Weekend Away in Dubai

We've just come back from a weekend away in Dubai which was very hectic but good fun. We visited Dubai Mall which houses the most amazing aquarium and everyone should go and see the Dubai Fountains they are incredible. We went up the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) and had a lovely lunch and leisurely dhow ride from Dubai Marina. Emily enjoyed tea at the rainforest cafe but wasn't sure about the life-like animals. Good fun by all. Its getting much hotter now and the air con is officially on! We're reaching the 40's now.....eek. 

All packed for the airport come on mummy and daddy me and Teddy are ready! 

Where's our plane teddy it's way past my bedtime

Burj Khalifa

It's high up here!

Admiring the waterfall in the mall 

So many fish!

Amazing fish tank!

Wow daddy look at all the fish

Its fun in here!

Waiting for the dancing foundations

A leisurely dhow ride around the marina
 - made more peaceful as Emily slept!

Bobbing about on the water with teddy

I had chips twice today, some of daddy's sprite
and now I'm allowed ice-cream! This is the best day ever!

Just some photos.....

My new sun protection gear - lets hope it works as its 37 degrees today!

Fun times in the pool with daddy

Off to the pool with my new noodle which the swimming teacher says will help me swim

Libby's new favourite thing in the whole world - dean and deluca macaroons

Enjoying dinner out

The biggest ball pool I've ever seen!

Cooking something for mummy in my new kitchen

A good and a bad week

First the good part of the week! Our shipping arrived and whilst if I had my time again I wouldn't have packed half of the stuff I have at least all Emily's toys have arrived - each box got a big 'wow' from her as we opened it. Unfortunately her trike was in several pieces and had to wait for Andi to get home to put it together and Emily couldn't understand this and so kept bringing me the seat in tears. She's whizzing around on it now though as you'll see from the photos below. Its been nice to get cookbooks out and pictures and photo albums and it really feels like home now. The bad part of week was being fined huge amounts of money for failing to realise mine and Emily's visas had expired - oops. Anyway quickly moving on....

Emily and I watched spiderman climb the torch last week in Doha which was exciting (the French guy who climbs structures with bare hands and no harness). We also had lots of trips to the park and swimming. The swimming pool tends to be lovely and warm about 5pm and so after dinner Emily and I sometimes go swimming and Andi meets us in the pool after work.

We've just had a nice weekend and headed to the beach with some friends who had their daughter and grandchildren visiting and we had friends over for a BBQ on Saturday night (it rained!!!). We also found a new park to visit and lovely ice-creams for 40p each! It hasn't really got any hotter at the moment and so we're still managing to get out and about.

I was very pleased my trike arrived

The Torch

Emily checking out the spiderman action

Emily's lovely new kitchen that was shipped over.
Mummy is enjoying the many cups of tea being made

Ice-cream!!

Yummy

Our new favourite park 

My new pool/beach hat which I love!

Daddy enjoying ice-cream as well

Early evening trip to the cafe at the park for nuggets and chips.
Teddy has to come too!

Come on teddy hold on.....

Can you guess the new favourite toy?

Faster teddy faster

Enough of the pictures of Emily - hello from Libby and Andi  x

Just a few pictures

Its been a quiet few days - Andi had a long weekend off thanks to Easter and we've been on a few beach trips, had a few BBQ's and just enjoyed chasing round after Emily. Emily continues to love swimming although doesn't like paying attention during her lesson preferring to climb out of the pool, run and jump in and slowly sink to the bottom until mummy fishes her out....the pool on the compound is lovely and warm now the weather has heated up and so I think Emily and I will spend most of our time in the water. The trips to the beach have been great because Emily just runs wild and enjoys building sandcastles, bothering crabs and burying Andi. Its also getting slowly hotter.......

I finally cornered the local cat!

Off out for a walk with dolly

Very proud of my tower - the first one I built rather than destroyed!

Me and mummy having cuddles

Animal month at nursery - this is Emily's art work

Enjoying collecting water and bothering the little crabs

Not sure who enjoys the beach more - daddy or Emily??

30 second peace for mummy and daddy as Emily tried to dig herself out

Beach trips and a bunny

We're making the most of the cooler weather at the moment (when I say cooler I mean 28-35 degrees) and spending lots of time outdoors and on the beach. At the weekend, we went to a local beach resort about 40km outside of Doha. The network of expat mums which I belong to organised their annual 'spring fling' and it took place at this resort so we thought we'd check it out. Emily met the Easter bunny and joined in with an Easter egg hunt. She was terrified of the Easter bunny but more than happy to eat the chocolate that I had to collect for her because she was too scared to go herself. There were camel rides on the beach and Emily was very excited by it all. It was a lovely day at the resort just relaxing, swimming and playing on the beach. We have also been back to our more local beach at Al Wakra and Emily had great fun destroying Andi's sandcastles and burying him in the sand.

Emily has all her molars coming through and is being a very brave soldier. She is struggling with her food because of her teeth and so seems to be surviving on the things she likes most which is mainly cake, salted popcorn and grapes. I don't think I will win mother of the year. 

Emily had her first swimming lesson since we moved to Qatar and she loved it. She learnt lots of new things and had a good attempt at trying to retrieve a toy from the swimming pool floor. It was lovely to be having a lesson outside in the sunshine at 8.30am in the morning. I just wish the weather would stay like this - I am very nervous about the looming heat!! 

Building sandcastles

Burying daddy.....

...is simply exhausting

This photo was shortly followed by tears - I am not a fan of the Easter bunny...

More than happy to eat the chocolate though!

Enjoying playing at the park

Back in the game!!

Normal life has been resumed. We have the internet and television. Whilst we can easily live without TV - try living without the internet for 6 weeks, its not easy! Amazing how you come to rely on something so much. I think the Q-tel installation man (equivalent of BT) thought I was crazy as I was a bit giddy when everything was connected. All continues to go well but it can be frustrating trying to set everything up and finding the right offices to go to and then communicating what you need. Apart from obtaining a postal address we are nearly there. Mail is not delivered to individual houses out her and so you have to apply for a PO box which like most things seems a difficult exercise! On the positive side - Emily no longer cries like her world is ending when I drop her at nursery and she seems to enjoy all the activities that they do. I sent her in with a plant pot recently and they have been planting seeds. Emily's favourite word is 'no' and that is her response to pretty much everything - apart from an offer of cake (takes after her mum!). She is talking lots more and has a variety of words not brilliantly distinguishable but words nonetheless. She sings along to some of her songs in the car (mainly saying hurrah at the appropriate moment when the ants go marching home) and she is attempting to count to three regularly. She is learning lots about animals as we are regular visitors to the zoo and she never tires of bothering the local cats. She chases after them and they hide under cars and she lies on her tummy shouting 'hello.' 

The highlight of my week so far is finding a hairdresser who speaks English and I've managed to book Emily onto local swimming lessons so slowly each week things are coming together. Andi continues to work hard and settle into his new job and is enjoying all the BBQ's and opportunities to take Emily to the beach at the weekend. We have had our first visitors over and so its been a busy last few weeks. Emily's nanny came to visit and our friends Will and Steve have been over. Everyone is booking return trips for May so the place must have some appeal! Attached is a selection of pictures from the last few weeks.

'Cheese'!

My favourite things-my daddy and my balloon

Probably the best coffee shop in the world?

View from best coffee shop in the world

Emily and Andi at Katara (cultural village).
Emily loved climbing all the steps!

Our beautiful Emily

Happy Mothers Day to me!!!! Yum Yum

At the beach bothering the crabs

Park park and more park....

Playing with my new sand and water table