Anniversary, graduation and Birthday!

Our babymoon + birthday trip I planned during Rog's annual leave this month didn't materialized. I decided not to get too upset about it, I admit I had a good cry when I realized I won't be getting my passport in time for the trip. The staff at Anantara Si Kao were really nice and allowed us to cancel our booking without any questions asked. But the good news is that the case against Rog has be closed since the other party drop the charges and soon enough, I will get my passport back. And even better news is that Rog has a couple of "strings of days off" on his next month roster. If he manages to swap his flight for a day before, we will be able to go on that trip after all. *fingers crossed*

This week has been pretty eventful. It is so nice to have him home for more than 2-3 days in a row. I might get sick of him soon tho. We celebrated our 2nd year Anniversary on the 19th. The day started off with breakfast in bed prepared by "the best husband in the world", a surprise flower delivery and ended with dinner at Nobu at Atlantis, The Palm Jumeirah.

Flowers for me

The boy at Dinner

Mochi Ice Cream

2 years baby!

On Wednesday, we went to Emirates Aviation College for Patrick's Purser Graduation. I think the last time I was at a graduation party was when Rog graduated as SFS with his parents visiting us. The ceremony was long as usual with Terry Daly brainwashing the abinitios. Nothing new there. But we had Ruby to entertain us  AND almost everyone else there.

Two Cuties

Ruby

Pat accepting his Certificate

After the ceremony we head over to our favorite restaurant Al Fresco at Crown Plaza for dinner and the boy's birthday celebration. I felt bad that we didn't have a big party for Rog this year. Last year we were lucky enough to have a flight together to Mauritius and we had a party with the crew on a Catamaran. This year he said he just wants to keep it low key. I think he is not loving how close he is to the big Three-O.

Last year's birthday

Fun Crew on our Flight

my attempted surprise cake

This year's mellow celebration dinner

I want to remind myself that the next few days will be the only days for the 2 of us to spend quality time together and I must try to make the best of it. We are not in the ideal situation but at least we have each other and that's good enough for me. As his wife, I should always try and take his worries away and reassure him now and then that everything will work out for the best and we must try to be positive all the time. 

Coco

On 13th December 2011, I woke up with this strange feeling. I had to be up and ready to have a meeting with my manager. Rog was in Dhaka and I won't see him till I get back from my Singapore-Colombo flight. But I couldn't resist my curiosity, so I went ahead and took the test and it was POSITIVE! After months of irregular cycles and taking tests to check whats going on, this was somewhat a relief for me.

I went on my flight dying to share the news but I didn't want to tell Rog through BBM. When I was at the hotel, YY came to see me and I shared the news with her first. She is my best friend and I just couldn't contain myself. She was happy for me but half expecting it. And later on Linda came by with home made dinner for me. We ordered room service as well and we all ate on the bed. Y left soon after and before we fell asleep, I told Linda the news. She screamed and was super excited.

I started thinking of ways to tell Rog. Then I had this idea to buy the book Idiot's Guide to Parenting. Linda thinks it would be cute too.

The next day I met my sister for Lunch to collect the iPad that I bought for Rog as a (very) late Anniversary gift. I didn't share the news with her because I wanted to tell Rog before telling our family. So from Lunch I went searching for the book which proved to be really hard to find. But right before I gave up, I found "Dad's Guide to Pregnancy for Dummies" which was perfect!

I landed back in Dubai at 4:30 in the morning. Rog was there to pick me up from work expecting his iPad. I gave it to him as soon as we get home (which later I found it was a mistake!) and while he was busy fiddling with his new toy, I went ahead and took another test just to be sure. Then I went up to him with his book and the test in my hands behind my back, demand for his FULL attention and gave them to him. He was in shock for a little while and then he said "Its the best Christmas gift baby" which was really sweet!

Here she is at 12 weeks. We didn't know whether it was Coco or Logan at this moment. I had my first scan on 26th December and that's when I heard her heart beating like a Jungle Drum. That night whenever we closed our eyes, we heard the heartbeat and freaked us out a little bit about the future. My first trimester was spent running to the bathroom at least 3-5 times a day. But I was all better by the 14th week. At my 17th week scan we found out it was a girl. I was so happy I won the bet and dinner at Al Fresco! 22nd week scan was for Fetal Anatomy and she gave us a "high five!" which was so cute! By April we had a crib set up in the room and quite a collection of clothes for her.

Now I am my 26th week. Feeling great and can't wait for her to come out and play! I've gained nearly 9kgs and no stretch marks so far! I hope it stays that way. Today Rog is painting her room while I am painting her clothe hangers PINK! I will update again when its all done up :)

Last 2 years in a gist

I thought I start blogging again, since my life has changed so much since 2009. In 2010 my status changed from 'Single' to 'Married', got an apartment together with Rog and started our little family life as Mommy and Daddy of Arthur :) And now that we are gonna have even more changes, I thought it will be a good idea to write down all these memories in the making.

My first baby, Arthur

We didn't have a big proposal moment, it was more like "lets get married and live together" kind of decision. So we hurriedly plan a day in Cape Town to get registered on 19th May 2010. It was a beautiful day despite being really sick with a cold. My best friend YY flew in all the way from Singapore to be my witness. Something that I am so thankful for. Just to have someone from "my 2nd Home". Sheena and Carlo came as well and Audrey managed to join us for Dinner after her flight at the Wild Fig.

Happily Hitched

Kirstenborsch Garden

Kolk Bay

Limo Party

Dinner

After I got hitched, I went off on a girlie trip with YY to Turkey. I know its a bit odd, leaving my brand new husband at home and going off with my besties but the trip was planned before we even decided to get married. And he didn't have much time off from work. Turkey was such an eye opening trip. So many interesting places and that's got to be another post in the future.

Celsus Library in Ephesus

We had our first house hunting experience in 40 degrees heat of the sandpit. We figured that since it was our first pad together, we wanted to stay in a really nice place at Down town Burj Dubai. We found a great one bedroom apartment in Oldtown, Miska. It was such a beautiful place and I loved everything about living there.

The balcony that we loved

In September we went home for 3 days just to introduce Rog to my Grandmothers, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. My mom managed to organise a dinner party for 40 people over night.

We made another trip to South Africa in November to search for the venue for our Wedding for 7th April 2011. We also took a trip down the Garden Route with my sister in tow. We had such a great time just stopping by beaches, visiting animal sanctuaries, wine and dine at some of the best restaurants and stayed at the cutest B&Bs like MoonTide.

Garden Route SA

Drunken Paddle boat ride

We found the perfect venue for our wedding, Palmiet Valley Estate in Paarl. It has the most beautiful gardens for my dream picnic wedding and a little thatched roofed Chapel for the ceremony and it was a vineyard just like how Rog wanted.

 17th December 2010 was a pretty special day for us. Growing up as a lame kid, I've never been to a concert. So for the first time in my life, I went to a Bryan Adams concert at World Trade Centre Dubai. And while we were slow dancing to a very romantic song, Rog slipped on my ring on my finger. I was the happiest girl in the crowd for sure!

Our Big day finally came after much preparations. Its was really hard to plan everything when you live in a different country. I was lucky enough to have a very capable wedding planner. Even tho the day didn't turn out to be perfect, with 30kmph wind blowing through out, I have to say it was the best day of my life! I had my family with me, even my cousins came from the UK, YY was there to be my maid of honour and I was just happy!

At the alter

All our families and friends

Groomsmen and Bridesmaids

I love this photo

Danced the night away

We had to wait 3 more months till we could go on our Honeymoon to Spain. We spent about 3 days in Madrid, a day tour to Toledo and another 3 days in Barcelona.

The boy in Madrid

Toledo

On the beach in Barcelona

Before the trip we had to house hunt again and moved to a 2 bedroom apartment in what I call the suburbs of Dubai. In November we adopted an itty bitty kitty from a friend of mine who works with abandoned/stray animals in Dubai. Rog named him Legion after a game character.

Legion and his Daddy

The first few days there were a lot of growling between Arthur and Legion. Mostly from Legion because Arthur was just so curious about that little man. But it didn't take long for them to fall in love with each other. Now they are just inseparable. Arthur is so protective of Legion, if Rog ever raises his voice at Legion, Arthur will be there by his side. Its so adorable.

So thats pretty much the gist of the past 2 years.Next post will be all about the little special addition :)