spent our entire day from 10:30 until about 7:30 enjoy the water park and our family time.

Terence and his Samsung Galaxy's Reunion in Dubai

Thanks Papa for sending Terence's smart phone that he left in Wichita in August. Silly boy. He is obviously far too confident that his mom and dad will look out for his things as he's still slightly forgetful about where he keeps / puts his personal possessions.

Regardless, the phone made it in the post to our office on Sunday and didn't get stolen in transit. He tore into it in the car park at (GWA) school when I collected him on Sunday afternoon.  As soon as he got home he charged it up and is now a very happy camper. He even called me 3 times from it yesterday and none of the calls were accidental (i.e he often butt-dials us while he is playing football or soccer at recess with his friends).

T sailing videos

Finally - the 2 videos showing Terence sailing! He's so sweet as he is so excited to be learning sailing and told me that he cannot wait until he can sail a large boat and sail our entire family all over the sea! I too look forward to that time...

In the meantime, it looks like he'll be stuck with this much smaller sail boat while he learns.

T's First Sailing Course

I will write about our weekend, sailing class, etc and include videos tomorrow. Just wanted to post these quickly...

Terence at 5 months

I love, love, love this photo! While packing up 1/2 our life to move it to Dubai, I came across it and had to scan it immediately and share with all of you. I know you, Nana, remember this well as it's one of your favorites too. It's the one that looks like he has a halo over his head. My little angel. Love, love, love it!!!


PS Packing is exhausting!!! Our house looks like a house and no longer a home as there is so much that has been packed up and taken away. Must take photos. Should have really taken befores and afters! All happened too quickly...

NASA Space Camp

Terence left Kiawah Island on Thursday with his dad, Curt, and his Papa, Harry. They flew out of Charleston airport via Charlotte to Huntsville, Alabama where they are attending a Parent / Child Space Camp program this weekend. Curt has sent me a few photos and T has called me several times so excited that he can barely catch his breath. He is completely in his element at NASA Space Camp where he is meeting real life astronauts, building and launching rockets, learning about space and engineering and studying (yes, studying on summer break!) about science. He is so happy that I think next year he may go for a week long sleep over camp with other kids his age. This weekend was a test to see if he'd really enjoy it and I cannot say I am surprised but I honestly thought that all the reading materials and class room studies would have turned him off... They did not!!!

They return tonight and I cannot wait to hear all about it!!

T's Gardening Skills

Been slightly out of touch lately. Just a very quick update on my very proud son as we all admire (and beg for nibbles) his freshly grown peas. He planted the seeds about 2 months ago and they are now grown and DEEE-licious!!!

Here are 2 videos. The girls were begging to have some but he wasn't too happy about sharing - especially after he recently discovered them taking some without his permission. So, he made up a game of questions and when they got the answer(s) correct they were rewarded with a pod.

School Photos 2009 - 2010

Here are the three kids' 2009 - 2010 class photos.

Terence is in the back row, 2nd from right. We had a choice of 2 photos to chose from and he overruled my choice and picked this one instead. He thought it was funny that he wasn't looking directly at the camera. Don't get it... He's in CE2 / 3rd grade and his teacher's name is Jean-Luc. So far, this is his favorite teacher. I think it may have something to do with the fact that he is his first male teacher.

Here is Mia's class photo. She is in the back row, 3rd from left. Her teacher is in the back row, all the way on the left and her name is Marie-Pierre. She's rather strict but then again I think it's a huge shock when the kids go from Kindergarten / GS to 1st Grade / CP as they go from playing and having fun to learning, grades and the serious world of school!

And here is my little Ali. This is her first year at the French school and even though the first few months were tough, she now likes it and has many friends. I do think she has more Hungarian speaking friends then French speaking friends but she is still learning French slowly. She is in the middle row here, 3rd from the left. Her teacher is lovely. She is in the back row on the left and her name is Isabelle. Her assistant, Erzsebet, is also in the upper row but on the right hand side. Ali adores Erzsebet and almost always speaks Hungarian to Erzsebet as she is a French speaking Hungarian.

Another T video

I will slowly play catch up to all of T's videos and photos that he took while in Dubai. This next one was of a clothing store's window display in the Dubai Mall (largest in the world, they claim). It certainly caught our attention. He must have taken this as I walked through the store and admired their beautiful clothes...

Terence Videos of the Dune Bashing Adventure

The video below was from Terence's new camera. Again (it's an 'again' after you read the post below), I love seeing it from his perspective. The little boy is Tyler who is also moving to Dubai with his family this summer. Tyler's daddy works for Move One's Logistics.

The video is taken on one of our breaks from Dune Bashing out in the Empty Quarters desert.

PS Wendy, you are going to love this...



If you want to have a feel for what the ride was like (not the dune bashing part as this video was just our drive to the camp on a rather straight, even stretch), then watch T's video from the back seat of one of the jeeps.

Terence's Drawings

Since Terence enjoys drawing mostly with pencil, it's hard to scan clearly as his pencil strokes are quite light. I tried a few and am including them anyway so you can see what things he likes to draw.

Above is a giant space ship. On the top are lots of weapons. He's really into drawing scenes including war, aliens, monsters...

Below is a giant pyramid (on left) of stick people. I thought it was very cute and reminded me of a scene out of Dr. Seuss. On the right, however, is a giant monster eating chunks of the stick people...

My Little Tennis Pros

The kids were excited to head to tennis today as this was their first practice this year outdoors. They removed the tennis bubbles / covers early last week but since it rained on their tennis lesson day, they had to wait until this week to experience hitting in the sunshine. The tennis courts are just around the corner and they love walking over together.

Snaps from the Water Fun

I posted a video earlier of our Budapest escapades today. The kids loved playing in this fun new water fountain that just opened next to Szabadsag ter. We spend a lot of time at Szabadsag ter as we like to eat in the city on the weekends. A playground stop before and / or after a meal on a nice day is always mandatory for our troops.

T loved playing controller of the water.

Even though it was such a fab day, the kids got wet and chilly after all the play. We had some drinks in the square center and Mia warmed up with a bowl of soup.

Ali didn't enjoy getting wet in the fountains as much as T and Mia so we headed down the street to Best Sellers English language book store. I wanted to get Terence a couple new books as he's reading through them quite quickly. I picked up 3 copies of the Diary of the Wimpy Kid series. Ali and Mia got little girlie play mags filled with puzzles. Ali loved it as it was full of fun girlie sparkle.

I discovered the below photos on our memory stick. Curt took these while Ali and I were at the book store. He explained why as follows.

He got a kick out of this guy below as he had a pirate flag coming out of his backpack and a bottle of beer in his pocket.

This next series of photos is really funny. As many of you know, the Eastern Europeans usually freak out about their kids in spring going without shoes or even with shoes and no socks.. If they have no shoes or socks or no hat then they pretty much have heart attacks. Our kids are always getting gawked at as they are hot blooded and like to strip down when the weather starts to get slightly warmer... After the water fountain play time, our kids all ran around the park and playground with no shoes and socks. There were quite a few older women watching and clutching their chests in worry and disgust. C'est la vie!

Now, watch this granny with her grandson. The first two was her trying to roll up his pant legs before he went near the fountains.

Then, he got so wet while playing that she pulled off his pants and attempted to ring them out while he stood their in his underpants!!!! Poor little guy!!!