the BIG update post!!

Alright, fasten your seatbelts!! The wedding was awesome! I couldn't be happier for Bea and Wimpie, and they are just SUCH an adorable couple!!!

 

Our visit in SA was just awesome, I LOVE going home!!

And when we got home to Abu Dhabi, it was back and forth about the house-move and then finally, we moved! So, right now, we're in our beautiful new house. There are still a couple of boxes that needs unpacking, but we're mostly settled. I love this house, it's fairly close to the shops, yet still out of town. It's a very new suburb and we don't even have street lights yet!! The garden is MUCH smaller than the previous house, but hey, we've got GRASS!!!!! {NO, not THAT kind, lol!} Green, green grass!!!! So beautiful! Gids of course, made provision for flower beds when we put the grass in, so we're just waiting for Ouma Hettie to bring us the herb seeds!!

said grass:

The Kaydin is awfully cute, learning a new word almost every day, the other day, he said "Jackie"!!! well, ok, not quite, it came out "Ghekie" but we SO know what he means, and of course all the hand clapping and "well done's" just adds to his excitement of the new word he's learned!

 

Playing the other day .... Gia-Michelle, if you listen closely, you'll hear him say "ganga" 

 

Christmas in Abu Dhabi

So the G-man's leave was cancelled {we're not talking about it} which means we're here for Christmas. It's not the end of the world though, the weather is positively awesome, we had a whole 10ºC  (that's 50F to my American friends) the other morning and the days are gorgeous at no more than 26/27ºC (that's about 78F) it's awesome.

So getting into the Chrissy spirit, we have a beautiful tree and I got all creative and made a Christmas wreath {Marinda's totally chuffed, 'cause she got one too, happiness all round, what can I say, I like to share}

Then we had the oh so important Christmas card photo shoot:

Kaydin, come stand here in front of the tree and smile, please?

 

hhmmm, no? ok, Daddy, please come and help me here?!

Daddy put him on his lap, and proceeded to tickle him, I kinda new it wasn't going to be too helpful, but hey, I got some awesomely cute shots :)

This is the card I made, we asked him "how does the baba smile?" and this was the response, just hilarious!!

 

in other news:

well not much actually, like I said Gideon won't be on leave this year, he'll take Christmas day off though. We have friends coming over for Christmas Eve, going to unwrap presents and have a merry good time, then Christmas day at the neighbours, where we plan on stuffing ourselves with some good food.

My mom arrives on the 27th, we've been telling Kaydin that Ouma (grandma) is coming for a visit. Now, if you ask him who's coming to visit, he'll say "mmmmmma" and then when you ask him when she's coming, he answers "nnnnou-nou", which is "later". Shame it's been "nou-nou" for about a month already! lol!

Kaydin and I joined the mad people that wake up early to go ride their remote control cars, he SO enjoys it, got some nice shots:

We went camping a few weeks ago, just way too much fun!! This was the sunset:

 

And Kaydin has a new girlfriend (sorry Jo!!, these long distance relationships never seem to work, lol) her name is Francesca and let me tell you, she's a looker!!! Her mom's gonna have to buy a shotgun in a few years time!! hehe, the shotgun will be for the OTHER boyfriends, as Kaydin's got dibs on this one!!! And yes, if you were wondering, she's Marinda and Oscar's adorable little darling, I tell you, she was first in line when "cute" was being handed out, oh, ok a very close second to the K-dude, lol!!

Kaydin showing her his car, she's a girl though, not really interested, heheee

Did I mention that it was COLD?! We froze our nunu's off!!! My boys, nice and cozy the next morning:

Gideon, practicing for number two:

Kisses:

(no, I have no idea why he's pulling, that face, lol!!)

The camels came for a visit, and they weren't scared of us... at all, they just kept coming closer!!

And if I remember correctly, Chantel didn't even use her zoom lens on this one:

{Credit to Chantel for the pics of the next day}

Right, and tomorrow (or in a few hours) it's run, run, run, to get this house in order for all the people coming over! YEAH!! can't wait!!

We send much love to all. We wish you a blessed and happy Christmas and a wonderfully prosperous new year!

by popular demand

heheee, ok, not quite, but I got your attention, didn't I?

Pieter, here's the video of the cars in action:

 

and to the grandparents and the members of the Kaydin fan club .... he brought Gideon's t-shirt to me yesterday afternoon, I asked him if he wanted to put it on ..... ok, he didn't have too much of a choice heheee, our little spokie (ghost, for the english people) I just thought he looked too funny!!!!!!

and here's the boy having a SERIOUS conversation with ... um, I don't know actually, but he's talking on the phone , Gideon is looking all serious, 'cause he's about to break the credit card on spares for the toy car, he was surfing the net for prices

We send much love to all!

the fast and the furious

as you will see, we have a racer-in-training The first thing Kaydin did when Gideon gave him the car, was to walk straight to the front gate .... Gideon says he thinks Kaydin wanted to take it out to the street to play with it there .... seeing as that's what dad and Gideon2 does when they're testing their cars!! We told him no, not now, so he walked to the "workshop" instead, to put it away, seeing as all the other toy cars live there!! After supper, they off course had to go get it, and this was the scene in the kitchen:

 

 

Ouma Hettie did come for a visit, so fun to have her here. I must admit, I enjoyed giving her some good quality baby-sitting time, I managed to book a whole week's worth of dental appointments! (don't ask!) Anyhoot, took her to see the Picasso exhibition, which was, shall we say interesting. It made me ponder the whole "but is it art?" question. I do think one should at the very least consider it, even if one doesn't quite "get" it or understand it.

Also took mum to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, she was appropriately awed and kept on saying how pleasantly surprised she was with the tasteful interior decorating

 

Speaking of dentist appointments, I found me a really nice,  totally professional Lebanese dentist, called Dr. Grace. She's so cool, she gives me drugs before the appointment, now being on the drugs (it's half a dormicum, but i'm so weaned from "normal" pills like myprodol, it knocks me for a six) I'm not allowed to drive. So it was an interesting scenario, rounding up the friends to drop me and pick me up. Now, one of those days, Marinda kindly helped, it was cool though, 'cause I helped her as well, she needed a car I needed a lift, it all worked out just fine. Jeez, I digress, the funny thing was, when I stopped at the dentist to give the car to Rinda so she can be on her merry shopping way, as she got out, she quipped "Thank God it's not warm" <- yeah, good thing that, with the temps right up at 48C, it just cracked me up

 

And today I was yet again reminded of the sometimes unpleasant aspect of being a woman here. Went grocery shopping and as I was waiting in line for the veggie-weigh-in lady, here comes a man with about 10 packs of bananas, he moves my one packet of onions out the way and puts his packets on the counter, I looked at him a little bit surprised (though only for about a second) you live here long enough, you learn that this will happen. I say to him, but I was here first? He had the audacity to smile at me. The veggie-lady was too busy with the other customers to see that he pushed in front of me, so she weighed his stuff first (normally, they're quite good with the arabs and will help "first come first serve") anyhow, so she proceeded to help him, I felt like giving a pack to Kaydin to munch away at, but thought better of it .... In the end, I just gave the guy a piece of my mind ... in Afrikaans, so he didn't understand, but there was no mistaken my tone of voice. The thing is though, that to him, I'm really just a woman and as such can be treated without any respect or dignity. He's goat and/or camel probably gets treated better than his wive(s). I also understand, yet it doesn't make the frustration any less, that in his world, in his culture, where he comes from, he did nothing wrong and I really don't fault him for it. Ok, I feel better now

 

all sorts of adorable:

Right now Kaydin's being totally cute (I know I've said it before, but it's TRUE!) Both the pups are "Lala", though he knows that one is Lara and the other on Jackie, he just can't say Jackie yet! On the video, I ask him to call Lara, that's when he does the cute little high-pitched "LALA". He does the same high-pitch when Gideon tells him to call me, "MAMMAAA" it's totally funny! He has this TOTAL fascination with Gideon's car keys, ok any keys really, but Gideon's is first prize, now, we've figured out that if he sees the keys hanging on the holder and we tell him that they're "sleeping", he's cool with that, waves "bye-bye" and we can move on   This does not however apply when Gids gets home from work with said keys in hand .... then Kaydin WANTS it ... yes, Gideon usually gives in Oh and balls, he loves balls, here's another video where he's playing with Gids and kicking it, too cute I tell you!

 

 

That's us for now, to those that we'll be seeing soon - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To those that we won't, hope to catch you in December!

We send much love

strange encounters of the Arab kind ...

Went grocery shopping ... had a difficult time with the K-man who really does not want to sit in the little chair in the front of the trolley, no, it's much more fun standing up, pointing at everything and going "BA! BA! BAAAA!!!!" at the top of your voice and then promptly throw a tantrum when mommy doesn't want to give you even one of the "BA's", whichever one it was that took your fancy that particular nano-second. Seriously, it could be anything, from hairspray to toilet paper to dog food (actually the dog food is quite the treat at the moment, lol!).

So, after this, I was rather tired and I dug deep for some sense and patience when, as we were leaving, on our way down the escalator (It's a funky angled one, not one with steps. So cool, it works with magnets, where you can park the trolley on it, and it's at such and angle that the trolley doesn't tip and the magnets keep it in place!) I digress, on our way down, at the top of the escalator I find an Arab lady, I always wait for them to go before me, the majority will push in front of you anyway, but this particular lady says "No, no, you have baby, you go first!" <- um, ok WOW I think, that was very nice of her, I say "shukran", standing behind the trolley, trying to keep the boy occupied, well, the next moment, out the corner of my eye, I just see flaring fabrics as nice Arab lady lunges towards Kaydin, grabs his face in both her hands and proceeds to give him big smooches and with exclamations of " HABIBI!!!!, SUCH a beautiful boy, ah hamdullah! may he grow to be big and strong, mashallah!!" Kaydin, being his charming self (quite forgetting at this point to "BA!") just gives her a million dollar smile and a belly-giggle and she starts all over again! By the time we get to the bottom, I say Shukran Habibti for the kind comments and what does mashallah mean? she's very impressed that I ask, and firstly ask me, where we're from, I reply South Africa, she says, oh, ok it's like when you would say "touch wood". Next thing you know, I know that she has three children, the youngest is 11 and I must take her cell number, "cause I must see this beautiful boy again" :) Her name is Feda and please I must call her :)

I've not called her, mainly because I've not been back to that part of town, I did however send her a sms to thank her for the kind words, and so that she can have my number as well :) She hasn't replied, I think she may not be able to read English, though she speaks it really well. Even more interesting, Feda was completely covered, abaya, sheila and a little string that connected the sheila to the cover for her mouth, I could only see her eyes.

okie ... dokie .....

Good news!!! I have my laptop back!! YEAH!!! Have had it back for a while already actually, just been otherwise occupied {read: too lazy and just uninspired} to actually blog

Thanks to an enormous guilt-trip brought along by quite a not so subtle email from a certain grandpa, here I am

 

So, straight to the Kaydin update, the boy is being really, really, really cute! Starting to imitate what we do and making some new sounds. Recently, whenever he puts something in his mouth that we don't want, we say to him to spit it out, it's "gaga" (the guttural-g sound as in "loch", as in Loch Ness Monster, ok I could go places with that too, but I digress)  he then started to say "ghagha" with the g pronounced as in gross. Too cute! He can now also point to his eyes, nose, mouth and ears!

Right, now to the new toys ... the Gideons bought remote control cars because, well, one's toy collection is obviously incomplete without a remote car. It's a whole undertaking, they have tools and spares and special petrol, I seem to  remember the word nitrogen (!)being used and special batteries, I obviously don't get just how serious this is ... nope, I'm constantly slightly amused by the whole venture, especially when they get up at stupid 'o clock to go play ... Here then are some pictures of the cars in action:

The one thing that's really amazing though, is how the K-man is picking up on things. Daddy's play-car must be started in a special way, where he puts a stick in a hole, pushes a button and the car starts, ok, I'll get him to explain it properly   The totally adorable thing though is, that when Kaydin got his own remote car to play with, what is the first thing he did with the remote aerial? Yip, tried to find a whole to stick the wire into, lol!!! Like so:

and here are some more Kaydin pics for all you fan club members

and a rare quite moment:

The weather is wholly crappy with temps right up into 47C degrees!! Oh, it was called a heat wave, lol!!!!! Yes, that amused me no-end. I get that they called it that because the temps rose so rapidly, it's just funny though that when normal day temps for summer is round 47 - 50C with about 60% humidity, we were somehow in the midst of a heat wave ... at least we have a pool!! YEAH!! which, last night at 30C was too cold for me! seriously, I need it to be about 33C, that's just comfy

No much other news, except that Ouma Hettie may be coming for a visit near the end of July (she said she's brave, we have aircon, so ja, she can definitely come for a visit), we're coming to SA in September for a wedding!! Terribly exciting as my slightly-demented friend (the bride) asked me to be their wedding photographer ... Ja, I'm quite nervous, yet very excited! We're then going to SA again, in December! YEAH!!!! haul out the champers people, christmas at home!!!!! It's gonna be cool

 

We send much love!