Our 9-9-9 girl turns ONE

We celebrated our second birthday in Dubai September 9.  Lillian Margaret turned 1.  Everyone says it, but where does the time go?  It seems like just yesterday we had Lilly, brought her home to Northview and Deric said "what do you think about Dubai?" I said "what's Dubai?" Mama D said "Mary, Mother of Jesus!" Lots of other people said "It'll be an adventure!"....hahahahaha...Dubai did all start around this time a year ago when this dear little girl came into our family and made it that much sweeter!
The night before her birthday I felt so weepy!  Not having our family around to watch her blow out that candle was so hard for me.  All the Bryant children have had big first birthdays!  I guess though Lilly will one day say "you all had big first birthday parties, but I turned 1 in Dubai!"  We woke up to lots of treats and presents for Lilly.  She got a new see-saw that she really could care less about and that her siblings won't get off of.  She also got lots of little board books with flaps that seem to be her favorite thing right now!  Anura and Latha are deeply in love with our girl and gave her presents too!  Anura came out and sang her happy birthday while playing his guitar!  SO SWEET!  Lilly also got new silver big girl walking shoes.  She is not walking yet but is almost there!  She cruises around the furniture alot.  Why walk when you can crawl at the speed of light?  We did cake for Miss Lilly and had our neighbors from Villa 10 over for pizza.  The girls put on a play that was quite impressive!

As for the cake..I love to make my kid's cakes myself and I take it very seriously! (ha)  I worked on Lilly's personal little #1 cake all day.  I have to say it was my best one yet!  Late in the day we realized we had no candles!  The whole family loaded up and ran to our Spinneys (grocery store) to get candles.  I set the cake out on the counter before we left.  When we got back the cake was in distress!  It looked wet and shiny, the icing was sliding off and it had kind of collapsed on one side.  Thank you DUBAI!  What is up with that?  Humidity?  The icing?  Whatever it was I learned to keep all future cakes in the fridge until the last possible moment!  Lilly didn't seem to care.  She was absolutely precious with the cake.  She held up her hands and dove her face into it!  It was like she didn't want to get her hands dirty! I had to dig pink icing out of her nose!

Morning birthday love!

The Lilly-way to eat cake!  Notice my distressed cake!

I don't do things on my head!  Not bows, no hats!

I think this is a good post to tell you a few things about our Lilly.  You have probably noticed I have fallen short on my blog posts!  That is because this girl is keeping me busy!  I think I am too old for a one-year old!  She is wearing me out!  The stairs...she is always trying to climb up them.  We have them gated top and bottom but with three siblings coming up and down who DONT CLOSE THE GATE this is a problem.  I am constantly saying "is the gate closed?!!!!!"  Remember, our stairs are made of MARBLE!  She loves to go into the kitchen and dig through her favorite drawer.  When we come in from the grocery store Latha folds the grocery sacks into perfect tiny triangles.  She puts them all into a bottom drawer in the kitchen that Lilly has discovered!  She loves to go to that drawer and pull all the little triangles out.  She has also been found splashing in the toilet, throwing Daddy's marble chess pieces onto the marble floor, and helping herself to snacks in the pantry.  I now know why my mother had a playpen.

Here are some pictures of our sweet baby!  We love you Lilly B!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are our #1 girl!

This is Lilly's new friend Ben from Texas!  He is baby #5 in his family!
She loved having someone her size around to play with!

Busted!  Snacking in the pantry!

Rats!  They figured out my plan!

Maybe if I just climb up it...

I love this drawer!

These cute little triangles are so fun to unfold and throw around!

Will someone please let me out there!

This is my room!

Tea anyone?

I love this new phone..It plays Hannah Montana songs..Mommy keeps hiding it

MINE!

These shoes are gonna take me places!

Tick-Tock, Ding-Dong

Tick-tock! We are on the back-to-school countdown!  The Bryant children have been "summering" since May 27th!  Please Lord let them remember how to read and write!!!  School starts September 15 and we, especially me, just can't wait!!!  We have been spending the past weeks running some errands to get ready.  The kids now have new school shoes, new backpacks, new aluminum water bottles that claim to keep drinks very cold in the desert heat and many new hairbows and headbands to jazz up school uniforms! Oh, and they all have a variety of hats to choose from daily that shout out "I am from Texas or I am from the US, or I am an Aggie!"...They have to wear hats daily anytime they go outside!  I am actually ready to pack lunches, see school art hanging around this house and hear detailed stories of other children's naughty behavior from Miss Olivia.  ASD here we come!

Ding-Dong!  That is the sound we have been hearing around here!  The doorbell ringing with kids!  Now that the summer and Ramadan are coming to an end neighbors are coming back to their villas!  For those of you who don't know most expats leave the desert heat during the summer and travel home to visit their families.  We will do the same next summer as soon as school gets out!  So every night we venture out into the park and see more and more kids out and about!  It is amazing how much that has changed since our first weeks here when the park was so desolate!  I also should mention that the weather has changed significantly too since we first got here.  I can actually sit outside now and not suffocate!  They say that each week the temperature will fall slightly and I believe it.  I guess you could say it now feels like Houston here!

We have made some new friends in Villa 7!  Remember we are Villa 5!  They are from France and have 3 small adorable children.  2 boys ages 5 and 3 and a little girl age 2.  This has been so great for Luke with the 2 boys and the girls love to play with and mother the little girl!  They have introduced her to Barbies and American Girl dolls!  Their names are a little challenging but we are working on it!  The oldest boy is Camile and he goes by Cami.  The little girl is Fleur.  You can only imagine how my little Texans butcher her name.  I have heard her called Flower, Flitter, Flutter and occasionally Flu-er (With a strong Texas Twang).  As for brother #2..I can still barely pronounce his name and his mother Valerie (thank goodness for her name) is helping us daily.  She make us feel better by telling us his teachers can't say it either.  His name is pronounced Or-el-ee-on.  Luke calls him Oreo..not good.   My favorite thing about these precious little french boys is listening to them talk.  They speak perfect English,  however when they are over playing they will occasionally bust out in French when they are speaking to each other.  I could listen to them all day!  It has been great for the kids to have neighbors to play with!  That is so what we miss from our Northview family!

We also have met new friends in Villa 10.  They are from Australia and have 2 daughters ages 8 and 12.  They have been down alot and are in love with Lilly!  The 12 year old Paige is so sweet and patient with the little ones and she loves to help them put on plays!  Right up our girl's alley! Their mother is very outgoing, friendly and positive and shares my feelings about driving here!  We have had fun chatting and plan to walk the track around the lake when school starts!  Now most kids in our neighborhood go the Dubai British School.  This school is IN our little compound!  The moms I meet seem a bit surprised that our kids would not go there either!  I could walk them to school everyday!  I simply explain that we bleed red, white,  and blue and would have it no other way! hahahaha- Really though, it is better for the kids to stay with their North American curriculum so they easily transition back into school WHEN WE COME HOME!

Here are some random pictures of what has been going on the past weeks.  More posts to come!  I promise!

Magic Planet fun with Daddy back home!

Only these two would do it!

Lilly's First Ride-she loved it!

More Magic Planet with Lilly

Trying to discreetly have a snack at the mall during Ramadan.

I said be discreet!

Yes, you can ride scooters through toy stores here.

Or Rip Riders-

Yes, there are giant Barbie houses in Dubai!

Mama you are invited to a Barbie wedding.  Woo-hooo!

Luke and Daddy playing the  army man game...(game created by Brad Hughes)

Hot Pink Turban?

Deric bargaining for a flying helicopter at the Dragon Mart.

Miss Blake lounging at the neighborhood pool..waiting for friends!

New school shoes...From Payless!  Yes, they have one here!

Presents from Texas!  Thanks Granny and Pappy for the new Wii game!

The Dragon Mart has everything...See the red and purple dinosaur see-saw..Purchased for Lilly's first birthday!

It's not a mirror...It's twin brothers SKYPING!  What would we do without it?
Do they have the same shirt on?

It's Official

Well, a lot of official-important things have happened!  The kids and I are official residents of Dubai with official resident visas stamped on our passports.  I got my official Dubai driver's license and Deric and I got our official ASD parent badges that we must wear everytime we enter the American School of Dubai.  Oh, and I officially found a hair dresser and got my hair done!

Getting the drivers license was about the easiest thing we have had to do in Dubai!  We walked in and filled out a form, showed them my Texas license, passport and resident visa and they handed me over a drivers license.  Oh, and Deric had to give his official "permission" for me to get the license in a very official letter that he had to write.  Thanks honey!  Maybe he should have rethought that and just gotten me a driver!!!  Now not all people have it this easy!  Depending on the country you originate from you might have to take a 7-month driving course before they hand over that license!  You see driver-education cars everywhere!  I think I might should be in one of them.  I am probably worrying my sweet dad right now.  I am kidding!!!  I am getting better at driving around here and I am extra extra careful!  I silence all children when on the road and make many threats if they don't stay quiet!  I have had many funny suggestions for nav lady's name.  Some of my favorites are Navia and Dude!

The resident visa thing was not as easy.  I won't go in to the boring details of the countless hours Deric spent working on this with a man we will call Nazar who is supposed to make the process quick and painless. (ha) I had to have my blood drawn and my chest x-rayed to get my visa.  I WILL go in to telling you that this was probably my #1 unpleasant experience in Dubai.  Even over getting lost!  The facility I had this done in was a government medical facility.  It was dirty and the people performing these medical procedures were not exactly friendly, especially to me.  There were men everywhere who stood a little too close and there were special closed-off areas for the women to wait.  A very mean guard would sternly say "sit there!".."move there!" After we left I felt like I needed to bathe myself in antibacterial wash.  I am thankful my children did not have to do this for their visas and I am thankful I NEVER have to go there again!

Lastly, I got my hair done yesterday!  Being the daughter of a hairdresser I feel this is important blog-worthy information.  The salon was called VIBE and it was referred to me by some friends I met at ASD. My sweet husband suggested I take a cab the first time.  I can't imagine why!  The salon was very nice and the girl who did my hair was named Becky...She has lived in Dubai since she was 5!  She is from the UK.  I think I actually could have been her mother.  Anyway, she did a great job and I will go back.  The lady who washed my hair massaged my head and shoulders for a very long time and they kept bringing me coffee on a tray in a pretty little pot with yummy creamer.  The magazines in the salon were all the celebrity-ish gossip magazines that I usually love!  However, these were all from the UK and I knew who noone was in them!  So I read my book Eat, Pray, Love and actually finished it.  I highly recommend this book!  Especially the EAT part!!!

Everyday seems to get easier and I am feeling good!  Thanks to all my friends and family who keep sending me encouraging thoughts and messages.  They mean so so much!  I am saving them in a file to refer to when I am needing a pat on the back.  That is a lot these days!

Well, darn!