Goodbye Cast...Hello Boot

Today Savannah and I went with my dad to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. When we last saw the doctor in Dubai, Savannah leg needed a few more weeks of healing so he recommended that we see a doctor in St. Louis to have her leg x-rayed again and the cast removed. Savannah has been a trooper and put up with close to 7 weeks in a long leg cast, unfortunately, when the doctor looked at the x-ray he didn't feel it had healed enough to completely send her home cast free. He was also concerned about the other bones in her foot showing signs of weakness, do to the fact that she has been non-weight bearing for close to two months. The doctor decided to put her in a "walking boot". I know from past experience how heavy, awkward and uncomfortable these are but on the bright side, it comes off for a bath and swimming in the pool! He also said it would take her a little time but eventually she will be able to walk with the boot on. We will follow up with the doctor again in a few weeks before heading back to Dubai.

Leg Two and Three...Almost Home

After six long hours...the flight from London to Chicago was uneventful. Savannah napped a little and was awake a lot but relatively well behaved. Let's face it when your first flight departs at 1:00 am and you have a total of three flights and close to 24 hours of travel, everyone wants to cry at some point...especially when you are two!

We have never taken the London connection before. My vote for future flights is "not again", unless we are going to do a stop over in London. It just makes the trip too long. I felt like I had been traveling for 5 days.

We had a two hour layover in Chicago...before the home stretch...45 minutes at the most from Chicago to St. Louis. Unfortunately,Chicago was a disaster. Between the longest line I have ever seen at passport control/customs and the rudeness of some follow travelers/TSA/airport employees we ended up sprinting to our final connection. I even pulled out the "I am traveling internationally by myself with a toddler who is in a cast, going to miss the last leg of my travel, almost in tears, what can you do" card with no success. If the kind Middle Eastern couple behind me had anything to do with it I would have been pushed to the front of the line but there were hundreds of people in front of us, also missing their flights that would have strongly disagreed! As we finally starting making our way to the semi-front of the line, a Chicago Police Officer opened up the "military only" line for a family also traveling with young kids. I made my uninvited move and followed them to the line...this was the only way I would have a chance to get through customs, reclaim our checked bags, recheck the bags and try to make it to the gate (which is always at the other end of the terminal in these situations). By a small miracle, Savannah and I made it to the jet way as they closed the door behind us. Long gone were the kind and sympathetic travelers...instead we were greeted with lots of businessmen stares and glares. Of course, Savannah chose the 45 minute flight to fall asleep as we were running to the gate (how this was possible I don't know). She slept the entire way to St. Louis were we were greeted by Chris' mom!

Since moving it has become very welcoming to see the sign in your first US connection that says "Welcome to the United States" or when the pilots says "Welcome Home".

London's Heathrow Airport

Our first flight was a success! Savannah slept most of the time and I even convinced her to lay down in her seat so she seemed to sleep pretty good. I think the biggest challenge when flying with her by myself is all the stuff and bathroom breaks! With her still in the full cast, she isn't much help and has to be carried everywhere , then add the carry on bags full of toys, food and stuffed animals and babies, plus the stroller I have my hands full. A huge thank you to the US contractors who were aboard our flight. They were amazingly kind, insisting on carrying bags, collapsing the stroller, offering to sit with Savannah while I ate or went to the bathroom, attempting to cheer her when she was upset. After talking to several of them, most of them were on their way home from Afghanistan  to see their own kids or grand kids. Several of the were retired Marines that I would guess are still in better shape then most! It was a good reminder of how lucky we are to be American and proud of our country and the men and women who choose to serve. Their kindness continued off the plane, when I was in the wrong terminal and had to board a bus and ride for 20 minutes to another terminal. There are commonly US contractors on the US flights in and out of Dubai. I will say that it is very comforting to know they are there.

I was a little nervous about the potential craziness at the London Airport. The Olympics are days away and I fully anticipated lines and chaos. Much to my surprise they were incredibly prepared and organized. They were extra kind to Savannah and her cast allowing us to move ahead in lines and took extra care with her through security.

Six hours is a long lay over for anyone let alone an almost two year old. The best $50 I spent was to pre-pay for access to the American/British Airways Club lounge. We could spread out, sit down, eat, use the wi-fi and best of all leave our stuff there when we wanted to go for a walk in the terminal. It was much better than camping out at a gate. Savannah was even able to take a short nap while we were there. I would have loved to "see" London and had originally thought that maybe we would leave the airport and go see a sight or two during our layover, but our flight arrived very early in the morning and by the time anything would have opened it wouldn't have allowed us much time....maybe on our next trip!

All in all--leg one was a success!

St. Louis Bound

Tonight Savannah I attempt our first completely solo trip to the US. While Dubai is great, it will be nice to get  away to cooler temperatures and spend some more time with our families, unfortunately Chris is staying in Dubai to work and probably make a business trip to Saudi Arabia. We will be state-side for almost 4 weeks, hopefully we don't overstay our welcome! We are also attempting our first European layover with Savannah. Our adventure will be close to 25 hours and routes us from Dubai to London, London to Chicago and Chicago to St. Louis...with six hours to kill in London's Heathrow Airport. As with most flights out of Dubai our plane isn't scheduled to leave until 1:00 am so that will do enough to create bedtime adventures to get us started! It is always hard to say good-bye to Chris, especially when it is for such a long time period and so many miles away but Savannah and I are ready to get our mother-daughter adventure underway!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Today is Chris' and I's 10th Anniversary! It is hard to believe how much has changed over the last decade. We actually went on our first date in October of 1995...so we truly have turned into adults together. We had big plans of going on a vacation together this summer, leaving Savannah with our parents while her and I are in St. Louis but the logistics just didn't work out well. Being 7000 miles away from each other doesn't make for a lot of convenient "meet you there" spots. Instead we decided a "family" weekend away in Muscat, Oman...but plans changed again when we realized that Savannah would still be in her cast. The resort we booked is all about swimming and beach, so not much fun if Savannah can't do those things. Instead, we rescheduled our Oman trip for August and settled on a night out.

While Chris and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Pierchic at the Al Qasr Hotel, Savannah stayed at home with her first "non-family" babysitter! One of my good friend's has a live in Nanny, but our friends are already in the US for the summer so we were able to have Shama come and stay with Savannah for a few hours. They both did great!  Pierchic is situated on the end of a private pier and overlooks the Arabian Sea as well as the Burj Al Arab. After dinner, Chris and I headed over to the Madinat Hotel to the wine bar. It fun to go to two places that are not "kid-friendly"!

Here is to the continuation of our Dubai adventure and to a lifetime more of anniversaries!

Happy 4th of July

Last night Savannah and I celebrated the 4th of July with a room full of other Americans. The American Business Council of Dubai sponsors a celebration every year at the Meydan Hotel. The celebration started with the singing of the UAE and USA's National Anthem and continued with hot dogs (a rare thing in Dubai), hamburgers, french fries, watermelon of course $10 beer. For the kids, there was a bounce house (except for Savannah and her cast), coloring, face painting and t-shirt decorating. There were a couple of tables filled with military men and women from the USS Enterprise, which was a great site to see and reminded me that I would love to get involved with volunteering for the USO. The night ended with amazing fireworks set off over the hotel's racetrack. (The Meydan racetrack is home to the world's richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup.) Savannah's reaction to the fireworks was priceless. She wasn't scared and added lots of commentary of "whoa" and "wow". She had great facial expressions, especially when the fireworks appeared to be curving close to the audience. Unfortunately, the 4th of July is a normal Wednesday for the non-American world in Dubai so Chris had to work and had a late dinner meeting so Savannah and I went with friends from our playgroup. As Savannah gets older we think it is important to still establish traditions and normalcy around our holidays, especially while living abroad.

UAE Olympians

As the Summer Olympics begin in just a few short days I was curious about the UAE's participation. This summer an expected contingent of 32 athletes from the United Arab Emirates will compete in the London games.

The UAE Football (or soccer) team makes up the majority of the UAE contingent and won a place at the Olympics for the first time. They will face Great Britain, Senegal and Uruguay.

As a reminder of the region we live in...weightlifter Khadija Mohammad will be only the second woman ever to be chosen to the UAE Olympic team. The only other woman to compete for the UAE since it began participating in the Olympics in 1984 was Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the Beijing Summer Olympics. The daughter of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, competed in taekwondo.

Only Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have yet to have female athletes participate in an Olympic Games, although Brunei and Qatar are expected to send women to take part in London.

This year, two of the three shooting team members also belong to Dubai's ruling family. Shooting is the only event the UAE has ever won an Olympic medal in, with another member of Dubai's ruling family, Sheikh Ahmad bin Mohammad bin Hasher Al Maktoum, claiming gold in the double trap in Athens in 2004.

In comparison the US has competed in every Olympics with the exception of the 1980 Moscow Games and won 110 medals in last summer's Beijing Olympics alone. This summer nearly 600 athletes will represent the red, white and blue and are expected to be atop the medal standings.