In a far flung corner of Dubai, there is a little sanctuary that shelters rescued and abandoned animals. From what I recognised and could identify, there was a lone sloth, a spider monkey, two llamas, three cows, a donkey, a pony, ferrets, guinea pigs, mice, tortoises, an aviary of birds, two flamingoes, a porcupine ... a mishmash of animals.
The girls and I visited it on Friday morning, and we had a surprising good time. My two little urbanites were as expected, a little apprehensive at first but Sera was eager to hold the baby tortoise in her hands. It honoured her with a little pee, to which she whispered worriedly, "Mama, he pee pee-ed on my hands ... " and Yas horrified me when she flung the baby tortoise back into the little pen. Hmm, a 'good' start into the visit. The sanctuary keepers provided us with little pails of corn, lettuce and peanuts to feed the animals, which I mostly did while the girls watched. We stayed till noon, had a little snack ourselves and drove back home. And of course, all the way home, Sera was talking about the animals especially the baby tortoise that pee-ed on her hand ... "mama, it was sooooooo warm!"
The infamous baby tortoise
Mingling with a family of ducks, chickens and flamingoes 
New born rabbits
Llamas
Feeding the pony lettuce
And the only untouchable animal - the porcupine
Television ...
I have this pact with Sera and her TV consumption. She gets to watch TV when Yasmin takes her nap. Other than that, I really prefer that the girls play together or they can each do their own things, but just not in front of the TV. So, we're driving home one early afternoon and Yasmin was falling asleep. Sera got very excited because that meant she could get some TV time when we got home. But the problem was Sera was also very tired ... and being in the car definitely didn't help. I catch her in my rear mirror and she is fluttering her eyelashes rapidly. It was almost comical.
"Sera, if you're tired, just close your eyes ... mama will wake you up when we reach home."
Her dead-panned response totally caught me off guard ...
"No mama, I'm not tired. It's just that the car is very dusty and I have to flutter my eyelashes."
Stunned. And I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
'Rudy who?'
I found out a few weeks ago about Rudy, Sera's friend ... that is, her imaginary friend. Rudy is beside her when she was reading. Rudy is a guest at her picnics. Rudy even goes to bed with her. Rudy is everywhere.Finally, I decided to ask her about Rudy.
"Sera, who is Rudy?"
"Oh Rudy is my friend."
"I see, can you tell me more about Rudy?"
"Rudy is from Germany, he has long black hair and red eyes."
"RED EYES?" (sound a bit vampire-ish???)
"Yes, but now he's in Singapore."
Red eyes ... ??? Ahhh, the beauty of kids and their imagination.
This is how 16 March began for me ...
2.45AM - Johan and I are awaken by Sera's cries. Johan stumbles out of bed and finds his way, in the dark, to her room. Takes her out from her bedroom, into the guest room. She doesn't stop. I amble my way into the guest room and check her temperature. She did go to bed with a cold and a cough, so she must have been feeling uncomfortable, congested. I give her some cough syrup and tuck her into bed again. I climb back into bed ... quite awake by then.
Johan, I think, wished me 'Happy Birthday' and I may have grunted something incoherent? He then complained of a headache and some neck pain. Greatttttt. And then I realise my throat was burning and it was really difficult to swallow. Ahhh ... who cares if I've turned 33, I just want to go back to sleep.
5.45AM - Yasmin is crying. Very, very unusual. Yas has been an absolute dream when it came to sleeping through the night, 11 hours straight. Her crying must only mean she had a bad dream. I carry her and sit uncomfortably on the rocking chair for several minutes. I look at my bed longingly and we climb into the bed, and snuggle under the warm duvet. Nice. So I was sick on my birthday but nothing beats snuggling up with one of my girls, early in the morning just before the sun has risen.
I have breakfast with Yas, while we wait for Sera to wake up. She finally walks into the kitchen at 8.20 (the time we're supposed to be at school) and insists that she is feeling fit to go to school. We cycle to school and get there by 9AM. Secretly, I was relieved that we were late, I get shy about my birthday and I like to keep it simple, low-keyed. I know, I'm odd in that way. But there were some moms still lurking around and it was, surprisingly, really nice to receive birthday hugs and wishes from them. It felt very comfortable. I must really be getting old and sentimental. ha ha
I hung out with Yas for the rest of the day, wishing I could just crawl into bed and sleep away my headache and sore throat. Johan, I have to say, gave me the best present by coming back early today. He picked Sera up from school, which I'm very sure that had made Sera very, very thrilled. They came back and Sera runs to me, her face bursting with excitement, "Mama, we bought you cake and it's a surprise!" I had to laugh. So after a simple dinner, the girls sang for me and were each rewarded with a big serving of the awfully decadent ice cream cake. Good choice baby!
It's 7.20PM now. I just skyp-ed with Manuela and I got to see her and little Vito on the video cam. I spoke to mama, papa and Sue-Lyn earlier as well. I got messages from friends and family throughout the day. Thank you, thank you one and all ... I'm definitely feeling like the luckiest birthday girl.
Photograph day at Children's Garden
aka Parent-Teacher-Meeting. It's a big thing at Sera's school. So much so that it's pupil-free for 2 days. Yes, I have my own opinions on that, along with many other moms at school. For 2 days, they have one-on-one time with the parents. Yesterday, I went for my 11.15AM meeting to meet all 4 teachers (2 from English and 2 from German home-room).
Sera is a doing well in school. However there were three words that were mentioned throughout the meeting - 'stubborn, bossy, impatient'. Hmm. The teachers insisted that most kids display such common behaviour and honestly, they're still very young ... they're 3 year olds. They encouraged me to see these traits as positives. So I'm going to try ...
Stubborn = determined
Bossy = leadership skills
Impatient = enthusiasm
Indigo class (teacher assistant is absent)
A sandstorm welcomed us when we returned to Dubai. Nice. I thought the pilot had it wrong when he said the temperature outside was 35-degrees. Nah, he was definitely mistaken. I was looking forward to a cool 22-degrees! The sandstorm lasted 2 days and it was, what can I say, it was a mess. You could not walk outside with sunglasses. Your hair got matted with sand and you end up eating sand if you try to talk outside. So we pretty much stayed indoors the weekend we arrived back.
Then, a few days later the rain came falling down! Nothing happens in moderation here, literally. The rain storm also lasted for 2 full days. We woke up one morning to a very flooded balcony. And I've realised, it's fun to play with the girls when it rains. So yes, we did cycle to school in the rain. I dressed them in their wind breakers (not at all rain proof) and we cycled to school enjoying the cool, very wet weather. Along the way, we encountered uprooted plants, naked trees, broken branches and floods every which way we looked. Yasmin absolutely loved it in the rain, laughing and kicking in her bicycle seat all the way there and back. Honestly, nothing beats simple pleasures like that.
My little soaked Yasmin
The infamous baby tortoise
Mingling with a family of ducks, chickens and flamingoes 
New born rabbits
Llamas
Feeding the pony lettuce
And the only untouchable animal - the porcupine
