Hi guys, it's Naaya!
Mumma and Da-da made a deal with me that as long as I adapted to their crazy life in Dubai, they would let me write a blog entry every other month - so here it goes!
February was a busy month! We enjoyed lots of the sights of Dubai throughout the month. One of the highlights was when Mumma surprised us by taking us to Bice Mare, a restaurant in Souk Al Bahar overlooking the Burj Khalifa Fountain. Mumma had made the reservation such that our table was outside, and gave us a front row seat to the Fire & Fountain show. The story about Bice, as my Da-da puts it, is that he took Mumma to the one in NYC on one of their first dates! Needless to say, we had a blast at the one in Dubai!
We also went to some cool other spots like Jetty Lounge on the beach at the One and Only Royal Mirage Hotel. We went their to watch the sunset after Shweta Aunty, Mumma's friend at work, recommended it as a trendy and fun, baby-friendly lounge on the beach! It was awesome!
In addition to getting to know our new home better, we made some cool new friends. Da-da has a few Indian friends at BCG who all have kids and often get together outside of work. We joined this diverse Indian family friends crew (despite all being Indian, we are from different parts of the world - e.g. Oman, UK, US, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.) and have gotten together a few times over the past month. We've gotten to know the family friendly side of Dubai with them through play dates in the park, get-togethers for drinks and cards at night after us kids had to sleep, and a 5-year birthday party for my friend Ariya!
I also celebrated my first Valentine's Day outside of Mumma's belly this year! Da-da and I surprised Mumma with the most beautiful flowers she has ever received, according to her! Meanwhile, Mumma took us to Pai Thai for dinner in Madinat Jumeirah. The restaurant was beautiful and on the water! We watched the boats go by while a Thai Dancer came around, during our moonlit dinner. It was so lovely!
To add to the cool experiences I've had in Dubai, the Dubai Marina area where we live just started a water taxi service between our home on the Marina Walk and the Marina Mall - so Mumma and Da-da took me on it! I had so much fun, and it was my second boat ride in two months as last month we did the gondola ride in Abu Dhabi at the hotel. I'm going to start demanding boat rides once a month. :)
Finally, the huge highlight of this month was surprising my Nana on his 70th birthday in India! I had never been to India so my parents were very cautious and kept me protected from any possible mosquitos with a net Nani purchased in advance of our arrival, but I managed to enjoy my trip thoroughly despite their paranoia! My Mota Mama came to pick us up in the middle of the night as always, and my Nana was SO surprised when we got to his and Nani's flat in Mumbai. We had 5 days of fun family time, meeting my relatives on both Mumma and Da-da's side and spending some quality time with Nani and Nana. Nani would sing to me and rock me to sleep just like my Mumma does! I also went to Mahalakshmi and Babulnath, two mandirs that are a must-visit Bhatt family tradition that I continued this trip. The pandit at Babulnath did a pooja for me so my parents were really happy! All in all, my first trip to India was a success!
On the work front, Mumma and Da-da are getting more settled in and Da-da is finally staffed on a project in Abu Dhabi. He will be traveling every week in March so I'll see him less, but I'll look forward to enjoying our weekends together that much more! Mumma is continuing to progress on her assignment, but one cool work experience she had was a day of Junior Achievement (called Injaz here) at a local women's college, Zayed University. She spent the day coaching women on an entrepreneurial case to sharpen their business acumen. This was her first interaction with local Emirates so she had a really eye-opening experience. If you ask her about it, I'm sure she'll tell you more! Lately, my work consists of rolling, rolling, and more rolling. I've also begun to sit on my own quite a bit now. I'm very busy, you know, developing like crazy. Mumma and Da-da think they work hard, but they've got it easy - consulting & marketing have nothing on baby brain development!
Anyways, it's time for my next nap so I'm off for now. Talk to you guys in a month - by then I'll have made my first regional trip to Muscat, Oman!
Mumma and Da-da made a deal with me that as long as I adapted to their crazy life in Dubai, they would let me write a blog entry every other month - so here it goes!
February was a busy month! We enjoyed lots of the sights of Dubai throughout the month. One of the highlights was when Mumma surprised us by taking us to Bice Mare, a restaurant in Souk Al Bahar overlooking the Burj Khalifa Fountain. Mumma had made the reservation such that our table was outside, and gave us a front row seat to the Fire & Fountain show. The story about Bice, as my Da-da puts it, is that he took Mumma to the one in NYC on one of their first dates! Needless to say, we had a blast at the one in Dubai!
In addition to getting to know our new home better, we made some cool new friends. Da-da has a few Indian friends at BCG who all have kids and often get together outside of work. We joined this diverse Indian family friends crew (despite all being Indian, we are from different parts of the world - e.g. Oman, UK, US, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.) and have gotten together a few times over the past month. We've gotten to know the family friendly side of Dubai with them through play dates in the park, get-togethers for drinks and cards at night after us kids had to sleep, and a 5-year birthday party for my friend Ariya!
I also celebrated my first Valentine's Day outside of Mumma's belly this year! Da-da and I surprised Mumma with the most beautiful flowers she has ever received, according to her! Meanwhile, Mumma took us to Pai Thai for dinner in Madinat Jumeirah. The restaurant was beautiful and on the water! We watched the boats go by while a Thai Dancer came around, during our moonlit dinner. It was so lovely!
To add to the cool experiences I've had in Dubai, the Dubai Marina area where we live just started a water taxi service between our home on the Marina Walk and the Marina Mall - so Mumma and Da-da took me on it! I had so much fun, and it was my second boat ride in two months as last month we did the gondola ride in Abu Dhabi at the hotel. I'm going to start demanding boat rides once a month. :)
Finally, the huge highlight of this month was surprising my Nana on his 70th birthday in India! I had never been to India so my parents were very cautious and kept me protected from any possible mosquitos with a net Nani purchased in advance of our arrival, but I managed to enjoy my trip thoroughly despite their paranoia! My Mota Mama came to pick us up in the middle of the night as always, and my Nana was SO surprised when we got to his and Nani's flat in Mumbai. We had 5 days of fun family time, meeting my relatives on both Mumma and Da-da's side and spending some quality time with Nani and Nana. Nani would sing to me and rock me to sleep just like my Mumma does! I also went to Mahalakshmi and Babulnath, two mandirs that are a must-visit Bhatt family tradition that I continued this trip. The pandit at Babulnath did a pooja for me so my parents were really happy! All in all, my first trip to India was a success!
On the work front, Mumma and Da-da are getting more settled in and Da-da is finally staffed on a project in Abu Dhabi. He will be traveling every week in March so I'll see him less, but I'll look forward to enjoying our weekends together that much more! Mumma is continuing to progress on her assignment, but one cool work experience she had was a day of Junior Achievement (called Injaz here) at a local women's college, Zayed University. She spent the day coaching women on an entrepreneurial case to sharpen their business acumen. This was her first interaction with local Emirates so she had a really eye-opening experience. If you ask her about it, I'm sure she'll tell you more! Lately, my work consists of rolling, rolling, and more rolling. I've also begun to sit on my own quite a bit now. I'm very busy, you know, developing like crazy. Mumma and Da-da think they work hard, but they've got it easy - consulting & marketing have nothing on baby brain development!
Anyways, it's time for my next nap so I'm off for now. Talk to you guys in a month - by then I'll have made my first regional trip to Muscat, Oman!
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