Time to think about losing the baby weight?

It's been a year...

The last three weeks  I have had a Backache (capital letters are intentional).  Incredible, crippling, "I-can't-bend-over-and-pick-up-my-children" back pain has been plaguing me.  Fortunately, with an assessment from Yang (which made things a little worse) and some Voltaren from the pharmacy (which made things A LOT better), there is an end in sight to this pain.  

I had a Thai massage with Tod on Sunday (she does good things for me), and discovered that Sharanis spa has become Anahata spa (which also explains why I had such a difficult time looking up the phone number on the internet after Peter lost all my contacts on my phone--BTW:  please email me your contact information if you are reading this, as chances are good that I DON'T have it anymore!!).  

Despite the pain, I have managed to do a few exciting things here and there.

1.  We attended the Russell Peters concert at the YAS Flash Forum (basically, a big tent on Yas Island).  We went with a group of friends and really enjoyed ourselves (of course--it WAS Russell Peters).  I do confess to being a touch disappointed though.  Russell managed to pick Peter out of the crowd (so he could play out his Chinese bit).  However, after discovering ME beside him, and even having Peter tell him I was his wife--the only thing Russell used ME for was to make fun of Canadians and their patriotic ways (which apparently increase infinitely when we leave Canada).  

I feel that I was a veritable GOLD-MINE of opportunities for Russell--so many jokes could have been made about me (I'm Canadian 'woo-hoo'/Indian, I'm married to a Chinese Canadian guy from Vietnam, my name is hilarious--even I can't pronounce it properly...and he found us in Abu Dhabi), and he just let them all slide.  I just shake my head and sigh...we could have laughed so much harder that night.  Regardless, I think it was our second night out, since having S, and we really did have fun--we laughed and enjoyed the company of some good friends.

Birthday Girl

2.  Look who is celebrating her FIRST birthday!!  This little lady officially turned ONE on March 24--and we just spent a quiet family day at home.  I tried out my cupcakes and 'ladybugs' (which did not actually work out so great as the strawberries kept slipping off the icing--but I have a new idea involving shortbread and red food colouring...).  She is not walking yet, but does hold herself upright for few seconds at a time, unassisted.  She also takes the occasional step here and there.  On April 1, after what feels like one year of complaints, she finally managed to bust out her first tooth (bottom left).  We were scheduled to host her first birthday party on March 31, but had to cancel, as we discovered that she has contracted Hand, Foot (and Mouth--though she has no blisters there) disease.  I have no idea where she would have come in contact with this virus, as she is pretty isolated from other children.  As of today, her older brother has also succumbed, and has a smattering of blisters on his feet.

3.  We managed to spend a lovely evening, listening to the Rocket-Man (Elton John) tickle the ivories at the Yas Arena.  It was AMAZING.  He played for two hours straight, and entertained us with his piano skills and voice.  He comes across as a very lovable soul, and I will always remember the great night I had attending his concert.  Though Little A was very upset we were going out two Thursdays in a row, she now requests Elton John's Love Songs cd, and I think she knows the words to "Daniel".


We are all decorated for S's birthday party (we moved the date to April 14) and Easter.  I have to spend some time setting up an Easter egg hunt for little A (not sure if N will 'get it' this year or not).  Peter is jetting off to Japan tomorrow night, to spend some time eating sushi with our friend Ajay.  I am a little jealous...sometimes I think it would be really nice to jet off to an exotic land, and have an adventure where I only think about myself and my needs...but realistically, I would probably spend the entire time:
(a) missing my children and wishing I was with them
(b) sleeping (b/c where I am at in my life these days, the land of dreams IS an exotic place where I long to go!).

The Three Amigos--long may you love!