Little A IS Funny!!

One of the traits my sweet little A seems to value above all others is a sense of humor. She actually demonstrated a very sophisticated one this afternoon. I know...all parents like to think their children are brilliant...but THIS made me laugh out loud!
Little A has two to three bowel movements (aka 'poopies') a day. Having just changed her diaper BEFORE lunch, I was surprised when an familiar and offensive odour assaulted my nostrils again, shortly AFTER lunch. Seems that there was another dirty diaper to be changed. So, I asked her "Did you do poopy?" (knowing that the answer was yes, as the olfactory evidence was overwhelming). She looked at me with her 'sly' look, where she keeps her face straight ahead and just tries to see you out of the corner of her eyes, and denied it. So, I repeated my question. This time, she moved away, and continued to deny the obvious. Once she was on the other end of the table, I mentioned that there had to be a poopy, as it was VERY stinky. She had her two favourite companions, red monkey and baby saury (reunited...not sure if I blogged about the reunion...but it was a sweet one!) in her hands. So, suddenly, she lifts up red monkey and red monkey says 'something is stinky.' Then she takes red monkey, and moves him/her down to the area of her diaper and red monkey states "A's diapey is stinky". Then, red monkey goes back on the track, and tells baby saury that 'something is stinky'. Like his friend, baby saury follows the smell, and proclaims the same findings: "A's diapey is stinky". This is when I had a big laugh, and scooped little A up, to take care of the smell (which had now been corroborated by two very reliable sources: red monkey and baby saury. You could tell by the look on her face that little A was very pleased with her own sense of humour.

Well..that's ten minutes of typing from me. New baby Lieu has been interfering with my sleep as of late. I find it very difficult to find ANY position that is comfortable to sleep in for more than 20 minutes. So...I have been pretty tired.

Today, we went looking for a new villa. P's employer finally tried to 'negotiate' with our landlord, and discovered that he doesn't really understand the concept. Though the rents, on average, for our style of villa are around 280K aed, it seems our owner would like to continue to receive 380K (which is what we paid last year...b/c the market had peaked!!). I find the timing of this whole thing to be horrific. Not only do I have a baby on the way...but my parents are coming on November 1!! It sure would've been nice to show them how 'settled' we are here. Instead, it's likely we'll be unpacking and trying to get curtains and landscaping done!!

Let's hope everything happens SOONER rather than LATER!!

Just a very nice (busy) day...

This evening we entertained at our house. Seven guests plus the three of us...I wasn't sure if we could pull it off.

We started the morning by putting up some shelving (which woulda/coulda/shoulda been done weeks ago) and decorations (to give the place a 'lived in' look). I feel this is likely to cause the god's of ARG to ensure that we get booted when our lease is up at month's end...but, P didn't seem concerned as he was drilling holes in the walls.

Next, began the food preparation. P had volunteered to cook the turkey left over from our friend's Christmas party (they didn't use it and decided to get the dinner catered instead). So, he spent the day making the turkey, stuffing and gravy. All of the appreciative moans and sighs indicated that the turkey was lovely.

I complemented the meal by preparing all the appetizers, the desserts and the accompaniments to the turkey (mashed potatoes, whipped yams, caesar salad). Although, a LOT of the work (including ALL the clean-up) fell to Malou. Today, she has worked like she's never worked before (at least not for us...she must be having flashbacks to her Singapore days).

Little A actually seemed to enjoy the company and attention for a change. She loved when one of P's work colleagues showed up with a teddy bear for her. This was our first time hosting any locals (two young Emirati men who work for P) and it was such a very enjoyable evening.

I am exhausted (in a good way). It has been too long since we entertained (and my feet say we should not do it again for a while), but I enjoyed it so. Time for sleep...here's hoping that I am not woken by bad dreams tonight (I have my trusted companion Phinn with me to keep them at bay).