Thursday 14th - Sunday 17th October

On Thursday I woke up with a really sore eye! My right eye felt like it had been scratched and it was streaming! It was not a nice sensation. I came upstairs to see my mum (it was only about 6.30 a.m) and she told me I should get eye drops. Abigail was awake but DJ was still sleeping and my mum doesn't leave for work till 7.30, so I left Abi with my mum and popped to the pharmacy. Luckily, it's only about 3 minutes drive from the house so I was there and back in less than 10 minutes. My mum put the eye drops in and I could not open my eyes for about 10 minutes - it was SO sore!!

Abi had been up really early so by 9 a.m she was ready for a nap. DJ didn't wake up till 8.30 so as normally happens, one wakes up as the other one goes to sleep lol. My sister put a patch on my eye and then I went for a short nap while she looked after DJ. I ended up sleeping for an hour and a half and it was so amazing! I had forgotten how lovely it is to have a nap! :) Abi woke at 11.30 and we got ready and went out to Garveys. We decided not to go swimming but thought it would be nice to go for lunch. We got there just after 12 and spent a couple of hours there. We got home at 3 and Dylan played with his cars for a while and then at 5 we headed out with my dad and sister to go to a restaurant called Bennigans. They have a large indoor play area and thought it would be nice for DJ.


We had a lovely meal and Dylan had loads of fun playing in the play area. He made friends with this one little boy and it was so cute - they were running everywhere holding hands. The other little boy was a bit bigger than Dylan and when they were running DJ was struggling to keep up and ended up being pulled along by his hand! But he must have liked it because every time the little boy let go of Dylan's hand, he went forward and said to him 'hand, hand'. When it came to having dinner, DJ hardly ate anything. I couldn't decide if it was because he wasn't hungry or he just wanted to go back to the play area lol. Anyway, he had some mashed potatoes and broccoli and then my dad took him back in the play area while I finished my dinner. I took a few photos of them in the play area:























While I remember to write on here - Dylan is fully potty trained now. When we go out and through the night! I am so happy to say that he has become really good at telling me when he needs to go. It's amazing! I cannot believe how quickly he took to the potty/toilet. My biggest worry was through the night, but he gets up if he wants to go. I just can't believe what a clever boy he is. I'm even happier about it because he starts school when we get back to India and it will be so much better now he is not in nappies! Plus, when he needs to go he just takes himself to the toilet! What gave me the confidence to take the last steps in potty training was my friend Haley. She has three little boys - two who are potty trained (the other one is still a baby). I was asking her about potty training because I didn't know how to move onto the next step of actually taking Dylan out without nappies. I'm only talking about two weeks ago. Anyway, she told me that I needed to have confidence in Dylan because by me putting nappies on him every time we went out and when I put him to bed; it was putting doubt in his mind that he could control it. I took what she said on board and also her suggestion to buy a Mothercare travel potty (which by the way is one of the greatest inventions ever!) The first day I took him out in pants, there were no accidents and he used the potty with no problem at all. Since then (two weeks ago) he has had one accident in Marks and Spencer of all places and no accidents at night. That's it! I'm so amazed and so proud of my gorgeous little boy! I cannot believe how quickly he is growing up.


Anyway, I veered off our day on Thursday. We left Bennigans and got home at about 6.40. I put both kids in the bath, called Penri on Skype so he could see and talk to them and then I put them to bed. I'm happy to say that by the time I went to bed on Thursday night, my eye was so much better!


On Friday, I woke up to Dylan coughing. I also had a really sore throat! :( We had a chilled morning and then left home at 12.30 with my mum and sister to go to a Fete that had been advertised. We headed to the compound where it was being held and my mum parked right outside the clubhouse. We got the double pushchair out, put the children in and went inside. As soon as we walked in we knew we were in the wrong place. There was no-one around. We asked one of the guys who worked there but he didn't know what we were talking about so we just asked him where the other clubhouse was. He directed us and I said to my mum I might as well walk over with the pushchair as it would have taken longer to get the children out of the pushchair, back in their car seats, collapse the pushchair and get it back in the boot. When we reached the other clubhouse it wasn't there either. It was the most bizarre thing as I was sure the advert had said Al Jazzi 1, but sitting in the car after trying the second clubhouse, we decided to head over to Al Jazzi 2.


When we got there we found the fete! We had to pay 5 riyals each to get in and when we got into the room, there were only about 8 stalls. 3 selling food, 2 selling jewellery, 1 selling clothes and a couple of random things. It was really rubbish actually and the prices were ridiculously expensive! We were only there for about 5 minutes before deciding to leave. We got back in the car and DJ said 'No home, more shops!' LOL. He loves being out and about and seeing different places and shops! So, we headed over to City Centre to go to Carrefour as I had some trousers I needed to return. We got DJ a snack to eat and then did a bit of shopping.


Carrefour is a HUGE shop; easily the size of an Asda Walmart but amazingly, Dylan remembers exactly where to go for the toys! He heads straight to the toy section which is right at the back of the shop and when he gets there, he always manages to find a ride on toy to play with. We picked up a few bits and then headed across the way to the Baby Shop. They had a sale on so I wanted to have a quick look. I didn't find anything I wanted so we left the shop and went back down to the car. When I was emptying the trolley and we were putting the children in the car, we noticed that there was a car and an aeroplane in the trolley! None of us had put them there and we certainly hadn't paid for them. Dylan had been playing with them in the shop but I thought they had gone back on the shelf. My mum, sister and Dylan got in the car and Abi and I went back upstairs to return the unpaid for toys. I gave them to the security guard and apologised to him, explaining that Dylan had put them in the trolley. He just looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and took them off me. It really annoyed me - he didn't even thank me for being honest! A lot of people would have just taken them and not worried about it but I wouldn't do that!


We called at the supermarket on the way home to buy bread and milk. When we got home, DJ didn't want to get out of the car, asking to go to more shops! So, we emptied the shopping and then headed back out to a place called Hyatt Plaza. They have some cool shops but the best one being 'Daso' where everything is 7 riyals. My sister found some really nice flip-flops in there and not only did they look nice, but they were comfy too. We bought 3 different designs each as well as lots of other bits :)


In a shop called 'Mr Right' I managed to find myself some cargo pants and a really pretty top. Both my mum and sister said they were happy to see me finally buying something for myself lol. As with any parent, as soon as I go in a shop I am looking for stuff for the kids, not for me! Since we have been here I haven't really got myself anything but both DJ and Abi have had lots of treats from me, my mum and dad and my sister!


Leaving Hyatt Plaza, we picked up some 20L bottles of water and headed home. We had dinner and then I bathed both children and went on Skype to see Penri. Then both children went to sleep. They were exhausted after such a busy day!! My sister and I stayed up for a while chatting and laughing and watching some tv. Then Mel gave me a make-over lol. She did all my make-up just for fun. I went downstairs to see my mum and asked her which eye was better - the one Mel had made up with lots of make-up or my 'natural' just mascara and a bit of eye shadow. My mum said the one Mel did, definitely! I asked my dad and he said the natural one. It is funny how different people prefer different things. With all the effort Mel went to (thanks Mel), I think I still prefer the minimal amount of make-up. In my case less is more :)


On Saturday, Abi was awake at 5 after not a particularly good night. Abi has a bit of a cough and I think it kept her (and me) awake. At 9 o'clock Abi went back to sleep so I took DJ and popped to the pharmacy while Mel looked after Abi. I got the children some cough medicine - it's all herbal/natural and the pharmacist said it is the best thing. We had lunch at home and then headed over to one of my mum's friends' houses as she was having a table top sale because her family were moving house. Their house was MASSIVE. It was absolutely stunning and I said to my mum why would someone move from such a beautiful place; my mum replied that they were moving somewhere nicer. WOW! :)


When we walked inside the house it was like Dylan's heaven! There were two large rooms filled with toys, games and clothes! He ran straight over to where he could see cars (believe it or not!) He lined up the ones that were there and then he searched the room and picked up all other transport toys - planes, buses and trains and took them all back to his stash lol. We were the only ones there so it was easy to keep watch on him but he didn't go far. Once he had them all lined up, he laid down on the floor and was playing with the toys. Abigail was just as well behaved. There were a couple of baby mats on the floor so we sat her on one and gave her a few toys - a couple of dolls and rattles and she sat there happy as anything playing. It was brilliant because it meant that my sister and I could have a good look round (my mum was sat chatting to her friend and keeping watch on Abi and DJ). We found loads of bargains - I bought Dylan some books and toys; Abi some dolls and little girly things like hair bands/clips and a wand and I got myself a few bits as well. It was so cute because the lady who was having the sale has two children - twins actually - a boy and a girl, who are 9. The little boy was so good with Dylan and the little girl was playing with Abi. They were really lovely children. When it came to pay for everything - it was them who set the prices and collected the money. So sweet!


We left their house and told Dylan we were going home. He replied 'No home, more shops!' We all laughed and said 'Are you sure?' He replied 'YES!' (nodding his head) and added 'And I have dinner' lol. We decided to go to one of my mum's favourite Italian restaurants 'La Dolce Vita' which is in a place called Souq Waqif. We got there and I couldn't believe my eyes. It has all changed so much and looks amazing! It's a real tourist spot and we saw loads of visitors there taking photos. We had our dinner and both children were really well behaved even though it was getting close to bed time. After eating, we put them in the double push chair and had a walk around the souq. We took them to see the donkey that walks around (children can ride on him but DJ is a bit young) and Dylan kept saying 'he haw he haw' until we actually reached the donkey, then he turned his head and hid in the push chair. There is also a place in the same souq where they sell animals - birds, rabbits, cats and fish. We walked through there to show the children and then headed back to the car. It was amazing though - all the animals were out in the open - the birds were sat on open perches and on one stall there were birds with rabbits just underneath them and a little kitten right next to them. All out in the open! Both children were mesmerized by the animals and even after we walked past the animals and started heading back to the car, they were both so well behaved. Here are some photos from Souq Waqif:



























We got in the car and started to head home. It was about 7.30 p.m so normally they would both have already been in bed. They were both tired but as we were driving home DJ said 'No home! More shops!' we told him that no, the shops were closed and we were going home. He then spent the rest of the journey talking constantly!! He was pointing to the traffic lights and saying 'red light stop, green light go' and pointing to cars and buildings and everything he could see. He was so excitable and happy :) When we got in, I bathed both children and put DJ in to his bed then tried to get Abi to sleep. I couldn't get her to go to sleep but DJ was asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow.


I took Abi out of the bedroom and sat with my mum and sister sorting out all the shopping bags. Abi was happy playing with her toys and on the indoor swing I bought them. At 9 o'clock I took Abi and put her to bed. This time she did go to sleep :)


On Sunday (yesterday), we had a chilled morning. I tidied up the bedroom and put some things away into our suitcase ready for India. Late morning, I decided to pop out to get some food for lunch. Dylan wanted za'atar (or minish as it's also called) which is arabic bread with a blend of herbs on top. It's a really strong taste, but really yummy. Dylan loves it! So, we headed out and called at the corner shop to pick up some drinks and then went to Al Sultan restaurant to get lunch. I managed to get the parking space right outside the front door. Most people here just beep their horns and sit in the car waiting for someone to come out and take their order, but I hate doing that so I ran inside placed my order and told the woman I was sitting in my car right outside the door. She said ok. I went back to the car and sat entertaining the children, singing and playing games while we were waiting. Dylan kept saying ''nish cooking, 'nish cooking' and I told him it was. After 5 minutes had passed I went inside to check the status of our order. She told me it was ready and sitting on the counter. I was so angry because even whilst sitting in the car I had seen them bringing food out and giving it to people! I won't be going there again!


We got home, had some food and then the children played for a little while. At 3 o'clock, I had a shower and Dylan decided he wanted a bath. Abi was having a nap so I put Dylan into the bath and then we got ready to go out. We left home at 4 and went to my friend's house. I have known Aisha since we were at school and she has a little boy the same age as Dylan. We got there and DJ and Aboudi (Aisha's little boy) had a great time running around and playing in the garden. At about 5.45, we went inside. The boys played cars and animals and Abigail had fun crawling around and exploring. We had dinner at Aisha's and then left there about 7.30 p.m. The drive home was hard work because I wanted to keep both of them awake until we got back home. So there I was singing songs and playing games and pointing out things we could see. They both loved me singing the wheels on the bus and DJ even joined in singing his own version of it! LOL. We got home and we were all exhausted. A quick bath and then I put them both to bed. I then had a snack and went to bed myself. I was hoping for a nice long sleep but as it turned out, it was the worst night since I've been here. Abi was up and down all night, pretty much every hour and a half! By 4 a.m I was SO tired and so was she; she finally went to sleep then and woke up at 6 a.m! It's going to be a LONG day today!!!

Last photo - just wanted to include this one of DJ playing at Aisha's house because I really like the photo:

Wednesday 13th October

Both children woke up at 5.30 this morning. They were quite happy playing together in the bedroom while I dozed until 6.30 then I got up and got us all washed and dressed. We chilled out all morning and then at 11.40, Mel, me and the children left the house to go to Stylo Beauty Salon. Both Mel and I had appointments to get our eyebrows threaded. We took it in turns … Mel went in first and I stayed in the car with the children, then after 5 minutes Mel came out and I went in. The woman who did them was really good – she is the lady that my sister always goes to see. She did my eyebrows really nicely but when she finished, she put black mascara and eye pencil through them to show me how they looked better when they are darker. When I got back to the car Mel was completely shocked!! She asked why the lady had done that; I told her that I didn’t know but Shobna (the lady who did them) told me that she thought they looked better. Not a chance! As soon as we turned the corner I got a wet wipe out of my bag and wiped my eyebrows clean. They looked great once all the black was out of them!

We went to City Centre Mall and first went to Carrefour. Mel wanted to pick up some DVDs and I wanted to have a quick look around. We weren’t there for long before Dylan started to get fed up so I took the kids upstairs (right at the other end of the mall) to the play area while Mel stayed in Carrefour to do more shopping. Dylan LOVES the play area in City Centre and I can see why … there are so many things in there to occupy him and there were also a few other kids in there for him to play with. Dylan went into the play kitchen; I was sitting next to the wall looking into the window into the kitchen. Dylan was calling out ‘Dina! Dina!’ and I was wondering how he knew the little girl who was there with him was called Dina. Then I realized … he was saying ‘Dinner!’ because as he was saying it he was laying plates on the table and putting the pretend pizza onto them. He saw me watching and said ‘Dinner Mummy’ so I asked him to bring me a plate over. I couldn’t move because I was breastfeeding Abigail. Dylan brought me a plate and passed it to me through the window; at the same time he said to me ‘Hot Mummy! Hot!’ lol. I took it and pretended to eat it and asked him if I could have a cup of tea. He had a HUGE grin on his face and went to get the kettle and a cup and saucer. He brought it over, pretended to pour me a drink of tea and then instead of passing it through the window for me, he brought it around to me. As he passed it to me, he said ‘Careful, don’t drop it!’ I smiled and thanked him and he had the hugest smile on his face. It was just absolutely adorable! He kept saying ‘More cuppa tea mummy’ and pouring me more. Then he started to collect up all the plates and bits and pieces and put them in the kitchen. After that he started playing with a little boy and they were squealing with delight chasing each other round and playing cars. When it was time to leave, I told him to say goodbye to the little boy he had been playing with. He turned around and waved at him and I told him to blow a kiss. Instead, he went running over and threw his arms around the little boy and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. It was just too cute!! As we left the play area, Dylan looked at me and said ‘when the sun come up, I go play area’. LOL.

Abigail had fallen asleep so she was laid in the pushchair and Dylan, even after playing and running around for a full hour, wanted to walk. It was a long way from one end of the mall to the other but he walked the whole way! I couldn’t believe it. We met up with Mel at a shop called Baby Zone and I had a look round. I love the shop because in the back corner they have a little television set up and so far every time I have been in there, they have had Dora playing, so DJ is mesmerized. Whenever we go in there, he sits on a chair and watches Dora and I can look around! What a great idea!! I think most shops should do that – have a little corner for kids so the parents can look and concentrate on what they are getting. I didn’t actually need anything but because Abi was sleeping, I didn’t want to move her into the car as I knew she would wake up. From there we went upstairs to another shop and in there Abi woke up so we headed to the car.

On the way home, we stopped at a shop called ‘Al Shaheen’. It’s a massive shop with everything and really reasonable prices too. I bought DJ a little dolls pushchair and a couple of other bits. When we left there Dylan asked if we could go to more shops!!! But we told him we had to get home as it was dinner time. It was already coming up to 5.30. We got back, I took DJ swimming to the baby pool and I let Abi dip her feet in. I then brought both children home, straight in the bath and then into the kitchen to make dinner. Dylan had pasta with broccoli and carrots and Abi, as per usual, refused to eat anything that I tried her with. She is so stubborn when she wants to be! Ab went to sleep first which is unusual – she was asleep by 7 p.m and I then took Dylan and read him a story and got him to bed. He was SO tired, bless him!

Abigail was up and down all night from 7 – she woke up at 8, then 9.30, then 11 and then between midnight and 5 she was up twice more. She was awake at 5 a.m and raring to go so I had to get out of bed. It’s now 6.30 and I’m sitting in the living room. Abigail is happily playing on the carpet next to me. I would imagine Dylan will be awake very soon so I’m going to close for now. Will write more tomorrow x

Sunday 10th - Wednesday 13th October 2010

On Sunday (10th) DJ was awake from 4 a.m. He had a bad tummy and kept asking me for the potty but when he got there he couldn’t go. It happened about four times until at 5.30, when he still hadn’t gone back to sleep and Abigail had then woken up; I decided to get up myself. Last night when we had been to see Christine, she had placed her mobile phone on my mum’s seat in the car to say goodbye to the children. When my mum got in the car, she didn’t see it and obviously sat on the phone. Consequently, we came home with Christine’s phone in our car. She needed it back before 8 a.m this morning and although I offered to take it last night, once I saw the traffic, I decided it would be better to do it this morning. So, at 6 a.m I got both children into the car and took the phone back to Christine’s house. She doesn’t live close – it is a good 25 minute drive away and it didn’t help that I missed the turning and had to drive an extra 7 or 8 minutes out of the way. We dropped the phone off and then I set about coming home.

As soon as I pulled away from Christine’s house, Abi started crying for feeding (even though I had fed her just before we left my parents house!). I kept driving and gave her a few minutes to see if she would calm down but she just got louder and more upset. So, I pulled off the road and onto a quiet side road and fed her in the car. One big advantage of breast-feeding – it’s always right there ready!! I got back home at 7.15 and spent a bit of time with my mum before she left for work.

The children were both asleep by 11 a.m so I had a nice shower and got changed into my tracksuit bottoms. I chilled out while they slept and then at lunch time I had some toast with Mel before getting ready to head out at about 2 p.m. We went to Aramex first to pick up the post that had arrived from UK. I had ordered some items from Amazon and couldn’t believe they arrived here within 8 days! Amazing! Aramex was really busy so it took longer than planned so by the time we had finished there, we had to head off towards Landmark mall where we were meeting my friend Eman and her baby boy Ali (who is two weeks younger than Abigail).

We arrived at Landmark early so went into Mothercare. They still had a sale on so I ended up buying a couple of little items for the kids and some more bags for the travel potty. They’re quite expensive but so worth it! After that we went into Carrefour which is a huge supermarket which also sells electronics, clothes, toys etc. We picked up a couple of items in there and then I had a phone call from my friend to say she had arrived.

I took the children and walked down to the food court where we were meeting her. We had some lunch and caught up but then after being there about 45 minutes, Dylan started to get restless and was running around the place so we decided to go for a walk around the shops. We got a frozen yoghurt each and then said our goodbyes. I will be seeing her again before I leave though, as I cannot believe it, but I forgot to take Ali’s present with me. Anyway, it was a really lovely afternoon and by the time we got home both kids were exhausted and so was I. Here are some photos of Eman and the little ones. As you can see from one of the photos – Abi was fascinated with Ali’s hair lol:

















The children were actually a bit late for bed but still ended up waking up really early on Monday morning. We had arranged for another one of our friends, Shireen, to come over with her two children who are the same ages as Dylan and Abigail. They arrived just after 9 just as I was putting Abigail down for her nap (as she had been awake since 5)! Dylan and Carla (Shireen’s little girl) played so amazingly well together I couldn’t believe it. DJ was sharing his toys and Carla was so sweet to him; it was really lovely. Shireen and I were talking about it as you never know with play dates how they are going to go. So many factors can influence the way children play together and ultimately how well a play date goes. It makes no difference how well the mum’s get on, it’s all down to the children! Anyway, as I mentioned – they played beautifully together. Abigail and Riley had fun too!  A really nice morning. Here are a few pictures:


















After Shireen left, Abigail went for a nap and although DJ was tired, he didn’t sleep – he just played cars and watched a bit of Dora the Explorer. At 4 o’clock we went in my dad’s car to the beach. It’s only 15 minutes away and we didn’t plan on going for long – just for DJ to have a bit of a paddle and for both kids to get some fresh air. On the way we stopped at a little shop to buy some drinks and crisps. My dad ran in and I stayed in the car with both children. When he came out, he gave Dylan a present. It was a little laser gun which shoots out bubbles. It’s so cool and Dylan really enjoys playing with it. It also makes a sound as the bubbles come out. I’m just happy we didn’t actually open it till we got home! The beach was so amazingly peaceful and we spent a really nice hour with my dad. It’s so funny, the first part of the beach we parked at, you could see the tide was out and so when my dad and DJ started walking to the water, the sand was like sinking sand! My dad was struggling to walk in it, let alone manage with Dylan as well. We got back in the car and moved 5 minutes down the beach and actually found a really lovely spot. After walking all the way out to a small island – the water was really shallow for miles; Dylan stripped off his swimsuit and played in the sand. He was laying in it and rolling in it and having a smashing time. He was absolutely covered in sand so when it was time to go, I had to take him back in the sea to try and wash most of it away. He didn’t care; he loved it! I took some photos of our afternoon at the beach. There’s some funny ones of Abigail with her tongue out – she somehow discovered that when she stuck her tongue out, the wind blew on it and it felt funny. She kept doing it and clapping her hands; it was too cute!! :


























When we got home, I bathed both children and my mum had made DJ some nice dinner – pasta with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. He ate and then I put took him to bed. While I was reading him a story and getting him settled, my mum looked after Abigail in the lounge. When I came back in to get Abigail to take her to bed, she was standing up holding on the sofa. My mum told me she had pulled herself up to a standing position without any help!! It was the first time she’s ever done it. When I told Penri later on Skype, he said he couldn’t believe he missed it; I replied saying can you believe I missed it?! I was in the next room and I still missed it! Anyway, she is working really hard on mastering the skill of standing and then sitting back down again.

Once both children were asleep Mel and I nipped out to Al Mirqab Street which is only a few minutes from my parents house. We got falafel sandwiches and I got a sharwarma (a bit like a chicken kebab, but better because it has a tahini sauce with it). We came home, had dinner and watched some television. A really nice evening after a really lovely day!

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out with Mel late morning. First we went to City Centre Mall, which I actually don’t like going to because it is SO SO big! But, I wanted to look in a shop there called Sana and they also have a play area which I thought would be nice for DJ. We got some lunch and went to Sana. I bought a few items and then we took Dylan to the play area. It was really lovely and so nicely laid out. It’s a large room divided up into smaller sections so there was a place where the children can ride cars, then there’s a puzzle/reading room, a kitchen, a ball pool and then a couple of other little rooms. It was so cute and Abigail loved it too. She actually needed feeding but she was so in awe of her surroundings that for the first half hour I couldn’t get her to feed, she just wanted to play! Dylan had a great time and when it was time to leave he asked me if ‘when the sun comes up’ (his favourite expression at the moment), he could come back to the play area. I told him we could and I would bring him back tomorrow.

We left City Centre and dropped Mel at home as she had plans to go out with Kat. I then took the children up to a small mall called ‘The Mall’ funnily enough. Abigail had fallen asleep in her car seat just as we had reached my parents’ house so deciding not to interrupt her, I thought I would go and pick up some dinner from The Mall. It’s about a 15-20 minute drive and it meant Abi could have a quick sleep. Also, DJ was asking to go to the toy shop!  I took the kids into Mothercare first where Dylan looked at the toys and then I chose them each an item of clothing. The sales on in Mothercare here at the moment are amazing! They’re like 50% off! So, I bought Dylan a really nice collared t-shirt and Abigail a little set with two all in one outfits. My mum had left work half an hour early as she needed to go back to work at 7 p.m for a few hours so she met us in Mothercare.

We went to Spinneys supermarket and picked up some sambousak for dinner. They’re little pastries with meat inside or you can also get cheese or spinach. I love them! I ended up just having sambousak for dinner without anything else. We headed home – DJ went in Nanna’s car and Abi and I went in Mel’s car. When I got home, my mum and DJ were already there and Dylan was outside riding on his motorized car. My mum was right behind him all the way making sure he didn’t crash into any walls as Dylan gets distracted when he’s on the car and forgets to steer sometimes!

We came inside and I bathed both children and then my mum made Dylan some dinner. By 10 to 7, Dylan was so tired and absolutely ready for bed. My mum and Mel looked after Abigail while I took Dylan for story time. I have started reading these books to him that are all about Mojo Swoptops (a car called Mojo who can change the top to become anything – a dustbin truck, a cement mixer, an ice cream van etc). They were mine and Mel’s when we were little and Dylan absolutely LOVES them! He asks for Mojo every night!! Shame there are only 5 stories as I’m starting to know them inside out, as is DJ!  Abi went to sleep at 7.45 but woke up again at 9 and then again at 10 and then again at 11.30. I think her teeth are causing her a bit of discomfort. Once she went to sleep at 11.30, I watched a bit of tv with Mel and then went to bed too. I was feeling so tired! Well, that’s about it for now. I’m all caught up with our news for another few days. I’m so sorry I don’t get on here every day but I just don’t get the chance! The children, although overall they are sleeping much better here at night, they are both waking up between 5.30 and 7 unlike in India. So, my usual computer time at 6 in the morning is not possible any more which is why I haven’t been able to write my blog on a daily basis. Anyway, I will do my best (as I’m sure I’ve said before) to get on here every few days to write a bit more.

Thursday 7th - Saturday 9th October

On Wednesday I had a really bad night with the children. DJ was up and down all night so when Abigail woke me at 6 a.m on Thursday morning I was so tired! We had a very chilled morning, I just played with the children in the play room and slowly got my things ready to go out at lunch time.

At 12 p.m my sister, me and the children headed out to go to Garvey’s. I had arranged to meet my friend Lou there and her four children. Dylan had a snack when we got there and then he went swimming with Aunty Mel. Abigail and I stayed inside as it was too hot for her to be outdoors. It was really lovely catching up with Louise. Every time I see her though, she has not changed a bit! It’s lovely! We left Garveys at 4.15 and instead of coming home (as I needed to keep Dylan happy and active until about 6.30) we went to a shop that Mel’s friend had told her about called ‘Al Rawnaq’. It’s a great shop that sells EVERYTHING at really reasonable prices. As we were driving there Abigail fell asleep in her car seat so when we got to the shop, I took DJ inside and Mel stayed in the car with Abi. I rushed round grabbing a few bits and then went back to the car. Then Mel took DJ and I stayed with Abigail. Within a few minutes they were back as Dylan had been misbehaving and didn’t want to stay in the trolley. DJ stayed with me and Mel went to have a look in the shop. As it turned out, Abi woke up within a few minutes of Mel going so I took both children and went down to the basement shop to join Mel.

We had a great time shopping. I bought lots of stationery items for Dylan – stickers, art books, foam art, crayons etc. I just couldn’t get over the value for money! I came back loaded with things!  We headed home and got back in time for Dylan to have some dinner and relax a little bit before bed time.

On Friday, DJ was up before Abigail which is so unusual. I took him into the kitchen and he had something to drink and because it was too early to have breakfast, I got one of the new foam art pictures (that I had bought the previous night) to make with him. You basically have all these cut out pictures that you stick on a background. It’s really great for Dylan’s age as it is something he can do most of and it looks really good when it is finished. He had a great time and I cannot believe how well he sat and worked on it, for actually quite a long period of time! The end result is really lovely!

As Dylan was up early and Abigail was awake by 8, we had all had breakfast, got washed and dressed and were sitting about and I was wondering what to do. Having already done art with him, I decided to head out to the Food Centre, which is a big supermarket about 5 minutes away from my parents house. On the way, I called at the Tailors but there was absolutely no parking nearby so I drove around the block. The road was closed and it diverted me onto another road which brought me out at Toys R Us. I decided to go there first as I had something to return and exchange. The other day when we were in the shop I had seen a lovely camouflage blue hat for DJ but when we went to pay for it, they told me I had to go to the other counter as it was ‘Ladybird’ not Toys R Us. I decided to leave it as we were in a rush. Anyway, so I had decided to exchange the thing I had for the hat. I put both children in the trolley, picked up the hat and went to the cashier. When I asked for the exchange he told me that one could not be swapped for the other because one was from Toys R Us and one was from Ladybird. So, I dashed back through the toyshop and picked up a rucksack for Dylan and a pack of stickers. I then did the exchange and paid for the hat separately.

Leaving Toys R Us, I went past the tailors again but there was still no parking so I went straight up to the supermarket. I did a bit of shopping with the children and then headed home. As soon as we got back in, Abi went for a nap and DJ sat having a snack in the kitchen. My mum was awake (as it was her weekend, she had a lie in) and she was making a full English breakfast. I had an early lunch/late breakfast with her and then my dad got back from his early morning birding. He had some food and Dylan wanted to go upstairs and spend some time with him.

We had a quiet early afternoon and at about 3 p.m decided to head to the beach with my dad for half an hour. It was really nice and both kids loved the sea – especially DJ. My dad took some great pictures … here are some of them ….:



















On the way home we picked up McDs for DJ and he had his dinner, both kids had a bath and then went to bed.

On Friday night, it was the first time Dylan woke in the night to go to the toilet. I was so proud of him! He woke up and asked me for the potty. The last week or so of him being in pants (and not nappies) at night time, he has gone all the way through the night without going and with no accidents. He has woken in the mornings and gone straight onto the potty or the toilet. So, when he woke up to go, I was so impressed. He hasn’t worn any nappies at all now for over a week and when we go out he uses the travel potty. He is getting so good at knowing when he needs to go and asking to go! Such a clever little boy 

On Saturday morning we went to the supermarket called Mega Mart which is close to our house. It is more expensive than the Food Centre but they have a lot more choice. It’s also much more Westernised in its appearance. Anyway, my dad had given me his shopping list for food and I said I would go and get it for him. He kept saying to me that he didn’t want to put any burden on me and he would go later on when he returned from work. I tried to explain to him how much I love shopping! Even food shopping! And especially food shopping here because it’s just like UK not like India! So, we did my dad’s food shopping. Dylan was brilliant – helping me find everything on the list! He has inherited my love of going out shopping to new places, seeing new people and just being out and about.

We got home and Abi went for a sleep and then at about 12 p.m my mum took the children and I out. We had a few errands to run. Tailors (finally), jewelers (to get my ring resized) and then we went to visit my mum’s friend Christine. Christine has two little dogs that were on the stairs going down into her basement floor. There was a stair gate there so they couldn’t get to us and DJ couldn’t get to them. When we got there Dylan was fascinated by the dogs but as soon as they started barking, he got really scared and started crying and asking to leave. Once they stopped barking and weren’t interested any more, DJ wanted to go and see them again.

We left Christine’s house and called at Lulu supermarket so I could pick up a couple of items from my dad’s list that I hadn’t got that morning. Then we came home. The traffic was bad and there were also a lot of road works so it took a while to get home. All the way home, DJ was asking to go swimming so I promised him that as soon as we got back, no matter what time it was, I would take him swimming. We actually were home by about 4.45 and I changed him and took him straight across to the pool on my parents compound. They have two pools – a large one and a baby pool. The baby pool is shallow enough for DJ to walk all the way around (it comes up to below his armpits), so I put armbands on him and let him go in that pool. I sat at the side with Abigail ready to jump in if I needed to but he had a great time and just enjoyed walking around in the water. As soon as we got back, I bathed them both, DJ had dinner and then I put them to bed.

Once they were asleep, I popped back out to Mega Mart as I had promised my sister I would buy her cat food and I completely forgot. Also, my mum wanted some eggs, so I made a very quick trip to pick them up. When I got home I had an early night too 